Author’s Note: This campaign is based on the original Terran Campaign. The Terran Campaign was my first campaign write-up, and believe it or not it was actually started before Steve’s Rigellian Campaign, back in the mists of pre-history. That was back when most everyone on the Starfire list actually got along <G>. In spite of the fact that I started it before Steve’s campaign, I didn’t get the idea to post write-ups to the Starfire list until Steve started doing his Rigellian Campaign posts. When I saw the response that Steve was getting to his posts I thought I’d do my own, and the rest is history.
The Terran Campaign went well, but ultimately I deleted and over-wrote the Starfire Assistant database containing all of the campaign information during an ill-fated attempt to install a more current version of SA in another location on my hard drive. In order to give the campaign some sort of closure, I ended it with a disaster story involving the disappearance of warp points across the known galaxy, leaving every system isolated.
I started a new campaign in the aftermath of the death of the Terran Campaign called the Phoenix Campaign. The Phoenix Campaign followed the activities of two former colonies of the Terran Empire and two alien races (the Xanti and the Bugs) contacted by the Empire prior to the end of the first campaign. The Phoenix Campaign ran much longer than the Terran Campaign, and ultimately it ended when it fell victim to its own success. Put simply, the Phoenix Campaign grew way too large. In the last campaign turn, turn 143, the three largest races in the game, the Bugs, the Allied Sentient Races, and the Terran Empire, had a combined income of 4,167,000 megacredits per turn, had colonized 789 systems between them, and had a combined fleet of over 10,000 ships. By the end there were 28 separate races in the game, although most of them were relatively small compared to the big three. This was way too large to keep track of, even with SA, and the amount of time required to resolve each turn, even if nothing out of the ordinary happened, was way to large. Throw in a battle or two and resolving even one turn could run to a month or longer. Thus the universe ended, not in fire, or even a whimper, but in a bureaucratic quagmire of epic proportions. Much like I’m beginning to believe our civilization will end in real life.
At any rate, I had always intended to tell the story of what had happened to the capital of the Empire, Terra, during the Phoenix Campaign, but somehow it never really fit in. I have decided that it is time to tell that story.
Imperial Timeline:
2010-2025: Years of Economic Collapse. Many of the 3rd and 2nd world nations of the world become failed nations, while others are barely hanging on and are subject to economic depressions and endless separatist movements.
2020-2031: Oil Wars
2031-2040: Food and Water Wars
2040-2062: General Economic and political collapse
2062: Rise of the Empire. American successor states are united under a former US Army General who declares himself the first Emperor of the United American Empire. The secret of the general’s success is old tech discovered and proto-typed in 2019, then lost during the years of collapse. The general has access to several working proto-types of weapons and vehicles, along with several fusion generators, all based on trans-newtonian tech. Most of the other successor states have regressed to early 20th century tech levels, and after the first several are conquered most decide to join voluntarily rather than fight.
2065: The unification of north and south America under the UAE. This unification is made possible not only by the trans-newtonian tech found in the old USA, but by late-generation translation/education software that can “imprint” a person with nearly any language, giving them the ability to speak with reasonable fluency. This invention alone crashes the language barrier that proved so formidable to so many expansionistic nations in the past.
2066-2080: The expansion of the UAE across the planet. During this period the name of the Empire is changed to reflect its global nature, becoming the Terran Empire.
2082: Death of the first Emperor. The Emperor’s oldest son assumes power and puts down several abortive rebellions by generals eager to take advantage of perceived weakness.
2090: The fall of France and China, the last two holdout states. The Earth is unified.
2090-2112: The Empire expands into the solar system.
2112: Imperial scientists discover the theories behind warp points and interstellar travel. This marks the beginning of the first interstellar imperial era. This era is chronicled in The Terran Campaign.
