This new campaign is one I hope to spend a lot of time on and will be far more involved than the test campaigns I have run so far. Aurora is getting close to the point where I can declare the basic game ready to play and I can concentrate on adding to it rather then ensuring the basic framework hangs together.
The idea for the campaign is based loosely on an eighties role-playing game called 2300AD. In 2300AD, there was a devastating Third World War in the early 21st century and the balance of power in the world shifted considerably. Many countries disappeared or were absorbed and new countries arose. The French Empire dominated the post-war world and the USA lost Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and Southern California to Mexico. I guess its possible a Frenchman designed the game
As humanity expanded into space, three major arms of exploration and colonization opened up; the French Arm, the Chinese Arm and the American Arm. Each arm also contained the territories of smaller powers, known as fingers.
For my new Aurora campaign I will be setting up a similar situation. The year is 2150 and its been a hundred years since several, devastating large scale wars destroyed much of the planet?s infrastructure. The major areas of conflict included the Far East, where an expansionist China was eventually involved in a war with India, Japan and Russia. With no US intervention due to the problems in the Americas, the three powers finally halted China at extreme cost and all four countries began a sharp decline in their fortunes. Eventually, China broke up and a new power, Manchuria, emerged from the rubble. Recovering more quickly than her neighbours, Manchuria quickly conquered much of the East Asian Landmass and only Japan, taking advantage of her defensive strength as an island, was able to hold her at bay.
In Europe, the UK succeeded from the EU in 2015 following a national referendum and returned to her roots as a trading nation, rebuilding her shipbuilding and manufacturing industries and concentrating on high tech industries and a well-educated workforce. As her shipping once more began to dominate the world?s oceans, the Royal Navy was expanded, often buying surplus warships from the diminishing US Navy. Despite the creation of a Pan-Islamic Republic strenching from the Atlantic to the Himalayas in the late 2030?s, Europe seemed oblivious to the danger and continued to spend greater and greater sums on welfare and social programs as her armies rusted away. When the Pan-Islamic Republic finally launched an all-out assault on a virtually undefended Europe in 2045, the UK stayed out of the fighting, although she supplied the desperate European nations with armaments. Finally, the French used nuclear weapons to halt the Islamic advance and the PIR responded in kind, resulting in massive loss of life on both sides and an end to the fighting. With Europe a shadow of its former self, the UK assumed a dominant role in the region and its traders and corporations bought up much of Europe?s assets in exchange for disaster relief efforts. Several European nations accepted entry into the UK-led Commonwealth of Nations, making William V their head of state.
In the Americas during the 2020s, growing tensions over massive illegal immigration into the southern US began sparking incidents on the Mexican border as vigilantes began shooting immigrants on sight. Many Latin countries greatly resented the situation and were envious of the power and living standards of the US. Gradually an anti-US coalition formed among the Latin states and when a firefight broke out between Mexican army units and a US border patrol, the situation deteriorated rapidly as both sides called in reinforcements. The US launched retaliatory bombing raids against Mexico and the whole Western hemisphere erupted in a general anti-US war. For thirty years, the US was tied down in a long and bloody war, able to knock out the regular armed forces of its opponents relatively easily but unable to hold territory against ceaseless guerilla opposition. Terrorism in the US itself grew to epidemic proportions. Faced with such a conflict, the US was forced to increase the size of its army considerably and the navy was downsized accordingly. Unable to influence the wars in the Far East or the conflict raging in Europe, the US withdrew all its forces to the Americas and adopted an isolationist attitude to the rest of the world. The conflict ended only when a new US President, elected on a tidal wave of resentment against the Latin countries, began using tactical nuclear weapons to deal with insurgents. Rather than try and dig the guerillas out of the jungle, US aircraft simply flattened the entire area regardless of civilian casualties. Faced with devastating losses, the countries of the Latin Alliance finally gave up their struggle and tried to rebuild their shattered economies.
By 2060, the world had calmed down compared with the tumultuous preceding decades. Manchuria, the Commonwealth and the United States were the world?s major powers and several smaller nations or alliances were minor powers. The discovery of Trans-Newtonian elements and jump point theory in 2065 turned humanity?s eyes toward space and a new age of exploration and colonization. Over the next eighty-five years the three major powers expanded into space, each taking responsibility for one of Sol?s three jump points.
Setup Rules1000m pop each on Earth with player race setup
300,000 RP each
50,000 BP of Ship Construction each
One jump point each.
All systems within three transits of jump point discovered.
All systems have geological survey.
All but outer ring have jump point survey.
One planet in the extra-solar territory can be given homeworld minerals.
Terraforming up to a total of 0.2 atm of gas can be performed on any combination of planets.
