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[Kabooooom]

The time they took to unite would ultimately prove irrelevant. The reapers only need a short window to take control over the Citadel, and ME3's endgame proves that if they really wanted to take the Citadel, they could. They even dragged it to the Sol system. In any case, even if a united fleet managed to reach the Citadel to fight the reapers, all they need to do is shut down the relay, then simply leave. Any ships that made it into the nebula would be stuck there and they would have no hope of reaching any other system indefinitely, while the reapers can patiently pick off each species one by one.

I explained in an above post the most likely reason why the Citadel could not be taken right off the bat. By endgame, it was a different story. Javik gives you a likely clue about how they did it - the Reapers slip indoctrinated refugees into refugee camps. I imagine that when they finally did want to take the Citadel, they had a flood of slaves on the inside wreaking havoc and chaos while they blitzed from the outside.

Which is essentially the same strategy that Sovereign used with the Geth, and it was the only reason why the arms didn't close prior to him arriving - because the tower was in chaos from a Geth army suddenly showing up right on the doorstep of it.

[MisterJB]

The salarians are clearly the most idiotic.

Step away from the yagh!

[X Equestris]

I've written many posts about this, and it is my opinion that Mass Effect lore makes this an inefficient strategy, believe it or not. Here's why:
The games give the illusion of rapid travel from one end of the galaxy to another. In reality, it takes time. Relay travel from one relay to another is instantaneous, but in hub systems you have to travel via FTL between several relays in a system. This adds travel time. In the trilogy, we only have one single example of estimated travel time through the network: It takes 15 hours to reach the Citadel from Eden Prime.
Couple that with the fact that the Citadel monitors relay traffic. They know how many vessels are travelling through the relays. Itd be impossible to hide a massive invasion fleet traversing the network. The Citadel would have advanced notice by HOURS, and close the Citadel arms. The Citadel, presumably, is impenetrable even to the Reapers. The only reason why the Reaper's blitz attack worked previously is because they linked directly to the Citadel from dark space. Even Earth knew that "something big was coming" with an advanced notice of hours.

And that advanced warning did the Alliance navy almost no good. For that matter, the Reapers don't even need their entire fleet to take the Citadel. A few dozen capital ships with destroyer support could probably seize the Citadel and hold it long enough to gain control of the network, letting them selectively control it and move on the rest of the fleet.

[L. Han]

It's hard to say. Many characters throughout the series comments about how humans are very unique and presents great potential. If the fact that humans became a council species under a century doesn't convince you, Samara mentions that humans are the most interesting species for their ability to think independently and individually capable of coming up with multiple opinions. Giving them an edge when it comes to problem solving and overcoming challenges.

 

There's also mention that technology was developing rather slow prior to humans showing up. Once they started meddling in everyone's business, a lot of discoveries were made.

 

I doubt BioWare wanted to make humans look like perfect beings. In fact, there are probably more human jack-arses than actually good ones. Pretty much every major setback the whole galaxy had to face can be linked to humans somehow (Cerberus, aggressive colonization, etc).

 

Although no one here seems to mention that humans only turn into weak husks when other races turn into hulking monstrosities, posses great power, or still capable of operating firearms and explosives.

[shodiswe]

The Race that put up the strongest defence was probably the Hanar, unless you allowed the indoctrinated Hanar official shut down their planetary defences.

Apparently they seemed to think their reason for existing was to protect the Protean ruins, or Enkindler ruins as they put it.
The Hanar were probably worse than the Asari when it came to sharing their Tech, they only maintained a casual Contact with the Citadel species and wern't that interested other than spreading their religion and keeping uninvited people from going to their homeworld.

[DaemionMoadrin]

Although no one here seems to mention that humans only turn into weak husks when other races turn into hulking monstrosities, posses great power, or still capable of operating firearms and explosives.

 

Husks were quite dangerous in ME1, they turned into EMP bombs when they got close and did actual damage in melee. No idea why they got nerfed for ME2+3.

 

With all that research Harbinger did in his hobby room (Collector base), the Reapers should have found a way to turn humans into extremely dangerous husks. I still see no reason why human husks couldn't use weapons.

Turning Ardat-Yakshi into banshees sounds good at first... until you realize that a. there is a very limited number of them and b. the psychological impact of having to kill them is very low since their lives were forfeit the moment they left their monastery anyway. Would have been more efficient to turn regular Asari into husks.