2173: Collapse of the warp network and the isolation of Terra. The warp points disappear and Terra, the capital of the Empire, is cut off from the rest of the Empire. Terra’s huge shipyards are full of new warships under construction for the coming war against the bugs, but the system has been largely denuded of warships to bolster the Grand Fleet. The Grand Fleet, under the leadership of the Emperor himself, was headed to the frontier to face an implacable enemy that had devastated several colony worlds and threatened more. When the warp points fell the Emperor and his fleet were cut off in a system with no habitable planets, and the Imperial Capital was left with the pregnant Empress in charge. At first things continued on as before, but after a few months went by and the warp points didn’t return, people started believing that they wouldn’t come back.
2174-2178: Terra suffers through a series of relatively large recessions as the home system adjusts to the loss of the rest of the Empire. As with the rest of the Empire, the Imperial Capital suffered through large-scale economic dislocations as the local economy reacted to the change. Unlike the most of the rest of the Empire, the capital’s economy had access to large stockpiles of resources that had been gathered to support the vast Imperial shipyards orbiting Terra. These stockpiles were originally devoted to the military buildup, but in 2175 the Empress decided to begin diverting some of the stockpile to smooth the dislocations.
2176: The Empress decides to shut down most of the orbital yards and discontinue the bulk of the warship construction underway there. The military vigorously protests, to no avail. The Empress uses the Palmer Report to justify her decision in the Senate. The Report was the result of a scientific study commissioned by Senator Palmer, and was conducted by the prestigious Imperial Academy of Sciences. The Report concludes that the Collapse was a wide-scale phenomenon caused by the “over-stretching” of the gravity fault lines running throughout the galaxy’s spiral arms. These fault lines are understood to be the basis of the warp network, and some theories had actually predicted the collapse of the network as the gravitic relationship between the stars of the spiral arms changed due to rotational factors. The scientists conducting the study concluded that it will take at least eighty years for the warp point network to re-establish itself, although there was some disagreement on this point. Some of the scientists involved in the study insisted that it might be as much as two hundred years before the warp points returned, others were equally adamant that the warp points could return in as little as days or weeks, or that it could be thousands of years and that there was no way of predicting the true amount of time involved. There is an additional conclusion to the report which is kept secret. The scientists concluded that it is almost certain that once the network is reestablished that the warp network will be completely shuffled. Stars that once had one jump point might now have multiple points, and those jump points will almost certainly lead to different stars than they did before. It is also possible that stars which once had warp points will now have none, leaving the inhabitants isolated forever, or at least until the network is shuffled once again.
2180: The Empress is growing increasingly concerned about the military. The bulk of the Imperial Army, Navy and Marines were away from the home system at the time of the collapse, leaving a giant bureaucracy behind in the home system. That bureaucracy, like all bureaucracies, is now seeking to justify its existence and is bent on rebuilding the military to levels clearly not needed for a single system. In response the Empress sponsors a series of bills in the Senate to limit the military-industrial complex, and the Imperial War Department responds in kind. This turns into a full scale war behind the scenes as the Empress battles several powerful noble houses and their military backers in the Senate.
2182: The Imperial Council is organized to ‘advise’ the Empress. The Council is formed by the Empress as part of her ongoing battle against the military-industrial complex, and is composed of aristocrats from the leading noble families of the Senate who are her closest supporters. Unfortunately, those noble families are more interested in using this opportunity to gather power for themselves at the expense of the Empress. Over the next several years the Council reorganizes the Imperial Government to focus on the Solar System only, coincidentally concentrating power in the hands of the nobility. Although the economic dislocations are largely over by the end of this period, the reorganization is a tumultuous time, as it is effectively an official recognition of the fact that the Empire is gone and that the government rules only the Solar System. While on the one hand that is an obvious fact, the interstellar empire had grown to be the Imperial Government’s reason for existence. By recognizing the fact that the Empire is gone, the Imperial Government is risking its legitimacy. Still, the obvious fact that the writ of Terra extends no further than the Oort Cloud trumps the dream of empire and in the end the Council’s reorganization is successful.
2184: Belatedly realizing what the nobles are up to, the Empress moves to limit their power, only to discover that it is too late. The Council has been careful to pack Imperial Senate with its own adherents even as it ‘reorganized’ that body to reflect its focus on the Solar System. In the course of this and the general reorganization the Council has managed to break up the military-industrial complex or co-opt it, and the Imperial War Depart is disbanded as part of the reorganization, replaced by the System Defense Force. The Empress finds her power curtailed and ultimately she is forced to accept a largely ceremonial position within the Imperial Government as a figurehead.
