Re: 2nd/3rd rate powers - LLAR - and now Africans...

Adrian, KarlHeinz and Eric have all made good arguments.  I think it
boils
down to:
a) what are they like today? Using today rather than AD1880, or AD700,
or
2000BC, because that's the closest to 2185 that we know about
b) how much cultral and institutional change do we anticipate will
happen
between now and then?
c) what does canon say?
d) what do the players want?

In 180 years, militaries can change enough that any significant
military's
rating could change by several notches up or down.  

If you feel that a resurgent Islam and a unified Africa can whip anyone
else, it's not an obvious given from what we see today but it's within
the
limits of what my Suspension of Disbelief will handle.	However, it
doesn't
fit in with canon--by Jon's ex cathedra declaration, NSE ESU FSE and NAC
are "major powers" and by implication everyone else is not, which to me
means that we don't expect the IF army to stand up to equal numbers of
NSL
panzergrens.

And we don't want everyone to be identical.  When I was designing the IF
army, I wanted them to be large units, low tech, and somewhat brittle
morale--not because I think the Arab culture can't change, but because I
wanted a different set of handicaps, a different flavour than the NSL,
the
AE, or the KV.	It's easy to say "Our side is the best, we have ubertech
and cyborg'd troops and the most brilliant unit leaders", but it's
boring--you might as well go play Gums Orkshop.  It's far more
interesting
to design someone who doesn't have all the goodies, who in fact has
severe
weaknesses, and see how they get around their problems.

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