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Related to this. MC is trying to build a modern nation out from an ancient one, and he also needs a modern military. A modern military is not just about equipment, it is also about having modern mindset and modern discipline. Their enemies, humans, are already an early 19th century military, but with some magical equivalents of infantry High Explosive/shrapnel weapons. There are no wars against animal people for 100 years already because humans are busy fighting amongst themselves. But due to animal-people's tough hides and quick reflexes, animal people's military midset is still an early-18th century military before the arrival of MC. MC introduced radio, telegraph, bolt action rifles, and electrical motors. New animal people military need to dump the idea of shoulder-to-shoulder formations or calvary charges and learn to spread out to avoid concentrated bullets and artillery fires, and more modern (20th century military) infantry tactics. They also need to be a very discipline army, obeying rules that their enemies will not. In the past, human and animal people armies will loot and pillage across battlefields for both resource and pressure-release. MC introduced modern manufacturing and agriculture that ensured an army unit will not constantly be out of food or weapons, or even family letters. But there are more to military discipline than that to make MC's military beloved by the masses, and to win "hearts and minds".

How do we let veterans unlearn years of old habit, and ensure the military will have high moral standard like not ill-treating captives (after we extract useful information from them), be kind and fair to civilians, and surrender captured war assets to the high command for research or redistribution?

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    $\begingroup$ I highly recommend that you read up about Genghis Khan and Oda Nobunaga. Genghis Khan despite the lack of technology essentially reorganized the previously scattered nomadic mongolian tribes with modern-day military organization well ahead of his time, and it may come as a surprise to you he was very tolerating of diversity and different religions and allowed local adminsitration. Oda Nobunaga was a Japanese Sengoku Era warlord. Despite his fall, I believe he was the only important person who embraced Western technology and changed the way wars were fought in Japan. $\endgroup$
    – user93359
    Jan 3, 2022 at 5:03
  • $\begingroup$ If you want to be entertained while learning about Sengoku period there's a Japanese series called Tenchijin which features one of Oda's rivals, the undefeated Uesugi Kenshin, who is portrayed as preserving Japanese traditions and insisting on using traditional weapons. In reality though, he simply understood the strengths and weaknesses of 16th century matchlocks and that it can't be used during rain, and traditional archers could fire 15 times while Oda's army reload their guns. These seem like elements your MC may adopt. $\endgroup$
    – user93359
    Jan 3, 2022 at 5:09
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    $\begingroup$ be a bit clearer. Is it a 19th century war we're fighting, or a 20th? Unfortunately, the usual teacher is a string of humiliating defeats that convince the old guard to change ways. Convincing different species to treat each other with respect and dignity is something we're still struggling with, and usually a luxury of an army with overwhelming advantage over their foe (or the two sides have close ties and a long established set of formalized rules). $\endgroup$
    – DWKraus
    Jan 3, 2022 at 5:26
  • $\begingroup$ @DWKraus the enemy MC facing is mostly early 19th century, with their magical weapon being closer to 20th century. The idea and technology introduced by MC is 21st century, with the goal of at least bringing up the military of the animal people to late WWI era. And because I am trying to make the story leaning on the more ideal side of stuff, I need my military as moral as what China and US proclaims about their armies in their propaganda films $\endgroup$
    – Faito Dayo
    Jan 3, 2022 at 6:27
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    $\begingroup$ You need non-standard tactics and strategy because the weapons don't match the supposed tech level An early 19th century war implies unrifled muskets, necessitating more Napoleonic tactics to bring short-ranged inaccurate slow-loading gunfire to bear en masse against the enemy. The real transformative advance here was the rifled musket at mid-century. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifled_musket Otherwise you need to focus on more small unit and partisan tactics which are going to be tough for discipline and supply lines in a lower-tech world. $\endgroup$
    – DWKraus
    Jan 3, 2022 at 12:32

2 Answers 2

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Mismatched Tech levels:

You don't. You are thinking that 20th century tactics and values are going to work for your army, and that skipping ahead to the more 'advanced' approach means your army will be better.

It won't.

At early 19th century tech levels, shoulder to shoulder is still the way your army controls large numbers of troops with a generally low overall educational level. The weapons are still relatively inaccurate smoothbore muskets with relatively short ranges. Transportation is still horse-drawn slow wagons and the armies need high internal cohesion to stay close to their slow and inefficient supply chain. There are no radios or even telegraphs to relay orders to troops in the field so individual commanders can make informed decisions about what to do. Even going into the 20th century, the tactics still being used in the first world war weren't a whole lot better than a big mass of guys gathering up and charging into the cannons and machine guns, but that was with mechanized logistics (somewhat) and rapid communication.

