LAST EDITED ON Jan-29-09 AT 04:04 AM (EST)
 
>It sounds like they far surpassed Krath's call for a 10:1 ratio...

Without question. The Martian Foreign Legion was basically a mixed regiment, à la Battletech; it had the rough equivalent of a 'Mech battalion (Hroth's fighting-machines), an AeroSpace Fighter wing (Xesk's flying-machines), and an infantry battalion. All told, including maintenance, logistics, and headquarters personnel, maybe 500 people, give or take a few dozen.

To take New Woking from them, the Covenant expended an entire army - six thousand beings, including Field Master 'Kavanree. In one day. And that's not including the losses inflicted by HMS Thunder Child in the space battle.

It was the most expensive single engagement of the war for them until the final one, the Battle of Kalen's Drift, and all of those losses were incurred in a gigantic space battle, not on the ground. For all that the SPARTANs made headlines and achieved major strategic gains, and for all that New Woking itself was not a particularly important target, no other force ever bloodied the Covenant on the ground as comprehensively as the Martian Foreign Legion.

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Admin
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.