A post I read today got me thinking. (don't you hate it when that happens?)
The "Planetary Ownership" stretch goal is due to be reached in the next days but... how does it work if ownership wasn't transferred voluntarily?
How does conquest work?
Let's say you want to annex Afghanistan. (or exchange the government with a puppet regime which amounts to the same thing)
You bomb it back into the bronze age and move your troops in.
So far so good.
In most games you would now spend 3 turns building a factory and the next turn, the country starts spitting out soldiers and weapons, adding to your army.
Enter real life.
You may be able to easily defeat the military force of the country but then you are... well... stuck with it.
A country that resisted the soviet 40th Army for over a decade while initially being armed with a few vintage WW1 rifles.
Occupation of such a country does not generate any profit. It's a huge money sink.
Allowing conquest in a game like LT would be much easier if the player had to finance the occupation afterwards. =P
While technically the planet / system / whatever may be producing useful equipment - even useful equipment that is unique to that location - the task of keeping the place occupied should be enormous and lengthy. Lengthy as in days or weeks of game time.
During that time you would get greatly lowered production output, mysteriously vanishing resources or products or even entire ships, and bountiful acts of sabotage and general resistance.
Now if the population isn't as clinically stubborn as certain peoples on our planet, it will eventually settle down and occupation would transition into rule.
Conquering yourself a galactic empire would be a full time job - and that's without other star nations trying to snag a piece of your pie while your forces are spread thin from uprisings in 2 of your recent acquisitions. =)
Such "uprisings" would very likely consist of ships sponsored (err, I mean reported stolen) by neighboring star nations. (see Operation Cyclone)
Post
Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:30 pm
#1
War, Conquest, Occupation
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.