Speaking of exotic weapons in Tekumel ...
Were than any "high tech" weapons that were able to be manufactured by the locals that were used?

How often did legions have to deal with "non-conventional" fighting and do you have any good examples?
(besides those damn nomads)
=

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;965425The T-34/76 is an amazingly deadly weapon.  If the Russians had thought of 3 man turret crews earlier, the Germans would have been severely handled.

Well, yes and no.
The capabilities of the T34 have been somewhat exaggerated over the years. This is largely due to the Wehrmacht's initial shock at encountering it, which they took a long time to get over, and Soviet propaganda. By the Battle of Moscow steps were already in place by the Germans to neutralise its dominance, including the increased use of the 5 cm Pak 38 (L/60), and the development of an up-gunned Pz IV (the Ausf G).
 The initial T34 Model 1940 was, to be kind, piece of crap. The 400 or so which were in service on the eve of Barbarossa were under gunned and mechanically unreliable. Its main gun was an L-11 76.2mm. A low velocity infantry support gun was effective against the lighter marks of German tanks (Pz I, II, 38T, and 35T), but against the Pz III's and IV's it really struggled. Also, against the few captured Char B's and Somuas that the Germans fielded in the East as trial vehicles it was worthless. The T34 Model 1941 was an attempt by the Soviets to rectify this deficiency. The new F-34 76.2mm gun had a hell of a lot better AT capability, but they didn't really start to appear in any numbers until early to mid 1942.
Even though the Soviets improved the armament of the T34 they failed to adequately address its other major deficiency –namely its mechanical reliability. The T34's drive train was notoriously bad from track to transmission. The use of substandard materials in the track pins resulted in the T34 throwing tracks when travelling cross country for sustained distances. This would result in counter attacks and offensives quickly bogging down as tanks fell out of the combat. The T34's transmission had a tendency to shatter while engaged (some famously went into combat with spare transmissions strapped to the rear engine deck), and to compound the matter was mated to a 4 speed gear box  that had only 3 cross country/all terrain gears, 1 to be used only on hardened flat surfaces, and 1 reverse gear. This gear box was so bad that it was impossible to shift from 2nd to 3rd while on the fly. Many drivers used a mallet move the stick which caused it to break or bend rendering the tank incapable of motion until repaired. To even further exacerbate the situation the inability to shift from 2nd to 3rd resulted in the T34 being only able to achieve a top speed of 15 to 20 km/h cross country. The introduction of a better 5 speed gear box was to begin in 1942, but even as late as 1945 a disproportionate amount of T34's in service still had the older 4 speed box.  
In addition to the offensive and mechanical deficiencies of the T34 it, like all other Soviet amoured vehicles, suffered from the use of poor metal in its armour. The Soviets, along with the Italians and  Japanese  lacked the advanced metallurgical knowledge to manufacture good "steel." The T34's designers compensated for this lack of quality material by increasing the slope of its armour. As you know, by giving the T34 a 30 degree slope it enabled it to have better ballistic resistance without increased weight. This, the use of a sturdy V12 diesel, and wider tracks was where the T34 excelled.
Lastly, the Soviet manufacturing process was so compromised due to the Great Terror and the conscription of all able bodied men that tanks were, essentially, slapped together. As the evaluation team at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds noted after testing two combat tried T34's  in 1942 there were "problems with overall armour build quality, especially of the plate joins and welds, as well as the use of soft steel combined with shallow surface tempering. Leak issues were noted: 'In a heavy rain lots of water flows through chinks/cracks, which leads to the disabling of the electrical equipment and even the ammunition.' Earlier models of the T-34, until the Model 1942, had cast turrets whose armour was softer than that of the other parts of the tank, and offered poor resistance even to 37 mm anti-aircraft shells. (wikipedia T-34). This shallow tempering resulted in spalling, when struck with HE rounds. We encountered the same thing in Somalia in the 1990's with the T54 and T55's, both of which could be easily knocked out with HESH rounds.
In addition to the above noted shortcomings  there was also the use of the coax MG firing trace to aim the main gun (lack of good optics), the cramped fighting quarters, only company commander's tanks having radios (using FM), the tank commander also being the loader until the 3 man turrets were introduced (as you noted). Overall, the T34 was not as great as we have been led to believe. Like the M4, quantity over quality was the deciding factor.
If you are interested, check this book out: Tank Rider: Into the Reich with the Red Army https://www.amazon.com/Tank-Rider-Into-Reich-Army/dp/1853675547
This memoir is an honest account no BS glorification of the war, and he points out a lot of the deficiencies of the Soviet tanks, especially the T34.

