Questions tagged [military-defense]
For questions about strategies and structures for defending from a particular type of attack
241
questions
58
votes
23
answers
11k
views
How do I defend an island nation from attackers with 15th century technology?
Apologies in advance that my bullet points got away from me and turned out a bit long, but I'm trying to give as much information as I can to ward off initial questions.
Imagine the following ...
- 2,189
57
votes
9
answers
9k
views
What would the fortifications of an underwater city look like?
Merpeople, along with other similar underwater humanoids, are often depicted as living in great cities beneath the waves. These cities have many positive things going for them: plenty of real-estate, ...
- 46.2k
56
votes
25
answers
10k
views
Would a non-lethal military be effective?
An empire spanning the globe has a military force trained and equipped for the temporary impairment of combat forces, such as sleeping gas, shields and nets.
The empire is by far the most ...
- 6,810
54
votes
26
answers
17k
views
What would induce a country to actively guard an empty wasteland?
One of my favourite stories features a major fortress built on the edge of a poorly surveyed wasteland. In that context, the Butte makes sense, as a safety measure against the unknown. Once the wastes ...
- 44.7k
52
votes
17
answers
4k
views
What would be the most effective way of keeping a psychopath with a spaceship from wreaking severe havoc in a suicide crash?
Any spaceship over several hundred tons is an extremely dangerous weapon in the wrong hands, particularly if it's intended for reentry. Made mostly of metal and possibly shaped to be able to breach ...
- 3,342
50
votes
5
answers
4k
views
How would the existence of large rideable flying creatures have changed the design of castles?
I'm thinking not only of the impact they would have had on how you would defend from an aerial attack, but also that they could be used for much more specific bombardment by dropping large rocks and ...
- 2,886
48
votes
22
answers
9k
views
What are some tactics for the ancient Greeks to defeat alien invaders?
Context
It's the 4th century BC, Alexander the Great has just passed away and his empire has been divided amongst his generals. Now the successor states of Egypt, the Seleucid Empire, Macedonia, ...
- 1,337
45
votes
17
answers
7k
views
Surviving an Overwhelming Siege
The evil enemy has us surrounded. They outnumber our forces, they have us outgunned. These helldogs have a trillion dollars/year for their war budget, and they can afford the fanciest toys, numerous ...
- 59.9k
43
votes
13
answers
5k
views
How to fight a kitty army?
Let's imagine an alien life form attacking Earth.
Their technology and their number do not overtake very much human ones, but they have a very powerful weapon: when a human looks right at one of them, ...
- 1,547
40
votes
20
answers
12k
views
How would space battles alter combat tactics?
A thought occurred to me while watching Ender's Game.
Why are these two fleets in space lining up like two armies during the revolutionary war (or pick your war of the musket/volley era)?
Thinking ...
- 32.8k
38
votes
31
answers
11k
views
What kind of a unit/army would prefer fighting from a low ground position?
It's a well-known fact that attacking or defending from a high ground gives a wide range of advantages over an opponent occupying a lower position.
I'm DM-ing a campaign where PCs are about to defend ...
- 491
38
votes
8
answers
10k
views
How can a defecting pilot improve their odds of survival?
A bit of context first, this question is inspired by the famous North Korean pilot No Kum-sok,
and his defection to the United States during the Korean war. A quick summary, he breaks formation, ...
- 2,468
38
votes
11
answers
9k
views
What is the ideal location to hide the President in the case of a zombie apocalypse?
We all love the apocalypse, except for those that are actually in it and often apocalypse media, especially zombie apocalypses, show a complete collapse of any form of government. I find this unlikely,...
- 56.1k
37
votes
7
answers
10k
views
Are underground shelters defensible?
In many survivalist stories the intrepid heroes wisely (given the impending plot line) decide to build and stock a fallout shelter. When the inevitable catastrophe comes they move into their ...
- 2,500
35
votes
22
answers
9k
views
How would cities be designed that were threatened by dragons?
The dragons aren't all that common but they live in the nearby mountains and after a harsh winter are more likely to come looking for easy prey to fatten back up on. What are the major design ...
- 49.1k
33
votes
16
answers
9k
views
How useful is an impregnable castle?
When we place castles on our fictional maps, lots of effort is often made on how to make those castles virtually impregnable. Walls, moats, defensive weaponry etc.
But one aspect is often overlooked ...
- 5,341
32
votes
19
answers
6k
views
How would one attack or lay siege to a flying castle?
