Questions tagged [military-defense]
For questions about strategies and structures for defending from a particular type of attack
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How to hide an urban landmark?
Picture an alternative history Second World War Paris.
The Third Reich must destroy the Notre-Dame de Paris, and the inhabitants must prevent this.
The French do not have access to anti-air weaponry ...
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Defense against endless hordes [closed]
Imagine humans of the present day and an enemy who suddenly appeared (seemingly) out of nowhere. The enemy has following capabilities:
Their army consist of all kinds of creatures from kind of ...
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Would a medieval-type castle still arise in an alternate history? [closed]
So, to set the background a bit. I'm writing a story that is an alternate history basically diverging midway through the 1st century BC: the roman empire falls. Here I am looking at a Germanic people ...
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How would a military counter the use of genetically modified insects used to defeat CBRN protective gear?
One military has developed insects with strong jaws capable of chewing through the weaker parts of CBRN (Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defense) gear and then injecting neurotoxins ...
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Fortification of an island kingdom? [closed]
In the story I'm working on, there's an island kingdom that has historically been attacked by invaders from the mainland. This island kingdom's culture is akin to that of ancient Djibouti or Eritrean ...
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How do I defend a person against an attacking teleporter?
Inspired by Personal Teleportation as a Weapon
Using the teleportation rules from that question:
The Teleporter can teleport themselves and/or any object (including people) they are touching, ...
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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'...
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How to protect a small modern military base from a large number of primitives?
So, let’s imagine a force of about 500 people, armed with what we would consider modern weaponry (or, more so, 1960s weaponry), are facing up against a force that outnumbers them at a ratio of 34:1, ...
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How can a religious order prepare their abbey for a siege?
A religious order has learned that the Big Bad wants their MacGuffin. They have contracted a local adventurer to prepare their defense as best he can before the enemy arrives. What is the most urgent ...
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How would an Inquisition under a semi-dystopic government set in a post-apocalyptic world function? [closed]
The government in my world covers the entire Earth, but is run by 3 separate, cooperating continental governments (Europe, North and Central Africa, and Australasia). The rest of the world is a ...
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How long would the military stay supplied with high powered defensive gear
In our world, when the world breaks down because of an influx of mythological creatures(Krakens, giants, etc...) sea travel becomes nigh but impossible because of people dying on their ships and ...
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How could a civilization end up confined within walls?
In Shingeki no Kyojin humanity is confined within walls to protect them from giants on the outside.
In this case, I'd like to imagine a civilization (doesn't need to be all of humanity) within a huge ...
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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 ...
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Best strategy against anti-material monsters [closed]
For my story the inhabitants of the setting find themselves fighting against endless hordes of monsters. But these monsters have several traits that will require unique strategies against them which I ...
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How Should I Design my Medival Fantasy Fortress? [closed]
My name is Austin
I am a writer trying to design the concept of a "perfect fortress" that can viably defend against all kinds of adversaries. However, I am in need of suggestions to improve the ...
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What missile defence system can defend a country from thermonuclear ICBMs? [closed]
I have a fictitious country, let’s call it Democratica, which is a democratic western nation, threatened by a neighbouring communist state (called Sovietania.) Sovietania has a number of Soviet and ...
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How effective is a defensive wall without a wall walk?
I see a lot of historical and fictional illustrations of walls that do not have wall walks. My understanding of medieval tactics is largely based on cinema and some wikipedia, so as far as I know a ...
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City defenses against kaiju attacks?
In this series I'm mulling, kaiju have been around since prehistory, turning up off and on right up until modern times. In the near-future of this alt-history, say in the next twenty years (2040ish), ...
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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 ...
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Defensive options for a 500km gap with steam trains and fireball mages?
World: The world is 1/4th the diameter of Earth, and there are 2 continents + the poles, like our poles. Esia, 25% of the size of real-life Asia, and Aurope, 25% of the size of real-life Europe. Their ...
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Geopolitical consequences of a secret peace-keeping organisation backed by the UN Security Council?
In my world, there is a top-secret counter-intelligence/peacekeeping organisation called SWORD that answers directly to the UN Security Council. SWORD was formed in the wake of War World II in order ...
user48508
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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 ...
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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 ...
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How can this more technologically-advanced army efficiently fight against a less developed mixed human/undead foe? [closed]
I am looking for ways that the military, described below, can face off against
Desert warriors akin to Ancient Egyptians. They're not at a high level of technology, mostly using bows for ranged ...
