Opening up the campaign to non-BIG

Non-BIG readers, do you want to take part in the campaign?  The players need not be in the club, as the battles can happen anywhere.  Any interest?

Getting your force to the battlefield

In the campaign each players force is attempting to discover what the aliens are up to in southern Afghanistan (and loot as much cool alien tech as possible).  So the race is on, in the beginning all players are nominally allies, but it is still a race for your faction.

Your force has more than one way of getting to the areas of interests:
1) Large and slow landtrain, this starts you off far from the target area, but you have good supply, minimal casualties.  Downside, you have a long way to go, and probably fight off numerous locals to get there.
2) Light and fast landtrain, you get to the region faster, so you start closer, but you have low supply and lack heavy equipment
3) Airdrop, you get in close, have light and fast equipment, you start very close, but will have lost a significant portion of your equipment.  You also have more air support.

We will chat...

Tomorrow's War Quick Reference added to file section

Well, the title says it all.  Can you please check the quick reference sheet for errors and report them to me.  By the way, if you use the "Download Original" option you get a higher quality view of the document on Google Documents

Newsflash – Haumea Stealth Strike Mission latest images beamed to Earth

Click image to see larger image

An analysis of the latest images shows that Haumea is a disc shaped object that glows, around its equator are numerous circular objects, these are believed to be doors or pods, some have a red mesh over them, this is believed to a self-repair system.  The circular “doors” have the same minimum radius as Manaka and Hi’auka.  The consensus among the exports is the Haumea is some form of carrier ship, that carries ships like Manaka and the other ships found in the Haumean Group.  So far, only Manaka has shown any evidence of activity.  This may mean Haumea and the other ships are destroyed or dormant.  The fact that after 250 million years Manaka could once more become active means either the aliens have highly advanced stasis technology or were able to survive in a confined environment.  It seems unlikely that the aliens could have lived, reproduced and died for the last 250 million years in such a small constructed object.  Then again, the human race is finding itself surprised on a regular basis of late.

The red spot seems to be a massive hole that has been partially repaired by the “red material”.  A similar red material has been found growing in Afghanistan.

The stealth mission to Haumea is presently less than 2 months from contact.  The mission appears to not have been detected, and it sent a short message via a second probe to Earth on a narrow-beam one month ago.  LS4 has taken control of the mission and has decided to direct the mission to Namaka.  The question now is, what can 80 special force operatives do against a ship the size of Manaka, especially if it is inhabited by thousands or millions of aliens.

The previous best quality images of Haumea:

History of human knowledge of Haumea

When Haumea was first discovered in 2003 it was classified as a plutoid, a dwarf planet or a trans-Neptunian object.  The description of Haumea ranged from “The Weirdest object in the solar system”, “the fastest rotating object in the solar system”, “one of the brightest”, “surface composition crystalline ice in a region and age where it should be amorphous”.  Haumea was also found to be part of a group of objects whose co-existence was difficult to explain without resorting to immense improbabilities.  Other than Haumea’s two satellites, there were another eight objects discovered between 1995 and 2005 which were believed to originate from Haumea from their orbital dynamics.  Many other unexplained issues surrounded Haumea, like the orbit of its moons.

In 2009 a “great red spot” was discovered on Haumea, measuring approximately 700km by 400km.  The spectral signature for the spot indicated a possible organic presence.

By the mid-2020’s a further fifteen objects were found to be orbiting Haumea and Haumea became a favorite of the conspiracy theorists.  Concentrating on returning to the Moon, the world paid little attention to Haumea, and it remained an obscure object of interest among astronomers.

Today we know these objects to be ships, either part of a fleet or the wrecks left after a battle near Haumea.  At present the Haumea group of major ships names are Haumea, Hi’iaka, Namaka, SM55, TO66, OY3, TX300, OP32, UZ117, CB79 and RR43.  The fifteen smaller ships are called Haumea III to Haumea XVII.  The red spot is actually a massive blast hole in the side of the ship Haumea.  The ship appears to be largely hollow, which is in conflict with the high density, some academics have claimed it may hold a mini-black hole or neutronium object. 

Namaka, has been discovered to be a broken ship, its outer shielding nearly half torn away, exposing an organic ball in its centre.  The ball is approximately 80 kilometers across.  The jamming signal presently pervading the Solar System originates in Namaka itself.

