Defeating the Draka.

[Setzer]

This was from a thread I found in rec.arts.scifi.written. It's about ways to defeat the Draka. Those of you who have read the books, pick this apart at your leisure. It assumes a date before the Final war or Eurasian war.

The thread can be found here: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&l ... 26rnum%3D1

Daniel Patrick Duffy wrote this:

There are several ways to defeat the Draka:

1. Just wait until the Domination starves. With an agricultural
technology at a medieval level (hand hoes and mule drawn plows) and a
plantation organization (alway less efficient than free farmers except
possibly in certain cash crops such as cotton), the drafting of all
those able bodied serfs into the Janissaries would cause the land to lie
unplowed and unharvested. Manual agriculture workers end up requiring
most of the calories they produce, leaving little surplus for the rest
of the population (non plantation serfs and the Draka themselves). That
is why, until the advent of McCormick's reaper before the American Civil
War, the vast majority of people on the planet were peasant farmers.
Only a tiny percentage were priests, artisans, nobles, warriors or
traders. But then, if they mechanized their agriculture, there would
not be much need for serfs.

2. Just wait until the Draka industry collapses. Having inefficiently
organized their agriculture in the first place, and then wrecking it
completely with Janissary drafts, very little skilled (or unskilled for
that matter) manpower is left to man the factories, mines and power
plants of the Domination. Given the lack of initiative and skill
endemic to a broken work force of serfs, what few Draka that can be
spared from the war effort must spend their time directly maintaining
the machinery themselves. Expansions of existing facilities would have
to wait until after the war given the lack of workers due to Janissary
drafts. If Draka agricultural techniques are primitive so must be their
construction techniques. Digging the foundation of a building requires
either one good sized mechanical hoe or hundreds of serfs with picks and
shovels. But then, if they mechanized their construction, there would
not be much need for serfs.

3. Defeat the Draka at sea. Not much point in having a navy crewed by
serfs. Like the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin, they would
mutiny at the first opportunity and sail away to the nearest free port.
Since most of the Draka are in the army or the air force, this doesn't
leave much for the Draka navy. By the way, how much commercial fishing
is done by the Draka? Probably not much for the reasons just cited.
However, since most coastal regions rely upon fish protein as a dietary
staple (and most of the world's population lives near the coast)
malnutritian most be endemic to the Domination.

4. Defeat the Draka on the beaches. Given the limitations of their
navy, and resultant lack of heavy transport, either the Italian navy
would have intercepted and destroyed the Draka invasion fleet or
prevented its reinforcement by heavy armored units. Taking Sicily by a
surprise airborne assault is about the best the Draka could hope for.
Afterwards, with the cream of the Draka army cut off from reinforcement
and resupply, the Italians could retake the island at their leisure.
Perhaps even parading their captives in a victory celebration in Rome.
Remember, most supplies for a modern army require sea and rail transport
- air transport has severe limitations as the Sixth army found out at
Stalingrad. Even a superman like the Draka is at a disadvantage if he
runs out of bullets.

5. Defeat the Draka on land. The Draka themselves (fine soldiers
though they obviously are)are not lead by strategic geniuses. A heavily
defended mountain pass in the Caucasus with a panzer reserve nearbye is
about the last place you would launch an airborne assault (anyone seen
"A Bridge To Far"?). Meanwhile, at the other end of the Black Sea,
Draka forces in Bulgaria are a stone's throw away from the Ploesti oil
fields in Romania - the Reich's one true source of essential POLs. A
Balkan thrust would make far more sense, especially in conjunction with
an invasion of Italy.

In conclusion, I would like to offer the following quote:

"Amateurs talk about tactics, professionals talk about logistics".

[Admiral Piett]

"1. Just wait until the Domination starves. With an agricultural
technology at a medieval level (hand hoes and mule drawn plows) and a
plantation organization (alway less efficient than free farmers except
possibly in certain cash crops such as cotton), the drafting of all
those able bodied serfs into the Janissaries would cause the land to lie
unplowed and unharvested. Manual agriculture workers end up requiring
most of the calories they produce, leaving little surplus for the rest
of the population (non plantation serfs and the Draka themselves). That
is why, until the advent of McCormick's reaper before the American Civil
War, the vast majority of people on the planet were peasant farmers.
Only a tiny percentage were priests, artisans, nobles, warriors or
traders. But then, if they mechanized their agriculture, there would
not be much need for serfs."