Races can setup installations and populations equal to ? of their Earth-based population and installations, plus two levels of maintenance facility and a commercial freight facility, anywhere in their territory.
Any automated mines on Earth can be moved.
10 years worth of commanders are allowed (using the new Replace Officer Corps option in v1.7)
Commonwealth ArmThe Commonwealth Arm comprises eighteen systems and four ideal worlds but is short on minerals and has only one promising candidate for terraforming. Its primary advantage is that its capital planet Leonidas, in the Sparta trinary system, is closer to Earth than the major planets of the other powers. Sparta is the heart of the Commonwealth?s extra-solar territory and has seven jump points, including the connection to Sol. Leonidas is the third planet of Sparta-A and, apart from a couple of tiny asteroids, is the only body in the system with any minerals at all. Even most of its own mineral deposits are hard to mine, with four of them at 0.1 accessibility. Fortunately, it has six hundred thousand tons of accessibility 1.0 Duranium, not to mention a very pleasant climate, which makes it up for its other shortcomings. Eighty percent of the Commonwealth?s out-system population and industry is concentrated on Leonidas, including two hundred million colonists and all five shipyards, and it is the main base of the Commonwealth Navy. The rest of Commonwealth territory is split into five sections, known as chains, each originating with a system connecting to Sparta. The Mycenae and Luxor systems both connect to Sparta and also to Argos, forming a small loop within their chain. Corinth, adjacent to Sparta, contains the second largest Commonwealth colony, with forty million inhabitants, and is the Commonwealth?s primary extra-solar research facility. Troy and Athens, both in the Ithaca chain, have five million inhabitants each but no industry while Pylos in the Thessalonica chain contains the Commonwealth?s largest mining colony. The third planet of Alexandria, also in the Thessalonica chain, is in the final stages of being terraformed and is the site of alien ruins that include several intact structures as well as a number of abandoned installations. More alien ruins and abandoned installations are located in Delphi, adjacent to Corinth.
American ArmThe American Arm comprises twenty-two systems and is blessed with an abundance of minerals, four ideal worlds and several more planets that can be terraformed relatively quickly. The uninhabited New York system is the crossroads of American territory with seven of its nine jump points clustered within two billion klometers of the system primary, one of which connects to Sol. Another connects to the Washington system, which contains Lincoln, the capital planet of the American Arm. Lincoln has a similar population and level of industry as the Commonwealth capital but unlike Leonidas, its mineral resources are readily accessible, with only one mineral below 0.5, albeit with only a quarter the amount of Duranium. Its climate is far less pleasant than Leonidas as Lincoln was not originally habitable by humans and was terraformed to reduce its temperature. Most of the planet is still covered by quadruple canopy jungle and many Lincolnians hunt the ferocious indigineous fauna for sport, while trying to avoid several species of carnivorous flora. On the fifth planet of the Washington systems are scattered alien ruins under investigation by American archaeologists. The second largest colony of the United States, Jefferson in the Denver system, has forty million inhabitants and is the American Arm?s main research centre. Denver is also home to a large asteroid mining operation which, like Jefferson, is in orbit of Denever?s G-class companion star. Two more colonies, each with five million population, are located in the Boston and Dallas systems, the former directly linked to New York and the latter two jumps from New York via Honolulu. Two worlds orbiting the C component of the San Diego quaternary system, which lies beyond New Washington, both have breathable atmospheres, acceptable gravity and considerable mineral resources. San Diego-C I has a temperature of 54C, giving it a colony cost of 0.5, while San Diego-C II has a temperature of -26C for a colony cost of 1.2. However, San Diego-C orbits the primary at thirty billion kilometers, or five times the distance from Earth to Pluto. In the near future, the United States will have to make a major decision as to whether to terraform these desirable but badly located planets.
Manchurian ArmThe Manchurian Arm has twenty systems but only has one habitable planet. However, there are several potential terraforming sites and sixteen Manchurian systems remain unsurveyed, giving the Manchurian Arm the most avenues for future expansion. In addition, their capital planet has reasonable quantities of all minerals at good accessibilities and all their extra-solar population and industry, including two hundred automated mines, are located on New Beijing. The Manchurian Arm begins with the planetless Chongqing system, which connects to Sol and also to the systems of New Beijing, Kunming and Harbin, which have four, seven and eight jump points respectively. The other sixteen systems are spread out around the central core, almost like the wings and tail of a bird. During their original explorations of the Manchurian Arm, the Manchurians did not find any habitable planets and New Beijing is the result of an extensive terraforming effort. Even now, the desert planet is not a particularly pleasant place, with an average surface temperature of forty-two degrees Celsius. Although there are several other candidiates for terraforming, little work has been carried out so far because of the concentration on New Beijing. Finding new habitable planets is a priority for the Empire.
Ships and Technology to follow:
Steve