A re-analysis of astronomical data shows that in 2062, hundreds, if not thousands, of objects left Namaka on a course to intersect with Earth in 2070.

A KMart $5 special

Found this in KMart for less than AUD5.00

Campaign control - Roleplaying or rule-based

We have two options on running this campaign: 1) A fixed storyline with thread (storyline) and non-thread (random action that develops or destroys players forces) OR 2) A basic set of rules and a gamemaster.

What do you think?

I am leaning to the more roleplaying version with a game-master.  The force the GM plays will merely be an average of all the other players gains and losses.

The advantage of the GM style is the momentum can be controlled and no end up dragging.  Though the players know the limits of the GM by the basic rules of the campaign.

Do you want a campaign which has a storyline but is a robot and we know where we are going, and we generate scenarios through a fixed rule system, or do you want a GM-controlled campaign.

I have many years of GMing under my belt (and a few more pounds than required), but I am happy to be a player too.

I am trying a new thing, check the poll out on the right-hand side.

A history lesson: The First Lunar War

The First Lunar War

How did the long time allies, the UK and the USA, become enemies?  The First Lunar War is how.  The actual events that led to the war were difficult to unravel, and now following the Apocalypse, impossible to unravel.  One version is that a UK scientific mission on the Moon discovered the Haumean ship, but a USA team happened on the find a few hours later.  A struggle ensued and people died.  The other version has the USA military finding the ship, and hours later a UK vehicle crashed into the US vehicle.  Whichever version, by the end of that day the ship was in US hands and dozens of US and UK Loonies were dead.

Rhetoric exploded across the US and UK televisions.  US tourists in the UK were assaulted.  A UK plane crashed in Canada, the US was blamed in the UK e-tabloids.  After two weeks of tit-for-tat the US landed a “rescue mission” in London to evacuate its embassy and its citizens.  Most commentators said the whole affair was staged or an overreaction on the part of the USA.  Some say a rogue UK squadron attacked without orders, in the end two US VTOL crashed and the ambassador and his family were killed.  Some blame a third-party, China.  The first retaliation occurred on the Moon, after a wounded UK Loony died in US care the US base was holed (natural event or sabotage, no one knows) and several people died.  The main UK Lunar base was attacked by a rogue group of US Dustdevils (US Lunar special forces) with a loss of 20 souls.  In all the First Lunar War resulted in 43 dead on the Moon.

The real First Lunar War, however, was fought on Earth.  The US air bases in the UK were overrun by protesters, when a dozen civilians were killed by nervous US sentries the British military arrived to bring the situation under control.  In what is known as the Battle of Lakenheath the war escalated.  A firefight developed between the US and UK forces.  The battle expanded into the local towns and country, and over 1,000 civilians were killed.  Before the political leaders could bring it under control it expanded into open conflict that lasted three months.  By the time the Canadian brokered peace agreement was signed there were over 15,000 dead, wounded or missing.

The shock of the Anglo-USA conflict pushed the US and UK into a general isolationist policy while they worked out how they had come to blows.  Relations remained frosty after the US accused the UK of state sponsored terrorism in the USA.  During this period of the US special force attacks on “terrorist training camps” in the UK the Sino-Nippon Lunar War started.

The Chinese accused the Japanese of spying on their operation on the Moon, it was commonly believed that the Chinese had found an alien ship over a year before the First Lunar War.  When the United Nations voted through the Universal Alien Technology Exploitation Resolution, both China and the US used their power of veto.  This fuelled speculation that both these superpowers had already made significant alien discoveries.  Following the failure of the resolution the nations of the world voted out the veto options of the superpowers.  Russia, UK, USA and China immediately withdraw from the UN.  France remained.  Following an explosion at a Chinese exploration base on the Moon the Chinese-Japanese powder-keg exploded with China invading Japan.  No nation comes to the aid of Japan, the UN was a shell of its former self, and Japan is occupied by China.  No one knows how many died in this conflict, the best estimate is about 5 million.

