Ancients’ Infantry

[J Harper]

Would the Ancients have had a need for infantry of any sort or did their tech level make the concept obsolete? I know Vland was plagued by Ancient created machines, but I don’t know if those were made for warfare or were purposed for something else and ended up running amok.

 

[Galadrion]

Considering that there were always far fewer than a thousand Ancients, I would say that they relied on servitor species and robots for any large-scale military needs. (If you got them all gathered together and pointed the same direction - something even Grandfather couldn't manage - the entirety of the Ancients would have amounted to about four companies. Admittedly, they'd have some incredible force multipliers available due to advanced technology, but they'd still be rather limited in their effective scope of operation.)

 

[Sigtrygg]

There is a reason the Droyne have a warrior caste...

also if they (the Ancients) need troops of any sort they could manufacture them: synthetics, robots, sentient battlesuits

Ever wonder why the Droyne are not particularly bothered by death...

 

[WHULorigan]

Would the Ancients have had a need for infantry of any sort or did their tech level make the concept obsolete? I know Vland was plagued by Ancient created machines, but I don’t know if those were made for warfare or were purposed for something else and ended up running amok.

My guess would be that the Ancients at their height custom-designed whatever offensive/defensive mechanisms they needed, whether robotic, organic, or transcendent-AI systems (or combined), acting on location or as a remotely deployed device, (each made to order and deployed individually (or perhaps they even reengineered physics locally as required)). It seems to me the Ancients "proper" (i.e. the "Draysaskin") were beyond anything so primitive as "infantry". Original and Modified Droyne (and other subject races) may be a different matter, however.

My understanding is that the Ancient-machines on Vland and their ilk were purpose-designed war-machines.

 

[WHULorigan]

Considering that there were always far fewer than a thousand Ancients, I would say that they relied on servitor species and robots for any large-scale military needs. (If you got them all gathered together and pointed the same direction - something even Grandfather couldn't manage - the entirety of the Ancients would have amounted to about four companies. Admittedly, they'd have some incredible force multipliers available due to advanced technology, but they'd still be rather limited in their effective scope of operation.)

421 Draysaskin precisely, I believe (or 420 plus Yaskoydray).

 

[Varulv]

I think Heinlein wrote in Starship Troopers that there are only two types of soldiers; Infantry, and those who support infantry in one way or another. Can't find the exact quote, but it might be true for the ancients as well even if the infantry itself consists of other sophonts or machines.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I shudder to think what a TL28 ancient combat "infantry machine" would be capable of...

 

[MongooseMatt]

This is something that will be looked at in Wrath of the Ancients...

 

[Condottiere]

 

[alex_greene]

I suspect Yasko's two big regrets were (1) cloning 420 of himself; (b) thinking that humans from Earth would make good beasts of burden and expendable troops. I guess he may have begun to regret, the day he realised that both his kin and the humans could learn how to handle his toys.
And worse - that both the kids and the humans could invent toys of their own.

 

[Subzero001]

maybe something along Spartans from Halo?