How effective would an army of succubi have been in medieval times?

Question

Let's say the Hetre Kingdom is at war with a rival kingdom. The king of Hetre is going to hire some mercenaries: a hero and his army of succubi. Expert warriors at hand to hand combat and tiger-like martial arts, they look like normal women but are taller and have 2 big wings that allow them to fly and regenerate when chopped. Their sharp tails inject a non-lethal venom that paralyzes the target. Their intense blue eyes are mesmerizing.

But there is more about these female warriors: they secrete a pheromone from the skin that produces erections on nearby men. Only an iron will can endure this pheromone.

The succubi need to eat like a normal humans... consider them a crazy mutation that only shows on a few women.

The king accepts and now he needs to choose new weapons for his new mercenary army. His options are:

• Shield and axe/sword
• Scythes, Spears
• Crossbows
• Etc.

The blacksmith can forge anything, but they ran out of ideas.

Which tactics are favorable for the succubi at the battlefield? Which terrains are favorable and unfavorable for this army?

PS: The tails and wings regenerate. The regeneration takes about 1 hour, but makes them tired. However, they only need to eat to recover.

When eye contact happens the target feels less anger and strong feelings disrupt their minds.

Answer 1

Sexual arousal leads to a rush of testosterone. Increased testosterone leads to a burst of strength and an increased ability to endure pain. The effect of any rush of hormones is strongly linked to a person's state of mind, particularly when faced with life-or-death situations: mountain climbers are known to use Viagra to increase their strength and endurance while climbing a mountain; since they are thinking about survival rather than sex the increased blood flow does not trigger their sex drive.

Since soldiers attacking succubi are likely in the "kill the enemy or die" state of mind, it is unlikely that your succubi's pheromone will have the intended weakening effect: more likely, it will turn their enemies into an army of frenzied, rape-crazy berserkers with a literal boner for battle, making them more dangerous in close combat, not less.

However, it will likely impair their judgement, so succubi should use this to their advantage - rather than face the enemy head-on, they should lure them into traps and ambushes. Forests, mountains, and other areas with lots of areas to hide and ambush enemies will benefit the succubi the most, they will be weakest in open fields where an army of berserkers can simply run them down.

Flight will help; while flight does make them vulnerable to archers, enemy archers under the effect of the pheromones are going to be significantly more inhibited than melee fighters.

Answer 2

There are many options

• Women with pheromones are most likely special agents.
• Experts with tiger-like martial arts and mesmerizing eyes are most likely diversants.
• The ability to fly lends itself to them being scouts or any kind of light infantry, like archers.

On top of all, it depends on how many succubi the king could hire and how easily the army could restore losses.

• If they are cheaper than a buckler and there are millions of them then the king will order them to fight naked without any weapon.
• If hiring one succubi is cheaper than hiring a full-plate knight then they tend to be archers.
• Rare creatures and a non-recoverable army lend themselves to being some kind of special forces:
  • bodyguard
  • descent
  • diversant

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As previously said, tactics depends on weapons wich depend on cost of the army. Preferred terrain mostly depends on enemy and what advantages and weaknesses succubi have related this specific opponent. Of course, some advantages depend on weapon and therefore gold the king could spend. Some examples:

• If succubi would be archers
  • Preferable terrain could be open fields
  • But until the enemy has superior air mages
  • Against over-sized army of knights, winning strategy could be defend and attack strongholds.
  • Until the hero could scary horses on a wide area
• Diversants and special agents would prefer cities
  • But if the enemy army is atacking your capital then succubi should defend walls
  • No matters how good your spies if the enemy are huge spiders ;)

Answer 3

Weapons

To be able to fly takes incredibly strong muscles. So we can assume our succubi are very strong. This would fit well with archery. A highly mobile archer that can shoot from the sky would be fearsome. Obviously they won't be deployed alone but en mass, to shower the enemy formations from above. They could flank the army and even attack the enemy from behind.

Obviously they will also need to engage in close quarter combat if they wish to attack from behind or something similar. For flying a lance or spear makes sense but it’s impossible to carry both the lance and a bow in flight. Unless perhaps you use a smaller compound bow but that’s not really a Medieval European technology.

Those could be carried on the hip in a scabbard. This will exclude the ability to fire from the air as the succubus is already carrying her lance. So lances would make sense for shock troops but our mobile archers need something else. A small shield with an axe or a sword is probably best. Maybe a falchion and a belt worn buckler.

Now both will need armor. But to be able to fly it needs to be light weight. I’m thinking a gamberson. Light compared to most armor and equally less protective. But I don’t think metal armor is possible while maintaining flight. Except the obvious required helmet, always wear a helmet.

Tactics

This depends on their numbers. To be experts at hand to hand combat and master a martial arts it seems they’re trained. Training is an investment. They king is also willing to arm them himself. Again this means they’re not fodder. These are elite troops at least. So they won’t be standing there taking a lance charge.

They will be found on the flanks. Using their high mobility to maneuver around the enemy. Fire arrows in their sides and backs. Use a lance dive in the side of a cavalry charge, disrupting it. In a pinch they could be used to pin down the enemy archers. Landing between them and using their superior training and strength.

Their tails will be less used I think unless it’s magically stronger then armor. Anything but peasants wears armor that should stop your tail. Likely a gamberson with mail on top. Yes that includes the archers. Archery is a skill, it takes quite the investment to get a useful archer. They’re well trained professional warriors that use one of the hardest weapons out there if we’re talking a longbow/warbow. Those take a lot more to muscle to draw then it takes to wield a longsword.

Terrain

While an open field would maximize your mobility it also lacks any sort of cover. This could work with a large pitched battle when the army itself can shield our succubi. In smaller engagement where our succubi are the dominant or only force an open field is more of a liability.