Their agriculture is not so primitive.They try to avoid to use agricultural machinery driven by engines but everything else is well built an relatively advanced.If I recall correctly they have machines powered by animal force,like those that are used by the amish.

2. Just wait until the Draka industry collapses. Having inefficiently
organized their agriculture in the first place, and then wrecking it
completely with Janissary drafts, very little skilled (or unskilled for
that matter) manpower is left to man the factories, mines and power
plants of the Domination. Given the lack of initiative and skill
endemic to a broken work force of serfs, what few Draka that can be
spared from the war effort must spend their time directly maintaining
the machinery themselves. Expansions of existing facilities would have
to wait until after the war given the lack of workers due to Janissary
drafts. If Draka agricultural techniques are primitive so must be their
construction techniques. Digging the foundation of a building requires
either one good sized mechanical hoe or hundreds of serfs with picks and
shovels. But then, if they mechanized their construction, there would
not be much need for serfs.

They are quite advanced and definitively do not use "pick and shovels".They keep the agriculture at a low level of automation,but it is more a whim rather anything else.Serfs are available in abundance.So filling the factories etc with unskilled labor is not a problem.

3. Defeat the Draka at sea. Not much point in having a navy crewed by
serfs. Like the crew of the Russian battleship Potemkin, they would
mutiny at the first opportunity and sail away to the nearest free port.
Since most of the Draka are in the army or the air force, this doesn't
leave much for the Draka navy. By the way, how much commercial fishing
is done by the Draka? Probably not much for the reasons just cited.
However, since most coastal regions rely upon fish protein as a dietary
staple (and most of the world's population lives near the coast)
malnutritian most be endemic to the Domination.

Well they, did not mutiny at Tsushima after all.
The jannissaires are officeered by drakan officers and have some privileges in the drakan society.Their navy must be at least decent,considered the status of the army.

The problem with Draka is that it is absolutely impossible,period.The federation economy is workable in comparison.

Apart from the fact that any big enough western capitalist society (read the Alliance) should kick their asses in a cold war,their society could have not arisen in first place.
A society that can draw their scientists only from a small èlite, keep literature etc so in high value and waste potential on biological researches of dubious value would be seriously handicapped in a technological race. Even the soviets would fare much better than them.
Eventually it would come to a point where espionage would be the principar source of technological innovation.
They also do not have industrial reserve capacity to speak of,thus a mobilized western society would outproduce them.
In short they would get their asses kicked.

[NecronLord]

You can't defeat the draka they have the universe's largest character sheild.

A lot of the stuff they get up to in their early days would result in the british stepping on them.

http://gateway.alternatehistory.com/tim ... draka.html

Here is a more realistic version of events...

[The Yosemite Bear]

My favorite Alt.history joke was to trasnport the Draka at the time of the founding of Archon, to China, Right when Temunjin was expanding his borders.

Come on, the Horselords would trample the Drakka.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Or better yet, just do unto them what the rest of Greece did to Sparta.

[willburns84]

Or better yet, just do unto them what the rest of Greece did to Sparta.

Which was what? My history is a little fuzzy there.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Which was what? My history is a little fuzzy there.

IIRC, the Spartans were gang-beaten by everyone else in Greece; because everyone hated them.

[NecronLord]

Actually in the draka timeline, no one ever attacks them! If the brits or the french or any power of time decided to deal with them as opposed to do all sorts of kowtowing for no reason they'd loose horribly.

[SirNitram]

Draka is yet another example of an author wanting to write for a specific kind of government and setup and creating a truly pathetic backstory. Just to be sure this setup, one which is economically and infrastructurally moronic, will win all the wars he gives them unheard of technological progression in peacetime. Therefore, I've no interest in them. If I want a 'uberhumans lording over serfs' setting, I have Netheril, which actually makes sense, or at least more than Draka.