The batarian husks, the Cannibals, are significantly weaker than Batarians. Not the best design.

The krogan husk needs a turian head to function.

The rachni husk is a squishy sack of creepy bugs.

The only well designed husk is the turian Marauder, who is a bit more dangerous than the average Turian.

 

Many other species weren't turned into husks. Some would have been very creepy...

 

Salarian:

Spoiler

 

Drell:

Spoiler

 

Hanar:

Spoiler

 

Volus:

Spoiler

 

Elcor:

Spoiler

 

Quarian:

Spoiler

 

Yahg:

Spoiler

 

Vorcha:

Spoiler

 

alternative Krogan:

Spoiler

 

Elcor+Volus:

Spoiler

 

Asari+Salarian:

Spoiler

 

Drell+Hanar:

Spoiler

 

Varren:

Spoiler

 

Pyjak:

Spoiler

 

Kalros:

Spoiler

[AlanC9]

And that advanced warning did the Alliance navy almost no good. For that matter, the Reapers don't even need their entire fleet to take the Citadel. A few dozen capital ships with destroyer support could probably seize the Citadel and hold it long enough to gain control of the network, letting them selectively control it and move on the rest of the fleet.

Probably need to bring a whole bunch of transports too unless the relay controls are easily accessible from the outer hull. Still, a feasible operation if they're going around invading planets.

[Kabooooom]

And that advanced warning did the Alliance navy almost no good. For that matter, the Reapers don't even need their entire fleet to take the Citadel. A few dozen capital ships with destroyer support could probably seize the Citadel and hold it long enough to gain control of the network, letting them selectively control it and move on the rest of the fleet.

Nope. You're overlooking the second part of the problem, which I also mentioned if you kept reading - the controls to close the Citadel are located inside the Citadel tower, and Sovereign (or any Reaper) has no remote control over it. A Reaper alone, therefore, could not take the Citadel without the arms closing. A thousand Reapers couldn't either. Ground troops are needed. They COULD hit the Citadel, land a bunch of troops and have them try to take the tower - but this likely wouldn't work either, as the Citadel inhabitants would have the advantage in that they are already INSIDE the tower. So that strategy is a no-go.

Therefore, the only strategy that appears to work is to hit the inside of the Citadel in a ground troop blitz attack simultaneously as you hit the outside with the Reapers. I mean, it is called the Citadel for a reason.

Sovereign used the Geth and the Conduit for this. It is unclear how the Reapers accomplished this in ME3 because it happens off screen. However, the first attempt was likely via Cerberus as they were unambiguously indoctrinated for the entire game (subtle clues may make you miss that). The second attempt likely used what Javik brings up as prior Reaper strategy - they allow organic refugees to continue gathering, sneak indoctrinated refugees in with them, and then take refugee centers from the inside. A devious strategy. Probably, indoctrinated refugees served as the Reapers inside force when they took the Citadel in ME3.

It would have been cool to show this though, rather than just having Javik give a subtle hint, because it would underscore how brutal the Reapers can be.

[von uber]

Oh no! They've closed the arms! Oh well. Let's wait for them to starve to death. Or the catalyst to re-open them.

[shodiswe]

If they wanted to get to the Controls then all they had to do was fly in and smash the big windows and land their troops directly on the presidium. Unless the Citadel was closed(arms folded in).

The council Chambers had windows that were smashed by Sovereign
s debris.

[Kabooooom]

Oh no! They've closed the arms! Oh well. Let's wait for them to starve to death. Or the catalyst to re-open them.

Although funny, both are probably no goes too. The Catalyst, for whatever reason, can't open the arms or the entire plot of ME1 is invalidated. Out of lore, it is clear that Biower merely forgot about the plot of ME1 when writing the Catalyst. In the story though, the only explanation is that he has no control over it. Which is a topic in and of itself.

Once people starve to death though, the arms would remain closed and the Citadel is, reportedly, impenetrable even to the Reapers (which always seemed pretty stupid to me, unless the Leviathan mentality of the Catalyst just assumed they were too badass to get one-upped by organics).

[Ahriman]

They have all the advantages, they are massively overpowered and they become stronger the longer the war lasts because they can make their own troops out of their enemies. You'd have to fail on purpose to lose.

