Questions tagged [military]
For questions relating to the structure or relations regarding a fictional military or its parts.
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Can an airforce be developed in secret?
In the course of events in my world (tech = 1920-ish, but no airplanes. Maybe blimps.), a large archipelago nation is invaded by a naval superpower. The archipelago nation, which had been developing ...
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What reason would a military have for large aircraft reasonably co-existance with big rocket powered "flying barges"? [closed]
Premise
Having spent a lot of time with Ace-Combat and Highfleet I got to thinking up a table top world a-la Imperial Skies which is set in an alternative 20th century. The setting being developed ...
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Extrapolating a culture from its use of armored fighting vehicles? [closed]
Ok, rewriting this one, so some of the answers and comments are from a simpler version:
Let's say, in an alternate timeline, or on another world, we discover the equivalent of mechanized warfare -- ...
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Keeping tech at 1890s levels without fossil fuels [duplicate]
How can I explain the technological stagnation at a level roughly equivalent to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The world is Earth-like and has the following characteristics:
Absence of ...
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Is it reasonable that magic would become a subject and magi would become students in military academies in a world with rediscovered magic?
Until twenty years before the time at which my story is set, the world was pretty much as our modern-age world is now. Magic was thought to be nothing more than myth and superstition. Alien worlds ...
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Feasibility Of An RTEG-Powered Unmanned AFV With 1970s Technology?
The title says most of it. We would be assuming a pretty much unlimited R&D budget, and the vehicle to be remote-controlled or automated.
EDIT/CLARIFICATION: Could an RTEG power an APC-sized ...
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Using gravimetry to detect cloaked enemies
In the future, a variety of different technologies to evade detection are employed, such as harmful sensory input that renders one incapable of perceiving the object that attempts to evade detection ...
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How would a country or kingdom instill loyalty and patriotism in its citizens and military? [closed]
How would a country or kingdom instill loyalty and patriotism in its citizens and military? With technology around 1930-1940
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US citizen, with a clean record, needs license for armored car with 3 inch cannon [closed]
I’m writing a sci-fi story with the protagonist being a superhero/ flying brick. He’s the only super in the world and as a result, many governments, NGO’s, cartels (etc.), and powerful individuals ...
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How fast will information travel through my chain of command?
In the story I'm writing, there is a lot of medieval warfare. I want to know how well information and commands would be able to travel through my armies (clarification: by how well, I mean stuff like ...
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How long could a soldier expect to stay effective while wearing "High-Level" HazMat protective equipment?
Assuming a technological level similar to or slightly more advanced than our current one, what is the longest amount of time that a front line, foot slogging soldier could expect to survive and carry ...
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What combat gear would a supersoldier wear? [closed]
Bill is a genetic freak who is far stronger and more durable than any person should be. Bill absolutely dominated the sports scene in highschool and college, and has become somewhat of a celebrity. ...
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How to design a standard uniform/armor for a planet plagued by severe weather?
I’m trying to design a standard uniform for a military group that works on a massive planet that has a storm eye similar to Jupiter’s or Neptune’s. This eye hangs over a large ocean and produces semi-...
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How do I prevent combat-oriented aircraft from being viable?
The more I compare fictional military vehicles and tactics with real-life ones, the more it seems like aircraft are near-omnipotent in the battlefield (operating word here being near). As such, it's a ...
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How to defeat Mesoamerican military without gunpowder? [closed]
Question : What weapons, armors and tactics required to defeat mesoamerican armies without gunpowder?
Assume that your army is made of native Texans unified under one leader.
Clarification: Native ...
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Would lightning bolts be effective against modern military vehicles?
In my setting, wizards from a pre-industrial fantasy world come to real life. One of these wizards is a destruction mage recruited by the US military and tries out her talents against modern forces. ...
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What sort of strategies would a medieval military use against a fantasy giant?
