Hello all, my first thread ever! hehehe.. I know that there are a couple of threads about space "naval" combat, but what about the military situation in the Sol system in 10 AF. A couple of days ago i was chating with one of my players both had very very diferents point of view about it. Maybe is a question little out of the main line of the setting, but i think it can be nice to see more points of view about it, and a good thing to add to the general background, just in case the political stuff got really hot in some campaings. At least from my side is see the things like this: The biggest army is obiously, the Jovian one, maybe their ships and soldiers are not the best one(at least in technology) but they are the more numerous ones; after reading the Sunward supplement, I understood that most of the Old Earth armies just "choose as home" the Jovian system, mostly american ones and probably alot of bands from Russia and China. And a very very important thing from my point or view, is that they have the only one really proffesional army inside the sytem. In the core book I remember that the Jovians has the biggest ship building dock of the system or something similar, mostly used for military hardware, so thats a very important starting point just in case a war start right now. Their weak point, at lesat for me, is that they dont have the manpower for a prolonged war, at least not as much as the PC or the Titanians(im not sure now about this last one) but for sure they can draft a big proportion of his population very quickly. Another problem is their very rigid and dictatorial govern, that can be a flaw and a stron point at time; their population can surrender or riot soon if they suffer some serious deaft at the beggining of a war if the other side care about them properly.....similar situation with(in a very simplified way) Soviet Union in 42 a gigant with mud feet, but once the started, no one was able to stop them. So I see it like that, the biggest and strongest nation in the military aspec, but with some serious flaws that can make it lost he war really soon if they dont break at the beggining(and probably the ones that will use first weapons of mass destruction without hesitation...) Then is the PC.....a probelmatic thing, at least for me. They have the biggest potential due they are the biggest economy in the system, but they just have some security corps. I´m sure that those corps are really hard to beat, but most of their training, in my interpretation, is focused on security operations, low level warfare and police duties. So fo me in 10 AF they probably in a case of war had a big army but with a low level of training in real war, like sending alot of comandoes and polices to a "real" battle(I think i cant explain it well but I´m not an english speaker and is hard :) ) But from the other side, they have the biggest growing potetial, the biggest industrial infraestructure of all the system and the biggest population too, so if they can survive the first battles they will something unnestopable. Like the Jovians, you must defeat them fast and definitively or they will eat youm but in the other side I see its political sytem much more stable an capable of bearing much more damage. People in the PC live with the hope of proggres and a good life(and really good illusion of liberty, so their people will be very willing to fight for it, if they feel threatened. Last there are the Titanians and the authonomist alliegance....from one side we have the Titanians, with a compulsory military service for most of the populations and a very serious investment in defense, reading the core book I understood that they have a core profesional army and the rest are very motivated recruits, something like Israel nowadays(please dont do any political interpretation of this, is not my intention, just in case) so their army probably will be more "battle ready" that the PC and almost as much as the Jovians, but much more smaller than the Jovian. So they have a very big army(in proportion to the size of population) trained, well prepared and with the best motivation/morale(in the beggining of the war) and last, probably with stated of the art technology( ass good as the PC or maybe little less) so they are a dangerous player, but they are overwhelmed witht he shear size fo their enemies, so in the case of open war, they probably will need to win in a few battles or they will be dammed to loose in a atrition war. With them there are the rest of the autonomists, even if they can add some manpower and resources, i dont think they will do good in a war, they are too dispersed and even having very good defenses in their stations and habitats, they lack of striking power, but maybe they can do a good work as a "homeguard" while the Titanians do the big things(thats a posible root of a division betwen them) The military situation in the sytem in 10 AF as I see it, is like that. There is the Jovian Junta, the bully of the system, probably if the things go right the only one able to whipe out the rest of the players, but the risk of riots and crashing of the political and social infraestructure is very big, so even with their "agressive stance" they probably will avoid a war. And in case of war, I see them letting the nukes and the antimatter bombs fly free very soon. Then is the PC, they have ALOT of potential, but they will be in serious problems in the first battles, and need tor resist and make alot of memmetic campaing to turn its population to a war economy. Provably the biggest danger for them is if the other side is willing to let the WMD fly, for example in a war with the Jovian Junta, but I believe too that this one is the less probable case of war ...who lead us to Titan... They are a big(but not the biggest, provably the third one) military power, willing to defence themselves, and very very compromised with their way of live.......and surrounded by enemies; they will probably could win a war with one enemy but no with two, so they are in a sticky situation. Even in the case of a defensive war I think they cannot win in the long term so.... Well is like Germany in the first world war(dont do political interpretations again!) they need to win in just one campaing, something like doing a blitzkrieg in the sol system(very very hard due the distances betwen the enemies and other things arged in the space combat thread) so maybe, and just maybe if the PC or the Jovians push them too much, if they see themselves too surounded they can start a preventive war, waiting(if possible) that marss and Jupiter be in oposite places in the Sol sytem and them launching a devastating attack agains one fo the enemies, just for jumping at max speed for the nex one, maybe launching the fasttest missiles agains the more distant enemy at same time they depart for the first one....and if they feel like being in a real danger maybe they attack with WMD, proably to the Jovians if possible("they are a cruel a evil dictatorship in the end!!") the trying to assault Mars with more conventional means.... Thats my point of viwe more or less, I think is an interesting thing to analyce, because it can be a good point for a firewall campaing, sometimes, the enemy within is the most dangerous enemy, and we must keep in mind that WMD in 10AF are much much more handy(I think is the word) than now, so the nuclear apocalypse is a very close existentional danger, so is a firewall duty to stop it. Thanks for reading, I hope that i was able to make sense with I wanted to say, and sorry for my poor english!