Huiha Esoyatre - an Aslan Minor State Part 1

While I haven't written much here, of late, I have been working on a couple of Traveller related projects that tie together.

Looking to be able to game out an escalating ground war between the Outrim Alliance and the Imperium, I have been painting up infantry and armoured units for the main protagonists in 6mm scale. Progress photos are on my modeling log and my gaming blog.

I've also been working on Tables of Organisation for the various factions, extrapolated from the figures I generated for Lymethius Subsector, Gamelea Subsector, and Miazan Subsector, as well as the two articles on the Imperial Marines here and here.

When I came to look at the Aslan of the Huiha Esoyatre, I realized that I needed to take a closer look at the internal political structure of the Huiha. The Aslan are clan and family orientated, and each clan and family maintains their own defense force, recruited from their members and retainers.

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Huiha Esoyatre

Huiha Esoyatre is an Aslan polity of five non-Imperial systems in the Lymethius subsector. Consisting of the four systems of the Yuakteisye Cluster (Yuwe, Atlasiykh, Faiwawhwe, and Yuakteisye) as well as the former Kalar-Wi system of Kidan (annexed in 1106 in the aftermath of the Kalar-Wi War and now known as Yaitlaorail), Huiha Esoyatre has a total population of 85.0136 billion sophonts, 99.9% of whom are Aslan. As one of the major polities in the Outrim Alliance, Huiha Esoyatre has been involved in four wars with the Imperium as the Alliance has resisted Imperial expansion into the Lymethius subsector.

E'kho Hleahayaou dominates the polity from their capital of Hyufteirleryeweiwiy (tr. "the place where the people meet by the swirling spire") in the crater Yuwaol ("great basin") in the northern hemisphere of Yuwe (0408). From this, their ancestral seat, E'kho Hleahayaou has been the most senior family within the Esoyatre Clan for most of the last 700 years. The current Hleahayaouko is Tlehiui V (born 1030), a venerable leader who is still fit and active, having guided the Huiha for over fifty years.

Clan Esoyatre leads an alliance of eight clans. The other seven vassal clans that make up the alliance are: Huiha Uahwil, Huiha Aiaihfa, Huiha Hwouwoahiw, Huiha I'iyheas, Huiha Eakteaei, Huiha Awuahra, and Huiha Htualraluikh. Of the five systems that form the hasoi of Huiha Esoyatre only Yuakteisye has anything like a breathable atmosphere and it is on this world that the bulk of the population of the Huiha are concentrated.

The following table shows the relationships of the various E'khos that make up the member Huihas of Huiha Esoyatre. It also shows the number of E'kho members, vassals and retainers that are contributed to the armed forces of the Huihas, and who crew the Huiha fleets and form the Trekhyair – “land protector” clan military force:

Yuwe:	Huiha Esoyatre		Personnel	Fleet		Trekhyair
	E'kho Hleahayaou		(45,000)	(15,000)		(30,000)
		E'kho Eahikh	(15,000)	(5,000)		(10,000)
		E'kho Oukeihtoi	(7000)	(2,300)		(4,700)
		E'kho Steiai	(3000)	(1,000)		(2,000)
			(70,000)	(23,300)		(46,700)
Yuakteisye:	Huiha Esoyatre
	E'kho Hleahayaou		(25,000)	(8,300)		(16,700)
		E'kho Eahikh	(9,900)	(3,300)		(6,600)
		E'kho Oukeihtoi	(4,700)	(1,500)		(3,200)
		E'kho Steiai	(854,000)	(284,500)		(569,500)
			(893,600)	(297,600)		(596,000)
	Huiha Uahwil
	E'kho Oakhwohkal		(1,205,000)	(401,500)		(803,500)
		E'kho Tliyuftea	(992,000)	(330,500)		(661,500)
		E'kho Iysutreah	(907,000)	(302,300)		(604,700)
		E'kho Suhliy	(825,000)	(275,000)		(550,000)
		E'kho Ahwao	(673,000)	(224,300)		(448,700)
		E'kho Seyu	(258,000)	(86,000)		(172,000)
		E'kho Htuayur	(171,000)	(57,000)		(114,000)
		E'kho Eawaeirl	(127,000)	(42,300)		(84,700)
			(5,158,000)	(1,718,900)		(3,439,100)
	Huiha Aiaihfa
	E'kho Eahei		(339,000)	(113,000)		(226,000)
		E'kho Orakhtoi	(609,000)	(203,000)		(406,000)
		E'kho Hiaui	(515,000)	(171,600)		(343,400)
		E'kho Kawyahlyu	(495,000)	(165,000)		(330,000)
		E'kho Auakhah	(223,400)	(74,500)		(148,900)
		E'kho Hfosaa	(159,000)	(53,000)		(106,000)
		E'kho Oiyas	(98,000)	(32,500)		(65,500)
			(2,438,400)	(812,600)		(1,625,800)
Atlasiykh:	E'kho Hraktiskear		(4000)	(1,300)		(2,700)
Faiwawhwe:	Huiha Esoyatre
	E'kho Hleahayaou		(84,000)	(28,000)		(56,000)
		E'kho Eahikh	(79,400)	(26,500)		(52,900)
		E'kho Oukeihtoi	(74,200)	(24,700)		(49,500)
		E'kho Steiai	(72,200)	(24,000)		(48,200)
			(309,800)	(103,200)		(206,600)
	Huiha Uahwil
	E'kho Oakhwohkal		(52,000)	(17,400)		(34,600)
		E'kho Tliyuftea	(45,500)	(15,100)		(30,400)
		E'kho Suhliy	(44,400)	(14,800)		(29,600)
		E'kho Ahwao	(42,000)	(14,000)		(28,000)
		E'kho Seyu	(38,000)	(12,500)		(25,500)
		E'kho Htuayur	(37,200)	(12,400)		(24,800)
		E'kho Eawaeirl	(35,000)	(11,600)		(23,400)
			(294,100)	(97,800)		(196,300)
	Huiha Aiaihfa
	E'kho Eahei		(59,000)	(19,500)		(39,500)
		E'kho Orakhtoi	(57,000)	(19,000)		(38,000)
		E'kho Hiaui	(35,000)	(11,600)		(23,400)
		E'kho Kawyahlyu	(34,500)	(11,500)		(23,000)
		E'kho Auakhah	(33,700)	(11,200)		(22,500)
		E'kho Hfosaa	(30,000)	(10,000)		(20,000)
		E'kho Oiyas	(29,000)	(9,600)		(19,400)
			(278,200)	(92,400)		(185,800)
	Huiha Hwouwoahiw
	E'kho Yukheaiw		(94,500)	(31,500)		(63,000)
		E'kho Aewi	(86,200)	(28,700)		(57,500)
		E'kho Htoioua	(74,700)	(24,900)		(49,800)
		E'kho Fihoilreil	(74,300)	(24,700)		(49,600)
		E'kho Ewoheah	(73,700)	(24,500)		(49,200)
		E'kho Oisehwih	(73,200)	(24,400)		(48,800)
		E'kho Weoiyah	(69,300)	(23,100)		(46,200)
			(545,900)	(181,800)		(364,100)
	Huiha I'iyheas
	E'kho Ahoaolr		(107,000)	(35,700)		(71,300)
		E'kho Yesiwarl	(82,000)	(27,300)		(54,700)
		E'kho Ouhkyu	(76,200)	(25,400)		(50,800)
		E'kho Iysealeah	(74,000)	(24,600)		(49,400)
		E'kho Eaaiy	(64,700)	(21,500)		(43,200)
		E'kho Ktelriykhoi	(63,000)	(21,000)		(42,000)
		E'kho Iywaifaur	(62,100)	(20,700)		(41,400)
		E'kho Eoahfi	(61,500)	(20,500)		(41,000)
			(590,500)	(196,700)		(393,800)
	Huiha Eakteaei
	E'kho Aoia		(121,000)	(40,300)		(80,700)
		E'kho Khtoahar	(96,700)	(32,200)		(64,500)
		E'kho Hwourlii	(94,500)	(31,500)		(63,000)
		E'kho Ketreh	(84,200)	(28,000)		(56,200)
		E'kho Kheoua	(82,000)	(27,300)		(54,700)
		E'kho Sahuirea	(80,100)	(26,700)		(53,400)
		E'kho Yoleaiy	(79,000)	(26,300)		(52,700)
			(637,500)	(212,300)		(425,200)
	Huiha Awuahra
	E'kho Aaih		(97,200)	(32,400)		(64,800)
		E'kho Hlyeseaas	(85,100)	(28,300)		(56,800)
		E'kho Aaolruiw	(83,000)	(27,600)		(55,400)
		E'kho Uiai	(73,700)	(24,500)		(49,200)
		E'kho Eaui'alr	(73,000)	(24,300)		(48,700)
		E'kho Roiftealroi	(72,900)	(24,300)		(48,600)
		E'kho Khtakhafah	(70,100)	(23,300)		(46,800)
		E'kho Fteawalei'	(69,000)	(23,000)		(46,000)
			(624,000)	(207,700)		(416,300)
	Huiha Htualraluikh
	E'kho Earla		(104,000)	(34,600)		(69,400)
		E'kho Ftyuhrolyel	(83,400)	(27,800)		(55,600)
		E'kho Taaooul	(81,100)	(27,000)		(54,100)
		E'kho Iylraoa	(71,200)	(23,700)		(47,500)
		E'kho Oulelye	(70,000)	(23,300)		(46,700)
		E'kho Fteasoih	(69,300)	(23,100)		(46,200)
		E'kho Kyekhealryo	(68,000)	(22,600)		(45,400)
		E'kho Oilreaweh	(53,000)	(17,600)		(35,400)
			(600,000)	(199,700)		(400,300)
Yaitlaorail:	E'kho Hroukhteftai		(4100)	(1,300)		(2,800)
			(12,448,100)	(4,146,600)		(8,301,500)