2188: After several attempts to break free of the restrictions placed about her by the Council the Empress comes to an accommodation with the nobles. She begins to act the role required of her by the Council, functioning as a public spokesperson and as a living link to the past and the prestige of the old empire. Late in the year the Empress embraces a plan being debated within the Council. The Council has become increasingly concerned about restlessness throughout Earth’s population, and has been debating possible schemes to deal with this restlessness. One plan is to reactivate old terraforming projects begun before the interstellar era on Venus and Mars. Vast sums were spent by the Empire to begin huge terraforming projects on both planets, only to be abandoned once the discovery of warp points opened the galaxy to colonization. With so many habitable planets available for colonization terraforming science fell into disuse and was largely forgotten. With the Empire now limited to this one system the Council was considering restarting the old projects to open new frontiers and divert the restless, largely young, population of the home planet.
2189: With the Empress publicly speaking out for the terraforming projects the public embraces the idea wholeheartedly. The Council, after some uncertainty, gets behind the idea, although not without some misgivings. The nobles of the Council still do not trust the Empress and fear that she is using the project for her own ends. Still, with the public embracing the idea they cannot be seen to dither and so they authorize a full scale terraforming effort for both worlds.
2189-2195: Massive R&D efforts are put into place, aimed towards improving the Empire’s terraforming capabilities. In addition, the massive Imperial shipyards orbiting Terra are reconfigured from the production of warships and freighters towards the production of terraforming ships. During this period the Empress becomes very active in the Imperial Senate. The Council eyes her activities with disfavor, correctly divining her intent to convince the Senate to pass laws that would effectively limit the aristocracy’s power base on Mars and Venus, thus weakening their hold on the Imperial Government as those two planets were colonized.
2190: The Empress falls ill with a chronic illness that even Imperial medicine cannot cure. She is forced to retire from the public eye and from politics. The Imperial Council, putting on a public show of concern that her son, Prince Michael, would be lacking guidance now that the Empress was ill so much of the time, appoints a Regent to rule in the Empress’ stead and to guide the Prince. The Regent will rule until the Prince is twenty-five, at which time he will assume the throne, or until the Empress is fit to return to her duties. The Regent is chosen from the Council, of course, and the Empress, ill and infirm, is permanently sidelined in her winter retreat, isolated from the public and her family.
2194: The orbital yards begin construction of massive terraforming ships. Public support for the terraforming effort is overwhelming. The Empress remains the darling of the public and out of respect for her the public has gotten behind the effort. Excitement is high throughout Earth and there is spirited competition for places in the colonization efforts being organized to take advantage of the new territories that will be opened on the other planets of the solar system.
2198: Prince Michael takes the throne in an unrivaled celebration. Emperor Michael is firmly aware of the reality of his situation and has no intention of rocking the boat. With the Imperial Council firmly in charge and his duties limited to ceremonies and public appearances, the new Emperor is left with much time for his many hobbies, a state of affairs that he finds congenial.
2207: The Empress dies after a long illness. The Empire grieves this last link with the glories of the old Empire. After a modest grieving period the Council begins a public relations campaign directed at focusing the public on the grand future of the Empire rather than the past.
2232: The last terraforming ship is launched from the orbit yards over Terra. Some of the orbiting yards are scrapped while the rest are merely deactivated against future need. The bulk of the terraforming fleet is concentrated on Venus, where the most extensive effort must be made.
Over the last several years several key members of the Council have died, to be replaced be equally experienced and conservative members of the most powerful noble houses.
2245: Colonization of Mars begins. Even with the Empress long dead and the Emperor firmly in their pocket, the Council is cautious and ensures that the colonization plan will extend and reinforce the power of the nobility. Mars is planned from the first to become the industrial center of the Empire, and plans are laid to relocate all of the Empire’s industry to Mars once the population can support it.
