From: "David Hobby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > As with most questions, I imagine the reader is supposed to > interpret it so that it makes sense. Here's the original: > > > For example, the other day a friend of mine asked me an interesting > > question. He wanted to know what type of species I would use, if I could > > magically have one million individuals of that species, as a ground force > > army. The one stipulation being that my army would have to employ military > > hardware of today's technology. > > So you can't use vampires, or episarchs, or Kryptonians, > because allowing them makes the question degenerate. Or put it > this way--anything can come, but they have to leave their powers > with the physics of their home universes.
I don't think that is neccessary, each of the species you suggested as being super-powered has a weekness to them. Vampires are burned by UV light and sunlight, and are vulnerable to garlic, silver, holy icons, etc. Episiarchs (which I thought of suggesting, but changed my mind) are unpredictable and are dangerous to allies without the technology to distract them when you don't want them reaping havoc on the laws of physics (as was mentioned in _Startide Rising_). Kryponians are vulnerable to certain forms of radiation that humans are not vulnerable to. Additionally, Kryponians are only powerful because of the yellow sun of earth if the battle is on a planet other than earth, kryptonians may only be as good as humans, or possibly even worse. > I'm with Damon, it doesn't say anything about the SIZE > of the million individuals, at least as long as they can move > around on a planet. So bigger is better! Feeding them should > not be an issue; one assumes that an army comes with supplies. > It could well degenerate into a contest to name bigger > species... but I do like the "human consciousness in dinosaur > bodies" things mentioned in Banks's _Feersum Endjinn_, and even > in _Kiln People_ there were dittoes of similar sizes. Not necessarily, bigger may just make them bigger targets and would limit the technology that they could use in a battle. They would not be able to use planes (bombers, fighters, etc.), they would be difficult to transport, etc., so they would be at a serious tactical disadvantage. Me, I think I would go for an army of Scarans (from Farscape). Sure, I'd need to keep nurseries of Birds of Paradise flowers, but that's well within today's technology. Michael Harney [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