By 2065 the world is at peace once more.  The UN was attempting to diplomatically free Japan from Chinese occupation, and  the Torres Strait War was finally cooling down.  South East Asians forces were withdrawing from most of northern Australia.  Just as the world economy was returning to a stable state the Great Jamming began.  A full spectrum radio jamming hits the Solar System.  The Earth nations lose control of all their space probes and colonies.  The source of the jamming is Haumea.  The United Nations is reformed as the League of Sovereign States of the Solar System (LSSSS or LS⁴) – including the nominally independent Martians (ex-UK and ex-US colonies on Mars who declared independence in protest against their parent nations conflict.   Plus the Free People of Lunar, a private colony on the Moon).

In 2066, communication with the ESA probe orbiting Ceres is regained using a laser communication system.  Before the 2065 event the probe had detected alien artefacts on Ceres where they had not been visible in prior missions.  The 2066 images showed thousands of robots mining large blocks of rock on Ceres and stockpiling them.  The rocks were on average 30m across.

In 2067 thousands of large rocks were detected leaving numerous asteroids, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 were spotted, the majority between 25m-35m.  A dozen 1km rocks were also spotted being nudged onto impact paths with Earth.  The rocks would all intersect the Earth orbit four years after leaving the belt, arriving in 2071.  Calculations showed all the rocks would hit Earth head-on over a period of 24 hours.  Impact velocities would be in the order of 70-80km/s.  The scientific models showed the majority would air burst in multi-megaton explosions.  The large rocks were largely aimed at deep sea locations.

The LS4 realised that if the humans placed all their resources to stopping the rocks they would not even dent the rain of rocks.  The LS4 Resolution Prevention of Human Extinction directed the worlds resources to protect as many humans as possible, this meant moving humans to space stations, the Moon, Mars and the construction of bunkers and creation of massive stores of food, equipment and seeds.

The Apocalypse

On the 20^th of January 2071 the attack on Earth began, and it lasted twenty four hours.  First to arrive were millions of small rocks and dust, the upper atmosphere was heated to thousand of watts, setting plants, house and humans alight.  The second wave was the medium rocks, the majority air burst in megaton explosions between 10 and 16km above the surface, with fragments smashing into all the cities of the world.  Last game the large rocks, resulting in massive tsunamis.

The sun was blotted and twilight only returned to the surface of Earth in mid-April 2071.  The winters of 2071 were up to 15°C colder than normal.  Though no comprehensive study has been done, an estimated 3 billion humans perished within a week of the attack, and by the end of the 2071/72 Northern hemisphere winter a further 5.5 billion humans had perished.  The present estimate of the human population of Earth ranges from 200 million to 1 billion.

Many of the LS4 “Safe Zones” were hit, robots on board the incoming rocks fired engines and directed the impacts on safe zones and masses of fleeing humans.  Two year after the Apocalypse the LS4 survivors began to emerge, some to unite, others deciding to go on their own path.  LS4 came back online and started organizing Earth’s survival.  The majority of survivors were however those who were abandoned by LS4, not everyone could be saved.  The self-survivors formed small communities, some beginning to farm, loot or roam as armed bands.  In the last four years LS4 has had little success at uniting the self-survivors.  Rumours persist of some LS4 members resorting to force to resettle the self-survivors.  The LS4-survivors, however, are in rudimentary communication with one another (using microwave links and direct wire), have facilities and are working in an organized command structure.  Microwave communication satellites have been switched on in orbit, but have poor coverage at present.

In 2075 the LS4 orbital probes switched on and mapped the Earth to ascertain the impact of the Apocalypse.  The Earth was down but not out.  The world was covered in fungi and insects, but the plants were already making a comeback.  The maps revealed that one area of Earth had not been attacked, southern Afghanistan.  First the scientists thought it may just be an anomaly or the aliens may have perceived no targets in the region, but further investigation showed that aliens and robots were landing all over southern Afghanistan.  In fact, alien vegetation was starting to sprout across the desert and waterways.  Within a month massive earth moving operations were under way.  A massive orbital laser was dissecting the rocks below the southern desert of Afghanistan, the laser was so large that it would melt 100m wide swaths of sand and rock and send fountains of molten glass across the desert.  The first special force operatives to image the laser in operation called it the "rip-n-roar".  Large areas are the region are now covered in black glass ejecta from the laser.  LS4 directed an array of fusion bombs on these mines, and captured the massive orbital laser platform for a short while.  This did not stop the aliens arriving.  In fact all the world's surviving nuclear weapons were destroyed in a week long campaign by unseen aliens.  Several of the command and control nodes of LS4 were also obliterated by the rip-n-roar laser.