STRATEGIES:

  • To get these soldiers to do what you want them to, they will need to behave more like partisans. Small groups will split up and be given broad instructions with highly independent commanders with wide latitude to do what they feel is needed. Defensively this might work with people in their local areas, but offensively it will be a challenge. This means the logistics will be impossible and controlling abuses equally so. They will be bands of marauders destroying and looting everything as they murder through enemy territory.
  • Magical communication devices would go a long way towards allowing individual officers to get up-to-date communications to coordinate actions. supplies can be delivered to many more places because you can signal where they are needed and where they should go efficiently. Commanders don't need as large a force if they can call up reinforcements so a larger force doesn't automatically win by sheer mass.
  • Reinforcements that can be called up and efficiently deployed if you have a fast transportation system allowing men and material to be shuttled quickly. Rapid transportation by itself can be problematic without improved communication if units are now able to easily raid into enemy territory since this is likely to result in looting and destructive hit-an-run tactics, burning villages, etc.
  • better guns: As the range and accuracy of the weapons improves, you will increasingly make large numbers of troops suicidal to charge. By the end of the American civil war, they were already starting to use trench warfare to compensate. The strategies and tactics might move to a sort of entrench-and-maneuver approach, so tools and magic enabling quick motion and fortification would be critical. Horse infantry deploys troops quickly, and dug-in troops are better protected. But as it exists, the short-range guns can't compete with wizards firing wands the equal to cannons and machine guns.
  • Bounties on magic items: If you want to assure that the ring of power doesn't go home in the pocket of some hobbit soldier, have a bounty on all magic items, so a soldier that turns in a magic device is rewarded. This still risks looting, but at least the army gains the item, not an individual. Summary execution for failure to comply, and a reward (early discharge?) for turning in a device. What soldier doesn't want to get out of the army? They are more likely to turn in all loot, for the chance some of it might be magic. This won't work if devices are common, and the reward will need to be scaled accordingly.
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  • $\begingroup$ Sorry, I should be more clear. MC introduced technologies that give animal late 19th century technology like breech loading, cartridge based, and bolt action rifles, aerodynamic fin equipped sheet metal rockets, artillery equations, and electromagnetic formulas like the maxwell equations. $\endgroup$
    – Faito Dayo
    Jan 3, 2022 at 16:29
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  • Logistics
    Looting (aka foraging) goes hand in hand with the absence of a working quartermaster system. When troops have to "ask" peasants for fodder and food, they will "liberate" any bottles of wine they can find, and take liberties with the farmers' daughters. So make the troops expect that there will be food, in decent quantity and quality. Only the quartermasters are allowed to requisition and they must fill the paperwork.
  • Good NCOs and junior officers
    This is a bit of a double-edged sword, because you need them to show initiative. But not when it comes to "inventive" interrogation methods. You will need good leaders for dispersed infantry tactics. A sergeant who is trained enough to understand the difference between "movement to contact" and "reconnaissance in force" might be a good step towards a sergeant who also keeps the squad focussed on the enemy, not on the loot. If a private sneaks away for looting, that is a breach of discipline and an offense against the authority of the NCO. So the NCO kicks their butts, not because he is against looting but because he is against leaving the sentry position. And the company sergeant major will reason with any sergeant who takes the entire squad on a "midnight requisition."
  • Credible field regulations
    The rules need to be enforced from the top, and the army command must investigate and punish their own troops even on the eve of battle. No lame excuses. Prior heroism is no mitigating circumstance.
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  • $\begingroup$ Yes, these are great, but these are deep structural reforms in how things are done. How does it get done fast? It's a tough question, as the tech of the common soldier is near-Napoleonic, but with magic like WW1 from the sound. how do you break up the ranks yet maintain discipline in the face of fireballs and lightning bolts? $\endgroup$
    – DWKraus
    Jan 3, 2022 at 12:37
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    $\begingroup$ @DWKraus, by having a large proportion of professional NCOs. I realize that is a bit like saying "get skilled by hard practice," but my point is to focus on the selection and training of those NCOs and junior officers. That will take years, but everything will take years ... $\endgroup$
    – o.m.
    Jan 3, 2022 at 14:03

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