Here's an exerpt:

 From page 64

'We were happy when tanks from our Brigade's tank regiment caught up with our battalion and we moved on as tank riders. We had just one objective — to capture Kamenets-Podolsk. Running a bit ahead, I would say that it took the Brigade two or three days to arrive at the town. Both people and tanks were tired; the vehicles couldn't take such stress either. Tanks stopped more and more often because of small technical breakdowns, especially broken tracks.'

Shemek.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1017[/ATTACH]

Here's an example of what I noted in the previous post regarding T34's going into battle with transmissions strapped to their decks.:eek:

Quote from: Baron;965412[ATTACH=CONFIG]1015[/ATTACH]
The aforementioned fatality happened here.
Note the furnishings are not period. Just gotta use what we have!

Simply awesomely cool if you asked me!

Quote from: Greentongue;965482Speaking of exotic weapons in Tekumel ...
Were than any "high tech" weapons that were able to be manufactured by the locals that were used?

How often did legions have to deal with "non-conventional" fighting and do you have any good examples?
(besides those damn nomads)
=

Umm, no to the 'high tech' stuff; what we saw of it was ancient technology that had survived in somebody's Secret Cache, and rolled out in an attempt to do us in. Very little of it worked the way the locals expected, as they didn't have the skill to maintain it or operate it. On the other hand, it did provide plenty of laughs when it went horribly wrong; we watched more then one sorcerer get blown up.

Well, if one takes Third Mar as the benchmark for 'formal', 'conventional' warfare, then we spent most of our time doing 'unconventional' warfare that soldiers from Alexander's Macedonians to Kitchener's Tommies would have instantly recognized. The attack on and defense of Castle Tilketl was classic North West Frontier, even though regular troops were involved on both sides. Anch'ke was a classic fight of 'civilized' troops vs. the locals. We also did a lot of sea fighting, such as the battle with the Hlyss nest ship or with pirates that Harchar was at feud with, and with the local thugs of Haida Pakalla. We had a fight or three with the Hlutrgu, skirmishes with the 'wild' Pe Choi of the Chakas, and the 'invasion' of Mihallu. There was a lot of what's been called the 'small change of soldiering', and it may have been because it gave us an excuse to get out the miniatures and get cracking. Were Gronan's Legion of Mnashu of Thri'il left off, my Legion of the All-Consuming Flame took up. We spent a lot of time out on the edges of empire, where civilization was thin on the ground the the locals looked to us to keep the wolves at bay.

Which, we got the feeling, is the way Phil had intended it to work all along. His world is full of opportunities for adventure of all kinds, and mayhem will ensue...

Quote from: chirine ba kal;965887Umm, no to the 'high tech' stuff; what we saw of it was ancient technology that had survived in somebody's Secret Cache, and rolled out in an attempt to do us in. Very little of it worked the way the locals expected, as they didn't have the skill to maintain it or operate it. On the other hand, it did provide plenty of laughs when it went horribly wrong; we watched more then one sorcerer get blown up.

Well, if one takes Third Mar as the benchmark for 'formal', 'conventional' warfare, then we spent most of our time doing 'unconventional' warfare that soldiers from Alexander's Macedonians to Kitchener's Tommies would have instantly recognized. The attack on and defense of Castle Tilketl was classic North West Frontier, even though regular troops were involved on both sides. Anch'ke was a classic fight of 'civilized' troops vs. the locals. We also did a lot of sea fighting, such as the battle with the Hlyss nest ship or with pirates that Harchar was at feud with, and with the local thugs of Haida Pakalla. We had a fight or three with the Hlutrgu, skirmishes with the 'wild' Pe Choi of the Chakas, and the 'invasion' of Mihallu. There was a lot of what's been called the 'small change of soldiering', and it may have been because it gave us an excuse to get out the miniatures and get cracking. Were Gronan's Legion of Mnashu of Thri'il left off, my Legion of the All-Consuming Flame took up. We spent a lot of time out on the edges of empire, where civilization was thin on the ground the the locals looked to us to keep the wolves at bay.

Which, we got the feeling, is the way Phil had intended it to work all along. His world is full of opportunities for adventure of all kinds, and mayhem will ensue...

This is the Tekumel that I love. Away from the centre of power, on the periphery where "things are different." Mayhem, as you say, is almost a foregone conclusion in my campaign.

I just had an idea.  Maybe for next Con of the North.

KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY as a Braunstein.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;966039I just had an idea.  Maybe for next Con of the North.

KOBOLDS ATE MY BABY as a Braunstein.

I like it, but I'd be willing to bet there's be some push-back from some of the people on the convention committee. Gary Cpn would be a shoo-in, though.

