Question - technologically advanced soldiers vs. less advanced

[evilchumlee]

Title is clunky, i'm working on something and i'm trying to make something work here.

Let's say we have a technologically advanced race that intends to invade and conquer a low-tech, let's say, medieval level world. The advanced people are... sufficiently advanced. They can have basically any kind of weaponry, tech, etc.

How many... or maybe rephrase... how few people could it feasibly take to conquer the world? Let's give it roughly Earth numbers, there's about 300 million people living here.

 

[Deks]

Title is clunky, i'm working on something and i'm trying to make something work here.

Let's say we have a technologically advanced race that intends to invade and conquer a low-tech, let's say, medieval level world. The advanced people are... sufficiently advanced. They can have basically any kind of weaponry, tech, etc.

How many... or maybe rephrase... how few people could it feasibly take to conquer the world? Let's give it roughly Earth numbers, there's about 300 million people living here.

It would be like pitting the Goa'Uld against Medieval societies of Stargate... and we know what happened there. On the whole, the medievals were enslaved.
In some cases where they revolted, they used Goa'Uld own tech and arrogance to mount the resistance and then buried the remains or used them to help in their own advancement.

Any remotely more sensible scenario would likely result in medievals losing badly with minimal effort from the advanced soldiers who wouldn't litter technology for the locals to use against them (in fact, safeguards would likely exist so the locals can't use them), and would probably use different methods for the purpose of subjugation.

As for how many would be needed... probably a relatively small amount for the entire planet (if there are 300 million total on the planet)... about 30,000 to 50,000 depending on the level of tech they have.

 

[Nerys Myk]

The Ewoks say "come at me bro!"

 

[Sgt_G]

You might also want to re-watch "The Omega Glory".

 

[Kraig]

Title is clunky, i'm working on something and i'm trying to make something work here.

Let's say we have a technologically advanced race that intends to invade and conquer a low-tech, let's say, medieval level world. The advanced people are... sufficiently advanced. They can have basically any kind of weaponry, tech, etc.

How many... or maybe rephrase... how few people could it feasibly take to conquer the world? Let's give it roughly Earth numbers, there's about 300 million people living here.

The destruction and fall of the Aztec empire in the Americas occurred during a two-year period in the 16th century, when Cortez showed up with a few hundred Spanish Conquistadors. It would probably be something similar to what happened back then.

 

[evilchumlee]

The destruction and fall of the Aztec empire in the Americas occurred during a two-year period in the 16th century, when Cortez showed up with a few hundred Spanish Conquistadors. It would probably be something similar to what happened back then.

My only issue there is that it was less the Spanish military and technological superiority as it was... smallpox. The blankets killed more people than the Spanish did. Which I mean, fair enough something like that could absolutely happen.

It would be like pitting the Goa'Uld against Medieval societies of Stargate... and we know what happened there. On the whole, the medievals were enslaved.
In some cases where they revolted, they used Goa'Uld own tech and arrogance to mount the resistance and then buried the remains or used them to help in their own advancement.

Kind of along the idea of what i'm going for, but i'm looking more of the process of that happening moreson than the aftermath.

Any remotely more sensible scenario would likely result in medievals losing badly with minimal effort from the advanced soldiers who wouldn't litter technology for the locals to use against them (in fact, safeguards would likely exist so the locals can't use them), and would probably use different methods for the purpose of subjugation.

As for how many would be needed... probably a relatively small amount for the entire planet (if there are 300 million total on the planet)... about 30,000 to 50,000 depending on the level of tech they have.

The level of tech is kind of... "sufficiently advanced". Somewhere inbetween Star Trek and Warhammer 40,000, like you have genetically engineered soldiers in power armor somewhat akin to Space Marines, which more Star Trek-like weaponry like phasers.

I was figuring about a population of 300 millionish. To add some context, and I like that you added something about the methods used and a comparison to the Goa'uld because there are similarities.

The idea is that this is a lost human colony that broke down to nothing and has kind of rebuilt into a medieval-ish type civilization. Meanwhile an ancient human ship from -insert time- ago shows up with a mandate to basically reunite and rebuild the shattered remnants of humanity. The kicker is that while they have advanced technology... they don't have all of it, and alot has broken down over the -time period-. Their ship is also useless, crash landing onto the world but they DO have a bunch of sublight shuttles and fighter craft at their disposal.