This is in regards to a story I'm writing, where the two main characters are a human girl and her giant companion. They're both outlaws with the giant being seen as an outright monster by the vast ...
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Is this super-soldier possible in reality
Well, in my story both combat robots and super soldiers coexist alongside the actual armies, now
the enhancements that super soldiers undergo can be divided into three main groups: surgical,
...
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What kind of training would an agent responsible for surviving in a hostile, apocalyptic world need to go through?
The premise of my story is that we have discovered a parallel Earth (let's call it E2) lying next to ours (let's call this E1). Something has gone wrong on E2 - at some point in its past, it went ...
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Supersoldiers enabling man-powered vehicles
Just as an exercise in worldbuilding, imagine a world where genetic engineering (on subjects that already reached maturity, so no need to modify embryos and raise them to adulthood) creates ...
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Does a hexapedal mech move quicker when it's closer to the ground and the legs are spread out or is it the opposite?
The commissioned mech-tank hybrid, pictured above, is a core component of a story I'm writing and I'm still not sure of some of it's specification. Things like weight and mobility, and I'm stuck ...
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How far back in time would the USA need to travel to be able to conquer the entire world? [closed]
I've been thinking of a scenario in which the US wants to control the entire world, via time travel, but I'm not sure what time to travel to.
The US is generally considered to have the most powerful ...
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Additional officer ranks for large military organizations
Per my current understanding, a fairly typical military organization will have the ranks outlined in the Wikipedia page on comparative military ranks.
The only problem is that, at most, this system ...
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Could a humantaur in the US be accepted to West Point and/or have a career in the US Military?
For the last seventeen years, Kerner Syndrome children, known colloquially as humantaurs (as in the image below, having a fully functional second abdomen and second pair of legs, plus a horse-like ...
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Why would authority figures' uniforms be more colourful than average people's? [closed]
In my world, there are magical humans often named wizards. Their scientific name is Homo magicus. However, there are standard humans (Homo sapiens as you shall know).
Traditionally, wizards live in a ...
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How are militaries supposed to communicate if they completely shut down wireless communication because the other side can intercept all of them?
This is a story where two militaries are intensely fighting on extremely mountainous terrain, but both of them has developed technologies that is capable of intercepting a great range of signals; from ...
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What psychological strategies could be used for keeping an anti-military crew as close to military doctrine as possible?
I hope this question isn't too broad to be answered and clear enough (which I have a hard time figuring out by myself).
Context:
In this Earth-like world the society is still quite retrograde in the ...
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How Nazi Germany should use it's new Nukes to quickly and efficiently conquer the entire world [closed]
The premise is thus;
A neo-nazi time traveler with a ton of money to throw around who's also done a ton of research into the manufacturing, mechanisms, and uses of nukes, brings a few construction ...
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How can a nuclear submarine cross an eldritch ocean safely?
Submarines are now the sole method of communication and transport between allies on the different continents of Earth.
This is because eldritch monsters have begun appearing all over the globe, with ...
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Would it be possible, given current technology, ten years, and an infinite amount of money, to construct a 7,000 foot (2200 meter) aircraft carrier?
Given current technology, ten years, and an infinite amount of money, would it be possible to build an aircraft carrier with a 7,000-foot-long (2,200 meters) flight deck? This is about seven times as ...
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Making an Evil Empire not too humanized [closed]
In my world, there is an "evil" empire trying to expand its rule. However, in reality, they are just like any other empire expanding. Despite this, I still want to make them like a force the ...
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Why would soldiers continue using helmets after the Renaissance?
In my world, it is a mix of Renaissance and 17th century style. For soldiers, they wear helmets as part of their uniform and armor. However, even into their version of the 1700s and 1800s, they ...
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What would be done if a machine went haywire and all the scientists died? [closed]
Not sure how to word the title. In my story a piece of secret US technology was being tested in the congo, but it ended up exploding and causing a temporal anomaly that send anyone within its radius ...
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Can a medieval fantasy world have a world war?
