Questions tagged [combat]
For questions involving the specifics of combat.
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Swords more effective than guns [closed]
In our beautiful little world there are guns like pistols and rifles and for simplicity sake let's say they are of the Old West variety. In this world there also exist many beasts different and ...
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How would I make guns uncreatable in a post-apocalyptic world?
I am building a world in which technology has taken an enormous step back due to an apocalyptic event. For one reason or another guns no longer exist in the world and I would like to have a reason why ...
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Can Nano-Machines be used to increase strength
I am working on a story that involves the main character being one of a few magical beings on the planet, who are born human but awaken to their powers at age 14. If killed the cycle repeats, and they ...
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Laser Eyes: Practical?
I was wondering about the practicality of some superpowers. If someone had the ability to fire lasers out of his/her eyes, would the advantages of this ability be sufficient to overrides the risks? ...
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How could a low-quality, light armored but motivated army defeat a better army, battling in the mud? [closed]
Here's the facts: this kingdom is divided in 5 duchies. Once upon a time one of them was a small indipendent kingdom itself, but was conquered and now it's a Duchy, part of the bigger kingdom with ...
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What type of weaponry with the minimal amount of force would be appropriate to kill and subdue a superhuman? [closed]
I know this question might seem a bit vague so I hope to clarify here.
Say, an individual, or group of individuals, is tasked to kill several superheroes/villains with superhuman physical ...
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War eagles, feasible?
Let's assume that there's a species of eagles that's about the size of an Andean Condor (about 3m wingspan, 1.5m length, 10kg) and that there's a culture that has managed to tame this creature (or ...
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Would a man have any chance againt knife wielding woman? [closed]
I have a very patriarchal human society set in sparsely populated frontier. Think of it as a cross between wild west and Afghanistan minus Abrahamic religions.
There is very little law enforcement ...
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Boarding weapons in space
I'm writing a story that's relatively hard Science Fiction. Therefore (Although fancy and high tech) the personal weapons are, at their core, regular firearms.
Now, in boarding scenarios you want to ...
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Comparing space combat to naval combat - Helicopters? [closed]
Although I realize it is technically wrong, I often draw comparisons to naval combat when thinking about potential combat in space between starships.
While you can compare a capital ship in space ...
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What effect has would retirement have on the skills of "The Hero of Legend"?
I am currently writing a novel with a medieval Western European setting. One of the protagonists was a general some years ago, but he retired from a life of war after moving to another nation and ...
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Space combat: Is Jousting a counter to Ranged-Combat?
I had to think this one through, and even now I don't know if it belongs here, hopefully you guys can help.
Most scifi media has the World War II approach to combat, chasing and maneuvering in ...
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Vibroblade Combat Feasability [duplicate]
The only related question I have found here is: What would it be like to use a vibro-blade
But would a swung or thrust blade using a high-frequency oscillation actually improve its combat ...
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Is a sword that deflects bullets feasible?
Often in science fiction, we see that there are swords that deflects bullets, almost every single renditions has the sword wielder having hyper reflexes. The undeniably most famous example of this ...
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How do I create armor for a physically weak species?
In a world I am building, the sapient species (the Lokk) have discovered another species (the Lotl) and they have decided to go to war. The problem is that their bone design is physically weak against ...
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Creating a lightsaber clone
Lightsabers are cool, regardless of your opinion of the movies, lightsabers are really cool. From the fact that it can retract the blade to the lack of effort needed to cut through anything only makes ...
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In a world where magic and mages are normal. Wouldn't combat be defensive?
So. This has been something I've been tossing up for a long time. Let's say you have a world that has a broad availability for magic power and mages are a normal part of life. Like DnD 3.5 worlds or ...
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Self-Sacrifice is the Only Way to Beat Him - Reality Check [closed]
Disclaimer: This question might be in the wrong place. I wasn't sure if this is the case, so please flag it for migration and let me know if it belongs somewhere else.
I am writing a novel. In the ...
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Combat in "age of sail" air ship
Assume that you've conquered the issue of flotation, probably using some very-much-lighter-than-air gas bladder, allowing your ships to take to the skies.
Assume also that you've invented a way to ...
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Plausible usage of melee weapons in a futuristic environment [closed]
Lets say humanity has colonized the solar system. We don't have FTL, but we can get pretty damn close to light speed. Now, lets say that a few planets decide that they want to break off. The main ...
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Mermaid Land (and Sea?) Combat
I might have a bit too much saltwater in my brain. I'd like to discuss (can you do that in this format?) the ideas of combative mermaids on land. If you saw my other questions, you saw me bring up ...
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Battle tactics for portal warfare / exploration
In a story a long time ago in an age long forgotten, the main characters find an ancient portal-gate-system, powered by an even more forgotten magic.
The main characters have access to soldiers, ...
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How commonplace are Drones [closed]
I have asked why authoritative forces such as the police or the military would use robots and I have asked why said robots would be humanoid; now as I design the actually formations, I must know how ...
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Is there a military benefit to humanoid combat robots?
There have been questions of the validity of combat mechs and the shape of police robots before, but the general consensus is that the main reason for a mech to be humanoid is to appear less ...
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Modern Body Armor for Medieval Style Weapons
Imagine an alternate history, where weapons types didn't advance past "medieval" type weapons. So like: swords, maces, flails, crossbows, bows, polearms, mauls, etc. I'm intentionally excluding "gun"/...
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Is it practical to wield a bladed weapon in mouth?