2268: The Emperor weds a scion of one of the most powerful houses in the Empire. The Council sees an heir as a complication, though, as they still haven’t decided whether or not they want the Emperor’s position to fade away or not. Steps are quietly taken to ensure that the Empress will bear no children until the Council decides that it is prudent. The Council is unable to agree because of increased competition among the primary noble houses, and the members of the Council are beginning to see each other as a bigger threat/competitor than the Emperor.
2272: Colonization of Venus begins. To encourage colonization, the Senate subsidizes several universities in the fledgling colony and establishes tax breaks for any corporation that establishes research efforts on Venus. Venus will eventually become the research powerhouse of the Empire.
2280-2308: Many of the most powerful members of the Council die of old age and several others retire due to infirmities. They are replaced by younger members of their families who are not their equals. These new members of the Council chafe under the largely hidden role of the Council as designed by their parents, and long to openly rule the Empire. Several openly espouse deposing the Emperor and replacing him with one of their number, while others agree with deposing the Emperor but want to abolish the position and elevate the Council to openly rule in the Emperor’s stead. The older members of the Council argue against such steps and successfully limit the younger member’s actions, at least for now.
2284: The warp points reappear. This event goes unnoticed in the Solar System, where humanity is focused on colonizing Venus and Mars. The terraforming fleet has moved on to Titan, the location of most of the Empire’s resources. Titan will never be a colony cost 0.0 world, but there is much that can be done, and the terraforming fleet is busily working on this, the last world in the solar system that can be converted to humanity’s use.
Emperor Michael is now one hundred and eleven years old and a bitter man. While at first he was accepting of his situation, eighty six years of being a childless figurehead has embittered him. He has grown to deeply love his wife, and what was originally a political marriage has grown into something deep and enduring for both of them. Emperor Michael and Empress Jacquelyn decide to act before their time runs out. While they are no more than middle aged, given the level of medical care available to both of them, they are very aware that their time is running out as the Council is turning more and more hostile to their very existence, and neither believe that the Council will allow them to have the children they both crave.
The two begin a behind-the-scenes campaign to reduce the power of the Council and regain some independence. They begin without much hope of success, but quickly find that the Council’s power has eroded as the Senate has changed and grown since the days immediately after the Collapse. Even worse, the Council has managed to alienate many powerful noble houses as they moved to consolidate their own power. Even as the Council is debating the final fate of the Emperor’s position the Emperor and the Empress begin quietly working within the Senate and the powerful noble houses to undermine the Council’s power.
2286: The Council places an Imperial Seal on research being conducted on the disappearance of the warp points. Several of the key members of the Council appropriate the research and use their own resources to complete it, verifying that the warp points most likely have already returned. They provide the information to the rest of the Council, which votes to classify the information as the uncertainty involved in interstellar expansion is viewed as a threat to their power.
2305: Terraforming efforts are largely complete throughout the solar system. The terraforming fleet is recalled to Terra and most of the ships are scrapped.
2308: The Emperor, in a political victory, wins limited independence from the Council from a Senate that has grown more and more concerned about the overweening power of the Council. While the victory appears at first to be minor to the Council, the Emperor moves quickly to disabuse them of that impression. Hidden within the wording of the Senate’s resolution are clauses that remove the Imperial Household from direct control of the Council and replacing the Council’s Imperial Household Guard Force with a detachment of Senate guards.
The Emperor moves quickly, moving his entire household to temporary quarters under the Senate’s control, and replacing the bulk of his staff, including specifically his medical staff, with new, handpicked staff.
The Council reacts badly when their blunder becomes clear, but finds its ability to act has been curtailed by Senate actions quietly taken over the last several years.
2310: Birth of Prince Edward
2311: Birth of Prince Jacob
2314: Birth of Prince Victor and Princess Victoria. The Empress suffers from complications during her pregnancy with the twins and their birth is difficult.
2324: The Imperial Council is dissolved. The Councilors fight this development both in the courts and in the Senate, but in the end find themselves without legal recourse. The Councilors retire to their estates, mostly on Mars.
