Andalite Warfare

[AndaliteBlues]

It's a shame that in Animorphs we don't see many large-scale battles between the Andalites and Yeerks, especially on the ground. We do see several space battles and glimpses of the Battle of Leera but that's it. I know the books weren't trying to glorify war but it seems like a missed opportunity to me. As the Andalites have such a unique physiology compared to humans, their style of warfare would be completely different to ours, which I find interesting. For example, Andalites appear to prefer using their tail blades for close quarters combat instead of using ranged weapons. I think their tactics would revolve around mobility and getting into close combat as quickly as possible.

I can imagine the Andalites charging in to Yeerk lines like an old fashioned cavalry charge, but this seems to be rather dangerous. The reason we don't use those tactics any more is because the charging army is generally gunned down before reaching the enemy. Although Andalites are faster than humans and could close the distance faster, their charge could still be easily stopped with the right weapons. However, the reason they aren't is because the Yeerks also prefer close combat, even though it is stated that Andalites are better at it than Hork-Bajir.

Andalites are also claustrophobic, which means they probably wouldn't use ground vehicles like tanks too often. In book 18 skimmers are mentioned, which might be their alternative to tanks. I imagined them to look like the desert skiffs from Star Wars, open topped for speed and ease of access. It would make sense for Andalites to use some form of transport to get into close combat, which is what they are good at.

What do you think? Post your opinions here.

[NothingFromSomething]

It kinda-sorta seemed to me that both the Andalites and Yeerks (obviously the latter) were both pretty new at it all.  They may have had the higher tech, but at this point in human history (especially with the cynicism of kids in the 90s, like Marco), war strategy and basic guerrilla knowledge was pretty-much instinctual.

[Zacharychaos]

It would be interesting to see what would happen if there were still major theatres of war going on after the surrender of Visser One. Human officers and soldiers with some Andalite upgrades and serving as auxiliaries would be a powerful ally.

Andalites seem brilliant in a lot of ways but without a colorful history of intra-Andalite war, I would suspect Human strategists would be far superior. They are completely oblivious at the idea of turncoats in the Andalite ranks, they underestimate the Yeerks at every turn, and they were about to march their 30 Dome ships right into an ambush on the Anati planet. Considering Ax's and Elfangor's assessment of Andalite military strength, 30 capital ships is a terrifyingly powerful and expensive force. It is implied that the Yeerks have a shortage of capital ships to match a fleet of that strength even though they had been slowly grinding down the Andalites for decades. (i.e. fleet strength wasn't the only prevailing factor).

No sane human general would commit >50% of their forces into a single battle. We've had enough Spanish Armadas destroyed in our history books to be wary of such tactics.

More to the point, why send 30 Dome ships to one theatre of war when Earth would have been saved by 2 Dome ships, 3 at most? (Having the Andalites as saviors instead of partners would be worse for humans in the long run, but oh well.)

[Tim Bruening]

page 136 of paperback "The Decision", book 18: Force Commander Prince Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth explains to the remaining Animorphs (those who haven't yet been rubber-banded back from Leera to Earth via Zero-Space!) that while all Andalite warriors are morph capable, that few of them actually acquire or use morphs.  Why isn't it standard operating procedure for ALL Andalite warriors to acquire lots of morphs, so as to

A: Increase their combat effectiveness, and

B: Be able to morph to heal injuries, such as the tail loss suffered by Ascalin T.O. Hareli on page 83.

Page 124: Ax, Prince Jake, Cassie, and Marco acquire Leeran morphs.  Leerans have the ability to read peoples' minds.  In later books, why don't those four routinely morph Leerans to

A: Scan for Controllers, and

B: Scan people to see if they might make good Animorphs.

[AndaliteBlues]

I think they don't morph Leerans because of the whole 'sentient species' thing. Even if they have a good reason, the Animorphs try not to morph anything sentient.

I do feel that the Andalites should have made greater use of the Leerans, especially after the Ascalin's captain turned out to be a traitor. I doubt they would have any moral issues with morphing them.

[donut]

A: Increase their combat effectiveness, and

Morphing still isn't that effective in combat.  A human with a hunting rifle can kill almost any land animal on Earth without much worry.  Give him an automatic or an energy weapon and it's no contest.  The series kept this up for awhile actually, they didn't get into any serious fight with controllers who had dracon beams until late teens/early twenties in the series.  Even in book 15 they broke the underwater tunnel instead of trying to fight a single person with a pistol.

I also think most of the engagements were space battles.  I figure if either side got a serious advantage in space the other side on the ground wouldn't be able to last very long, either through bombardment or isolation.  The only real land battles we get to see are Leera and the HB world.  It sounded like the Leeran airspace was pretty contested, and the yeerks had some advantage on HB but not enough of one to attack into the andalite stronghold until they brought in capital ships.  As soon as that happened they abandoned the world.

[Tim Bruening]

I think they don't morph Leerans because of the whole 'sentient species' thing. Even if they have a good reason, the Animorphs try not to morph anything sentient.

I do feel that the Andalites should have made greater use of the Leerans, especially after the Ascalin's captain turned out to be a traitor. I doubt they would have any moral issues with morphing them.

The Leerans Ax, Jake, Cassie, and Marco encountered gave those four permission to morph them.  I know that the Leerans only specifically mentioned the Animorphs using Leeran DNA to help free the Leerans from the Yeerks, but I'm certain that the Animorphs could creatively expand "Freeing Leerans from the Yeerks" to cover all anti-Yeerk activities.  As long as the Animorphs are resisting the Yeerks, the Yeerks can't devote their full resources to conquering the Leerans!  Therefore, anything the Animorphs do against the Yeerks helps the cause of Leeran freedom!  The Animorphs should therefore feel free to use Leeran morphs to detect Controllers and recruit more Animorphs!  (The Animorphs had already thwarted a plot by the Yeerks to use sharks to conquer Leera).

[Zacharychaos]

I have a suspicion that the Leera mind-probing would be something detectable if the Controller wasn't distracted. There's no direct evidence of this I will admit. But in so far as it even exists as a possibility, it would be discovered at a very bad time- when an Animorph is trapped close to a Controller in a useless frog-out-of-water morph, one that is very slow on land, and would probably still only be able to use it once at most.

The first time a Controller feels some kind of weird tingly mind-probing, he or she would tell their superiors. The local Yeerk sub-visser being aware of Andalites on Leera would make this connection pretty quickly. would make sure any Yeerk that had this sensation occur again would make sure to ambush the Andalite Bandits on the spot.

If we are talking about moments like the Trekkie hikers- a medium sized group with a low suspicion of Yeerk infiltration, then it would be a wise idea. Although even in that rare instance, if they had found a Yeerk what were they supposed to do? The humans did not believe in the threat, they would not have allowed 2 aliens to take the Controller hostage. So then what? A massacre?

So, the only way I can see it is an Animorph morphing a Leeran in an attic somewhere to determine whether one specific person (The governor, the kids' parents, etc) was a Controller. If they are a Controller then letting them escape eliminates the Leeran morph's usefulness. It's a one-trick pony.

[Tim Bruening]

I think they don't morph Leerans because of the whole 'sentient species' thing. Even if they have a good reason, the Animorphs try not to morph anything sentient.

I do feel that the Andalites should have made greater use of the Leerans, especially after the Ascalin's captain turned out to be a traitor. I doubt they would have any moral issues with morphing them.

No need for the Andalites to even morph Leerans.  Just employ Leerans at all checkpoints to scan for Andalite traitors, and Visser Three in morph.  Like a telepathic NSA!