Do you always want Quality over Quanity in military forces?

[Parzivell]

Battle of Thermopylae is a good example of this. The Persians won the battle in the end, taking control of Boeotia, Phocis, and Attica. I would like to know peoples thought on this and what situations this could be true. Would this apply today with our modern technology in warfare?

Edited April 29, 2020 at 09:30 AM by ODST J Sechemet

[Jason L Lewis]

sech you dont even wanna get me started bro

 

[Gregor Adrik]

There are a lot more variables at play. I think the outcome of military engagements can hardly be approximated on only those axes. Even something as simple as the gulf in quality needs to be considered in order to make such a generalization. For example, one modern aircraft carrier could likely take on the entire British Navy at the time of the Revolutionary war.

Or... one really good spartan can destroy two forerunner installations and a moon sized alien capital city.

However, the gulf in quantity is also relevant as 100 entire 16th century British Navies could easily overwhelm that same carrier.

Also, to extend the reasoning to the example you provided about the Greek Spartans, what made their holdout so successful was not just the quality of their personnel but also the geography of the position they were holding.

[Jason L Lewis]

This was a larger player in wars like I and II when countries had massive militaries ready to call in the event of total war. russia had numbers. Germany had quality. in a 1 on 1 it could go either way. but front size, number, and other variables play heavily in modern war as well.

[Shandykidinkent]

This is a very interesting premise, some battles were won more by strategy than pure numerical superiority. This would be a good deep dive topic for sure!

- Shandy

[New Harry Cramb]

Um i mean lewis your forgetting 2 huge factors in that matter. One being supply, at that point germany had pretty much no oil to run their units (tanks and planes ect.) and as well that they were also on two fronts.

[Jason L Lewis]

I did state other factors were in play. If you referring to my it could either way statement that's assuming it was just at the start when everything was going good for Germany.