Conflict Studies in the Traveller Universe
For somebody like myself that has long appreciated playing with the military aspects of the Traveller roleplaying game (RPG) universe the newly published supplement from Mongoose Publishing, Ltd., The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War, is very appealing:
The Institute for Conflict Studies, or ICS, is an independent academic body whose works are ratified by several major Imperial and non-Imperial universities. It is widely believed that some ICS staff are pseudonyms used by academics employed by the major universities or serving military personnel who cannot write under their own names.
The ICS publishes papers on all aspects of conflict, most recently on the Fifth Frontier War. The Fifth Frontier War appears to be following a similar pattern to most other conflicts of the modern era, and once the conflict began, big-picture decisions influenced smaller-scale actions all across the theatre of war, and to a lesser extent vice versa.
These ICS Papers analyse the conditions of the Fifth Frontier War, considering:
• System Defence Doctrine
• Orbital Denial
• Orbital Bombardment and Defence
• Planetary Warfare Doctrine
• Contrasts: Ground Force Organisation And Doctrine
• Infantry Operations In The Fifth Frontier War
• Urban WarfareAlso included is a Case Study of the 4518th Lift Infantry, the Duke of Regina’s Own Huscarles.
Ad copy for The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War
When it comes to the military in Traveller the track record of Mongoose Publishing has been downright laughable at times. Like in the Mongoose Traveller 1st Edition (MgT1e) supplement Traveller: Mercenary – Laz Guns for Hire (2008) where a Tech Level 15 Meson Accelerator, the longest range Field Artillery piece in the book, was rated with an Effective Range of 1.5…kilometers (Mercenary (2008),p. 104). Trying to live by the mantra that, “past performance is not indicative of future results” I really want to give Mongoose the benefit of the doubt now that they fully acquired the rights to Marc Miller’s Traveller RPG.
On the potential plus side, The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is written by Martin J. Dougherty who has a long association with the Traveller community going back to the late 1990’s. Among the works from Dougherty that I particularly enjoy are GURPS Traveller: Behind the Claw (1998), TA7 Travellers’ Aid #7: Fighting Ships (2003), Golden Age Starships Compilation 1-5 (2009), and Sector Fleet (2010). I admit that I have not kept up with Dougherty in the days since Sector Fleet but it appears they began writing for Mongoose around 2013. While several Dougherty products since, such as Imperial Navy (2023) or War Fleets of the Fifth Frontier War (2024) appeal to me, I intensely dislike the Mongoose Publishing pricing model that prices both at $29.99 for a digital copy. While The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is more expensive than I desire at $14.99 the digital version of 129 pages seemed a bit more palatable.
As a second potentially positive sign, Dougherty has some background in defense analysis. Dougherty’s website notes, “I spent some time on the lecture circuit for the defence and security industry, chairing a major conference in 2002 and presenting papers at various other events. More recently I have consulted for online media regarding the Russia-Ukraine conflict” (martinjdougherty.com). Goodreads.com list 178 “distinctive works” for Dougherty with a biography that emphasizes writing military history:
Hailing from northeast England, Martin J Dougherty is a professional writer specialising in military history. He has been at times a games designer, an engineer, a self-protection instructor, a teacher and a defence analyst. Martin has published a range of books covering topics as diverse as self-protection, medieval warfare and space flight, and has addressed international conferences on anti-shipping missiles and homeland security issues.
With an author that is a combination of a long-time Traveller RPG veteran with (what appears to be) a more than passing familiarity with military or defense matters I had great hopes for The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War.
Spinning stories
In The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War, Dougherty seemingly tries to get away from the gearhead side of Traveller with its hyper-focus on characteristics and performance of ships, vehicles, or weapons and tries to get at the strategy and tactics of the military in the Traveller universe…
…which is where The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War starts on a strange trajectory.
The Traveller RPG universe has much canon to draw upon. Since Mongoose Publishing exclusively owns the Charted Universe setting—which was previously known as the Third Imperium—and Dougherty is writing for Mongoose all that material is available. Suffice it to say there is lots, and lots, and lots of material for Dougherty to draw upon. The fact that this edition of The ICS Papers is focused on the Fifth Frontier War—which has much ‘source material’ dating back to the earliest days of Traveller—seemingly invites well-informed discussion.
