Ken Koester wrote: >>Advantages that are mine: >>1. Mass production. If I can make an effective weapon, I can put it in >>the hands of more troops she has sorcerers. Sorcerers can do this too >>(spell sticks), but probably not with anything fancy. >> >> > >Less than relevant. It takes quite a while to train a mob to be an >army, no matter what you equip them with. > > > But different technologies take different amounts of training. The Romans dominated for a while because the best way of fighting at the time required significant training. The British Navy required lots of practice - which the Brits were willing to pay for. But Napoleon's citizen army didn't require as much and his advantage didn't last long. >>2. Mobility. I'll have a much better logistic train than she will, and >>I can move my troops from place to place more quickly. At minimum this >>means I'll be able to achive higher force concentration when on the >>offence. >> >> > >Uh, no you won't. You'll have a nightmarish logistic train, with no way >to make up the difference in the lands you seize, & a pretty fierce >mountain chain at your back. You'll need massive amounts of supplies, >with no easy way to get them to the front in the necessary quantities. >Bear in mind that the highest sustained rate of advance for an Earth >army was that of Genghis/Subotai & the Mongols, back in the 13th >century: 20 miles a day, for months. Your advance will top out at >about 250 miles from the nearest railhead or sea port. And your advance >will probably stick to easy terrain & bad roads. The Chinese showed >what happened to armies who do that in Korea in '50. > > > Only if you need to conquer the lands you pass through. If you are after a killing blow (the Orb), you can skip much of the above. Some primitive societies did their wars far away from home, bringing home loot - their objectives weren't to conquer. >>4. My method of waging warfare will >>probably seem very fast and brutal from the Dragaeran >>perspective--early on, Vlad mentions a fellow Jhereg who "works" about >>once a decade, and yet Vlad carried out forty-something assassinations >>in the course of 4-5 *years.* >> >> > >Oh? How about random hit squads teleporting into your camps, offing a >dozen or so people, then disappearing? Don't think that's going to >strike your army as being fast & brutal? > > > Obviously some intelligence is needed. Conquerers have to know about teleportation and how and why it is and isn't used in Dragaeran warfare. >>5. High tech. My huge technological base ought to give me *something* >>that's usable, even against sorcery. I'd probably try out long-range >>tank warfare, see if it worked; long-range artillery, same way; >>high-altitude bombing. This is mostly about testing the limits of >>Dragaeran sorcery. I'd probably also try the straightforward strategy >>of ambushing a Dragaeran army on march with a company of soldiers >>firing automatic rifles and launching RPGs. >> >> > >Dunno what you mean by "long-range tank warfare." Tanks now days can >hit out to 4000 meters or so with pretty good accuracy against inferior >opponents (& in favorable terrain which permits said LOS); is that what >you mean? RPGs wouldn't be much use against foot soldiers, though, and >certainly wouldn't be long-range. > > > A different definition is tank warfare by dropping tanks into battle on the other side of the world. >>Keep in mind that Dragaerans have fought armies of Easterners in the >>past, and it was less than a cake-walk, judging by TPG. High >>technology could make things a lot harder on the Empire. >> >> >> >> > > >Sure. But high tech hasn't *ever* fought sorcery, so far as we know. >Learning curve for new battle experiences is ferocious. > >Snarkhunter > > But sorcery has fought sorcery. Adding tech to the mix wouldn't make this knowledge useless.