So we already know that flying creatures are good at attacking castles. But what about a flying castle attacked by ground creatures?
Let's say we have ourselves a medium-sized castle built on a ...
31
votes
7
answers
3k
views
What would an avian "castle" look like?
How would avians build a defensive structure? What would be the equivalent of walls, a drawbridge, a dungeon, etc.
If two avian / arial cultures were at war, say birds vs. dragonflies, how and where ...
- 5,579
30
votes
12
answers
5k
views
How could a secret terrorist organization rise to great power without anybody really noticing?
My first question, be kind please! :)
I'm thinking about an organization like COBRA from the G.I. Joe comics. For those unfamiliar, COBRA is a nationless terrorist organization bent on world ...
- 2,160
30
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How would the design of a habitable underground fortification differ to that of a castle?
As a follow up from riding flying creatures to attack castles, let's assume that the practice is now so prevalent that a standard castle is no longer defensible.
How would the fundamental design of a ...
- 2,886
29
votes
17
answers
6k
views
How could medieval ships protect themselves from giant mermaids?
Long ago when apes and hominids split off a third group began to live in the seas and became mermaids/seafolk. Among several species of mermaids, there is a species of "giant mermaids" who ...
- 6,845
29
votes
15
answers
9k
views
Zombie killing structure that's easy to construct, durable and low maintenance?
What would be an effective zombie killing structure that an average person could put together in a typical suburban neighborhood? Previous discussion that touched on the topic often rely upon ...
- 1,203
28
votes
22
answers
6k
views
What would cause city walls to return?
Essentially, what would, in a modern (21st century) society, cause city walls to return?
I don't necessarily mean stone walls; steel, titanium, and aluminum walls are perfectly acceptable.
This ...
- 3,689
28
votes
9
answers
5k
views
To assault a dwarven city
Imagine a dwarven city, a fairly backwater one, completely unlike the likes of Erebor or Moria. This one scrapes together barely, and is only as large as it needs to be, which is to say 5 feet tall ...
- 6,247
27
votes
18
answers
9k
views
Can spacecraft defend against antimatter weapons? How?
Here is what we know:
We have the means to create stable antimatter
We can direct it in a beam
It can travel nearly as fast as light with ease
Antimatter and matter combine in dangerous ways: one ...
- 20.5k
27
votes
6
answers
11k
views
If the Cold War went hot in the early 1970s, would the Warsaw Pact be able to reach the Rhine River?
So, let us go back in time to the year 1973, specifically around October of 1973; the time frame of the Yom Kippur War. In our timeline, the conflict almost became WWIII after the Soviets threatened ...
- 1,363
27
votes
2
answers
845
views
How would sails from a fireproof material affect ship's performance?
Related to: How would rudder protection against water elementals affect ship's performance
In a world with ordinary magic, military ships should be prepared for enemy fireball-hurling wizards. Is ...
- 2,929
25
votes
12
answers
5k
views
How do I defend a walled citadel from a lizard army?
The setting is post apocalyptic wastelands. The use of nuclear weapons has resulted in the creation of mutations, the most deadly of which are the lizards. The antagonist devises a technology that ...
- 1,088
25
votes
6
answers
9k
views
Can one nuke reliably shoot another out of the sky?
A quick glance at real world anti-missile systems seems to show that they do work, but imperfectly. The problem naturally gets harder when the incoming missile is extremely high-velocity.
If your ...
- 1,871
25
votes
5
answers
4k
views
Deflective properties of a forcefield
I have always though of three basic ways that force fields function.
The first way is that the force field projects an indestructible shell that oncoming objects can never break. Further, the ...
24
votes
20
answers
8k
views
Defenses against someone moving at 1500+mph
This question is about speedsters and defending against them (Dr Wells' gun thing doesn't work).
There is a speedster. His 'cruising speed' is about 1000 mph, but can get up to 2000 mph if needed. ...
- 5,700
23
votes
11
answers
10k
views
Tactics and strategy an army can use to counter Human Wave attacks?
TL;DR: What tactics can a professionally trained army use against a horde of untrained conscripts using human wave attacks?
(This scenario takes place in the very-near future.)
Background ...
- 4,721
23
votes
8
answers
5k
views
Could a Mars colony use asteroids as weapons against the earth?
If a future Mars colony declared war on the Earth, would asteroid manipulation be a feasible option as an effective weapon against the Earth from a Mars colony? How would this be accomplished? Are ...
- 621
22
votes
21
answers
3k
views
In a world of magic, why would cities still find high walls useful?