The LS4 then sent in the troops to discover what the aliens were doing in SAFG.  Self-sufficient columns from several nations, leagues and private companies made their way to southern Afghanistan.  Special forces with geophysical mapping equipment were the first to arrive, they soon found “anomalies over an area of 100km by 30km” in the Permian-Triassic rocks under the southern desert, aptly named the “Desert of Death”.

The columns vary in composition, some are more scientific, some are more engineering-orientation, some are more militarily-orientated.  Many contain old equipment, one even containing tanks from the 1950’s.  Many have scavenged the planet as they have headed to the alien mines.  Some have massive baggage trains, bloated with camp-followers.  Others are lean fighting machines.

The campaign begins.

Base Force Template

To help you decide what type of force you want to design/create here is a base template for the campaign.  More than one player may join to make a force, and we can loan figures as required.  More detail to come.  We will try design vehicle templates as well.  More will be done on the alternative structures to allow players to design a force they wish to play, for example, elite to mob style.

COMMAND TEAM (TQ as per attached/Mor as per attached)

Leader CinC: 0, +1 or +2

Leader XO: 0, +1 or +2

Religious Leader: 0, +1 or +2 Morale Shift

Forward Air Controller

Forward Observer

Battle Medic (2)

FRONTLINE INFANTRY PLATOON (TQ10/MOR10)

Three squads of two fire teams (9), and a weapons squad and HQ team.

Body Armour: +2D

Weapons: Advanced

2^nd LINE INFANTRY PLATOON (TQ8/MOR8)

Select a modern nationality and unit type (example US Army, US Marines etc)

Body Armour: +1D

Weapons: Slugger-type

SPECIAL FORCE SQUAD (TQ10/MOR10)

Three teams of 4.

Body Armour:  +1D or +2D or heavy battle suit

Weapons: Advanced but light

Tech: Advanced

Transport: Self-sufficient up-armoured light vehicles with Heavy Weapons

FRONTLINE ARMOURED PLATOON (TQ10/MOR10)

                Four armoured vehicles (divide as you wish)

                Type: Future

2^nd LINE ARMOURED PLATOON (TQ8/MOR8)

                Four armoured vehicles

                Type: Present day MBT

RECONAISSANCE PLATOON

                Twelve light patrol vehicles/walkers (half if light armoured, half amount if future)

SUPPORT PLATOON (TQ6 in direct combat, TQ8 in support roll/MOR10)

Air Support (Helicopter, Fast Burner) – 2 craft

Air Transport (one platoon’s worth) – number depending on type

Ground Transport

                Armoured IFV (one platoon’s worth) – Max of 4

                Armoured APC (one platoon’s worth) – Max of 6

                Soft Uparmoured  (one platoon’s worth) – Max of 12

Ground Support

                Artillery

                ECM

                Battle computers

                ETC.

REAR ECHELON (TQ6/MOR8)

Only play if rear echelon is overrun.  This unit holds your supplies, maintenance and medical facility.  The unit is armed with rifles but no support weapons, expect for those generated by the mission.  The strength of each unit is also its dice type, this can change in the game.

Quartermaster Team (8) – Supply

Maintenance Team (8) - Confidence

Medical Team (8) – Morale and troop recovery

Construction Team (8) – Ability to construct defenses, run-ways etc.

Camp Followers (20-100) – Morale and replacements

TQ and Morale of Platoon

Depending on your armies story you can change your force’s or platoon’s TQ and Morale prior to starting in the campaign.  You can nudge up TQ by dropping Mor or vice versa, for example a player’s frontline platoon can be made TQ8/MOR12 instead of TQ10/MOR10.  During the campaign units can improve.

Replacements

Soldiers may be moved between platoons to replace battle losses, if more than a quarter of a units strength is added in a campaign turn the platoons TQ drops to the TQ of the replacement supplying force.  Camp Followers may be added as reinforcements, but the number per turn is limited to D6.

