"The End of the Space Age"

[Maximus]

It would require some knowledge of Human anatomy to do that.  Which means they would need to capture humans.

What makes you think they haven't.

[Siege]

It would require some knowledge of Human anatomy to do that.  Which means they would need to capture humans.

An almost impossible task for aliens who have developed the ability to travel to other habitable planets.

Exactly. They would be so civilized that their rules of engagement will not allow them to kidnap humans unless the human inquestion have kidnapped one of them first.

[Razgovory]

It would require some knowledge of Human anatomy to do that.  Which means they would need to capture humans.

What makes you think they haven't.

Cause nobody has seen them.

[Siege]

99.9% fatality rate leaves 6 million people, presumably some of them will have access to US/Russian/PRC/Euro armories. The alien invasion force is likely to be much smaller than that, though having superior firepower. So there's still potential for some good ground battles.

Ha. Right.

There are 6 billion humans, of those, about 60 millions have ever used a weapon outside a video game.
Of those, about 6 million would have actual combat training in these times of peace.
Of those, about 600 000 would have actual combat tested combat skills that could be used against aliens.

Now, in case of an alien invasion, all us soldier boys in active service will be dead during the first week, and only the few civilians that survived would be left to find your weapons and fight.
Lets just say that the learning curve will have a high attrition rate.

And in the end, every alien invasion movie is nothing more than an analogy of western invasion of 3rd world countries.

[Eddie Teach]

The aliens are likely to be mainly civilians as well. But you're right that they'd win out.

[HVC]

It would require some knowledge of Human anatomy to do that.  Which means they would need to capture humans.

An almost impossible task for aliens who have developed the ability to travel to other habitable planets.

Exactly. They would be so civilized that their rules of engagement will not allow them to kidnap humans unless the human inquestion have kidnapped one of them first.

if they've come this far  they want something. if they only want to study us they'd send probes or something. why send a fleet if they just want to say hello. if an alien fleet ever comes kiss your ass goodbye

[Siege]

The aliens are likely to be mainly civilians as well. But you're right that they'd win out.

I agree. It will probably be some deep space exploration ship.
Or maybe a trade ship looking for exotic goods. Maybe art pieces.

Worst would be a ship belonging to a mining company.
If there are rare valuable minerals at our planets' core that we don't know about, we are fucked.
A mining company would have no use for us. Some form of extermination will be in store for us.
Maybe asteroids, if that is the cheapest way.
If nukes are cheap for them, they just need to show one little ship in orbit and start nuking our cities.
By the 3rd city, our society would collapse, panic would ensue, and we would starve ourselves.
Society would collapse into anarchy all the way down to the warlord level.
We would fight each other for scraps of food.

[The Brain]

I've fought worse for less.

[PRC]

The alien(s) will be solar system sized clouds of sentient gas.  They will just envelop the entire solar system and transmute all the life and materials and resources therein into energy that it will then consume.

[Ideologue]

99.9% fatality rate leaves 6 million people, presumably some of them will have access to US/Russian/PRC/Euro armories. The alien invasion force is likely to be much smaller than that, though having superior firepower. So there's still potential for some good ground battles.

That's why I said a couple of viruses with 99.9% fatality rates.

The alien(s) will be solar system sized clouds of sentient gas.  They will just envelop the entire solar system and transmute all the life and materials and resources therein into energy that it will then consume.

Not on Ferro Lad's watch.

[crazy canuck]

Wait a minute - they would make us breed?

I for one welcome our new alien overlords who can take over our planet with no need of a ground war.

[grumbler]

I don't read books that don't have pictures in them.  It's inefficient.

Anyway, I really doubt any book that features ground combat can possibly be one of the "greatest alien invasion novels ever written," since aliens would never need to deign to resort to infantry tactics.  It would be like instead of dropping the bomb, just landing the Enola Gay on Uchibori Street, running up to the palace, and challenging Hirohito to a swordfight instead.

You should read it, if you like SF.  It is dated, but one of the better Niven-Pournelle books, and they made a pretty good team.

Unlike you, the authors don't start with the assumption that they will create a society which will win an encounter with humans with trivial ease.  They instead create a society with social norms and expectations, and play with the idea of how those would impact the success of their invasion.  Your hypothetical "America" wouldn't need to deign to engage in ground combat in Iraq; it would just nuke the country and kill everyone.  Your "America" is boring, though, so your book would suck.

Footfall isn't brilliant (it was nominated for several awards, but didn't win) but is well above average for a SF book.

[DontSayBanana]

Thinking of books that touch on the subject material in this thread, anybody read the Cobra Trilogy by Timothy Zahn?

[Ideologue]

I don't read books that don't have pictures in them.  It's inefficient.

Anyway, I really doubt any book that features ground combat can possibly be one of the "greatest alien invasion novels ever written," since aliens would never need to deign to resort to infantry tactics.  It would be like instead of dropping the bomb, just landing the Enola Gay on Uchibori Street, running up to the palace, and challenging Hirohito to a swordfight instead.

You should read it, if you like SF.  It is dated, but one of the better Niven-Pournelle books, and they made a pretty good team.

Unlike you, the authors don't start with the assumption that they will create a society which will win an encounter with humans with trivial ease.  They instead create a society with social norms and expectations, and play with the idea of how those would impact the success of their invasion.  Your hypothetical "America" wouldn't need to deign to engage in ground combat in Iraq; it would just nuke the country and kill everyone.  Your "America" is boring, though, so your book would suck.

I wouldn't necessarily suck, but it would probably be pretty depressing.

Footfall isn't brilliant (it was nominated for several awards, but didn't win) but is well above average for a SF book.

Ah, well, I may check it out some time then.

[jimmy olsen]

By the way, Tyr, I liked that painting.  Something to do with Larry Niven?

You've never read Footfall!

It's one of the greatest alien invasion novels ever written, go to your library at once!

I don't read books that don't have pictures in them.  It's inefficient.

Anyway, I really doubt any book that features ground combat can possibly be one of the "greatest alien invasion novels ever written," since aliens would never need to deign to resort to infantry tactics.  It would be like instead of dropping the bomb, just landing the Enola Gay on Uchibori Street, running up to the palace, and challenging Hirohito to a swordfight instead.

They spam Rods From God everyway and drop an 5km asteroid on the planet. What more do you want?