In the vast army of famous swordsmen, there's someone who's very well known for a certain community, and completely unheard for the rest.
He's Roronoa Zoro, from the anime One Piece.
His possibly ...
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What is the most likely shape of a Super Sword? [closed]
I have in mind a bladed weapon that, left unpowered, looks like a "regular" sword, from whatever time period. The appearance of the weapon is important to the story; people need to know that it's a ...
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How would exposing a female warrior's (mostly) bare bottom help her in combat?
There's a valid discussion about feminism and objectification of women to be had. This is not the place for it, nor do I attempt to make it one.
I noticed that in Fire Emblem: Fates (and probably ...
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What would happen if someone set a spear against a charging bison? [closed]
Let us say you are some young Lakota Sioux brave on the High Plains with your spear, and you have the misfortune of seeing an American bison headed straight for you at top speed while you are in a box ...
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Are gunswords feasible?
A common trope weapon in science fantasy (such as RWBY or the appropriately named Gun Sword) is the gunsword. As the name implies, a gunsword is a sword that's also a gun, or vice versa. This has ...
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Reasons for horns/antlers on helmets
One of the great misconceptions of history is the horned helmets of vikings. This is in fact untrue, they didn't have horned helmets. But horned helmets were a thing thousands of years before the ...
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How can I achieve swords in modern military [duplicate]
Let's be honest, swords are cool, we can all agree on this, but the invention of the bullet (which removed the musket's reloading time) has practically removed swords from any form of combat where ...
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What would be the most effective melee weapon against heavily armored opponent?
In my world front line assaults are done with Mechanized Assault Vehicles, or MAVs. They are kind of like the vehicles in the Mecha universe, but more armor than weapon, more humanoid, than purpose ...
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Justifying limited use of arrows, while allowing them to be effective in short ranges?
In my world I have two sides battling each other. Both sides consists of Soldiers, however, one side tends to have a smaller number of far more elite solders while the other side has mages which only ...
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Magic duels when defense is easier than offense?
I have a magic system in which mages can enhance existing power sources (such as taking a small spark and building it into a fireball) or launch pure 'magical' attacks. Generally their magic is only ...
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How can infantry and light cavalry defeat heavy cavalry in a valley?
At the climax of my medieval low-fantasy novel the protagonist has to besiege a castle that (from his side) can only be accessed through a valley. The valley is quite cramped, and the hills are too ...
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Modern/Near Future Melee Armor
Modern Melee Weapons seem to be traditional melee weapons with stronger,lighter materials and improvements like shock circuitry. Are there examples of modern armors/material designed to stop modern ...
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Probable criteria for Ramming to become popularized for Space Combat
The society that I am developing is reminiscent on Early Medieval Society, and I want a version of the cavalry charge (and the cavalry cycle) to exist in my universe as well.
Essentially I want ...
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How to convince a dragon to help people in battle? [closed]
The first part of stories of Old world ends in a great battle, a battle that will lead to remedy of Big change and also (finally) the defeat of the evil king Clerence and the evil faction of Shining ...
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What history supports modern day Gladiatorial Combat?
For the most part human against human bloodsport lived and died with the Romans, but a common sight in fantasy or science-fantasy is the existence of gladiator arenas in some form (Hunger Games to ...
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Realistically calculating the movements of someone with super strength
Let's start by assuming a superhuman that isn't limited by biology for obvious reasons. Then let's assume they also receive super toughness to make this work.
Their super toughness scales with ...
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Theoretically, would it be possible for a human to break another human''s neck? [closed]
In this particular case, I am talking about an extremely flexible human. In my story, this human catches another's head with his legs and manages to snap his neck. I know a human can't simply snap ...
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What animals lend themselves to being ridden by Quadrupeds?
In my world, A hurricane has washed a group of 8,000 pachyderms off of Afro-Eurasia and onto a large island cluster. Due to the island rule, dwarfism ensues, and the population is made of of a group ...
user15036
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What would be the physical effects of a fistpunch with greatly magnified strength? [duplicate]
Assume a humanoid with greatly increased strength. He (or she) throws a massive direct punch at the middle of the breast of a human, who is standing in range.
Assume a punching force of about 1000 KN....
user6415
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How might microscopic humanoids capture an ant mound? ( series )
As part of a series of questions that I've been doing about microscopic humanoids ...
In my world, there are a race of microscopic humanoid organisms (0.3 mm - 0.33 mm). They live in a variety of ...
user15036
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How will military be modified if a warrior power could continue growing far beyond human limits with experience?
Imagine a world like any standard RPG games. In these games characters grow stronger as they defeat opponents, long after any real-world soldier would have reached their peak possible performance. ...
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How do you arrest/detain someone when people can make mental attacks capable of knocking someone out?
In a world where every human being can fight using their minds, every person effectively has a ranged weapon on them at all times.
Societal change in my setting has brought about a major decrease in ...
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How to contain a shapeshifter
As mentioned in an earlier question of mine, my particular world has a class of humanoids which have the magical ability to change into a single animal form at will. As detailed in the linked question,...
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How might castles develop in magical world?
Allow me to shed some light on this subject (turns on lightbulb).
Brief Overview of Magic
These powers manifest themselves any time from birth to the end of puberty. These magical powers fall under ...
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Wearing a cape during combat?
In a book I'm writing, a king has a bodyguard of a dozen elite swordsmen, trained their whole lives to protect their sovereign. Their capes are long and trail behind them. What are the disadvantages ...