You might want to use your flight to get up to roofs, boulders and trees. Attack the enemy from above then dart out of sight. Descend between them from a rock. Prevent them from having a long clear line of sight.

Abilities

As others mentioned, getting an erection doesn’t seem that bad. Sources mentioning berserkers fighting naked with an erection. That must’ve been a terrifying sight. Your opponents will feel a rush of testosterone, likely suppress all non-life threatening ailments. The body after all has the option to reproduce and that must be seized.

At worst this makes them sinners in their religion and they know have a reason to repent by slaying the vile demons. The eyes might pose an advantage. One on one you look at your opponents face and eyes to see their next move. Your eyes might mess with that. But only in close combat. Against a formation it will do little.

Answer 4

You can fight with an erection, I am pretty sure.

However, one advantage is flight, so I am going to point you to this link specifically geared toward the tactics that would be used and the tactics against it. Much of this will depend on how fast they fly...

The answers in the link covers both tactics used by the flyers (archery is a great place to start, as is getting behind enemy lines at night).

If they regenerate their wings, it might be useful to know how quickly this happens. Because if it's near instantly, that would be good to know. An effective way get them out of the air would be just to kill them with arrows--and not bother targeting the wings.

sharp tails injects a non-lethal venom that paralyzes the target

Ok, so in close combat, they can paralyze. But first, they have to get close enough and through armor.

But do answer the question of how many times a day that they can do this, because that will inform the tactics. Once a day is different than infinitely.

I would use this in conjunction with flight. Come over the enemy lines in darkness, and then use the paralytic strategically on leaders, perhaps killing them after you are through.

If they don't regenerate tails, of course any soldier will want to target that.

EDIT since you say it takes an hour to regenerate both tails and wings, then for sure those will be targeted during battle.

Their intense blue eyes are mesmerizing.

Define mesmerizing, would you? What is the actual effect and what is the range.

EDIT: YOu say they feel less anger and strong feelings disrupt their minds. That still doesn't tell me what the actual effect is on a fighter. Do they stop fighting altogether? Forget what they are doing and try to seduce the lady? Does it last as long as eye contact does? When I say effect, what's happening internally to the solider doesn't matter on the battlefield. What's needed to know is do they: throw down weapons? stop fighting? for how long?

they secrete a pheromone from the skin that produces erections on nearby men. Only an iron will can endure this pheromone.

Ok. So the men fight with an erection. Is this automatic? Do they have any control over it? If they don't, their ability to slip in unnoticed goes right out the window. What's the RANGE on it? You haven't really covered what other effect this might have on the men. It's a distraction, but it doesn't mean they don't stop fighting for their lives, unless, of course, you meant to imply that it does more.

Which terrains are favorable and unfavorable for this army?

Tactics can be adjusted no matter where they are. Flight may be better in open areas, however, that only means that more people can shoot at them. If they are good at hand to hand that doesn't do them much good against actual weapons.

Answer 5

I'm put in mind of a Medieval version of the WWII Russian "Nachthexen" or "Night Witches"

Nachthexen would pilot old Russian Biplanes, strap the biggest bomb they could carry on the fuselage and take off at night. They would fly as high as possible, find German camps, kill the engine, and then dive bomb them. The were up high enough that the Germans never heard the engines and the bomb would go off before the Germans had any idea what was going on. The old Biplanes were often wood and canvas, so they had minimal radar cross sections.

Here is how this works for you. Succubi aren't going to make much noise flying, and no noise at all while gliding. Outfit them with powerful short bows. I'm assuming they have excellent night vision due to semi-demonic heritage. They fly over the enemy camp at night, taking out the sentries first and then peppering the rest of the camp. This should inspire a lot of panic and chaos. One or two sorties a night means the enemy gets almost no sleep. Give them a means to firebomb and the enemy troops are going to have a really rough night.

Oddball dreams caused by surging hormones are going to cause even more problems.

Try to keep the succubus Army as hidden as possible to give the enemy even more to worry about while they are in your territory.

Imagine how you would feel marching off to a battle when in the middle of the night a bunch of your comrades died from an unstoppable rain of arrows that seemingly came out of nowhere. You'd be tired and worried about what the heck else the entrenched army you are up against is going to throw at you. You might be thinking that the commander is an idiot for dragging you out here, and by the way, what the hell was he thinking?

Even quite large armies are going to suffer a massive hit to morale. Morale really does matter. History is littered with defeated armies that really should have won, but did not because of big morale problems.

Answer 6

If we look at the modern representation of Succubi in which they take human form, they are depicted as attractive seductresses.

So albeit that the 'King' is hiring a band of mercenary demons, if they take on the form of a woman they would be able to infiltrate the enemy camps/ stronghold in order to seduce the army and render them immobile. Their combat skills are focused on close combat and incapacitating their enemies so any confrontation can be dealt with silently

At this point, the King's Army can take control, slay the incapacitated soldiers, rape and pillage if they so wish.

This then mutes the need to adorn the Succubi with weapons and Armour, because if something were to happen they would easily be able to return to demon form. If anything, any form of clothing would detract from the strategy.

You would be hard pressed to find a soldier that would turn down the advances of a beautiful woman, and if they are emitting the pheromone which gives any man within the vicinity an erection its essentially leading a lamb to slaughter.

As a side note, I imagine most mercenary armies would arrive with armour and weapons, particularly one with such specialist units.

Answer 7

since they can fly they would be better used to gain air supremacy (showering arrows on the ground enemy troops) and observing enemy's movements from a vantage point.

Good on open field, weak in narrow environments like forest or city.

The fact they give an erection to nearby men makes them a really poor scouting troops.