Alternative Basic Structures

There is also the option before starting of change the basic template structure of your force.  For example, you can sacrifice your 2^nd Line platoon for an extra special forces platoon.  Or one can swap their special forces + 2^nd Line for a second Frontline platoon.  The 2^nd Line Armour platoon can be swapped for one extra Frontline tank.  Reconnaissance.  The armoured platoons may be swapped for an insurgent option, in this option you sacrifice one or both of your armoured platoons to place hotspots and roll for insurgents during missions.

                Insurgent Force Component

                There are three levels of insurgent support, D6, D8 and D10:

                                No Frontline Armoured Platoon: D8

                                No Second Line Armoured Platoon: D6

                                No Frontline or Armoured Platoon: D10

At the beginning of each turn in the mission you roll your die type, on a 4+ you roll for an insurgent team to appear on the battlefield

Playing a mission

A mission has a maximum force of one platoon of infantry + special forces.  The mission with generally also limit the number of vehicles, but usually would be in the platoon level.  Special rules will be made for how much support you can have.  Everything is at a cost though, each unit consumes supplies, requires maintenance and you have a limited medical facility.  So if you are not careful you may end up winning a Pyrrhic Victory.

Rear Echelon

If you win the battle or draw you keep your wrecks, and scavenge your opponent’s wrecks in the case of a victory.  Vehicles can be repaired if not too damaged, or scavenged if they are.  You have a limited repair facility, so if for example you lose 4 vehicles, but you can only repair 2 this turn, the other are placed in a damaged pool or scavenged.  You also have a finite (though it can be resupplied) supply of repair parts, so you may have to resort to scavenging one vehicle to repair another.  The scavenged vehicle is lost.

Supply

In the campaign you get to scavenge lost vehicles, yours or your opponents.  But you also obtain supplies, equipment, replacements and reinforcements by winning battles in certain campaign locations.  Some of these locations will continually supply these, while others are once off.  For example, winning a battle in a location may allow you to add a platoon to your force, this may be an alien platoon.

Ragtag
Designating your force ragtag gives you access to more vehicles, but your maintenance cost per vehicle increases.  Ragtag adds and extra vehicle for every 2 you have.  However, a 1/3 of each vehicle type should be different in type, armour etc.


Camp-Followers
Camp-followers are a resource for morale, maintenance and replacements and slow down the movement of the base camp or base column.  They, however, consume more supplies and if they suffer losses in combat (i.e. your base camp is attacked) they either cause a devastating loss on morale or increase the vigour of the troops.  The higher the number of camp-followers in the base camp the more likely they are to be lost.


Ubertech
Most players will start with fairly good tech, but ubertech is only gained through mission success.


Splitting columns into flying-columns
A player may choose to split off up to two flying-columns from their main column.  Flying-columns operating away from the main column will have limited versions of support, such as recovery, maintenance, medical etc.  A flying-column moves faster than a base column.

Some campaign ideas

The Start

Each player leads an expedition into Afghanistan, or Manakaland as it is now commonly known.  Each force is nominally:

• One modern infantry platoon (as per the nation you select)
• One advanced infantry platoon (a bumped up version of your national platoon)
• One platoon-worth of light patrol vehicles (6-12)
• One platoon-worth of APC and IFV (as per your nationality) (2 of each type)
• One platoon (4-5) MBTs
• Supplies (Ammo, Defences, Construction, Mobility, Replacements, Repair and Fuel)

Before the campaign starts each nationality receives technology randomly.  For example, if two players have a US based army they share the same technology.

Resources such as air support and artillery are also available.

Manakaland is covered in alien and human technology, recovery of equipment can be shared between all/some of the players or you can choose to keep it for your force alone.  So, for example, you direct your expedition to an area potentially containing fuel and combat walkers, if you win the mission you roll your forces TQ and on a 4+ you get one of your choose, on a 8+ you get both, randomly rolling how many (for example D6 fuel and D6 walkers).  Therefore, if you buy some walker miniatures for your army, you can attempt to get them into your army by taking a mission in an area where you may find them.

Items include:

• New Technology (for example Gauss guns, lasers, battle computers etc)
• Reinforcements (human, alien – whole units or replacement for losses or once off mercenaries)
• Equipment (vehicles, guns, artillery)
• Supplies (ammo, fuel, defenses, mines etc)
• Reputation
• Support (ability to go to the Moon, Mars, Haumea, Ceres etc; communication facility etc)

All forces start as TQ8 – Mor10 (8?), over time your force may advance (or lose morale!).

