On 17Jun2022 1240, Phil Pugliese - philpugliese at yahoo.com (via tml
list) wrote:
>   Now, to me, the 'client state' status just doesn't make much sense.
> After all, it was actually part of the 3I previously, wasn't it?In the 5thFW boardgame, the units stationed there were Zho & Imp 'colonial' units.
> Oh well, typical for the TU, I suppose.
Esalin doesn't have a huge population (~2 million), and its position
isn't particularly strategic in the 1100s, with J4 fleets being the
norm. Thus leaving it a client state as part of the post-FFW peace
treaty costs the Imperium nothing.

Taking a few chunks out of the Sword Worlds to show them the error of
their ways seems to have been the Imperial priority. The Zho's knew they
lost and, Imperial propaganda notwithstanding, have always been very
pragmatic, so there was little reason to go and demand a bunch of
previously unaligned worlds be granted to the Imperium. That'd just be
signing up for decades of 'peacekeeping' and the annexed ex-Sword Worlds
would be providing as much of that sort of training as the Marines would
need.

--
Rupert Boleyn <xxxxxx@gmail.com>