As a Traveller RPG player that travelled up and down the Spinward Main and beyond in the Spinward Marches for nearly five decades, I learned enough to know that there is much unknown about the Spinward Marches. Part of the unknown is by design; although every planet in the Spinward Marches has a Universal World Profile (UWP) entry, the “details” of many planets is left up to the Referee and players.
I am also a wargamer who played more than a few wargames set in the Third Imperium of the Traveller RPG universe. One game in particular I own and play is Fifth Frontier War: Battles for the Spinward Marches by Marc W. Miller, Frank Chadwick, and John Astell from Game Designers’ Workshop (GDW) in 1981. The reception to Fifth Frontier War, judging from the few comments on BoardGameGeek, is less than positive. Personally, I see the game as a half-finished vision with easy to implement Command and Control rules (pre-plotting), a somewhat rigid combat adjudication model (percentages of losses?), and a backstory that is almost impossible to recreate on the game board. I do not have any special insight into the design process for Fifth Frontier War, but I strongly suspect that Chadwick and Astell came up with a design for a strategic space battle game and back-fitted Miller’s Spinward Marches setting into it. Which means the wargame mechanisms do not always fit the setting nor does the setting always logically reflect in the wargame.
While I enjoy playing Fifth Frontier War, I must constantly remind myself that it is a wargame and not an RPG supplement, regardless of what is written in the rule book:
BASIC CONCEPT
Fifth Frontier War is a detailed adventure game of the progress of the current war between the Imperium and the Zhodani in the Spinward Marches. It progresses on weekly turns with forces representing squadrons of military starships and battalions or more of fighting troops. The game is intended to be played for enjoyment of and by itself. Indeed, in situations where no referee is available, or where only two Traveller players can get together, Fifth Frontier War allows them to play a form of Traveller without a referee.
Ultimately, the Traveller referee will have enough experience with the game and its rules to be able to use it in a Traveller campaign. At that point, Fifth Frontier War can be used to indicate the greater conditions that are happening in the Spinward Marches, often just beyond the knowledge of Traveller adventurers. Players can be idly exploring a world in the Spinward Marches and be suddenly confronted with a major space battle in the skies above them, or encounter major friendly or enemy troop units establishing bases. The point is that they cannot know ahead of time exactly what activity is taking place even one system away, and that activity could be deadly to them.
Fifth Frontier War, Rule Book, p. 19
In much that same vein I need to remind myself that The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is not a wargame supplement but an RPG supplement. Only then does the book make sense. In The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War Dougherty attempts to add flavor to the background of the Spinward Marches at war in order to assist Referees and players when developing or playing an adventure or campaign. This is obvious in the first chapter, “Introduction,” which talks about a ‘cone’ model of conflict and uses the example of a heroic stand by a single soldier having far-reaching—even universal—impacts. Yes! A single player-character (PC) can make a difference to the entire galaxy!
From the rah-rah “your PC is a galactic hero” introduction Dougherty then delivers seven essays on topics related to planetary invasions in the Spinward Marches. The essays are very descriptive of what can be done (plot hooks?) but short on anything close to an assessment of the strategy or tactics in those far future days. Rather, Dougherty offers up a smorgasbord of possible System Defense Doctrines, or platforms for Orbital Defense, or the effects of Orbital Bombardment and the weapons to defend against it. A discussion of Planetary Warfare Doctrine give Referees and players many ideas on how to adventure or campaign in the midst of a surface invasion; the Ground Forces Organisation and Doctrine essay offers “pre-generated” forces. The essay on Infantry Operations adds additional flavor text for small-unit operations. The last essay, a case study in Urban Warfare, is short and really not much more than a reminder that even ground combat has a third (vertical) dimension—always remember to look up!