Players will also get to play missions offworld, so the assault on the alien worlds, fights on Mars and the Moon using forces other than their own to push the campaign events.  So for example, when the stealth mission to Haumea arrives some players take control of the 80 soldiers and attack Haumea, possibly disrupting alien reinforcements, obtaining technology etc.  If for example a force gains the capability to go to the Moon, they may attack the humans on the Moon and take over a railgun, thereby getting access to strike capability.

Some locations on the map will supply a continuous supply of items, by moving ones base onto such a location gives a continuous supply.

How does the campaign end?

If the aliens achieve a certain presence on Earth its all over.  So players need to work as a team.  But to win the campaign you must eventually force the other players to become your vassals, destroy them.  Targets will be designed to achieve these aims.  You can steal supplies and equipment from other players if you hold the battle field after a player vs. player battle, or if you attack their base camp.

When a players force becomes a vassal it loses the ability to decide it future, though at any time it can rebel, but usually at some disadvantage in the rebellion missions.

All these ideas are optionally and we can design as required.

Further background...

The year is 2075, in the last 18 months more than 8.5 billion humans have perished.  The human race stands on the brink of extinction.  The estimated human populations are:

Earth: 500 Million

Lunar Colonies: 2,500

Orbital Colonies: 500

Martian Colonies: 1,300

Phobosian Colony: 50

Stealth Mission to Haumea: 80

Stealth Mission to Ceres: 40

In transit to Mars: 1,000

The initial Naumean attack killed an estimated 3.5 billion humans, the humans that survived faced three months of twilight, failed crops, disease, a freezing winter, further impacts and of cause, each other.  A further 5 billion humans died in the 18 months following the attack.

In 2068 the UN passed the UN Emergency Defense Decree 1, calculations showed the human race could survive the attack, but the estimated 4-6 billion that survived the attack would stress the system such that the humans would be in no condition to resist an alien invasion.  The decree created numerous stockpiles that would self-reveal three years after that initial attack.  Only 20% of these stockpiles survived or were discovered.  Many humans decided hiding would be better than confrontation, while others thought the aliens would be more amenable to negotiation from the human’s point of weakness.  Of the estimated 500 million people only a dozen or so million organized themselves following the decree’s instructions.  When observer’s detected alien landings in Afghanistan they sent scouts and discovered numerous alien species digging into the Earth, a large broken up and dismembered mothership lay buried within the rock.  The aliens were intent on recovering the ship, for what end the humans could only guess.

Human expedition have started to arrive in Afghanistan from all the corners of the planet, the Brazilians,  the North Americans, the North Africans, the Southern Africans, the Central Europeans, Russia, China, Australia, India and many more.  The aliens working on the digs did not expect to be attacked and the initial human attack was overwhelmingly successful, all but wiping out the alien workers from the face of Earth in February 2075.  More humans died in the First War of Liberation from exposure than from combat.

The loot was immense, and the technology beyond the wildest dreams of the humans.  The International Defense Council could not hold together.  Human started fighting human.  The fratricidal fighting was only stopped by a wave of alien drop pods and landing craft.  The bond, however, is weak.

The campaign.

Each player starts with a company strength force, they will be ordered by the council (the players) to perform missions against the aliens, rogue humans and bandits.  The object of the campaign is to finish as the Supreme Faction of the Human Race, this involves secreting away more technology than the other players.  But, technology must also be given to the Defense council to keep them happy, so the object is too obtain technology above and beyond what makes the council happy.  Accusations can be made (using cards) accusing another players faction of technology pilfering, etc.  A player may also decide to attack another player to loot some of that players pilfered technology, or merely just to weaken the targets company.  The council will try to bring peace to the sides involved in these conflicts.

Alien incursions will result in major conflicts, in this case a Supreme War Leader will take over command.

The campaign is also driven by events on the Moon, Mars and Haumea, scenarios will be played using the human forces on these distant worlds that will influence the situation on Earth.

Each company is made up of four platoons, two have the technology of the early 21^st Century, and two have the technology of the 2060s.  One platoon from each era is infantry or mechanized infantry, while the second platoon is an armoured platoon or a second infantry platoon.   Air support etc are community  resources.

