Well you are making sound better than it was for the Ryuken. First of all, the Dragoons together weren't 5 regiments; they were described as still being in the process of recovering from the 4th SW. Secondly, the 2 Ryuken regiments dropped on one F-C regiment's base. When reinforcements came, they did fight out of trap to go smack yet another garrison base around.
So yeah the Ryuken were hit with the surprise of being badly outnumbered, pressed the attack anyway and barely prevailed... it's not like 2 regiments actually faced 8 regiments in total, much less at any one point of the raid.. in fact they had a local 2 to 1 advantage in numbers for two key phases of the raid. The stiffest moment they ever faced was "only" 10 mech battalions, and that was what precipitated the withdraw of their attack on the first base. Still 6 to 10 is hardly a disaster that's impossible to believe they managed to withdraw from.
The Provisional Regiments were probably 50% which when combined w/ Zeta gives you 2 regiments or so + Alpha & toss in the Oversized RCTs & HQ units & your probably looking at 700 mechs or so.
The "local" advantage was still against an RCT packing 3 regiments of tanks, that should have been enough to hold balance the 2nd Ryuken regiment.
But as you pointed out, only 10 battalions faced them at the worst point but why only 10? How That still leaves 8-9 Battalions that didn't get mobilized. Once you knew they were there why aren't battalions dropping 3 deep in every direction surrounding them with another 2 regiments in orbit waiting to drop on them wherever they put towards.
I know, I'm probably expecting too much there, lol. But really, getting off that world with IIRC just Light/Moderate damage was pretty unrealistic.
However that isn't my real issue, as I said above, how you have those 8 units 1 jump away but they never mobilize to take Quentin back once you loose it, that is the real crime to me.
