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So in the absence of answers to that kind of question I think might be small numbers of control and tech types sent down to the surface to run localized units of war robots. (It's all very good to have a giant 'command center' in the sky) but at some point after you land you need eyes & brains on the ground. People who can make split second decisions at close quarters for your platoons and companies etc of robots in real time.

This might especially be the case because they won't/don't understand us at first contact i.e we're 'alien' to them. Fighting their own kind? - no problem their robots can probably be at least partially trusted with a degree autonomy about tactical issues . Fighting us though? that means re-programming their actions on the run. And you cant do that if you don't see what works and doesn't in real time.

They do the calcs and decide - again that its time for an armistice.

So in the absence of answers to that kind of question I think the best answer might be small numbers of control and tech types sent down to the surface to run localized units of war robots. (It's all very good to have a giant 'command center' in the sky) but at some point after you land you need eyes & brains on the ground. People who can make split second decisions at close quarters for your platoons and companies etc of robots in real time.

This might especially be the case because they won't/don't understand us at first contact i.e. we're 'alien' to them. Fighting their own kind? - no problem their robots can probably be at least partially trusted with a degree autonomy about tactical issues . Fighting us though? that means re-programming their actions on the run. And you cant do that if you don't see what works and doesn't in real time.

They do the calcs and decide - again that its time for an armistice.

The plus to this idea as I see it is room for lots of discussion around small unit tactics, spoofing and deception, booby traps and ambushes etc.

OK, so following your response -

The problem is that your question falls into the 'how long is a peace of string' category. There are simply to many unknown variables. e.g. How much more technically advanced than us are they and in what specific fields. What types of weapons did they bring with them and how many. Failing that what can they make/jury rig once they arrive. Same for soldiers, how many what type?

Remember as I said, technically even a very small team of aliens could de-orbit asteroids of any size needed for a specific purpose and drop in on our heads. No other weapon needed. Indeed That might be their 'go to' technique for taking out key targets and softening up an LZ.

But...when the ground/air fighting starts its hard to answer your question without some description of the forces at their disposal.

So in the absence of answers to that kind of question I think might be small numbers of control and tech types sent down to the surface to run localized units of war robots. (It's all very good to have a giant 'command center' in the sky) but at some point after you land you need eyes & brains on the ground. People who can make split second decisions at close quarters for your platoons and companies etc of robots in real time.

This might especially be the case because they won't/don't understand us at first contact i.e we're 'alien' to them. Fighting their own kind? - no problem their robots can probably be at least partially trusted with a degree autonomy about tactical issues . Fighting us though? that means re-programming their actions on the run. And you cant do that if you don't see what works and doesn't in real time.

So I would suggest everything goes well for our alien friends until we start to figure out how they operate and concentrate on identifying their local ground based command teams and spotters/observers when we can find them. They may try to withdraw them eventually and run everything from space but that just slows down the robots overall co-ordination and the tide slowly shifts.

They do the calcs and decide - again that its time for an armistice.

If I understand the question your asking correctly your concept involves a failed invasion i.e. aliens arrive and attempt an invasion but for whatever reason fail. humanity (or both sides) then have to set about dealing withe aftermath of that failure social, political and environmental etc.

If this is correct then the best possible scenario is one of numbers and logistics. Just getting here proves they have vastly superior technology but that in and of itself might not be enough. You also have to assume that for whatever reason the aliens want to preserve the environment as much a possible. Otherwise 6 aliens and a large asteroid would win the 'war' with one shot.

Consider a scenario where there was a say for example a steam age civilization on Mars. Could we currently send small teams of explorers there? Yes. Could we send a fully equipped expeditionary force to conquer the planet? No. You'd be talking about launching literally tens of thousands of tonnes of soldiers, equipment and supplies into space and then following up with tens of thousands of more tonnes for as long as it took for us to establish a large bridgehead and become more self sustaining. even then you'd still have to send thousands of tonnes of stuff they couldn't source locally.

The aliens have the same problem only they are hundreds of light years from home. So the most likely scenario is that they had to fight the war only with what they brought with them. And if they didn't win with that it means they weren't expecting to have a fight a war when they got here. So a refugee vessel escaping a war or a colony expedition stumbling across Earth is the most likely option.

Yes they have access to the solar system so presumably they could build/replace at least some weapons and equipment but what they cant do is replace their 'people' because they aren't getting any more. This is especially if you assume only a limited number of the aliens on board the ship were soldiers to begin with or else could be spared to be used as such.

If I understand the question your asking correctly your concept involves a failed invasion i.e. aliens arrive and attempt an invasion but for whatever don't succeed fail. Humanity (or both sides) then have to set about dealing withe aftermath of that failure social, political and environmental etc.

If this is correct then the best possible scenario is one of numbers and logistics. Just getting here proves they have vastly superior technology but that in and of itself might not be enough. You also have to assume that for whatever reason the aliens want to preserve the environment as much a possible. Otherwise 6 aliens and a large asteroid would win the 'war' with one shot.

Consider a scenario where there was a say for example a steam age civilization on Mars. Could we currently send small teams of explorers there? Yes. Could we send a fully equipped expeditionary force to conquer the planet? No. You'd be talking about launching literally tens of thousands of tonnes of soldiers, equipment and supplies into space and then following up with tens of thousands of more tonnes for as long as it took for us to establish a large bridgehead and become more self sustaining. Even then you'd still have to send thousands of tonnes of stuff they couldn't source locally for decades. Even if we had the will we simply don't have the technology to sustain that kind of logistics chain.

The aliens have the same problem only they are hundreds or thousands of light years from home! No help is coming. So the most likely scenario is that they had to fight the war only with what they brought with them. And if they didn't win with that it means they weren't expecting to have a fight a war in the first place. So a refugee vessel escaping a war or a colony expedition stumbling across Earth is the most likely option.

Yes they have access to the solar system so presumably they could build/replace at least some weapons and equipment but what they cant do is replace their 'people' because they no more are coming for at least a couple of generations,if ever. This is especially true if you assume only a limited number of the aliens on board the ship were trained as soldiers to begin with or else could be spared to be used as such. So they end up having to learn the art of fighting humans as they go.

Even if the attrition rate was 10,000 to one more in their favor under this type of scenario the numbers are going to tell them they are on the losing end of the deal and its time for an armistice.