The campaign setting - Up for debate

Timeline

2021 – Human’s return to the Moon

2026 – First permanent base on the Moon

2030 – Human’s visit Mars and Phobos

2038 – Human automated mines on asteroid

2045 – Lunar population reaches 150.  Mars population reaches 20.

2049 – A space-based telescope imaging of the Trans-Neptunian Object Haumea indicate that its two satellites, Namaka and Hi’iaka, are of “non-natural compounds” each of approximately 100km in diameter.

2050 – Several probes are directed to Haumea.

2059 – The probes start to reach Haumea.  Combined with improved telescopes Namaka and Hi’iaka are found to be tethered moonlets covered in “sentient being constructions”, and Haumea itself is a massive “planetoid ship” of “non-Solar origin”.  The probes all soon cease to operate, but the last to “switch off” witnesses activity on Namaka.  Namaka appears to be "waking up"

2060 – Human crewed stealth ship leaves earth for Haumea, estimated time of arrival 2076.

2061 – Hundreds of alien signals from several planets, moon’s and asteroids, including Earth are intercepted.  The first to be investigated is an alien vessel embedded 200m below the surface in Permo-Triassic rocks of Afghanistan.  The ship was destroyed 252.6 million years ago.  The technology, though disrupted by tectonics, leads to valuable advances in human technology.  In the surrounding rock fossils of aliens are discovered.

2062 – A high-resolution spectral survey of the Moon finds a second crashed ship on the Moon.  The ship is largely intact and technology is extracted.  The race to discover and exploit alien technology turns to war, the First Lunar War. 

2065 – High intensity interference hits Earth, disrupting all radio communications.

2066 – An alien mine on Ceres is discovered, the probe finds the mine to be active, with robots stockpiling 30m diameter rocks near a newly constructed magnetic levitation rail.

2067 – Thousands of rocks are detected leaving numerous asteroids.

2071 - Approximately 20,000 30m diameter rocks break through Earth’s meager defenses and pummel planet Earth at over 70km/s, resulting in thousands of craters (of 1 to 3km diameter) and hundreds of tsunamis.  Human civilization is largely extinguished.

2073 – Following a harrowing year the survivors start to connect.  Several new federations are formed.

2074 – Live aliens are encountered in Afghanistan.  The aliens are in a sorry state, and landed in “drop pods”, some appear to be “life rafts”.  The aliens show no desire to communicate.

2075 - The Namakan colony in Afghanistan is attacked and destroyed by the humans.  Investigations of the Namakan mines discover a 100km wide ship embedded beneath Afghanistan.

Can the surviving humans unite and exploit the technological treasures of Afghanistan before they are overwhelmed by the drop pods heading to Earth?

The campaign

The year is 2075, the lithium and rare earth “ore deposits” of Afghanistan are found to have “leaked” from alien ships embedded in 250 million year old rock.  Aliens that presumably have been in stasis at Haumea have woken from their slumber and are now in transit to Earth.  Evidence indicates that the aliens arrived in the Solar System 250 million years ago intending to colonize Earth and the other planets.  War broke out between the alien colonists, or a second group arrived, which resulted in 90% of life on Earth dying, and resulted in the aliens nearly annihilating themselves.  The only survivors were those on the Haumea-ship.  They may have arrived during the conflict and remained in stasis.  The aliens view the humans as nothing but animals.  Some theorists believe the aliens to be mere “slaves” of far superior beings who designed and built the technology they use.

The campaign begins in Afghanistan, several expeditions have met at “the ship”.  At present they have fought a few aliens, some local bandits, and there have been a few firefights between the expeditions themselves.  Communication is slow, as radios are inoperable.  The expeditionary forces are largely self-sufficient, and expect little in reinforcements.  Drop pods of alien survivors continue to land around the 100km wide buried ship.  So far, several alien species have been identified.

Players will create forces of modern and super-modern troops ( a mix of modern and SF), some players may create alien or robotic forces.  In the beginning all the humans are allies, but if they want to gain advantage for their masters at home they may have to turn on their friends.

So, BIG members, are you keen?  Non-BIG members out there across the planet Earth...interested in being part of a campaign?

If so, any comments?