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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, ...
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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 ...
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Economy vs Defensibility for cities?
Ok this is 2 questions but they are so closely related I'm sure it's OK
The Premise
The world is geographically similar to Earth.
The kingdom has the same climate as Germany.
The technology is High ...
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The feasibility of a top-secret naval base located on Île Pott
There's this organisation, which has a global system of secret and sensitive military bases situated in various geopolitical regions, not unlike those of the US military. One military installation is ...
user48508
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How many troops would be needed to occupy a city with a population of 2.9 million? [closed]
I have a city that has a population of 2.9 million and an urban footprint around 2,037 square kilometres. For reasons unknown, it's been sealed off from the outside world by a shadowy military ...
user48508
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Primitive AA defense
In scenario I am talking about there are civilizations of primitive sentient aliens, and they have acces to big (able to fly with ~100 kg of cargo including passengers) flying creatures which have ...
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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 ...
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What type of weapon makes the most sense for use on a spaceship [duplicate]
Supposing your spaceship was long and narrow, what type of weapon would be most practical on a spaceship made of the materials we make spaceships out of today with scaled hull thickness to equal the ...
user49634
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Shard Technology Uses For City-Defenses [closed]
In my Fantasy world there is a magical resource called shards that is as follows:
Shard Powers: For all the people of the world; the benefits and dangers of using shards are well known. Shards are ...
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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, ...
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How big of an asteroid could all the nuclear bombs of the world move? [duplicate]
More than the threat of nuclear war, we should worry more about asteroids destroying the Earth. For the first time we could save ourselves from that happening.
Take all the nuclear missiles of the ...
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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
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How long would it take to 'Raise the Alarm' in a medieval city?
I'm writing a story that involves the protagonists opening the gates of a medieval city to allow an attacking army through - and I need to know how long it would be before the city's garrison realizes ...
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Fleet defenses against massive creatures [closed]
In my fantasy world, humanity thrives on massive migratory fleets, moving in large numbers between the sparse islands. However, there are massive creatures that live in these places in between, ...
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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 ...
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Could This Sort of Castle Defense Work?
This is a basic map of a castle in an alternate Earth. It was built with two walls, both of which were always built in a circle, with four broad, circular towers/gatehouses built in four cardinal ...
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How can people kill considerably death-resistant aliens with everyday objects?
In a world where people find aliens invading their homes, with what household object or objects found on the street or nearby, could people defend themselves against the invader?
The rules of the ...
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How could Hitler's planned invasion of England in September 1940 actually have succeeded?
This is a rewrite of this question in an attempt to reduce its scope and bring it back within the sites guidelines.
I was writing a story set in an alternative history in which Nazi Germany occupies ...
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What would have happened if Hitler had launched operation Sea lion (the planned invasion of England in September 1940)? [closed]
I'm writing a story set in an alternative history world but after some research I suspect the scenario I intend to use is unrealistic, so I would like to understand the likely outcome of Hitler’s ...
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How do the strategic assumptions and goals of a space force affect the overall effectiveness of the space force? [closed]
So, to start the question, I want to have a small assumption here:
Let us assume that we are an interplanetary civilisation. We have spammed much of the Solar System, but it is not all sunshine and ...
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The place of cannons and ballistae in a world without metal
I've mentioned before that I'm working on a fantasy world where most of the metals we rely on in our world are fairly uncommon outside of a single, inhospitable region of the world. The vast reserves ...
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Would an actively camouflaging airship cast a shadow?
I am currently writing about a military society that enforces its subjects using Acer-class airships. Picture the USS Iowa, except flying and with enough supplies for a year in the air. The only ...
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How can you create an impenetrable defense to survive a world war? [closed]
You are the leader of a country on Earth, 2017. Some time soon, a world war will break out, in which many powerful countries will join together and attempt to destroy your nation. Your only interest ...
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How to quarantine an entire peninsula?
The general backstory for the world I'm building is that the entire dwarven homeland in Ireland has to be quarantined after a S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-style disaster in the mid-19th Century. All 3000-3500 ...
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Is it viable to wall modern cities against "zombies"?
Let's say the city covers about 40 square miles (104 square kilometers), that machinery and some oil refineries are still usable (for construction vehicles), and that there is a lot to salvage in way ...
user39368
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What circumstances would necessitate an international "Supernatural Police" organisation?
Some background on this question, I was trying to construct an international organisation whose main job is to patrol, investigate and protect its member countries from anomalous threats that have ...
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