Dirtside campaign / FT Traveller

speaking as one of the playtesters/kibbitzers on Imperial Squadrons
I can tell you a few things about it.

1). nothing like whats in IS existed beforehand, except for the never
published "Imperial Navy Handbook" for Megatraveller.

2). we didnt have near enough time to playtest it properly as with all the T4
products, deadlines were rushed bigtime.

I picked up Imperial Squadrons this weekend, pulls together Trillion
Credit Squadron, Fifth Frontier War, and several encounters/patrons.
The best part is the section on calculating squadrons and Defense BN. I asked
GDW if this stuff existed when Fifth Frontier War first came out.
This is a great tool to setup the background / fight out the "Overgame"
for a FT/DS2/SG2 campaign.

I envision an FT/DS2/SG2 campaign to involve 2-3 systems of 1-3 worlds
each. DS2 could be used to the lower level battles, or a "representative"
sample (ie you lose this battle and your forces in general are losing). I
don't see following a single unit through the
campaign to be a problem, decimated units will be replaced/rebuilt (at a
lower quality/morale).  Winning units would tend to offset the morale
effects of losses.

Just a couple of thoughts,

Michael Brown

BTW there is a DS2/SG2 min-campaign on my website
http://www.wco.com/~mkkabrow

----------
From:	Paul O'Grady
Sent:	Saturday, May 09, 1998 6:13 PM
To:     FTGZG-L@bolton.ac.uk
Subject:	Re: Dirtside campaign

I came up with a set of guidelines for a DS Campaign using a flowchart method.
Actually, it was more like ripping bits I liked from other rules and mashing
them all together.

The system is based at Task Group/Battalion level.  It uses a system of
allocating your forces into 3 sections: Recon, Main Body and Rear Guard.

Depending on the scenario, different parts of your force are used. In between
games, you can shuffle a limited amount of your force between the various
detachments.

Oh yes- you cant buy artillery, ortillery etc.  You "buy" fire support
and
roll on a table to see what shows up- after all no Battalion Commander
will have his own aerospace fighters or MLRS battery! Depending on how much
you pay, the liklihood of something being available goes up, as does the
strength of the support.

I havent actually tried the rules out too much so if you'd like too you are
welcome- all I ask is some feedback.  Please Email me privately if you
want them.

> I envision an FT/DS2/SG2 campaign to involve 2-3 systems of 1-3 worlds
sample (ie you lose this battle and your forces in general are losing). I
don't see following a single unit through the campaign to be a problem,
decimated units will be replaced/rebuilt (at a lower quality/morale).
Winning units would tend to offset the morale effects of losses.
> Just a couple of thoughts,

Renegade Legion has some suggstions on this. If I remember rightly it used a
representative battle system. Of course one of the RL games Prefect was
actually set at the level of planetary invasion, which meant that you were
able to fight out large scale battles and then drill down to the lower scale
battles if so desired.

Also I beleive Battletech Battleforces may be of some value for getting an
overall picture of battles while the smaller scale battles could be dealt with
by something like Dirtside2.

At some point I had thought that I might get around to running a large scale
campaign using all the various GZG products, in one or other of my favourite
settings (2300AD, Renegade legion, Full thrust).

They all lend themselves reasonably well to an integrated system.
Stargrunt for small scale assination/raids, DS2 for the ground combat,
FT for the interstellar portion. I think there may be a gap in the market
there for a game just above Dirtside but below Full thrust.

Someday perhaps. Pardon the rambling.

Just a book. The book is broken into sections, Trillion Credit Squadron
campaigns, Pocket Empire campaigns, and Role Playing in the Navy campaigns.
The pocket empire stuff is almost straight Fifth Frontier War, with the
mechanics of building you own units ( I guess you could make your own board
game using this section).