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Aslan khoiaya (armour)

A half-hryo (squadron)

Website Update #28

It's taken a while, but here's a belated website update, with a new link - as my host has managed to munt the original link.

Website Update #27

After a surprisingly successful painting month, I managed to both finish off some fun figures and start to sketch out a ground force conflict in my Traveller campaign to game with, initially, 5150: Star Army.

Website is here.

Website Update #26

I keep being told that "things are winding down towards Christmas. If anything, I'm getting busier. At work, I'm deep in planning for moving buildings in February - we have three live on-air TV channels to relocate and the easiest ways of doing it have been stymied by a lack of budget.

I seem to have hit a bit of a dry spot, Traveller-wise, at the moment but I have managed to do some painting. The latest update is here on my website.

A chap over on The Miniatures Page is trying to drum up support for an expansion to the 15mm Ventauran range of figures produced by Eureka Miniatures. The Ventaurans are my primary choice for Zhodani and fill the role of Kalar-Wi in my Traveller campaign, so I'm in. A couple of Officer poses wouldn't go amiss, in my opinion.

Website Update #25

Just updated my modelling log with some Adventurer/Insurgents, some agents, some droids, and a Space Pal - These aren't the droids you're looking for.

Website Update #24

Haven't been feeling too flash, these last few weeks, and while we've reached the successful conclusion of Chapter 2 of The Tunnels of Tonivar Traveller sessions, I find myself feeling a slight lack of motivation to write up the story, or even carry on with development work on the Sector Fleet. I put this down to mid-winter blues, and the fact I need a decent break from work.




A few finished figures on my blog.

Website Update #23

I've had a productive week or so adding some new content to my website - a 'How to' guide for assembling a rather nice little Armoured Car from RAFM, and updating my modelling log with a bunch of stuff I finished painting in May - including a number of grav vehicles for my Imperial Marine unit and a Vargr grav tank. The Vargr tank was originally for an alien race called the Kra'vak, but I converted the commander into a Vargr, and that did the job.

As usual, the website's front page is here, the modelling menu is here and the Modblog is here. Hope you enjoy it.

Website Update #22

After a productive month of puttering around in my lead pile, I've finished painting up some figures and have added pictures to my Website Modeling Log.

Working on TO&Es for the Marine Divisions in the RimWorlds inspired me to complete a couple of Grav Tanks (like the one here) and a Grav APC and a Light Grav Tank for the LAR Battalion. I just need to add some decals and they're complete.

