ACOUP Senate Poll and Open Thread II
Added 2021-11-19 06:42:56 +0000 UTCSenators!
The second Q&A Referenda ad Senatum post is going to go up this week, which makes it a good time to both solicit a second round of questions (though there are still a few from the first round that I haven't done yet) as well as give you all a chance to vote on the next topic to tackle after we finish the Fortification series (which is itself partly response to Maxwell Goebl's question on fortifications in the last Open Thread).
The options for the poll run thusly:
1) "How Bad was the Fall of Rome and Why?" (a mix of two questions asked, Leo Zhang asking "What caused the loss of state capacity during the collapse of the Roman Empire in the West" and Captain Button asking, "How should such a collapse or massive change in society be done in SF to better match the historical record?”)
2) "How did the Roman office of Dictator work and how well did it work for the Romans when it was used?" (A question asked by Christian Slot Holck and actually a good one - there is, I suspect, more complexity here than you may think!)
3) "Ancient Polytheism and the State" (from Vitali who asked, "How were Polytheistic religions incorporated into formal state structures?”
4) Mercenaries in the Ancient World! (from Adam who asked, "How did mercenaries work in the ancient world?")
5) "What is the Problem with Science Fiction Body Armor?" (from me, a look at the rigid body armor 'hardsuits' of things like Mass Effect and Dune (2021) and why they look wrong and work wrong).
6) Does Dune's Combat Model Work? (from me, a look at both the fighting style and military organization of Dune probing some of the assumptions of this kind of combat)
Assuming I have clicked the right buttons, you can vote for one, all or none of these options. Whichever gets the most nods I'll set on my schedule for after Fortifications finishes. The rest won't vanish, but will go into the pool for the next poll.
The end date for the poll is whenever I actually start writing whichever topic is in the lead (probably not for another three weeks or so).
Comments
Actually going to discuss Roman carroballistae quite soon!
Naldiin
2022-05-09 14:46:36 +0000 UTC
