Relative Faction/House Millitary Strength...

[Trogdor]

The BHG Core and Coalition made your list but the Zoners did not?

Collectively, the Zoners have a lot of resources. Not to mention TWO battleships and TWO cruisers (and don't even go there with the Corvo. It's a cruiser, not a liner.). Say what you will about Zoner caps not being for combat. From what I remember reading, Zoner caps are supposed to be incredibly powerful - weapons of deterrence.

Not that any of this matters since we're talkin' hypotheticals.

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[dodike]

Hessians > Zoners > Corsairs > IMG > Outcasts > House militaries > House corporations

[Trogdor]

Erm, as much as I like that list better, we're talking lore here, not player count. Because if we were counting ingame, I'm pretty sure the Zoners have more battleboats than everyone else has people. Combined.

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[Knjaz]

Just my 2 cents.

Rheinland wasn't always low on resources - Rheinland was the power before the 80 Years war. They wasted their strength in that war because of <strike>inept leadership.</strike> Digital Anvil.

Fix'ed
There's alot of stuff in FL that doesn't make sense.

[McNeo]

The BHG Core and Coalition made your list but the Zoners did not?

Collectively, the Zoners have a lot of resources. Not to mention TWO battleships and TWO cruisers (and don't even go there with the Corvo. It's a cruiser, not a liner.). Say what you will about Zoner caps not being for combat. From what I remember reading, Zoner caps are supposed to be incredibly powerful - weapons of deterrence.

Not that any of this matters since we're talkin' hypotheticals.

And that's the reason why I've never acknowledged the "it's a well-protected research ship!" argument.

If we're doing the numbers thing:

Gallia: 100,000
Liberty: 70,000
Rheinland: 50,000
Bretonia: 30,000
Kusari: 20,000
Corsairs: 10,000
Hessians: 8,000
Outcasts: 7,000

Truth be told, I'd like to switch Rheinland and Kusari on that list. Rheinland was a spent force less than two decades ago, burning all its reserves and mobilising absolutely everything. But the real reason for this is that "The Road to Rheinland" Corsair news articles (1-3 are vanilla) totally discount the Rheinland Military as a viable force from the point of view of what is essentially a pirate faction, attributing the true threat to the Red Hessians instead.

When us Corsairs did an ingame event of this, we lost (mostly because Dboy was on their team and not ours), but we also did it wrong. Our target was New Berlin, but the vanilla target of this was Dresden, to destroy the heart of the Hessians and end the stalemate in the Omegas.

However, after quite a few years of what I really consider artificial strengthening of Rheinland through a lot of people essentially believing its a very cool house, we've ended up with a house that has gone from the edge of military (Road to Rheinland), social (mass migration of the rich from Stuttgart to Los Angeles) and economic (nomad war) collapse to one that is apparently able to muster more than a token resistance to a military force designed to murder two houses at once.

I also disagree with the idea that the Outcasts, Hessians and Corsairs wouldn't be able to challenge any of the houses. None would win an offensive war based on pitched battles, that's a safe bet, but they are all so entrenched in their areas of influence within the houses that the authorities would have to expend a vast amount of resources to remove them. This is the same idea as Rheinland trying to remove the GMG from the Sigmas; the GMG waged a defensive war and was thus able to win. Had they tried to wage an offensive war, they would have lost very quickly. There's no RL comparison to make either; modern-day terrorists are disorganised and poorly equipped, and middle-east militaries aren't much better. Gadaffi was using Katyusha rocket systems to try to stem the social unrest happening in his country, which is what Stalin was using 70 years ago. Here, in FL, there is no technology gap between the lesser forces and the greater ones.

Oh yes, and I don't consider the nomads a force even a hundredth of how strong their players say that they are. They got owned by one guy in an Anubis. Or a Starflier in some cases, but those are like 20 minute speedruns of Super Mario 64. And why do nomads have shields again?

Alas, that's the way the world turns.