There is a predominant religion on this world that worships their ancestors as some sort of gods, the myth (somewhat true) that the gods had left them on this world, and would one day return. When a starship falls from the Heavens... it seems to fulfill a prophecy and the invaders decided to use it to their advantage. So... yeah, Goa'uld in nature, they're masquerading as gods.

The advanced technology coupled with the power of religion I think could even lessen the number needed as I think quite a few would just surrender to "the gods".

 

[Vagabond Elf]

The Mexica (which is what the Aztecs called themselves) weren't just fighting the Spanish, nor smallpox, but also all four of their neighbours/client states who, combined, were about 50% larger than the Mexica Empire. The biggest thing Cortez did was encourage those client states to all rise up against the local overlord at the same time - the Mexica were capable of dealing with any two of them at once, and none of them trusted each other, so that didn't happen until a charismatic outside pushed them over the edge all together.

As for the OP's question: I would say you need about 100 people (a company) for every significant population centre on the planet. The wars having been won, you really need cops, not soldiers, and you don't need very many of them for most situations - but if the occupying force is less than 100 or so souls, you'll have morale issues and defections. Putting a company of MPs in every major city or village chain ought to handle most of the problems, and "sufficiently advanced" technology means these companies are all in coms contact with each other and can reach their neighbours in two or three hours at worst, even if that means a suborbital bounce. I am, it should be made clear, assuming that the subject population is responding much like the average person in Europe did when their village moved from one kingdom to another - the nobles mostly left them alone, their taxes usually didn't change much, and they mostly carried on with their lives without much caring who was ultimately in charge. In the context of a sci-fi invasion, the real troupblemakers would be the former leaders and nobles.

Exactly how many of these MP companies you need will depend on how dispersed the subject population is. Obviously, if the occupying force is being truly oppressive, you need more garrison troops. Against a truly hostile, actively resisting population, you could get as bad as needing one MP for every 10 locals, plus 2 more MPs so they all have a chance to sleep.

 

[evilchumlee]

I am, it should be made clear, assuming that the subject population is responding much like the average person in Europe did when their village moved from one kingdom to another - the nobles mostly left them alone, their taxes usually didn't change much, and they mostly carried on with their lives without much caring who was ultimately in charge. In the context of a sci-fi invasion, the real troupblemakers would be the former leaders and nobles.

This is mostly what i'm looking at. The common people by and large are fine with the conquest... alot of them see the advanced people as gods and pretty much welcome them in.

The former leaders and nobles by and large get to stay leaders and nobles if they're willing to play ball.

Exactly how many of these MP companies you need will depend on how dispersed the subject population is. Obviously, if the occupying force is being truly oppressive, you need more garrison troops. Against a truly hostile, actively resisting population, you could get as bad as needing one MP for every 10 locals, plus 2 more MPs so they all have a chance to sleep.

They wouldn't be particularly oppressive at all, and go with more of a "hearts and minds" approach. They'll move into a population center and immediately try to improve some aspect of their lives with some of their technology. They don't generally want to depose local leadership, just bring them into the fold.

They're a bit more Romanesque in their conquering. They just want to plant the flag, get some taxes, and call you a part of the Empire. Other than that, you can pretty much do what you were doing before.

In my situation here, I have about 35,000 people to work with for this invasion. The world could even be a bit less populated than 300 million but that seems like a good stand in number. Most of those 35,000 aren't soldiers, they're general civilians but they are loyal and willing to basically do what they are told.

Your numbers actually kind of work out to what my preliminary forces... there's about 1,000 soldiers who are both genetically enhanced (they're basically Trek Augments) and armed with various sci-fi weaponry (at least a portion of each company has some sort of power armor). I initially had them break off into 10 Companies of 100 to set about conquering the planet, with the pool of the 35,000ish civilians to conscript and utilize as necessary.

I think my general could actually work here, also assuming that at least SOME of the population centers will put up little to no fight and just surrender.