Let's Read: Traveller, 1977 Edition, Starships, page 23

Ah, here we go...the turn sequence. Let us see how starship combat works in Traveller.

First of all, the 'intruder' goes first. He moves his ship(s), according to the movement and gravity rules. Ah, so gravity can become an issue in starship fighting. I like that. While he's moving his ships, any missiles and sand previously fired move as well. So, missiles take time to reach their targets. So does...sand? This again? How fast does this sand move, anyway? I mean, even just one hex on the board is a thousand miles in ten minutes. Fast math: that works out to 1.67 miles PER SECOND. That is some insanely fast sand. That's faster than the escape velocity on the moon (1.47 miles/second). You could shoot this sand from the surface of the moon and hit something IN ORBIT. That's insane!

Okay, enough with the sand. Next, the 'intruder' gets to shoot lasers. But not missiles; those come later. After that, though, the 'native' gets to shoot back, if he has a 'return fire' program running. But he can only return fire against ships that shot at him. So, no retaliating against that transport behind the attacking ships; wait for your own turn to do that. Oh, you can also do anti-missile firing if there are any of them on their way to kill you, too.

After all the lasers have been fired, it's time for the ordnance. Missiles (and sand) can be launched at enemy targets or...on specific missions? How exactly does a missile have a specific mission, other than 'blow up when you run into that solid moving object'? Talk about Mission Impossible; this missile will self-destruct in ten seconds. Oh, lifeboats and other ship's vehicles can launch at this phase. Well, at least they can have specific missions. And previously-fired ordinance that has contacted enemy ships finally get to explode. But not until after the lasers go first. You can even shoot anti-missile missiles (counter-missiles?) in this phase...if you've got the right computer program running.

Finally, the intruder gets to reprogram his computer for something else. Put in a new magnetic tape, I suppose. Yeah, I'm old; I remember when computers used taped cassettes to load programs. It's a joke, okay? Old farts like me will get it.

After the intruder is done swapping out any computer programs, the native side gets to do the same things: Move, laser fire, intruder counter-laser fire, ordnance launch, and reprogram. Nothing unusual or special here.  The interesting part to me, though, is the notion that the computer can only handle a few tasks at a time. Looking back, a lot of ship's computers are only going to be able to run a few programs; the maximum is 20 on a level-7 computer. That's not that many; the laptop I'm typing on right now is running about fifty different programs, most of them in the background. Five open windows. Boy, did computer technology ever outpace sci-fi role-playing games.

Finally, after both sides have moved and fired (and reprogrammed), everything else moves. Planets, and worlds. Um, what's the difference between a planet and a world? I do like that they actually do move; planets have some serious velocity. Earth moves at just under 30 km/second, or almost 19 miles a second. So the sand probably won't catch up to it. I'm just saying. Anyway, at that speed, in ten minutes Earth would move eleven hexes. And it already takes up a huge number of hexes anyway. So, that's going to make for an interesting addition to space combat near a planet. Remember, gravity affects ships in these rules. I'm not sure how yet, but I'm pretty sure we'll find out soon enough.

Well, that was an informative page. Let's see what happens when we start breaking down these phases on the next page.