Ice Clade
Prior to Nemisis, Saturn was the energy hub of the solar system, dominated by corporate interests. Now those corporations are dead, and those that have survived have splintered into warring tribes. The great cities of Titan at Nyhavn and Aarhus are gone, reduced to ruin in the orbital bombardment. Gone is the great fleet base in the captured retrograde moonlets in orbit. What remains are a mix of extremophile survivalists and backland miners, suddenly thrust into a position of power and responsibility beyond anything they were prepared for.
Stats
Summary
- Population: Major Polis (+26 points, -1 Growth)
- National Advantages: Rank 3 (4 points)
- National Disadvantages: Rank 2 (+2 points)
- Economy: Rank 4 (4 points)
- Infrastructure: Rank 3 (3 points)
- Growth Potential: Rank 0 (0 points)
- Military Size: Rank 4 (4 points)
- Military Support: Rank 3 (3 points)
- Military Quality: Rank 4 (8 points)
- Superweapons: Rank 0 (0 points)
- Espionage: Rank 2 (2 point)
- General Advancement: Rank 0 (0 points)
Population
Population - Major Polis (26 points to spend): Adds an additional 250 Military Points, 300 Military Support, 25 Wealth and 25 Construction Rate but suffers -1 to Growth Potential.
The Ice Clade rules over a diverse number of tribes and emergent polities on Titan. It is one of the larger players in the struggle for Saturn's resources, and eagerly accepts new members under its wing, taxing the energy trade in exchange for security. Its client states can be accepted into the clade by adoptation in the various tribes and dynasties internal to the clade.
National Advantages
National Advantages - Rank 3 (4 points): Your nation has four National Advantages. Transhumanoid, Burden of the Polis, Barbarian Allies
The body type preferred by full members of the Ice Clade is the Hulder, a hulking humanoid with a profile that looks almost avian. Thick insulation and robust cybernetics allow them to survive the freezing environments of Titan and other cold iceballs throughout the Outer Rim.
One might not have expected a group of backwater extremeophiles to emerge from feuding survivalist clans into a growing superstate. In many ways the key to their success as been adopting rituals, traditions and policies that enable the other clans and even outsiders to the Saturnian system to join them, and a willingness to accomodate differences - so long as the other party was willing to meet them halfway. As outsiders assimilate, they frequently find themselves increasingly adopting the Ice Clade's signature cybernetics as both symbols of status and practical concerns. Those that don't assimilate form deep connections of trade and diplomacy, forming their own Clade but remaining connected to the Ice Clade.
While the Ice Clade refers to the collective survivalist tribes and the economic and political system, they are not without other allies apart from and yet tied to their own forces. The Monolith Corporation is as much a cult as a business, but their fortunes are tied to the energy trade and they've thrown their lot in with the Ice Clade. They lend ships and infrastructure more than soldiers to the alliance. The Ash Clade is another branch of transhumanity with its own, seperate system of governance - a republic with votes based on the size of your bunker - that contributes to the cause with planetary improvements and facilities. The Spin Clade are descendents of neuroaugmented scientists from the (destroyed) antimatter flux tube facility, who practice a form of cryptodemocracy and provide badly needed scientific support.
National Disadvantage
National Disadvantages - Rank 2 (+2 points): Your nation has two National Disadvantages. (Ascended Barbarians, Barbarian Backyard)
The Ice Clade is not descended from a proper Polis, but is rather an alliance of survivalists, extremophiles, smaller bunkerists and other dedicated survivors who have evolved and banded together. They are arguably just another helium miner clan; if a powerful, organized one with a sense of destiny and vastly superior organizational and strategic skills than the majority of their fellow clans. They lack the data stores and infrastructure of a proper Polis, and instead rely on looted ruins and hastily rebuilt infrastructure.
Living in the Saturn system means living among a wealth of destroyed habitats and survivalist bunkers, all willing to shoot first and ask questions later - out of paranoia, to get a quick claim on a valuable wreck, or simply because they know no other way. Reavers are a constant threat. More than that, the Helium miner clans are a fractious, warring lot and the rise of the Ice Clade has not gone unnoticed. The logic of expansion and taxation has made the Ice Clade enemies on their own doorstep.
Economy
Economy - Rank 4 (4 points): Wealth Rating 110 (+25).
The energy economy of the system died with Nemesis, but not for long. That is not dead which can enternal lie, and the cold economics of the outer system haven't changed. What can be traded can be taxed, and as a result the Ice Clades have encouraged the development of trade and let the incentives of capitalism work for them.
Infrastructure
Infrastructure - Rank 3 (3 points): Construction Rating 90 (+25).
