re: planetary invasion

On Tue, 29 Sep 1998 tom.anderson@altavista.net wrote:

> this brings me to another problem: even if they are brigade
transports,
> the attacker will only have around 100 000 men on the ground. in the
gzg
> universe, this is not so bad; i think a big planet might have 50 to
100
> million people (remeber that the NAC capital world gets a population
as
> large as england, and that this is amazing; then allow for growth),
and
> so an army of around half a million (is this right? uk population is
60
> million, our army is about 300 000, right? or am i way off message
> here?). 

Well, it depends on the culture. There are about 5 million Finns, yet
we can sport a 700 000 strong army in a time of crisis. And that *is*
trained men with modern(ish) weapons, in space of some days -- not "once
we get the war effort rolling".

The Israelis probably get even better percentage of population to fight.

Though the percentage is likely to fall as population increases -- I
don't
see UK arming a similar percentage of its population even with assault
rifles. (I could be wrong, please correct me if you know better)

I think a colony, especially a one that has recently won independence,
will be rather close to the Heinleinian "everybody fights" ideal.

Reminds me of Battletech, really. The concept of a few companies of
Mechs
taking a planet with a population of even a few million is just
ludicrous.

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