In a world where magic exists. A large army can hire several mages that able to cast spells as, or even more, powerful than a 16-19th century cannon. The city walls will not keep out a determined mage ...
- 16.8k
22
votes
10
answers
5k
views
How to prevent your enemies from digging under you?
So, my world is a sphere (roughly) within hyperbolic space. Since the surface areas of spheres in hyperbolic space grows exponentially with radius, it has the same surface area of the Earth (indeed, ...
- 12.6k
21
votes
14
answers
3k
views
Why would you build underground defensive structures in an an alternate world medieval europe?
Assuming a world otherwise like ours and at the same technological level of medieval Europe, what change in the world might have caused people to build defensive structures underground rather than ...
- 2,886
20
votes
5
answers
5k
views
Rhino cavalry charge! How horrible would it be?
There have been questions asking if rhino, hippo and other similar kinds of cavalry are feasible.
Now let's for a moment skip that and assume we have some special means, on the end of which, we get ...
- 3,619
20
votes
13
answers
8k
views
How could a smaller country successfully take control of a much larger country?
Imagine a scenario where a country around the size of New Zealand (in GDP, population, military strength and other areas) decides that it wants to take control of or at least destroy a much larger ...
- 543
19
votes
4
answers
6k
views
How to fight an Eldritch Abomination
The Situation
The fantasy world of Terrearth is once again threatened by the Shadow, a sentient, but completely unintelligible being composed of Absolute Evil, whose sole purpose is to destroy the ...
- 1,290
18
votes
7
answers
8k
views
U.S. Army/Military's response time to an army appearing in the middle of a major city
In the scenario I have in mind, a handful of portals appear in a major U.S. city from which an army of golems starts pouring forth with the intent to cause as much damage as possible.
The specifics ...
- 559
17
votes
8
answers
7k
views
Muggle military tactics against mind-controlling wizards
Spoiler: Wall of text incoming, TL;DR provided.
Once upon a time there were two worlds, separated by some kind of dimensional veil. One world is populated by WW2 level industrial civilization, the ...
- 373
17
votes
9
answers
3k
views
How does a castle have sufficient anti-air defenses while still looking like a castle?
Castles, particularly Concentric Castles, are great to have against the technology of the time; swordsmen, crossbowmen. They're less great against ornery wizards and capricious dragons. The lords ...
user63
17
votes
9
answers
2k
views
How would a city with high defences fare against airborne creatures?
This always has been a point of trouble for me as a World Designer. How would a fantasy city be well-protected against airborne creatures? In all the examples we have on our own world (Earth) being ...
16
votes
7
answers
6k
views
How to defend a kingdom without killing anyone [duplicate]
What resources, schemes, and strategies does a medieval king need to protect their power without killing or torturing?
user86331
16
votes
16
answers
3k
views
How can The Temple of Elementary Evil reliably protect itself against kinetic bombardment? [closed]
This building is the centerpiece of my world and the reason for everything. Why would chromatic dragons and adventurers fight together? To take down this temple, of course. But why do I need them?
I'...
- 19.4k
16
votes
6
answers
2k
views
How to accomplish planetary independence
Inspired by this question: How many of a Typical Sci Fi Army would you need to take a planet?
Let's have a Galactic Empire which spans the galaxy. The Empire is ruled by The Emperor from one central ...
- 45.2k
16
votes
6
answers
2k
views
Space, the final frontier … to defend
OK, so you've got an empire in space. And that empire has a frontier. Now on Earth, we have many ways to defend a frontier. We can build border fences or even walls, we can build watch towers, and of ...
- 31.4k
15
votes
14
answers
4k
views
How can a pre-industrial civilization effectively defend against aerial attacks from large, fire-breathing creatures without the use of magic?
In my fictional world, there is a pre-industrial civilization that has advanced to a level of technology similar to that of the 15th-century Earth. This civilization is under constant threat from ...
- 1,302
15
votes
9
answers
3k
views
What is the safest and most extravagant place for an interstellar emperor to make his palace?
Every evil galactic empire has an emperor’s palace. From the Goa’uld to the Sith Empire to House Harkonnen, every emperor has one extremely lavish but heavily defended structure they call home.
My ...
- 1,347
15
votes
8
answers
3k
views
Does it make sense to occupy open space?
I was thinking about space as a measured and marked series of boundary lines to denote ownership and governance. The problem is that I'm having trouble seeing that as useful. If there's no particular ...
user458