The progressives in the Senate, who support reestablishing the Emperor as a bulwark against the aristocracy, celebrate their victory and view the retreat of the Council members from Terra as a victory. In reality the Councilors are retreating to their centers of power. In truth the power of the great houses has been enlarged greatly since the Collapse, and the most fanatic of the former Councilors begin raising private armies, something they are allowed to do under laws passed in the turbulent times just after the Collapse, when the Senate feared for the stability of the Empire. The leaders of the Senate and the Emperor are slow to discover the true motives of the former Councilors, and by the time they do it is too late to intervene without creating the very schism they seek to avoid.
2334: The Senate passes the Realignment Act, mockingly called the Nobility Abolishment Act by the heads of the conservative great houses on Mars and Terra. The act does weaken the nobility, to the benefit of the Imperial Family and the Senate, but its goal is not the abolishment of the nobility but rather the reestablishment of the balance that existed prior to the Collapse. The conservatives, of course, don’t see things that way and the passage of the act is the final straw, as far as they are concerned.
2339: The Coup and the beginning of the Civil War. The Civil War begins when a bomb placed on board the Imperial Yacht by an Imperial Guardsman detonates, killing Prince Jacob and Empress Jacquelyn and maiming the Emperor. Several other bombs kill or seriously wound five senior Senators, and damage the Senate complex. Conservative forces attempt to move in and take over the Palace and the Senate, however, they are met by fierce and unexpected resistance from the Senate and Imperial Guard. The would have won even so, except for the timely intervention of Imperial Drop Marines under the command of Captain Victor Tannenbaum, Prince of the Blood and commander of the Imperial Cruiser Stalwart. Prince Victor deployed his marines from orbit, leading them himself, and dropped on the attackers at a critical moment, disrupting their attack and delaying them long enough that the Imperial Army was able to arrive and decisively turn the tide.
With their coup foiled the heads of the conservative noble houses declare a war against the Imperial government, which they claim is engaged in an ongoing effort to abolish the nobility and change a system that has effectively ruled mankind for centuries. Fighting breaks out across Mars and Terra as rival noble houses strive against each other. The Imperial Army and Navy, long relegated to a minor role in the solar system, fragment under the stress of the war. This fragmentation is dramatically visible for the Army on the ground on Terra and Mars, where Imperial units come into conflict with each other and with various noble houses almost immediately. The fragmentation of the Navy is hidden, though, largely because of the loyalty of the Imperial Marine Corps, members of which are stationed on every Imperial ship. With marines looking over their shoulders the leadership of the Navy is forced to act very circumspectly, no matter what their true feelings are. Even so, in spite of the decisive actions of a few inspired leaders like Prince Victor, the fleet is reduced to inactivity by the confused situation on the ground and their own complex internal politics.
2342: Battle lines have largely stabilized. On the surface the Imperial Government controls about 60% of the population and industry of Mars, 75% of Terra, and all of Venus. Surface appearances are deceptive, though. In reality the Rectors of Venus, who control the vast research labs of the corporations and universities of that planet, are determined to remain neutral in the ongoing conflict. Militarily Venus is relatively weak, but the Rectors have established a policy of using their technological innovations to buy off the two sides of the conflict, and so far it is working. Neither of the two sides want to anger the Venusians, who have a habit of supplying critical technology just when it is needed most. Princess Victoria, who has chosen the academic life, is a senior researcher on Venus. The Regents have promoted her several times, largely to curry favor with the Imperial Government, but they also keep her active in research rather than allowing her any political power.
The neutrality of Venus still leaves the Imperial Government in control of more resources and territory than the Conservative Noble Alignment, however, like its control of Venus, the government’s control over some territories was more fiction than fact. Broad swaths of Terra, controlled by noble houses that didn’t support either the Imperial faction or the conservative alliance, paid only lip service to their allegiance to the Senate and Emperor. Much effort is spent by both sides trying to woe or force these nobles to join one side or the other.
The Emperor, crippled by the bomb that killed his wife and one of his sons, fades into the background, preferring to work in the shadows behind the scenes, allowing Crown Prince Edward to take the lead in rallying the government and Imperial forces for the war.