The last section of The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War, making up 40% of the total content, is “Case Study: The 4518th Lift Infantry (Duke of Regina’s Own Huscarles).” The first half of the case study is drawn from earlier publications and focuses on three types of units (Lift Infantry, Grav Cavalry, and Jump Troops). The latter half on Reserve and Provisional Formations is really not much more than the output of unit design sequences for many different formations including:
- Infantry Reserve Pool
- Specialist Reserve Pool
- Light Infantry
- Line Infantry (several variations)
- Cadre (several variations)
- Aerospace Defence
- Mechanised Cavalry
- Mechanised Assault Pioneer
- Non-Standard
The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is a bevy of source material for Referees and players/adventurers who are using the default setting of Mongoose Traveller 2nd Edition (MgT2e). For players new or relatively new to the setting there are plenty of plot hooks or other game supporting resources between the cover. If you or your gaming group is not familiar with the ways of the military The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is a better than fair bootstrap product offering support.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me”
I try. I really do.
I try to give Mongoose Publishing the benefit of the doubt that with their own version of Traveller in MgT2e and exclusive ownership of the Third Imperium setting that they will add to the canon in wonderful ways. Alas, The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is not much more than a repackaging of older material with some limited new material. Indeed, the “new material” for the most part appears to be output of design processes for different combat units. I think that, deep inside, I was hoping that Dougherty would take his deep Traveller background and mix it with his military analysis experience and fiction writing ability to give Traveller players something more like Dr. Chris Kempshall’s Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. Kempshall’s book is an in-universe “history” of the Galactic Rebellion in the Star Wars universe:
A history of the dark times.
“So this is how liberty dies—with thunderous applause.” – Senator Padmé Amidala
When Palpatine declared the birth of his new Empire, he expected it would stand for millennia. Instead, it lasted only 24 years. This is the story of how a tyrannical regime rose from the ashes of democracy, ruled the galaxy with an iron fist, and then collapsed into dust. It is a story of war and heroes, of the power of propaganda and the dangers of complacency. But most of all, it is a story of normal people trying to live their lives in the face of a brutal dictatorship. From the ruthlessness of Darth Vader’s campaigns to the horrors of the Tarkin Initiative, this book offers fresh new insights into the dark entity at the core of Star Wars.
Dustjacket Back Cover
The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War is not a primer on military conflict in the Fifth Frontier War. Granted, it almost certainly was never intended to be. For a long time Traveller RPG player and a wargamer of the Fifth Frontier War there is not much new in the book. Others, especially new players to Mongoose Traveller, likely will get more out of The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War than I did.
Referenced Works:
Dougherty, M.J. (2025) The ICS Papers: The Fifth Frontier War. Mongoose Publishing Ltd.
Kempshall, Dr. Chris (2024) Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire. DK Publishing.
Miller, Marc W., Frank Chadwick, and John Astell (1981) Fifth Frontier War: Battles for the Spinward Marches. Game Designers’ Workshop (GDW).
Steele, Bryan (2008) Traveller: Mercenary – Laz Guns for Hire. Mongoose Publishing Ltd.
Feature image courtesy Mongoose Publishing
The opinions and views expressed in this blog are those of the author alone and are presented in a personal capacity. They do not necessarily represent the views of U.S. Navy or any other U.S. government Department, Service, Agency, Office, or employer.
RockyMountainNavy.com © 2007-2025 by Ian B is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Rocky Mountain Navy Gamer 
Interesting thoughts.
I wrote a review on the Mongoose forums:
https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/ffw-the-ics-papers-impressions-and-thoughts.125956/
If it was not apparent in my post or others, I am not a fan—by any measure—of Mongoose Publishing. If I want an exploration of warfare in the 5th Frontier War I’m starting with the wargames like Fifth Frontier War, Invasion: Earth, Striker and Striker II, High Guard and Trillion Credit Squadron. As far as background I use the Classic Traveller sourcebooks with a dose of GURPS Traveller thrown in. I then branch out into the wargames Stargrunt or Dirtside II or Traveller: Power Projection Fleet. Might even throw the Hammer’s Slammers miniatures rule (NOT the MGP publication) in. There are also many good older sourcebooks written for OGL Traveller and Cepheus Engine. At the end of the day there is lots of great source material that I either already own or can acquire for far less than what Mongoose charges for mediocre—at best—material.