Both the tank and the marine figure are from Ground Zero Games - the tank model weighs 230 grams!

Website Update #21

I seem to be running about half a month behind at present. Finally got my modeling blog updated for March - which was actually kinda fun revisiting finished projects.

So far this month, I have completed another seven mixed civilians and adventurers, as well as two grav tanks. More pictures to come.

Website Update #20

Just a quick post to relate that I have just updated my Modeling log and Traveller Library Data.

These colourful chaps to left are Mounted Zonii Warriors, 15mm scale figures from Darkest Star Games. Made of pewter, they are single piece castings, sold unpainted. I have mounted them on fender washers and painted them. And I'm rather pleased as to how they've come out.

Website Update #19

Just finished a big update of my Modeling Log and my Traveller Library Data on my Blog.

Another weekend spent battling with a dodgy camera and a flakey laptop. But, it is done and, as they say, dusted.

Website Update #18

You have the right to arm bears - an Ursid Mercenary from Khurasan Miniatures.

I have just finished updating my Modeling Blog on my website which can be found here. The front page of the website is here.

Website Update #17

CMG Mercenary Fighter, GZG UNSC Marine, Highlander Studios Grath gangster

Finally finished some more painting, and then discovered a bug in the Coffee Cup FTP software I use that prevents the website from showing newly uploaded photos (in fact any sort of .jpg or .png type file).

After a bit of fiddling around, I discovered a thread on the Coffee Cup forum which offered a possible fix - it would appear that when I had to reload a lot of software after my Great Computer Crash in July, I installed a newer version of Coffee Cup. Now, with freeware, you get exactly what you pay for, and this new version seems to automatically treat graphics files as ASCI text, which means the website can't read the graphics files. This is fixable if, prior to FTPing the graphics files, one changes a setting from Auto to Binary. I did this, and my pictures loaded.

Yay, me!

Website modeling log is here

T5 Kickstarter in it's Final Days and Website Update #16

I talked about Traveller T5 going into Kickstarter back here. With only four days to go until the Kickstarter period ends, 1473 backers have signed up (ranging from 50 people committing $US1 each to show interest in the project to 8 people committing an eye-watering $US970 each to make this project fly) and over $US200,000 has been pledged.

After long thought, I committed to getting the book and the Jump Drive - essentially a .pdf copy on a flash drive - in spite of my earlier protestations. A chap using the handle Ojno the Red commented on my initial post, above, and his was the first piece of positive news I have heard from the very long development hell this project has languished in.

Will it satisfy everyone as a game system? I doubt it. The problem with Science Fiction is that there are many experts in specific fields and few generalists. This means that there is always someone ready to moan when you don't get a specific detail correct, no matter how unimportant it is to the general game or setting. And as it's a game, there will be those who love the game mechanics and those who don't. Cat Herding is an easier occupation than game designer.

So, I've staked my claim for a book for illogical reasons - just as well I'm not a Vulcan. I'm looking forward to reading the final book, and maybe running some Face-to-Face games as well. I think that once the rule book is out, setting and scenario material may very well follow - or you might actually have to use own your imagination, like we did back in the Little Black Book days, and make stuff up!

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And in other news, I have just finished a big update of my modelling blog with new stuff I've finally finished painting. Those of you who are new here might like to take a look and see my other hobby - painting toy soldiers, specifically 15mm science fiction figures. I'm pretty pleased with the results (all the stuff I'm not pleased with gets tossed out the airlock).

100th Post

Mega Trade Part 2 – my previous post – was actually a bit of a mile-stone article in the life of this blog. It was the Big ‘C Note’, the ‘One Tonner’, the 100th Post.

This, on one hand, goes to show just how silly stats and post numbers are, as some of my posts are barely worth the cost of the electrons that gave their all for them. On the other hand, it does indicate that I have been able to maintain some sort of consistency, or persistence, of posting over the last 26 months or so, and that I’m still enjoying writing about Traveller and model making and painting.

My computer suffered a terminal Windows boot meltdown a couple of weeks ago which has been a major pain in the fundamental posterior orifice. Since then I have had to fight for processor time with my daughter on her machine. Fortunately, as my old machine had been getting a little erratic, I had bought a Terabyte external drive and shifted all my pictures, music and general files, including my website, gaming and blog files, over to it some months ago. So, when Windows finally broke, the only really important files I lost access to were my business emails, and my contact list, which included the logon for my website. This makes updating it a little difficult.