Well, star brat subplot shows that's exactly what they were doing.

[Panda]

Naah they don't just have Anderson.

[Display Name Owner]

Well, whilst the other species spent centuries developing the technology, Humanity walked in and got instant access to it. And the Asari and Salarians were still more advanced, and their fleets are actually much bigger IIRC. The Alliance fleet is just more prominent in the story for some reason.

 

Besides, the other major species are more widespread, so they've got wider borders to worry about and their fleets are probably stretched thinner. And everybody is supposed to be an ignorant caveman in comparison to the Reapers.

[Torgette]

Earth had a active resistance going on for the entire conflict.

 

Only hit and run guerilla-types though.

[Kabooooom]

Only hit and run guerilla-types though.

Exactly, and it is stated in game to estimate that it would take the Reapers around ten years to fully harvest every single person on Earth (which goes against what is said right before Priority Earth about the Reapers finishing their harvest of Earth, I assume that means finishing off the resistance so that the rest of the harvest runs smoothly but that never really made sense).

Blasting a planet from space is easy. Waging war against an entire planet to capture the population is hard, time consuming, and requires a lot of resource devotion. Sure, Earth had a resistance. But it was nothing like the Turian resistance or the Asari resistance on Ilium. Anderson literally describes the resistance as running from hole to hole, trying to stay one step ahead of the Reapers and hit them when they can.

And think about the task the Reapers have - exterminate every single member of a given species, a spacefaring species no less. You know how hard that would be? Nearly impossible. Doing it on a single planet is hard enough. On dozens or hundreds of worlds??...

...no wonder it took them two centuries to finish off the Protheans.

[X Equestris]

Nope. You're overlooking the second part of the problem, which I also mentioned if you kept reading - the controls to close the Citadel are located inside the Citadel tower, and Sovereign (or any Reaper) has no remote control over it. A Reaper alone, therefore, could not take the Citadel without the arms closing. A thousand Reapers couldn't either. Ground troops are needed. They COULD hit the Citadel, land a bunch of troops and have them try to take the tower - but this likely wouldn't work either, as the Citadel inhabitants would have the advantage in that they are already INSIDE the tower. So that strategy is a no-go.
Therefore, the only strategy that appears to work is to hit the inside of the Citadel in a ground troop blitz attack simultaneously as you hit the outside with the Reapers. I mean, it is called the Citadel for a reason.
Sovereign used the Geth and the Conduit for this. It is unclear how the Reapers accomplished this in ME3 because it happens off screen. However, the first attempt was likely via Cerberus as they were unambiguously indoctrinated for the entire game (subtle clues may make you miss that). The second attempt likely used what Javik brings up as prior Reaper strategy - they allow organic refugees to continue gathering, sneak indoctrinated refugees in with them, and then take refugee centers from the inside. A devious strategy. Probably, indoctrinated refugees served as the Reapers inside force when they took the Citadel in ME3.
It would have been cool to show this though, rather than just having Javik give a subtle hint, because it would underscore how brutal the Reapers can be.

The Citadel is not invulnerable. A Mass Effect 1 era codex entry says that it can sustain a constant bombardment for several days with the most advanced weaponry before sustaining significant damage. This is before Reaper tech is discovered. The Reapers could have blasted through, especially in a concentrated bombardment. Then they can send in troops through the resulting breach, open it, and seize control of the network.

[X Equestris]

Probably need to bring a whole bunch of transports too unless the relay controls are easily accessible from the outer hull. Still, a feasible operation if they're going around invading planets.

Of course. I figured they were implied.

[Kakistos_]

In principle, the salarian military is similar to the Systems Alliance, a small volunteer army that focuses on maneuver warfare. What differentiates the salarians is not their equipment or doctrine, but their intelligence services and rules of engagement. The salarians believe that a war should be won before it begins (a doctrine also espoused by some of humanity's greatest generals, such as Sun Tzu).

The unquestioned superiority of their intelligence services allows them to use their small military to maximum effectiveness. Well before fighting breaks out, they possess complete knowledge of their enemy's positions, intentions, and timetable.

 

While capable of defending themselves against most threats, the salarians know that they are small fish in a universe filled with sharks. As a point of survival, they have cultivated strong alliances with larger powers, particularly with the turians.

