The Capellans also didn't have the canonical few years between the end of the 3SW and the start of the 4SW to recover from their losses.
And rather than the wide, sweeping moves of the Operation Rat, here the AFFS simply piled units onto a handful of worlds - fewer units, many fewer worlds (almost all within 1 jump of the Federated Suns) so much shorter supply lines. Of course all those worlds happened to be very important.
Throw in losing Maximilian - whatever his failings he was both energetic and decisive - and instead needing to resolve a succession crisis between Candace and Romano would have delayed responses but the CCAF depends on shuffling troops to deal with successive problems. Face them with too many problems at once and they just can't respond.
And while Max had his grand goals and then looked for facts to support them, ignoring those that didn't, Candace is a realist.
And rather than the wide, sweeping moves of the Operation Rat, here the AFFS simply piled units onto a handful of worlds - fewer units, many fewer worlds (almost all within 1 jump of the Federated Suns) so much shorter supply lines. Of course all those worlds happened to be very important.
Throw in losing Maximilian - whatever his failings he was both energetic and decisive - and instead needing to resolve a succession crisis between Candace and Romano would have delayed responses but the CCAF depends on shuffling troops to deal with successive problems. Face them with too many problems at once and they just can't respond.
And while Max had his grand goals and then looked for facts to support them, ignoring those that didn't, Candace is a realist.