I've never been to CotN; is it "all serious an' shit?"  Because Kobolds Ate My Baby is hysterical, and the idea of turning the NPC villagers (including the babies!) into other PCs would make it ten times more hilarious.

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;966147I've never been to CotN; is it "all serious an' shit?"  Because Kobolds Ate My Baby is hysterical, and the idea of turning the NPC villagers (including the babies!) into other PCs would make it ten times more hilarious.

Oh, no, not 'all serious an' shit' at all. See their website for the actual policies; as usual, somebody spoiled it for the rest of us by running a very-not-kid-friendly and very 'mature' game in the same room as the kids' programming was in, and there was a well-deserved amount of concern over it as it was in violation of the con's polices and people did complain. I'd book the event on their website, and flag it as being possibly not 'kid-friendly due to subject matter' and discuss it with the con com. They will, I suspect, really appreciate being up-front about it and book you into a good time slot and space where there won't be any issues - or possible complaints.

As I think I mentioned, people seem to be really sensitive on some topics locally, which is why I will not be bringing an miniatures to the Free RPG Day in two weeks; I don't want to generate any complaints to the shop re little lead people being underdressed.

Had a great game session today, ending with the entire party trapped in the Underworld with no possible hope of escape and facing Certain Doom. So, in true player-character style, they asked me to leave the table set up so they can come back and play some more...

Unless kids in Minneapolis are vastly different from the rest of the world, "Kobolds Ate My Baby" would be screamingly popular with the 11 to 15 crowd.  It's very, very cartoony, as is the violence.

I mean, what can you say about a game that has both a "Kobold Horrible Random Death Table" AND a "Baby Horrible Random Death Table."

Hi all,

On page 25, the Sourcebook says:

"(...) the Mu'ugalavyani, whom [the Tinalya] despise as being too officious and insistent upon their formal bureaucratic
procedures".

The Tinalya being so literal-minded, I find it a bit bizarre that they would dislike the Mu'ugalavyani for being formal and zealous about their bureaucratic procedures. If anything, the Gnomes would like them for that.

Any other reason why they might dislike the Mu'ugs?

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;966253Hi all,

On page 25, the Sourcebook says:

"(...) the Mu'ugalavyani, whom [the Tinalya] despise as being too officious and insistent upon their formal bureaucratic
procedures".

The Tinalya being so literal-minded, I find it a bit bizarre that they would dislike the Mu'ugalavyani for being formal and zealous about their bureaucratic procedures. If anything, the Gnomes would like them for that.

Any other reason why they might dislike the Mu'ugs?

Good question, you're right, you'd think they'd get along famously

Quote from: Gronan of Simmerya;966226Unless kids in Minneapolis are vastly different from the rest of the world, "Kobolds Ate My Baby" would be screamingly popular with the 11 to 15 crowd.  It's very, very cartoony, as is the violence.

I mean, what can you say about a game that has both a "Kobold Horrible Random Death Table" AND a "Baby Horrible Random Death Table."

The kids would love it. It's their parents who would have the fits at their innocent little ones being exposed to such bad things. The kids get into the spirit of the game in no time flat - watching kids with Arneson was always a hoot, 'cause he thought like they did - but I've run into a number of Concerned Parents Who Are Socially Aware and want their offspring to be just like them. (I am lucky; I have a clutch of very - and I do mean very! - individualistic kids who aren't afraid to tell me to stuff it.)

Quote from: Neshm hiKumala;966253Hi all,

On page 25, the Sourcebook says:

"(...) the Mu'ugalavyani, whom [the Tinalya] despise as being too officious and insistent upon their formal bureaucratic
procedures".

The Tinalya being so literal-minded, I find it a bit bizarre that they would dislike the Mu'ugalavyani for being formal and zealous about their bureaucratic procedures. If anything, the Gnomes would like them for that.

Any other reason why they might dislike the Mu'ugs?

What perturbs the Tinaliya is that it's all done by hand, and so very wasteful of time and effort that the Tinaliya feel could be put to better uses. The little folk have made all sorts of suggestions over the centuries to the humans as to how the Tinaliya could make the systems more efficient - they are just brimming with solutions for problems that haven't come up yet - and the Red Hats won't let them try anything out.

Think of the little folk as engineering grads trying to deal with the college administration over the new cyclotron. You get a lot of understanding of Phil's Tekumel from relating it to his time in academia. (Try to order a box of pencils. I dare you!)

Running joke from our time as students:

Student, entering college clinic with bleeding wounds, pathetically: "Help! Help!"
Administrator, at clinic front desk, severely: "Do you have your paid fee statement?"

It makes the Tinaliya point of view a lot more understandable.