Re: [GZG] Re: Gzg-l Digest, Vol 13, Issue 9

[Adrian Johnson <adrian.johnson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Yeah, I'm assuming these are fresh planets where you just throw wheat seed 
> on the ground and jump back. :-) The point was that even with optimistic 
> assumptions, your population is just not going to very big--sixteen 
> millioin is enough to field an army but it's not going to compete with the 
> NAC, NSL, etc.

Sixteen million is enough to field a pretty fair sized army, if you're 
willing to take the hits to the productive part of your economy with a 
large number of people off fighting.

Canada put 600,000+ people into uniform during WWI, with a national 
population around 7 million.  We had over 1.5 million people in uniform 
during WWII, with a population of 11 million.

Now, supporting a modern military force with the *much* higher 
cost-per-trooper than back in the WWI era would make it much harder for a 
16-million population colony to support a 600,000 person military force - 
but it could support brigade and perhaps divisional-level forces.

Certainly enough to make things interesting in a DS or SG game!

And as for competing with the NAC - not very likely in a grand, strategic 
sense.  But if you had a few hundred thousand in uniform, the NAC would 
probably be hard pressed to land a force big enough to make a dent.  Now, 
sitting in orbit and bombarding away is a different story

In the end, a colony with 16 million people could do a credible job of 
ensuring local defense...

OTOH, who knows what a starship costs relative to the GNP of that 16 mil 
population.
  


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