01-22-2014, 03:51 PM | #11 |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
This. Or even use the incredible trade advantage you have to buy concessions from the natives, as described in some of the flashbacks in A DEEPNESS IN THE SKY.
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01-22-2014, 04:02 PM | #12 | |
Join Date: Jun 2013
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
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There's also the issue of hiding - space is a big place, and without superscience cloaking devices your invasion fleet is likely to be seen from quite a ways off. |
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01-22-2014, 04:12 PM | #13 | |
Banned
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
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01-22-2014, 04:37 PM | #14 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
I have essentially no tech edge, and the locals can nuke any beachhead I establish? The locals have about 20 million troops and for a successful assault I need five to one odds, and never mind the occupation afterwards?
Umm. The guys upthread are right: this is going to require an indirect approach, and adopting a local proxy is the tried-and-true. Just for a bit of variety I'll point out that the bosses want the biosphere and breathable atmosphere intact and didn't say anything about the population and the installed industrial based. Biological warfare is ruled out by the OP, but we have OKK weapons ("tungsten rods"). A systematic attack on energy and transport infrastructure (including large-scale irrigation) could wipe out eighty percent of the net food supply; in a few years you'd have cut the population by eighty percent and in twenty years knocked at least one TL off the tech you'd be facing. And it's very cheap. The problem is that it's going to make what's left of the place very hard to govern. Can we start sneaky? I liked the idea of faking a nuclear strike on a nuclear power. With a bit of finesse you can start the impression that this is a local squabble, and then knock out communications before it gets straightened out. That ought to set up a morass of confusion and rumour rather than uniting everyone against you. So how about this: hammer some early-warning radars, then some missile fields and government centres. Give it a couple of hours, then take out the communications satellites, space program control centres, radio telescopes, and astronomical observatories. Then hammer broadcast comms. You will probably get some of the locals "retaliating" against others, and in any case no-one is ever going to convince everyone of what really happened. Then hammer major ports (including gas, oil, and coal terminals) and strategic canals, land transport nexuses, reservoirs, hydroelectric, oil, gas, and coal power stations. Do not attack military sites and weapons per se, but don't give them a pass if they have other value. Don't bother setting fire to the cities. You probably want to avoid setting fire to forests.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. Last edited by Agemegos; 01-22-2014 at 08:26 PM. |
01-22-2014, 04:44 PM | #15 |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
Stealth in space is fundamentally very difficult when you are facing sensors that are also in space and that are designed to detect spaceships. When you are hiding from ground observation that has to look up through ninety miles of warm air, and when no-one has built a spaceship-detecting network it is a fair bit easier. Hit the astronomical observatories (including orbital ones) and the space control centres (to be on the safe side); no-one else much is in a position to detect small sky objects using IR.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
01-22-2014, 05:08 PM | #16 | |
Computer Scientist
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Dallas, Texas
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
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01-22-2014, 05:33 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
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I can *probably* sit in orbit and kill anything a TL8 civilization can launch at my ships, though losing a few wouldn't be impossible. There's no way I'm winning a conventional war against the whole planet unless my invasion "fleet" is a world ship with a billion people on it. I'd need at least roughly as many troops as their entire combined forces and the industrial production capabilities of a continent to have a chance without more of a tech edge than that.
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01-22-2014, 05:39 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Jul 2007
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
"Greetings people of Not-Us. We have a cell phone with twice the pixels of your most advanced model that gets way more internet speed. It's for sale! We've also invented YouTube...that's free." Then you just buy a bunch of land and move in. In a few years they'll be up to speed, increasing your culture's overall idea diversity. This has the advantage of automatically filtering for dynamic native societies willing to live in a multi-sentient environment, as incompatible native societies will severely restrict your commercial access.
For a more bellicose solution... Scout the world while the fleet is far out. Launch a massive number of small (sub kton) kinetic strikes. Grab space rocks if you need. Time the strikes to arrive within the shortest possible window. The strikes target all aircraft/large missile maintenance and staging facilities. First message to the world,"You are denied flight. We will be taking possession of Australia." You need either cooperation or sufficient fear to prevent them from attacking. The risk/reward balance needs to work for the natives, otherwise... Well...imagine the ingenuity and destructive power of 8 billion human beings who all agree that someone needs to die. Last edited by Gedrin; 01-22-2014 at 05:44 PM. |
01-22-2014, 05:42 PM | #19 |
Join Date: Jun 2006
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
This is the most likely way to set up a disaster like this really. Many species here on Earth respond to attackers that can demonstrate they obviously can severely injure or kill them by submitting. If the aliens arrive expecting humans to give up without a fight, or at worst after a short demonstration that shows resistance will hurt a lot, they could get into serious trouble. If they aren't willing to let it turn around and become slaves of the humans themselves....
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01-22-2014, 05:56 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Oz
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Re: How would you invade a planet?
Quote:
This is a place where the brown snakes eat the black snakes.
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Decay is inherent in all composite things. Nod head. Get treat. |
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Tags |
alien invasion, invasion, sci-fi, space invasion, space military, space warfare, strategy |
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