Aslan Border Wars 1: Setup

This thread is about the Dark Nebula boardgame, and how I’m adapting it as the setting for my science fiction campaigns.

Why? Several reasons. Firstly, I love the map. Secondly, the Aslan Border Wars are part of Traveller canon, but are in a time and a place that hasn’t been explored in detail in official products; the Dark Nebula sector in 3401 AD, during the Long Night. This means I can use (or ignore) what I like from the Official Traveller universe without upsetting the Traveller fans in my group, and minimise the risk of information overload for those players new to the game.

This will be an intermittent thread, because while the roleplaying campaigns advance a week or so at a time, the boardgame advances in two-year turns, and the Confederation effectively misses its first turn; the war will kick off in earnest late in 3401, which could easily be December 2018 in real time. So, there’s no rush.

Here’s the initial setup; from here on, I’ll work through things a phase at a time.

Map Tile Draw

I’ve already assumed that all eight maps are drawn, and placed so that the hex numbers match up. There’s nothing but extra work to be gained by changing that now.

Initial Purchases

I’ve spent years trying to figure out the optimum strategy for both sides, and use that to determine their unit purchases; it has never worked. So this time I’m randomly selecting units, and deducing the strategy from that.

We start with both sides buying all the RU 1 and 2 units available, because you’d be mad not to, except for one scout, which makes the next stage work better for some reason. Then, each side rolls randomly to select units from the next cheapest 20 until the initial budget of 40 has been exactly spent. This gives us:

Aslanic Hierate: 4 x SC, 4 x TR, 1 x AO, 4 x RT, 1 x DD, 1 x AT, 1 x CL, 1 x CS. The Hierate is heavy on missile factors, suggesting they intend to negotiate for allies, and the obvious places are Godoro, followed by Valka. The Hierate puts scouts at Vaxt and Xida and another scout and a troop unit at Kuzu; if the Solomani figure out a way to invade Kuzu on their first turn, this will slow them down. Everything else starts at Panas and is designated as the reaction force stack.

Solomani Confederation: 3 x SC, 5 x TR, 1 x AO, 7 x RT, 1 x DD, 1 x AT, 1 x EX. Confed’s strategy must be to open up the route from Osa to Taida Na, giving them a back door into Hierate space. If the aslan load up on heavy combat units and charge Maadin, fangs out and hair on fire, the Solomani need something in the way to slow them down; one scout each at Maadin, Icat and Kamat, a troop unit on Maadin, and everything else at Gazzain, designated as the reaction stack.

Neutral units are drawn as usual, but allocated to primary worlds randomly. The draw gives us:

• Bulan: M (8-2-7)
• Godoro: 2 x RT
• Mizah: PDF, 2 x TR
• Ria: M (8-0-8)
• Valka: JT

I’m pleased that Mizah and Godoro have drawn things that are appropriate for their established backstory, I’m OK with Valka, but Ria and Godoro will take some explaining.

That’s fine though; this is nature telling me there are scenarios in those systems, which is after all the whole point of the exercise.