“Bother”, as the Great Sage, Winney the Pooh, said.

Anyway, enough pity party.

I’ve just finished painting a pack of Twanax Horde from Blue Moon Manufacturing, as well as a couple of packs of Ground Zero Games Hammer’s Slammers figures, and a starship captain from Khurasan Miniatures. What these figures have in common, apart from being fun to paint, is a slight pulpish air about them. This is rather fortuitous as I’ve just finished reading my new copy of Blasters and Bulkheads.

While B&B has a very strong Star Wars vibe about, it does claim to be a more generic Pulp/Space Opera Science Fiction Skirmish game, and I can see that you could play out Van Vogt’s Lensmen-based games or even Dominic Flandry scenarios or adventures from Andre Norton’s stories. B&B has one of the better quick-play psionic combat systems I’ve read, and I like the way that the focus is on characters, with minions or henchmen coming along for the ride as mobile scenery. I’m really looking forward to playing B&B, and seeing if I can poach some ideas for 5150: New Beginnings – which has a much better solo play aspect.

Getting back to the figures – the Twanax are basically Yetis, and while I painted them up in shades of brown, I’m now thinking that I need to get a second pack to paint up in greys and whites as Abominable Snowmen, for my GZG Scan Fed figures and for the Snow Troopers/Pulp-guys-that-get-eaten-by-The-Thing that Khurasan Jon is talking about releasing in a couple of months.

The Slammers figures from Ground Zero Games are quite fun in a retro sort of way. I thought of them as being light troops or dragoons and bought enough skimmers to have two ground squads and a squad mounted on the little one-man grav bikes. After dithering over how to paint them, I went with a grey splotch camouflage over Olive Green – a fairly conventional paint job. While they lack the body armour we tend to associate with modern soldiers, the detail on the figures suggests that they wear some sort of harness. I’m seriously thinking of getting another couple of packs to paint up in a more pulpy dress uniform style as palace guard. Mixing the visor-up with the visor-down packs works for me, though the visor down with more solemn uniform colours could make them look more ‘faceless’ and ‘oppressive regime’ type troopers. Either way, they are very nice figures.

The starship captain from Khurasan Miniatures is part of the DPLS spaceship crew pack (TTC-2501). He always seems to be painted up in the style of Han Solo, which made me think Lando Calrissian, and this is what I attempted.

So, in the midst of the computer frustrations, I have managed to complete some figures that I'm very happy with.

Website Update #15

Have just finished painting a number of 15mm figures, shipping containers, and a new vehicle. The piccs are up on the Modeling and Painting page of my website.

Website Update #14

Finally finished of my Khurasan Chewks today and spent the rest of the day (in and around running the father-in-law about) updating my modelling log and then getting everything uploaded.

The Chewk pictures are a little soft but the light was bad due to scattered showers. Harook to come in a day or so, I hope.

I have been pondering how the Chewks might fit into my Traveller campaign and there is a desert world in the Cabria Subsector with an indigenous, invertebrate-like intelligent species which could be a match. I will have to reread my notes and see if the Chewks are a fit.

Website Update #13

While work on Gazolan Subsector has ground to a halt, I'm still plugging away at trade routes with GURPs Traveller: Far Trader. Due to the slightly cock-eyed way one reaches inter-system Trade volumes, there is room for error and I had to redo a chunk of stuff when I realised I was deducting the distance factor twice.

On a happier note, I have almost finished painting a nice little crawler flatbed and some figure conversions. More here.

Website Update #12

A long and wet weekend enabled me to finally get some painting done and I managed to finish my Imperial Marine platoon.

I still have to finish the vehicles for the unit, as well as find or convert some officer figures. More pictures and notes can be found on
my website in the Modeling log.

Website Update #11

Trying to come back up to speed after the Field Guide project, and then a dose of the 'flu, with something to hand that didn't require much brain power. So, updated my modelling log with some average photos and heart-felt praise for figures by Splintered Light Miniatures and Ground Zero Games.