Even the massive devastation of Nemesis and war allowed significant infrastructure to remain. Helium miner clans salvaged and made use of much of it, who were in turn conquered or willingly joined for safety.
Growth Potential
Growth Potential - Rank 0 (0 points): Overcrowding and resource shortages are chronic; you need relief and now! x6 Infrastructure cost.
Titan's resources have been largely depleted for centuries. The hydrocarbon seas have been refined and used in vast megaprojects, the local metals depleted - by the pre-Nemesis era, almost all metals in the region needed to be imported. While they can salvage, many existing systems are depending on now nonexistent infrastructure and can't be adapted to present needs. Restablishing the old energy trade routes may be the Ice Clade's only real chance to grow as a civilization.
Military Stats
Military Size - Rank 4 (4 points): 620 (+250) military points.
Military Support - Rank 3 (3 points): 675 (+300) military support.
Military Quality - Rank 4 (8 points): Best of the best, your military is well trained.
The combined tribes of the Ice Clade are the largest and most powerful fighting force in Saturn space. Combining centuries of refinement, institutional traditions believed to have survived from the Commonwealth military, and ruthless dedication to the arts of conflict, the tribes practice a form of warfare that makes no distinction between the orbital and the suborbital, the political and the military, the economic construction and energetic destruction. It might be accurate to say that the Ice Clade's forces are less an army or spacy and more the combined will of its people to survive and dominate.
Superweapons
Superweapons - Rank 0 (0 points): Your nation sees no real value in superweapons and may never have more than a single superweapon, period.
Espionage
Espionage - Rank 2 (2 point): Run of the mill intelligence apparatus.
The primary focus of the Ice Clade's intelligence service, the Listening Wind, is maintaining up to the instant plots and projections of everything in Saturn space, and a damned good idea of everything approaching Saturn. They have extensive help from the Spin Clade for this, for modelling and projecting the path of every known object and being alert to any changes. It is they who tap into the feeds of every satellite and sensor put up by the Clade, and provide high commanders and the strategic council instant access and updates to their situation. This is one of the few clanless positions, and is closer in nature to a holy order than a military organization. All tribes are provided the best information available; to do anything less would irrevocably damage the ability of the Ice Clade to operate.
If the Listening Wind is one of the best examples of the Ice Clade united, then the transhuman intelligence services is the worst. Each tribe has its own spymaster and agents, and each runs independent operations - sometimes at the discretion and with the endorsement of the strategic council, sometimes not. While this freedom of action and direct ties to Clade politics has some advantages in acquiring allies, there are significant downsides. Redundant work is done, signs are missed, and intelligence services occasionally work at cross-purposes and threaten to drag what should be external matters into internal disputes, and vice versa.
General Advancement
General Advancement - Rank 0 (0 points): Your nation’s overall advancement level in fundamental fields such as energy generation, metallurgy, etc has undoutedly slid in the dark ages, perhaps due to improperly recovered data. The norm for groups without access to the vast data-repositories of the Polis.
Unit Types
Light Killsat Constellation (7 Points)
Firepower 1
Electronics
Sensor Equipment 5
Jamming 1
Heavy Killsat Constellation (10 Points)
Firepower 6
Electronics
Sensor Equipment 1
Jamming 3
Hunter Killsat Constellation (8 Points)
Firepower 4 Stealth 4
Killsats are a key component of all operations of a military force that seeks to control a system like Saturn. The amount of debris left over from Nemesis is staggering, and the numbers of drive signatures from even the slowly recovering economy and numerous neobarbs is a daunting task. Solidifying control of system requires constant vigilance. Smaller, less well armed satellites provide eyes and omnipresent jamming, while heavier weapons platforms provide direct firepower and threat-specific ECM. Supplementing those are Hunter-Killer satellites seeded on likely approach paths and key orbits, ready to inflict massive damage on their targets.
Ice Strider Division (10)
Ice Strider Assault Division (14)
Ice Striders are the heavy and orbital space forces of the Ice Clade. Derived from mining platforms that existed to harvest and salvage within Saturn's Ring, these piloted, vaguely humanoid systems have been since equipped with a variety of weapon systems, emphasizing railguns and missile launchers. Special mention might be made of their leg systems, which frequently include a catapult system allowing the Strider to make massive jumps, even to the point of achieving escape velocity of smaller moons on pseudo-muscle power alone. Tactics on the ground include a mix of both suborbital hops, low-to-the-ground assaults, and fast-striding manuevers. In space, they support spaceborne warriors with heavy fire and rapid, shifting attacks.
Ice Warrior Division (10 Points)
Ice Warrior Initiate Division (6 Points)
Ice Warriors are the backbone of the Ice Clade. Each full warrior is a cybernetically augmented death machine who has undergone rigorous trials and training, and is comfortable in open vacuum or freezing atmosphere. For suborbital combat and support of larger vessels, they make use of manned manuevering frames with railguns. Most vessels include at least a small warrior complement that is expected to take part in open space combat as much as they are in ground assault.
