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Let us say medieval tech level mini people/humanoids trained for combat need to kill an unarmed/lightly armed(stick/rocks), average, untrained human/giant for some reason, maybe it is attacking the city or the minis are just a-holes. Whatever the case, they want to fell the human/giant, and that the square cube law is not negatively affecting the minis if they are smaller then a human, or the giant if it is actually bigger then a human. Both parties have stats roughly similar to a human i.e. the minis can lift only 1-2 times their bodyweight and the same goes for the giant.

How many minis would it take to kill a human/giant if it is 72 times bigger then them? What about 24 times bigger? What about 12 times?

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  • $\begingroup$ 72 times taller or 72 times heavier? $\endgroup$
    – Alexander
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 21:05
  • $\begingroup$ This seems like a question where the specifics of an individual encounter will greatly influence the outcome. In general questions asking who would win in a fight aren't a good fit for this site, since they're not about building a world and are instead about events that transpire in the world after it's built. $\endgroup$
    – sphennings
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 21:09
  • $\begingroup$ Their weigh scales up according to square cube law too, so whatever an average 432 foot tall person would weigh. @Alexander $\endgroup$
    – Conan Highwoods
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 22:11
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    $\begingroup$ There are still way too many variables that would affect the outcome. If poison is involved, the answer could easily be "1". Similarly for attackers with specific knowledge or experience, a small number might suffice, and so on... $\endgroup$
    – Monty Wild ♦
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 22:47
  • $\begingroup$ This is a scaling question. When this is opinion based, a lot is opinion based. What clothing do we pick up in a dystopian world ? How would griffins gather material for their nest ? Do humans need arms and legs ? Anyway.. just in time to attempt to answer this, & voted to reopen.. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Commented Jan 19, 2022 at 23:36

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72x would be a real challenge, for the little ones !

So the giant would stand 131 meters tall, if we were the little ones.. That is big, a building 40 stories high, just below halfway the Eiffel Tower.. I wonder if medieval weapons would have any effect. His feet would be the size of a house, that is 13 meters long, say 4-5 meters high. Humans with swords could scratch and it a bit, before getting crunched under it.. the giant will feel pain, but he'll stand too large for us to hit the eye with an arrow.

Numbers ? A crowd of 20,000 armed Mongol warriors crawling up the giant's trousers may become quite inconvenient, but I wonder if they'd reach the head. The giant would shed them off.

Changed perspective: suppose we would be the giant

Another way to look at this: the average human is 5-7 feet, divided by 72 you'd get a bipedal creature about 2.5 centimeters high, that is supposed to attack and kill a human. How many would be needed.. now let's suppose a worst case scenario, these medieval little bastards would bring in knives (2.5 millimeter long), arrows (5mm) swords (8mm) and spears (25mm). You would get painful feet, but these little ones cannot kill a standing human with such weaponry. They would have trouble penetrating our skin.

A tree would be handy.. close range cross bow shot while the giant is asleep..

Suppose a medieval army of these 2.5cm soldiers could jump on top of your head, or approach your face, while you are sleeping. A spear of 1.5cm in the eye would be nasty, two of these could render you blind. A crossbow arrow can cause serious trouble. Of course you could wake up and shed them off, but I wonder what would happen if they would be able to penetrate deeper, through the eyes, or through the nose and ears..

Poison

In nature, that's the usual way little ones protect themselves, or weak predators kill prey. The little ones could harvest some poison from the Eastern brown snake, and (only !) one of the little ones would attack you, using several arrows with the snake venom. This venom is 8,000 times stronger than cyanide and can kill a human in about one hour.

https://www.businessinsider.nl/worlds-most-dangerous-venomous-animals-2018-7?international=true&r=US

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