Re: Small Colonies

--- Laserlight <laserlight@quixnet.net> wrote:
> > Size of the colony would be somewhere between
> 300x300
> > and 500x500 km, Population ca 55000.
> >
> > What could make that small colony be a viable
> > economical base to support a medium tech
> mechanized
> > force (Hover Vehicles, liquid propellant rifles,
> HKPs
> > and Missiles no grav, no PA) of a brigades size in
> > total?
> 
>    I'd expect a 55K population to support a
> battalion rather than a
> brigade.  How to get around that?  Well, you could
> say that the
> formation is mostly reservists; or you could say
> that they're
> receiving a lot of cash from outside sources,
> whether through
> mercenary contracts or whatever else.
>    If you go the reservist route, an enemy can wreak
> havoc by parking
> his army on your border--if you don't mobilize,
> you're inviting
> invasion, but if you do mobilize, it wrecks your
> economy.  Egypt did
> this to Israel in 67 or 72, IIRC.
>    You could just claim that you're exporting
> unobtainium at high
> prices, but you then have to explain why your
> neighbors haven't moved
> in and taken over.
>    55K is fairly small anyway--more of a town than a
> province.  Can
> you change to a 500K population?  That would make
> supporting a brigade
> a lot more likely.
> 

I was picturing most of the infantry units to work as
in our Home Guard rapid action platoons, Two nights a
week, two weekends a month and two months a year of
service. So that would make them reservists, I guess.
(We have that except for the two months, volontary and
unpaid.)Also you would, like here, store your personal
gear, weapon and some ammo at home.

I wasn't really pcturing the neighbors as a threat
though. After all, compville hasn't been descibed as a
balcanized colony, and since I had my guys placed in a
not very well explored part, and secured it via a
treaty, I didn't think Compville would move in. Even
if they did, these are the guys who kicked the butts
of those compville got kicked by. :)

I could raise it to 200k pop and double the size of
the colony, I guess... That just gives me an excuse to
draw new maps. :) The only problem is having that kind
of pop-growth in such a fairly limited time... Well,
maybe its not all that hard. 20 colonists arriving per
day for twenty years plus their decendants...

Thanks!

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