Hello,
another way to look at planetary invasion scenarios is to look
at the possible adventures:
* Straight military: The Navy lost the fight at the Jump Points
and in orbit, so now the Army must fight them on the landing
zones, in the fields and in the streets, and finally in the
hills.
The characters are members of military units, with whatever
weaponry their society can come up with, and the battle is by
no means lost.
That works best if the alien invaders are roughly human-sized
individuals, with technical weapons of their own.
Archetypes: Starship Troopers, the novel. Stargate. Star Wars
Episode I. Many Battlestar Galactica episodes. This often
shades into Outthink the Enemy, below.
* Bug Hunt: Military units go against hordes of monsters. There
are no formed units, no real characters on the enemy side,
just endless cannon fodder.
This will get boring pretty soon, unless it becomes another
variety.
Archetypes: Starship Troopers, the movie. Aliens.
* Analyze the Enemy: The monsters cannot be defeated by a high
volume of fire alone, it takes scientific insight to come up
with an answer.
Some characters may be military, but scientists and other
civilians can play a role.
Archetypes: The Mote in God's Eye by Niven and Pournelle[1].
The War against the Chtorr by Gerrold.
* Outthink the Enemy: As above, but against a thinking enemy.
Spies may play a role, along with technical R&D as opposed
to "pure science" biology/ecology.
Again there could be a mix of soldiers and civilians.
Archetypes: The Honor Harrington series by Weber. Stargate
(some episodes). Turtledove's World War.
* Resistance: The battle has been lost, but the invaders don't
want to exterminate Mankind, at least not now. A few brave
heroes are going to stand up and renew the fight.
To make this work, you probably have to see the invaders as
individual characters, who can be reasoned with, deceived,
or otherwise influenced.
Characters are mostly from civilian backgrounds, perhaps with
a few scientists or veterans for variety.
Archetypes: V. Star Wars, Episode IV[2]. Some BG episodes.
A key question for all these scenarios is just how human (or
inhuman) the invaders are. Is communication possible? Can
there be a compromize or peace accord?[3] Are the invaders
other humans (or nearly human) no worse than other dictators
in history?
Regards,
Onno
[1] The Moties were sentient, but the solution was biological.
[2] Except for the battle, of course.
[3] You have to talk to make peace, but being too similar may
make a lasting peace impossible -- do both want the same
real estate?
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