So I basically have a medieval fantasy world, where there are several empires on an Earthlike planet. These empires originated from early Bronze Age civilizations, and have stood the test of time in ...
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How can mages conquer the world [closed]
So the socity of mages is tired of living in secret and want to transform the world into thier play ground where they can use and abuse magic in the open.
To accomplish this they must conquer the ...
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Limb and body replacement is common. How many casualities before these small squads retreat? [closed]
I'm running a Cyberpunk Red TTRPG. In the setting:
Combat is mainly ranged with modern/near-future small arms.
Cybernetic limbs and bodies which are equal (in some cases superior) to organic ...
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How can unguided rockets be more effective than the main gun on a tank?
I have a setting where the environment is constantly changing on the ground level. As a result, hover tanks are used more often than tracked or wheeled tank destroyers/IFV/APCs. The ground can ...
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Glowing Eye Lenses: Why are the Mooks parading their location?
In many a sci-fi, the villains (and sometimes the good guys) have glowing lenses attached to their gas masks to help both identify them and provide a useful target for the protagonists. The obvious ...
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Is there a way a society could produce tanks as cheaply as cars?
In a book I am writing, one of the countries I am writing about has a militarized society, but also a strong sense of universal weapon ownership, to the point that more people in the society have ...
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Would power armor combined with reliable man portable anti-tank systems increase modern army sizes? [closed]
For many reasons, the size of modern armies are relatively smaller compared to even 20th century armies. In my setting there is a more infantry centric style of warfare, but one that's set in near ...
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What kind of tactical situation/s would be best approached with trained jetpack pilots?
I'm writing a story where there's a civil war fought by people with weapons and technology based on 50s experimentals, kind of like a subtle "What-if" aesthetic.
How can I manipulate what ...
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Could a merchant city survive not having an military?
Picture a city set in the renaissance times (circa 1350, for example), a city surrounded by vast rich soil at the lip of a large bay. Given the city's close proximity to larger ally kingdoms (kingdoms ...
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Why would an otherwise near future modern society have too many willing recruits attempt to join the military? [closed]
I have a setting where there are multiple factions. Conflict and war are common to a degree on the planet, however, for the most part conflict only encompasses military units. Civilians are rarely ...
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Would the articulations/joints/bearings of a bulletproof full-body suit be easily pierceable?
Context:
This armour was designed to be a full-body "bulletproof" suit, only capable of stopping bullets from military assault rifles that have the same capabilities of today's ones. Of ...
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Why would a military organize service/culture based on command zone rather than branch
The US has something called the Unified Combat Command. Essentially what it does is act as a central command structure to bring in multiple different branches in a theater so that an operational ...
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What are potential avenues in advanced materials/manufacturing for light, high-strength parts for portable cannons, firearms and ammo, and armor?
In my setting, there's a faction known as International Front that combines guerilla and para-militarism with advanced technology (for a guerilla group).
Their main goal is to fight and conquer the ...
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What are potential avenues for firearms and weapons technologies for a biotech-centric species?
In my setting, there is an alien world known as Totaria and an alien race known as the Totarians, who possess a special cell that lets them develop whatever organs, limbs, and creatures they want, ...
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Under what circumstances is a lower rank officer justified in taking over command from his superior?
I'm writing a SF military novel and at some point lieutenant takes command of forces because his own captain went crazy. The captain still gives lawful orders but he's only taking things from his own ...
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What would be the range of a shaped charge gun "projectile"?
Context:
A mix of Wild West with sci-fi elements where a character decided that it was a bright idea to have a shaped charge gun to blast people (humans or not) with molten "jets" (the ...
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What kind of alien homeworld would result in the following kind of alien (i.e. my Enslavers) naturally evolving? [closed]
Pictures are provided below. But overall there are three sentient alien species, at the top of the universe food chain in my setting. One of them are the Enslaver Aliens (different individuals shown ...
