-------------------------------------------- On Fri, 6/19/15, Richard Aiken <xxxxxx@gmail.com> wrote: Subject: Re: [TML] Question To: xxxxxx@simplelists.com Date: Friday, June 19, 2015, 2:55 AM Unless I am much mistaken, the reason organized bonding/registering of mercenary units makes sense in the OTU is that low/mid-tech worlds can thus hire entire units of high-tech soldiers on short-term contracts to deal with specific problems. If everyone was at the same tech [moderately high] level, the market for such units would be much smaller. Nobody is hiring Traveller-like merc units for deployment in HIGH-tech countries in the real world, for instance. -- Richard Aiken ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I've always been intriqued by the TL16 mercenary battalion that appears in the couner mix of the 'Fifth Frontier War' boardgame (fromGDW) serving w/ the 3I forces. While, in my experience, it had little effect on the course of that game, I always wondered what it would be like touse it, or elements of it, in the more usual (ie: lowlevel) Trav adventuring. I figure it must be Darrian in origin but have never otherwise come across any mention of it. ===========================================================================
