Questions tagged [military]
For questions relating to the structure or relations regarding a fictional military or its parts.
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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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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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In a general sense, would it be better to equip troops with plate carriers, body armor, etc. if they’re fighting against zombies?
In a general sense, would it be better to equip troops with plate carriers, body armor, etc. if they’re fighting against zombies?
Right now, my Troopers (what someone in the US Garrison is called) ...
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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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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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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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How might you design a solarpunk military?
So the ideal of solarpunk is obviously that you would not need one, but if not every nation went in a solarpunk direction at the same time, you would likely need a defense against those that did not ...
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Full plate - ways to make individual suits look more distinct
So I have a fairly large empire led by knights, and there are a lot of different households with their own proud histories and strong personal identities. As a natural consequence of this, a culture ...
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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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How much would this super mutant have to mess up before the military discovers him?
So this alien super mutant has crashed landed and is hiding out on Earth in human form. These are the things that make him different:
Shapeshifting takes too much effort for him to want to change to ...
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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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Martian warfare: could motorcycles be used in war?
This probably sounds like a ridiculous question but it is actually very simple. It seems possible to me to modify a motorcycle to be weaponized and indeed very deadly here on Earth (if you had the ...
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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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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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Conditions for Modern Trench Warfare
What battlefield/tech conditions would necessitate the use of trench warfare in a modern or semi near future setting? One thing I was considering was the significant advancement of railguns/AT guns ...
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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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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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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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Why can my power armor's magic lightweight fuel cells not be used for other things?
I have a setting where there is power armor along with a somewhat compact power source that powers not only the suit, but some basic weapons and additional features on the suit. The problem I am ...
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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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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 ...
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If you were wearing a bomb suit, would it be safe to set off a Claymore mine strapped to your chest?
The M18A1 Claymore mine is a directional fragmentation anti-personnel mine. It is designed to kill by projecting a lethal hail of steel balls within a 60-degree cone in front of itself.
It seems ...
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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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Could the President stop an alien President copy from nuking Washington DC?
My world is parallel to ours, except alien doppelgangers have infiltrated human society for generations to hide from their enemies in space. They have positioned themselves to stop their rivals from ...
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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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How to kill an alien with a decentralized organ system?
I had a cool but not so original idea: aliens with many many redundant organs, and a nervous system spread across their bodies. This creates some issues. How do I kill one?
What the Alien is like:
The ...
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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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Can a "criminal" country exist in the modern world without getting blockaded and invaded?
In my world, there is a remote island country (unofficially named Banditland or Sin Island) started by cartel/mafia kingpins and unethical businessmen from across the world. In this country, very few ...
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What would be better? Half a ton of ballistic armour or half a ton of sandbags?
Context:
In this history, the army finds out a way of making reliable exosuits, but they can only help its user to carry more weight while walking and running, it can't throw cars, jump over buildings ...
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Pre-modern logistics, how many food wagons are needed?
Assume that a pre-modern army numbering 50,000 men is going to campaign in a foreign territory for 180-days, during which they completely rely on their supply wagons which cannot be refilled, and each ...
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What advantages/disadvantages would Neanderthals have in a 16th Century military conflict? [closed]
Homo Neanderthalensis is a Homo species that went extinct 40,000 years ago. Let's say that Neanderthals made it to the Americas and was isolated on that continent until Spanish colonization. Let's ...
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Why would a tank have multiple main weapons or a main weapon with multiple barrels?
Fiction is filled with examples of tanks with multiple main weapons, from Command and Conquer's Mammoth to Warhammer 40,000's Baneblade to World of Tanks's IS-2-II (although the IS-2-II was based on a ...
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