Weird Harold wrote:
What part of "too many variable to be specific" are you having problems with? Systems that don't have any outlying extraction or habitation don't need to cover the entire hyper limit those that do need the range to cover larger volumes. The point here is that any given volume can be covered by MDMs with fewer missiles. The GA doesn't have the production capacity to provide the numbers of missiles that single drive SDMs would require.
You defend the vitals of the particular system, not the whole space of the system. You don't need to defend every single industrial asset in every single system with the faire power of an entire fleet. Just like the 2 wars between Manticore and Haven and just like every war in history has shown us, being strong everywhere means you are weak everywhere.
Giving a system the minimum defence requirements and a promise of a QRF that can kick out anyone who wants to set up their own little kingdom is all that is required.
There will be a few systems in great danger of reprisals by the League, others will be in less danger and other still will require at most defences against a single BC or at most 2.
Weird Harold wrote:And who is going to rebuild the infrastructure destroyed and resurrect those killed when the Conquistadors took over and then were kicked out? Like they say, "when seconds count, the Police are only minutes away."
So your solution is to give systems with no military tradition whatsoever, no military manpower and no experience not to mention questionable loyalty all of your secret technologies that Manticore has spend decades researching just so they can be sold off to the highest bidder(League and MA/RF)?
So a year or two down the road instead of fighting the RF which may or may not have weapons that are better than the SLN you will be fighting Manticoran technology?
While we are at it why not release the designs for SD(P)? Or BC(P)? I mean it is inevitable that they will be built by other systems as well so why not speed up the process?
Why not make peace with the League and just give them the GA's tech? They will have it eventually so why not speed up the process?
Weird Harold wrote:And just where is the GA going to come up with the manpower to man all of the defensive installations that will be established -- be ultra-conservative and and estimate a quarter of the League will sign mutual defense treaties, or 500 systems? That's going to take something like Half-a-Billion personnel!
And where are those systems going to come up with the people to man those defences? IF you plan on giving weapons to untrained people then so can the GA... You are asking where the GA will come up with the people to man those defences, while ignoring the same question again and again and again as to where the systems who get those weapons will get the trained manpower to man them.
Weird Harold wrote:Providing Training Cadre or importing locals into GA tech schools will strain GA resources as it is. Trying to garrison every allied system is unworkable.
Who said anything about garrisoning every system?
Giving weapons to newly independent systems along with a small training team from Haven, Manticore or Grayson might be preferable to giving away the only advantage the GA has.
Weird Harold wrote:
Who said anything about "donate?" "Provide" isn't the same as "Donate" and the only time I've talked about FTL separately the word I've used is "SELL." FTL comm is a potential revenue stream for GA members (and other nations with FTL comms like the Anderman Empire and Mayans.) Anyone with FTL comm capability has a choice:
So your idea is to sell the weapons and technologies that the SLN, its successor states, the MA and the RF will subsequently use to beat the GA into submission?
There is a period of time where the GA will reign supreme because no one else can touch their technology. Giving away your technology for some chump change is idiocy in its most basic form. So instead of your enemies spending 5,10 or 15 years researchning to get the technology, you sell it to them for a small sum just so they can come back a couple of years later and conquer your entire alliance. What happens if like you said a quarter of the League declares independence or neutrality and the other 3/4 of the League end up with all the goodies of the GA. Those systems will be come virtually impregnable, so basically you will be fortifying the League.
If you give away your advantage the war is lost, you might as well save everyone's time and as many lives as you can by surrendering quickly.
Weird Harold wrote:Play "dog in the manger" and lose all that revenue trying to keep their version secret.
I would rather keep my secret restricted to my side in a war and win the war rather than give away my advantage, make some money to day and then have my enemy beat me into submission with the tools I sold him.