N^2 Law
One of the fundamental rules of war is what is known as the N^2 or “N squared” law.  A common rule of thumb, anyone with experience serving or working with the military would be aware of it.  It’s used for estimating the difference in strength between two opposing forces.  It says that the difference in strength between two otherwise equal forces is the difference in numbers squared.  If side A has 100 men, and side B has 10, then estimates will place side A as being 100 times stronger, not 10.  The reasoning for this is simple – the larger side can concentrate its forces and has more options.  This results in the smaller side losing more forces faster, further compounding the problem.Side A could, rather then sending 10 men to fight each of side Bs, send all 100 after 1 and move through sequentially.

This is highly relevant to the Clone Wars.  We know that a B-1 series battle droid is considered equal to a clone trooper, and a B-2 series considered barely superior (
Attack of the Clones novel) so neither side has a significant advantage in the quality of their troops.  Both sides make extensive use of combined arms and neither has an advantage in speed or mobility.  They also both use extremely poor tactics on the battlefield.  Thus there are no factors that would distort the use of this rule of thumb.  The result of this means that the disparity in overall forces cannot be greater then an order of magnitude if one side is not going to systematically wipe the other out.  This is supported by the battles of Merson and Parcelus Minor, where Republic forces were wiped out by 5 to 1 odds and barely escaped with 90% losses when outnumbered 10 to 1 respectively. (Clone Wars: The Best Blades)
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