 

The salarian navy has sixteen dreadnoughts, which is considerably less than the maximum they are allowed to build under the Treaty of Farixen.

 

_____________________________

 

The Alliance military is respected by the Citadel races for its novel tactics and technology. Their strength lies in fire support, flexibility, and speed. The Council regards the Alliance as a "sleeping giant" as only 3% of humans volunteer for military service. They make up for low numbers with sophisticated technical support in the form of VIs, drones, artillery, and electronic warfare, and emphasis on mobility and individual initiative. Their military doctrine is not based on absorbing and dishing out heavy shocks like the turians and krogan. Rather, they bypass enemy strong points and launch deep into their rear, cutting supply lines and logistics, destroying headquarters and support units, leaving enemies to "wither on the vine".

 

At the time of the First Contact War in 2157 CE, the Alliance possessed a navy consisting of over 200 vessels ranging from small hundred-meter frigates to imposing kilometer-long dreadnoughts and carriers. By 2183 CE, it is recognized as one of the greater military forces in Citadel space. As a signatory of the Treaty of Farixen, the Alliance is restricted to building and maintaining a smaller number of dreadnoughts compared to the turians. The Alliance Navy has made up for this with the innovative design and deployment of carriers, which are as large as dreadnoughts, but are not constrained by the treaty because their primary armament consists of fighters instead of ship-length mass accelerator cannons.

 

The System Alliance has far more vessels, more firepower and can field more soldiers than the Salarians.

I disagree. It is simply illogical that Humans have forces anywhere near that of the Council races. Remember that humans have only been part of galactic society for a few decades while the Salarians have been instrumental for centuries. The Salarians have settled more planets, have larger populations, stockpiled more resources, trained more soldiers and built more ships. I find it very unlikly that humans would be able to catch up to one of the most powerful races in the galaxy in only 30-40 years while other client races could not in centuries.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

The Citadel is not invulnerable. A Mass Effect 1 era codex entry says that it can sustain a constant bombardment for several days with the most advanced weaponry before sustaining significant damage. This is before Reaper tech is discovered. The Reapers could have blasted through, especially in a concentrated bombardment. Then they can send in troops through the resulting breach, open it, and seize control of the network.

And in the end scenes for ME3 we see the Citadel get damaged to the point where the Wards have holes that punch clean through and even completely sheared off and shattered.

 

A blockade of the entire Reaper fleet while bombarding the station would see the Citadel fall, followed by the rest of the galaxy. 

[DaemionMoadrin]

I disagree. It is simply illogical that Humans have forces anywhere near that of the Council races. Remember that humans have only been part of galactic society for a few decades while the Salarians have been instrumental for centuries. The Salarians have settled more planets, have larger populations, stockpiled more resources, trained more soldiers and built more ships. I find it very unlikly that humans would be able to catch up to one of the most powerful races in the galaxy in only 30-40 years while other client races could not in centuries.

 

Logic in ME? Haha.

 

I copied that from the Mass Effect wiki, which is a compilation of all codex entries and things we get told in conversations.

 

The Salarians have more dreadnaughts but I think the humans make up for that with their kind of warfare. The humans could increase their assets quickly, too. There's also the fact that the Salarians haven't fought in any wars for generations while the humans just came out of one.

 

Just look at the huge territory the humans have claimed. It's larger than that of any other Citadel species and because that's not enough, we're also settling colonies in the Attican Traverse, which is just as big.

[Lulupab]

HAH! Just wait until Salarian come up with something like Genophage for humans.

[Hanako Ikezawa]

HAH! Just wait until Salarian come up with something like Genophage for humans.

Wouldn't be surprised if they already have one locked away in a lab somewhere, just in case.

[MisterJB]

I disagree. It is simply illogical that Humans have forces anywhere near that of the Council races. Remember that humans have only been part of galactic society for a few decades while the Salarians have been instrumental for centuries. The Salarians have settled more planets, have larger populations, stockpiled more resources, trained more soldiers and built more ships. I find it very unlikly that humans would be able to catch up to one of the most powerful races in the galaxy in only 30-40 years while other client races could not in centuries.

 

And yet, that is simply how it is. You can argue whether it is logical or not but facts are that the Alliance has spread further and faster than any other before.

That is repeteadly pointed out in the franchise.

[MisterJB]

 

Human space is bigger than the whole Inner Council Space put together.