Is there a way to apply a Sci-Fi version of the Post-Civil War, Reconstruction-Era USA?
Basically it's roughly the same as Humanity sees potential in a species they won a war against, but they have a culture where slavery was the norm, and I want to rebuild the planet (their home world), uproot their culture, and have humanity invest in them, similar to how the USA rebuilt Germany and Japan Post-WWII, instead of the USSR occupying them with generally detrimental long term effects.
Got any ideas?
New Survey coming this weekend!
rollin' on dubs
With FTL, it will depend on the FTL technology involved. If it's some sort of Wormhole Network it becomes a matter of finding the gates and setting up some sort of surveillance. If it's some sort of warp drive, then it would seem impossible to detect incoming ships before they arrive. What you need then is a rapid response system for when the hostiles show up.
Interesting thoughts, thanks.
One thought that's occurred to me is that in any battle involving orbital assets, it becomes increasingly difficult to prevent attacks into your rear area. Not just due to orbital bombardment, but also as a result of the possibility of orbital insertions.
My gut instinct is that anti-starship weapons would do their part, as would your own starships, but I'm not sure those alone would be enough to ensure your rear is secure. So I guess the question is how do you prevent the enemy's space assets from threatening your supply lines etc. planetside?
Locking you up on radar since '09By not having a "rear area" with respect to orbit. You need anti-orbital batteries covering all 360 surrounding the planet. That way, no matter where they try to station their platforms/drop their forces, there is a battery covering that approach.
edited 19th Jan '15 9:49:03 AM by DeMarquis
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.That would depend though any number of possible scenarios and whether or not defenses have overlap or lower layers of back up or additional defense. You may need to spend a fair bit of time poking a big enough and wide enough holes in a defensive screen to create a sufficient gap for exploitation. Also keep in mind while an attacker is trying to poke holes in the defenses the defenses are trying to poke holes in the attacker. Even if you manage a breach if you take too much damage or too many casualties in the process it might not matter by that point.
If you are talking about a sphere of coverage the closer to the center of the sphere the less area the defenses have to cover in the first place. The reverse is true if you go further out.
Who watches the watchmen?No joke. Planetary invasion to take a planet will be quite the undertaking. It had better be worth it for the amount of time, resources, and losses.
Though it could also be potentially profitable to take underdeveloped worlds like new colonies, less developed worlds, and similar targets.
By the time the dust settles on a very developed planet things are going to have gotten ugly somewhere.
Who watches the watchmen?Now, one scenario where things get interesting is where there is a major territorial faction on the planet that is cooperating with the invaders. In fact, the most common justification for an invasion could very well be to lend assistance to a local ally. That's pretty much how it works IRL right now, so why not the future? Creating such factions in the first place could be the first prelude to militaristic expansion.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.Who knows. Grab a piece of prime real estate. Maybe it is a key stopping point for ships along a trade route kind of like the Coaling Stations and mid ocean ports used to be highly important. Stop to top off supplies and expendables maybe it is also a key trade port. Perhaps it is a stepping stone for a foothold in enemy territory and once conquered will be a new FOB for a longer term plan.
Who watches the watchmen?Yes there are, but you really need to establish this first, because it helps you figure out how you go about it. f.e. if you're only after one particular spot, say, a research lab,you can plaster all the cities nearby before landing to cut it off, but if you want to take the place mostly intact, you can't afford to do much damage, and so on.
Any planetary invasion force is going to be massive in scope and scale. The sheer amount of material, equipment, vehicles, support and fighting personnel you would need to drop on a foothold bridge head would be large. That is to make and hold a bridge head and hopefully expand it.
Whatever lands planet side is going to need to be able to possibly hold off overwhelming odds and fire power without heavy support at least for a short while.
Who watches the watchmen?

@Flanker: Without FTL, reconnaissance is a matter of deep space observatories peering in all directions from the frontier. High tech astronomy.
With FTL, it will depend on the FTL technology involved. If it's some sort of Wormhole Network it becomes a matter of finding the gates and setting up some sort of surveillance. If it's some sort of warp drive, then it would seem impossible to detect incoming ships before they arrive. What you need then is a rapid response system for when the hostiles show up.
I'm done trying to sound smart. "Clear" is the new smart.