2344: The Great Mutiny. Over the last several years, against the advice of Prince Victor, most of the Imperial Marine units assigned to the fleet have been withdrawn for service on the front lines against the rebels. While this has bolstered ground actions against the rebels, it has also freed wavering captains to act as they want, without fear of reprisals by loyal marines stationed on their ships. Two-thirds of the fleet mutinies, starting a chaotic battle in orbit over Terra. By the end of the battle a third of the fleet has been destroyed, leaving twenty percent to retreat to Mars and roughly twice that loyal to the government in orbit over Terra. Prince Victor emerges as the hero of the battle, personally saving several loyal ships and destroying the rebel flagship. During the battle the bulk of the inactive fleet of old-tech imperial ships are destroyed by nuclear strikes once the mutineers realize they aren’t going to prevail in orbit.
During the battle in orbit the rebels set of multiple nuclear weapons in cities on Earth. The strike is intended to cripple the Imperial government and cow the populace, however, it does neither. The Imperial Naval Intelligence receives warning of the planned strikes and limited evacuations are carried out, several of the bombs are disabled.
After the mutiny Crown Prince Edward promotes Prince Victor to Vice Admiral and puts him in command of the loyal fleet. In addition Edward abolishes the System Defense Force and re-establishes the Imperial War Department, organized along the same lines as the old Imperial military. After a short period of reorganization and refitting Prince Victor sets out for Mars with the fleet, only to find that the rebel fleet has gone into hiding. This starts a long war of hide and seek, where the rebel fleet effectively uses guerilla tactics to harass the government’s activities throughout the system. While this leaves the government forces effectively in control of space throughout the inner system, the government cannot effectively leverage this control into victory. Long standing taboos prevent the Imperial Fleet from bombarding surface targets except under the most extreme circumstances, and constant harassment from rebel forces keep uncertainty high.
During the confusion of the mutiny the rebels on Mars dispatch a force to Titan which manages to seize 30% of the mines and population. Due to commitments elsewhere the government cannot stop them, but Imperial Army forces on Titan do manage to limit the rebel force’s expansion. Once he consolidates control of the fleet, Prince Victor consistently stops attempts to re-supply or reinforce the rebels from Mars.
2346: The Battle of Aswan. Loyal governmental forces maneuver rebellious forces into a trap in the Egyptian Province, where they are largely annihilated. The rebel’s loss at Aswan leaves them unable to resist the Imperial follow-up campaign to reduce and capture rebel strongholds across Terra. The defeat of the rebel forces on Earth convinces the neutral nobles that Imperial victory is inevitable and one by one they join the loyal faction. The situation on Mars is the opposite for the government, which is barely hanging on to its core territories, which are under constant attack by rebel forces.
2347: The Regents of Venus bow to the inevitable and end all support to the rebels on Mars. Crown Prince Edward forces the Regents to accept Imperial Army troops on Venus “to provide security”. With the consolidation of its power largely finished on Terra, the Imperial government begins transferring troops to Mars. In addition, a strike force is transferred to Titan to begin reclaiming territory taken by the Rebels.
Late in the year the rebels are defeated on Titan. Late in the year the rebel fleet attempts a last ditch surprise attack on Terra, in an attempt to bombard the planet and cripple the government’s power base. Prince Victor anticipates their move and meets the rebel fleet just inside the orbit of Mars. The rebel fleet manages to launch several missile salvoes at Terra, however, new anti-missile bases built at the direction of Crown Prince Edward stop the missiles before they can reach their targets. Prince Victor and the loyal Imperial Fleet decisively defeat the rebels, although at a significant cost. Defeated, the remnants of the rebel fleet retreat to supply bases in the Oort cloud.
2348: The fighting on Terra has largely ended, with the few remaining rebel groups limited to occasional guerrilla/terrorist strikes in their former strongholds. Loyal government forces defeat rebel units in several major battles on Mars, marking the beginning of the end of the rebellion. After October, the rebels will never again mount a major space or ground attack.
