Urban Farming

[WallShadow]

If we have dared to borrow from GDW's other lines of RPGs (Dark Conspiracy, 2300 AD, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs) why not steal, errr, creatively mimic one of the backbone technologies of Space: 1889, the Solar boiler, or in this case, solar concentrator.
The stage is set:
The Duke is sending out raiding parties for very odd items: satellite dishes and mounts ("Duke must have a link to the Mil-Gov ComNet"); mirrors of all kinds, even pieces of broken ones ("to defend against the Vampires, of course!"), Spotlights from the Broadway theaters ("He's gonna use them to hunt the dements/Mayor's troops/Dragons/Dragon Lords/River Vikings at night!", and rear-projection TV sets ("Hey, mebbe he's gonna show movies or sumpthin' to the Downtowners? I dunno...")

What the Duke IS gonna do is make as many mirror-lined satellite dish collectors that he can, and mount them on buildings that oversee rooftop gardens. By maneuvering the collectors, additional hours and concentrations of insolation may be applied to the plants struggling with the adverse growing conditions. Adding the Fresnel lenses from the spotlights and rear projection TVs will enable the users to concentrate the light even more, turning the parabolic collectors into giant magnifying glasses, which might, when multiple units are focused on a single target in a sort of solar furnace mode, might conveniently burst into flame or collapse from hyperthermia, or be blinded by the concentrated glare. Nice weapon for a sunny day?

This sort of focused sunlight can be made to power a boiler for a small steam engine, or to boil water to purify it, or to cook food without fuel or smoke, or....

Large solar furnaces can generate temperatures of up to 6330 F, but even small, crude ones may reach over 2000 F.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace
Thought just crossed my mind--what if a solar furnace caught the flash from a nuke on a clear day?

[mikeo80]

I think what you would find after TDM here in the USA is a lot of small, family size gardens. One of the MAJOR issues, as I see it, is/was/will be the THANKSGIVING DAY Massacre.....

Think about the timing for a moment. Thanksgiving day is the fourth Thursday in November. If you are any where north of the Carolinas, you have a small problem with growing anything. It's called winter......

PLUS both v1 and v2.2 mention an extremely cold winter after TDM....

So even in the southern states, growing anything outside is going to be iffy at best.

May be, if you are REALLY LUCKY and skilled, you could rig a green house for some planting over the winter.

More realistic, you have to wait until spring. Then hope you have enough skills to manage a small garden. AND you have enough food to last until the crop matures. AND you can keep the bad guys out of your garden. Both the four legged and two legged varieties. (The squrells and rabbits end up in the soup pot!! That is why God invented the .22!! )

IF you manage all of this...then come summer, you finnally get to eat a good meal.

My wife is a wizard when it comes to growing things. IF I can keep her alive, then we have a chance. Me, I have the proverbial black thumb. I kill cactus.

I would think a crop of sweet potatoes (Grows very well here in NC) and soy beans (Ditto) would be the answer. May be a small herb garden for trading??

My $0.02

Mike

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by mikeo80

I think what you would find after TDM here in the USA is a lot of small, family size gardens. One of the MAJOR issues, as I see it, is/was/will be the THANKSGIVING DAY Massacre.....

Think about the timing for a moment. Thanksgiving day is the fourth Thursday in November. If you are any where north of the Carolinas, you have a small problem with growing anything. It's called winter......

PLUS both v1 and v2.2 mention an extremely cold winter after TDM....

Which dovetails nicely into the books where it states a large proportion of the wars casualties weren't from the nukes themselves. We know bullets and bombs do a lot of damage, but starving mobs are in my opinion at least, probably nearly as destructive as a nuke when searching for food, shelter and medicines. At a guess, casualties after the nukes will be mainly from conflicts between those who have not, and those who have, or even just perceived to have.

A "fun" time to be alive....

Those who survive until the 1998 harvest are going to be the toughest of the tough and have likely done some pretty damn horrific things to stay alive over that first winter and spring. By 2000-2001 not too many squeamish types will be left and trusting anyone outside your immediate circle of survivors will be a thing of the past.

[mikeo80]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Those who survive until the 1998 harvest are going to be the toughest of the tough and have likely done some pretty damn horrific things to stay alive over that first winter and spring. By 2000-2001 not too many squeamish types will be left and trusting anyone outside your immediate circle of survivors will be a thing of the past.

I agree with this sentiment. Which leads me to an interesting question. How could MilGov or CivGov even survive?

It seems to me that any one who survives TDM and the aftermath, did so on their own or with a VERY small group of like minded individuals. This is not the stuff of nation building. At least, not yet.

It seems to me that if MilGov or CivGov comes to me and mine, the first response is "And just what the F*** did you do for us when we needed help. We survived with out you then. We will survive with out you now. Leave. NOW."

Mil Gov would have an advantage in this type of discussion. They do control most of the existing military assets. A small bunch of survivors is going to have a difficult time saying "NO" to a squad of soldiers in a M113/V150/name your favorite light armored vehicle. But Mil Gov does have to tred lightly. They can kill only so many "traitors" before there is no one else to rule.

My $0.02

Mike

[Legbreaker]

There are indications in the books that military units were used for civil relief missions in the nuke aftermath. Those areas which received this assistance are likely to be favourable to the government. As most of these units then sided with Milgov, Civgov is definitely in the weaker position with only a handful of areas coming on board with the units they gain. Civgov does have the advantage in the PR war though as much of their governmental manpower is likely to have been involved with politics at some point, while Milgovs leadership is much more used to simply issuing orders and having them obeyed without having to convince those under it's power (the military) that they a) know what they're doing and b) it's in their best interests. Civilians are more likely therefore to resent Milgov control and over time drift towards Civgov sympathies. This is likely to take a few years though.

Milgov will have to either learn a little "tact" or expect to loose supporters (unless they use more and more authoritarian methods).

However, generally the populace will support the organisation which is putting food in their bellies and a roof over their head no matter how harshly they may be treated. If martial law and curfews is what's required to keep you from starving, it's a small concession to make...

Milgov may also have the leg up on Civgov during reconstruction s they're less likely to care about how the people feel. If a civil engineering task needs to be done, they'll simply assign those people necessary to the task to it. If farmland needs tilling, crops weeded or harvested, then manpower will be made available.

Civgov on the other hand will need to be more "diplomatic" about things, lacking both military manpower to force the people, and generally being fundamentally opposed to such heavy handedness.

Getting back to the topic of the thread, it would therefore seem likely small plots of land under crops would be more common in Civgov controlled regions where government controls are lacking (in comparison) and large scale operations harder to organise.

[rcaf_777]

I think with the lead up to Nuclear Exchange you could Victory Gardens coming back


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ory-garden.jpg

[Legbreaker]

Given combat had only been happening for 7-8 months before nukes were used, would that really be likely on a wide scale?
Also, up until the first nukes were fired, Nato was holding the upper hand and actually winning!