Stormfox Squadron (10 Points)
Firepower (Anti-Air) 4 Speed 4 Defenses (Armor) 1 Electronics (Jammer) 1
Hailbird Squadron (12 Points)
Firepower (Torpedoes) 8 Speed 3 Defenses 1
Frostbite Squadron (10 Points)
Firepower 0
Speed 3
Electronics
Jammer 2
Sensor Equipment 5
The strike craft contingents of the Ice Clade differ from their war rockets primarily in the duration of their deployments, and in attitude toward their targets, but otherwise operate along similar lines. The most famous of these are the infamous Stormfox squadrons that escort strike packages and interdict anything foolish enough to show up without a missile destroyer, but much of the real work is done by the Hailbird's powerful torpedoes. Equally important are the Frostbite squadrons; traditionally lead by a sensors analyst/priest to give the Listening Wind and field commanders direct eyes on the situation.
War Rocket Squadron (10 Points)
Firepower 4 Speed 3 Defenses (Armor) 2 Warrior Complement 1
The war rocket, or Warroc, is the most basic building block of an Ice Clade force; a self-contained fighting vehicle capable of banding together to subjugate habitats through mass, speed, and power. Each tribe and clan has its own variations, traditions, and equipment, but in general each warroc has a crew of ten and up to six additional warriors, a mix of particle beams and railguns, and tough layered shielding. They are feared in both orbital and suborbital warfare.
Comket (17 Points)
Speed 6 (-3)
Defenses (Armor) 2
Warrior Complement 3
Electronics
Jamming 4
Sensors 2
A Comket is a chief's ship, from which they direct a battle and provide direct electronic support to their hordes. They are frequently unarmed by both tradition and by the necessity of cutting down as much weight as possible to keep up with their fast-moving child ships. The surface of these ships is frequently used as a meeting ground and center of ceremony under the open stars, and are often elaborately decorated for those purposes.
Torch (17 Points)
Firepower -
Air Defense 1
Torpedoes/Kinetic Mines 8
Defenses 1
Stealth -
Speed 6 (-3)
Electronics
Jamming 1
Torch Carrier (21 Points)
Firepower -
Air Defense 1
Defenses 1
Stealth -
Speed 7 (-4)
Warrior/Craft Complement 11
Electronics
Jamming 1
A fast moving carrier of deployable killsats, mines or massive torpedeo barrages. Emphasizes asynchronous attacks, eschewing stealth for speed and unpredictability. Some variants replace their missile armaments with bays for troops and strike craft, or else reserves of fuel and supplies for War Rocket hordes.
Skimship (26)
Firepower 6
Air Defense 4
Torpedoes -
Defenses 1
Stealth 4
Speed 3 (-7)
Aero Complement 4
Electronics
Jamming 1
Sensor Equipment 3
This fairly unique type of vessel is a hybrid air breathing flying wing, designed for operations deep within Saturn's atmosphere but fully capable of vacuum combat. The tribes that operate these vessels and attendant aerospace skimmers can trace their lineage back to some of the first Helium clans to be incorporated into the ice clade.
Killstar (25)
Firepower (Particle Lance) 12
Defenses 4
Stealth 6
Speed 1 (-8)
Electronics
Tactical Networking 2
The final word in long-range offensive firepower, these barely mobile particle cannons are used as much for intimidating habitats as they are for actually wiping out large hostiles or wrecking surface installations. The Clade likes to keep them close to home or in long eccentric orbits keep everyone else in the system guessing.
Military Forces
(870 Points, 975 Support)
Capship Budget 208
- Skimship[26] x 2
- Killstar[25] x 2
- Torchship[17] x 5
- Torchship Carrier[21] x 1
War Rocket Budget 261
- War Rocket Squadron[10] x 21
- Comket [17] x 3
Ice Strider Budget 93
- Ice Strider Division[13] x 6
- Ice Strider Assault Division[15] x 1
Strike Craft Budget 120
- Stormfox[10] x 4
- Hailbird[12] x 5
- Frostbite[10]x 2
Ground Forces Budget 98
- Ice Warrior Division[10] x 8
- Ice Warrior Initiate Division[6] x 3
Killsat Budget 89
- Light Killsat[7] x 5
- Heavy Killsat[10] x 3
- HK Killsat[8] x 3
$TODO: Breakdown by tribe
Tribe Carver
Tribe Hwang
Tribe Nyvan
Tribe Steadhold
Monolith Industries Monolith Expedited Ventures Inc (Battleship-class, 25 Points)