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

>
>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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