Talk:Free Planets Alliance

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Outclassed?

Outclassing means better quality. How did Bewcock's forces, which put up a tremendous fight - and even gave the Imperials more than a few moments of scare - with 20,000 to 23,000 ships against something like 100,000 ships - get outclassed? Outnumbered, I get. Outclassed? I think Bewcock and Yang both completely outclassed the Imperials on Mar-Adetta AND the War in the Corridor. FPA Forever

As for Bewcock outclassing the Imperials at Mar-Adetta, I think that's an enormous exaggeration. Its not like Reuenthal and Reinhard weren't calling out what the enemy would do throughout the battle, and Reinhard personally was never in any real danger, and he acted accordingly. It was a completely doomed effort (and a gigantic waste of resources, really).Vympel 03:31, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Perhaps, but given the odds, and given how well he fought, to say Bewcock was outclassed was also an exaggeration, no? And what do you think Bewcock should have done instead of fighting at Mar-Adetta? FPA Forever

Bewcock like Merkatz are examples of veterans of the old order. They are experienced and competent, but ultimately rather conventional. Like Merkatz, Bewcock had fought all his life for the old system and could not see himself abandoning that system, even if merging forces with Yang might have yielded better results. This may be a bit of Japanese cultural legacy to do with the whole concept of eternal loyalty to one's lord or government, even when that government or lord is incompetent or destroyed. The entire Battle of Mar-Adetta was really a long shot for the Alliance, but I would say the destruction of one of the escorting battleships next to the Brünhild showed Bewcock had done better than even Reinhard expected. You can see the growing concern of the Imperial commanders as the battle progresses. Iracundus 05:21, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Generally speaking, it would be better to say the Alliance in general was outclassed, rather than Bewcock in particular. Admiral for Admiral, I don't think Bewcock was a match for any of Reinhard's top-tier vassals - Reuenthal, Mittermeyer, Müller. Bewcock's task was also made much easier because he had no concern for achieving any sort of decisive victory - all he needed to do was destroy Brünhild, without concern for lives lost or their fate after it was done. Bewcock definitely did better than Reinhard expected (even allowing for the geographical advantage, as they repeatedly note), but Reinhard never seemed terribly concerned at Bewcock's progress, even as enemy fire came close to the supreme flagship. Vympel 05:36, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Then would it be fair to say that the Yang Fleet outclassed Reinhard's Imperial Fleet during the Battle of the Corridor? Admiral for Admiral, Yang was better than even the top-tier Admirals, and arguably better than Reinhard himself. And his 20,000-ships fleet did manage to fight a 150,000-ships fleet on equal. Now imagine Yang with twice the number of ships. Imagine what the Magician could have managed. Boggles the mind. FPA Forever

Population

How did the FPA manage to get from 160,000 citizens to 1,500,000,000 in 113 years?!? — 174.91.245.99

I would imagine through major financial incentives for having children. Iracundus 09:12, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

There are a lot of population questions in the series. As far as that particular number, though, i'm not sure where it even comes from. I've just grepped for '1500000000', '1,500,000,000', and '1.5 billion' in CA's subtitle files (for the main OVA), and i got zero results. I've also checked episode 040, and i don't see it mentioned there either. So it's very possible that the number we have is not even correct.

(FWIW though, that is an extraordinary number. It would be something like an 8.44% population growth rate, which is double the highest population growth rate on Earth. If that number really is taken from the series, it's possible someone just did a slight miscalculation: 1.5 million would be about a 2% growth rate, which is what the global rate was in the 1960s, so maybe they accidentally multiplied that by 1000.)

If someone could find a citation for that number, that would be helpful!  ♥ kine @ 09:33, 10 December 2011 (UTC)

Well, there is one number we know for the FPA in UC 640: The soldiers in the FPA Fleet. Its stated in some documents that it was 2,500,000. Now, this is for the 25,000 ships that Lin Pao led, which is fairly certainly every single warship they had - I don't see the FPA being able to afford not sending everything they had back then. Added to that, Admiral Birolinen commanded the supply fleet, and it stands to reason there'd be at least a token military back on Heinessen to make the basic military services work. All in all, its hard to see the military of the time as less than 3 million. These are the values I get when I calculate given percentages by UC 640.

1% - 492,000 (Impossible given the 2.5+ military of the time, and the fact that that era was supposed to be an incredible golden age rivalling the golden age of the Galactic Federation.

2% - 1,282,000 (Same as the 1%)

3% - 4,373,000 (This is a very good growth rate, maybe not the awesome growth the series and novels allude to. Besides, no way the military is 60% or more of the population).

4% - 13,430,000 (Very high growth rate, still hard to believe the military would be such a HUGE chunk of the population (1 soldier in 5 total people, including kids and elders).

5% - 39,371,000 (Pretty much the highest value we got on our dear Earth. Military no less than 7% of the population. BARELY possible if one called up volunteers from everywhere and strained every facet of society to maintain the fleet).

6% - 115,191,000 (Highest value I can see for myself. Military is 2.5% of the population. Possible if they were called up partly as militia to man their carefully-stockpiled warships.)

7% - 339,938,000 (Hard to see this growth rate. Military is clearly possible here.)

8% - 931,658,000 (No way. Just... no way)

8.5% - 1,605,469,000.

So its impossible in my mind that the FPA, even with the best civil aid and endowments, could sustain a 8% to 8.5% growth rate. The best they can come up in my mins would be 5% to 6.5% (40 million to 187 million people).

I have a hard time seeing the population as more than 150 million people by UC 640. Thus, its possible the number was erroneously multiplied by 10.

I agree it is unlikely  ♥ kine @ 18:55, 10 December 2011 (UTC)