[Syrus]

I'd say:

Gallia 1000 - blargh, 1000 is set as the "biggest military"
Liberty 700 - Said to have the biggest military from Sirius
Rheinland 600 - Left-overs from the Nomad War build up
Kusari 300 - Lost everything during the Nomad War and lost a lot again during the Gallic invasion.
Bretonia 250 - They weren't really involved in the Nomad War, but didn't have much to begin with. The war with Kusari caused trouble already, now their army's strength is even lower.
Nomads 150 - ACTIVE strength, not inactive. Because they probably have a lot more inactive "ships" around (keeping in mind that their inactive stuff is all over the whole galaxy(?), their real strength probably exceeds that of Gallia).

Corsairs 80 - Lack of ressources and only one planet with very bad conditions to grow food.
Outcasts 75 - Lower number, better technology iRP though
Council 70 - Well, they put some dents into Gallia, so...
Hessians 65 - Very big movement with quite good access to ressources actually, also decently supported. Question is, do they mine ressources?
Coalition 40 - Very centered around fighting, lack ressources and manpower otherwise.
CR 40 - Also very centered around fighting, had a lot of wars lately though and had to move all their people to Coronado.
GMG 35 - Based on snubs and skill they can even put out a good fight without a big army. Their paramilitary is still not to be taken lightly, especially with their guerilla fighting style in the Sigma-parts of the Crow nebula.
IMG 30 - Their paramilitary fought Outcasts for a long time now and thereby learned how to fight and survive in the asteroid fields with countless enemies around.
Order / Core 30 - both suffered (heavy) losses, hard to say which one has more left.
Zoners 25 - Their military strength is not much. Due to their pacifist nature they mostly lack fighting skills. Numbers though make them rather "strong".
Blood Dragons 20 - Left overs from a time before time eh...long time ago. But their fighting skill is superior.
Hellfire Legion 15 - Lack the numbers.
Liberty Rogues 15 - Too unorganized.
Mollys 15 - Too drunk. ...What?


++EDIT: Put Core and Order lower.

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[AeternusDoleo]

The BHG Core and Coalition made your list but the Zoners did not?

The Zoners (IMG as well) aren't frappin military factions. If it'd been my say, the Zoners would never have gotten caps beyond perhaps that weak carrier (mobile freeport) and the Fearless (heavy defense). The Jinkusu/Nephilim is a misstake in my opinion, allowing for the Zoners to have a WAY more agressive stance then is warranted for their role in the game.

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Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.

Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.

[Barbarossa]

Rheinland > Liberty > Bretonia > Kusari > Outcasts = Corsairs > Zoners > Hessians > Nomads > Everyone Else

RP wise, I think your opinion is correct, but in reality, in my opinion, the list should go like that.

Rheinland capital ships are way too stronger than any Liberty cap. They are winning more and more battles these days with minimal losses.

Kusari looks weaker but in raids, Kusari can show its real power. They've gone more silent since 486.

Corsairs and Outcasts is incomparable. Outcasts actually have more ships but they are inactive. Corsairs are active, but not much ships.

Zoners is like Kusari. They got big firepower but their juggiez are inactive, probably because of RP.

Hessians, as said 3rd strongest pirate group in Sirius. They got many active players, ships, capital ship, and allies.

Nomads is last due to inactivity.

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[arvg]

arbitrary numbers are arbitrary.

The Coalition can hold it's own just fine thank you.

It isn't about ship numbers, but the quality of the units in question.

Just ask the 300:)

Everyone you ask is going to have different numbers, even in the Dev team, based off of their own opinions. Nothing is set in stone, nothing is canon.

We might turn around tomorrow and discover the Corsairs have a brand new, resource rich system they've been hiding that gives them the final edge in the OC/Corsair war.

Gallia could be a paper tiger, like China is militarily. The Worlds biggest army, but most of that army are actually construction workers or civil servants as both must be in the army.

For example the Coaliton, everyone has been called to service. Children are running the reserve fleets right now. The population swells each shipment of refugees we take in...

To guess we are or are not better than another group is entirely subjective.

The Coalition may only field a pair of battleships, and 6 cruisers. But what about it's seeming near limitless supply of gunboats/snubs? We have, in lore, three factories spitting them out, one of the size of a moon.

The point is, it's a game, and all our guesses are going to be off.

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[Gentlefood]

Just ask the 300:)

They all died at the battle.

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