Re: [FT and (!!) SG & DS] Population and military

I said:
[Your military size and mix depends on]
>> 2. where you are--a balkanized planet will have a lot more
footsloggers
>> than, say, the Alarishi Empire, which has exactly one "brigade" plus
lots
of
>> marines.

John said:
>Depends a lot on what your military challenge is--invading the Alarishi
>Empire would be 100% naval actions and (effectively) boarding actions
in
>0g against relatively small planets.  Hence it makes sense to have
naval
>vessels, small security forces scattered among the planetoids, and
>marine forces for counter-attacking any captured habitats.  Right?

Pretty much.  The Alarishi Empire focuses on the Fleet for several
reasons:
1) Given that the AE has lots of little chunks of real estate scattered
all
over, there's not much point to having a  base here, a base there, to
try to
defend with--they would just be expenses which the invader could easily
avoid.	Visniy Alarish itself is an exception.
2) Some asteroids have pacifist habitants, and it  isn't reasonable to
expect	the Poor Claires, for example, to man--or nun--defense
installations.	This does not apply across the board, of course, and
some
sovereignties are armed to the teeth, ranging from the Knights Templar
through Han Bank down to Jack Old Ron, undisputed ruler and sole
occupant of
a 90 meter rock bearing 2 PDS and a Class 3 beam.
3) The Empire has a permanent manpower shortage, and a battlecruiser is
generally a better force multiplier for a 100 crew than a couple of
platoons
would be.
4) I'd rather play FT/FB than DS2.