2349: The end of organized resistance on Mars. Rebel groups are reduced to scattered guerrilla groups, and all major rebel strongholds have been conquered and garrisoned.
December, 2349: The Battle of Pluto. The Imperial Fleet defeats the last remaining rebel ships in a battle off of Pluto. The rebellion is officially declared over.
2350: Start of the Campaign
Initial Setup:
The Empire controls the Solar System. Earth, Mars, and Venus are colony cost 0.0 worlds. Earth has a population of 3.4 billion, Mars has a population of 2.1 billion, and Venus has a population of 1.5 billion. The Empire maintains an extensive mining colony on Titan, where most of the Empire’s minerals are produced. Titan has very extensive mineral deposits, however, they are all present at very low availability levels (0.1 to 0.4), and as a result the Empire has had to build and place a lot of automated mines on the moon to provide the Empire’s minerals. Titan has a population of 150 million and is a colony cost 1.76 world. The moon’s population mostly works in the sixty seven hundred mines emplaced there, ten percent of which are crewed installations.
The Empire’s technology level has fallen from the heights it attained shortly after the disappearance of the warp points. While the Empire’s technology levels vary greatly, in general the overall tech level is low-moderate. The Empire has maintained control of several high tech warships and support ships from the heyday of the Imperial Fleet. Most of these ships were destroyed in the civil war or scrapped in the years before the war, but the few remaining ships are a considerable resource, particularly the last Starfire class scout. The rest of the Imperial fleet has been constructed to modern standards and capabilities.
Author’s Note: I let Aurora randomly distribute a moderate amount of research points during game generation. This resulted in wildly uneven tech levels, which I have decided are an artifact of the uneven loss of technology from the interstellar empire era.
Setup Specifics:
Earth: Pop 3.4 billion, shipyards 12/20, fleet maintenance facilities, 300 fuel refineries, 8 ground force training facilities
Mars: Pop 2.1 billion, 6000 factories, 2000 fuel refineries
Venus: Pop 1.5 billion, 280 research facilities
Titan: massive mining complex – 6700 mines of both types.
Imperial Navy
The Imperial Navy was reconstituted in the old format during the rebellion from the units of the System Defense Force which remained loyal to the Emperor and Senate. The old Imperial Navy had a very strict format for very nearly everything it did, a necessity for a military organization that helped control an Empire that spanned hundreds of star systems.
The Imperial Navy’s unit classification scheme was rigidly adhered to, with the only exceptions being test-beds for new technology or design concepts. The reconstituted Imperial Navy is determined to return to the old format, whether it is practical or not.
Escort (ES) – 4,500 tons; rarely used
Corvette (CT) – 6,000 tons; typically a strike or scout unit
Frigate (FF) – 8,000 tons; not used since the early days of the Empire
Destroyer (DD) – 10,000 tons; primary escort unit for battleline units, considered too small for independent missions
Light Cruiser (CL) – 15,000 tons; used more towards the final days of the first interstellar era as the destroyer hull became too small to mount all of the equipment that was considered necessary.
Heavy Cruiser (CA) – 20,000 tons; too light to stand in the line of battle, used primarily for independent scouting and for frontier patrol.
Battle Cruiser (BC) – 27,000 tons; throughout much of the first interstellar era this unit was used as the primary battleline unit. The primary designs were fast and equipped with missile weaponry.
Battleship (BB) – 33,000 tons; used primarily as a warp point assault unit. For a short time this was the Empire’s primary battleline unit before being superceded by SD’s once the capability to build these units became available.
Super Dreadnought (SD) – 44,000 tons; the primary battleline unit of the Empire at the time of the Collapse.
Monitor (MN) – 66,000 tons; the Empire was busily building the capability to construct these units at the time of the Collapse. None were in service in the Imperial Navy at the time of the Collapse.
The Imperial Guard
In the aftermath of the Great Mutiny the Emperor formed the Imperial Guard, a military force loyal to the House of Tannenbaum. The Guard is equipped with both ground forces and a space component composed of the remaining old-tech ships from the last interstellar era.
