From: Thomas Anderson <thomas.anderson@u...>
Date: Tue, 26 Jan 1999 22:37:08 +0000 (GMT)
Subject: [fh] nederlander space kingdom was Re: [IFWG] Timeline update
right... > On Mon, 25 Jan 1999, Laserlight wrote: well, the netherlands star kingdom has seven, if that helps. and so it begins, not with a bang, but with a whimper. i got to thinking about designing ships, and realised that my designs were looking for a star nation to build them. i was thinking of saying they were modified nac designs, but the fleet doctrine was so off-beam it wouldn't have stuck. so, i thought to myself: who is there who hasn't got much attention from the amateur kingmakers on gzg-l? well, there's the dutch. job's a good 'un. the dutch win big on several points: european, so i can identify a bit better; a kingdom, so i still get a royal navy; historical naval power, so i get a *big* royal navy; invented total football; huge marijuana trade (and hence frequent wars with indonesian opium fleets and bavarian-controlled drugs cartels :-); and, mostly, all the dutch people i know are great guys/gals. the only word of dutch i know is 'ontploffing', which means 'explosion'. it's not a bad start. what do we know about the dutch? well, from the timeline: they got out of the fse in 2102, but stayed out of the nsl. they send heavy cruisers against the french (on the sly) in the "liberte" scenario in ft. along with the nac, the nsl, and the fct, they drove the kv off from Rheinhold, the first major human victory against the kv. so, unless anyone has any prior claim, or there are official reasons the dutch can't be detailed in, or anyone else wants to have some say in this (and please do!), i'll stake my claim and work on designs, fleet rosters and history for the dutch. i wouldn't mind someone to fill in some dirtside details - other than an overdeveloped royal marines, i have no idea what the army'll be like. here's a start, saying something about attitude. the reply of Grand Admiral Oosterhaven, on being asked what should be built with the 2185 War Emergency Budget Supplement: "freighters.". fleet doctrine is centred around speed - provisionally, all ships will have thrust six. this means capitals which can maneuver like light cruisers, which will hopefully scare the bejeesus out of most people. it also helps sooth my sml paranoia. the fleet is heavy on capitals, as (a) i think this is generally a good idea and (b) it helps a smaller power punch above its weight in major battles. escorts will mostly also have thrust six - what's the point of escorts which go faster than the ships they escort? oh, and the Skunk class special operations frigate... Tom ps general plea to the cartographers - given that the next few months / years will see a boom in the number of unofficial nations (i'm sure the gzgpedia will be a spur), let's not be too quick over allocating stars, ok? why not leave it a while, and then allocate, say, one in five habitable systems. this does mean known space will go out to a much bigger radius than before, but it gives us room to grow.