Questions tagged [warfare]
For questions related to the effects of certain circumstances, conditions, or locality changes on war. Related tags: [civil-war], [nuclear-war], [cold-war]
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How do you keep warlike people warlike in peacetime?
I am thinking of making a world, using the Earth as a template, that is in "sort-of" Medieval ages, but at peace. In other words unlike our own Medieval times people and countries are not constantly ...
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How can I protect witches in combat who wear limited clothing?
On TV, witches often wear skimpy, impractical outfits when going into a fight. This is done for fanservice reasons, so I wanted a way to make this sensible. Witches perform magic by drawing in energy ...
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How could war be replaced by sports?
Pacing back and forth in the war room, vice president Biden carefully considered his options. The fate of the world was in his balance. Sweat condensed on his brow, and time was running short. He ...
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How would medieval/Renaissance-era castles protect themselves from air raids?
Context : my fictional universe is set in a time period akin to the european Middle Ages/Renaissance. Think of the 1400s-1500s for reference.
In most aspects (political, social, industrial etc.) my ...
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What if the attack on Pearl Harbor had been defeated in World War 2?
It is widely known that the US Naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was attacked in the morning of Sunday, 7th December, 1941 - resulting in the US entering the Second World War (source: History.com).
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user9671
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Why no firearms?
In this world, magic exists. The technological level is medieval, but weapons like magically reloading crossbows exist. Magic has the following rules:
All magic requires runes and a verbal ...
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Aerial battle of knights riding flying creatures - preferred weapons for the warriors
I've done a question about
Aerial battle of knights riding flying creatures... How would they fight?, that was put [on hold] for being too broad. So I'm splitting the question into a series.
The ...
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How Powerful a Starship Coilgun Can We Make?
I've spent a good deal of time working through the mechanics of 'realistic' space combat, and figure that good old kinetic projectiles will probably still at least be part of the arsenal, if not the ...
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War Whales use in Naval Warfare
I am Carrion the Black Hand, lord of the Ashfields brother to Kaine!! The God king. While Kaine is busy defending against the Sun Empire's holy war, I am planning a naval invasion. The plan is to ...
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Would glass bullets be feasible in a hypothetical world?
Enter the world of hypothetical-ness:
Imagine a world where we have used almost all of our copper, lead, and iron supplies and deposits. The amount that we still do have is not enough to make a lot of ...
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Aerial battle of knights riding flying creatures - how would their military formations be?
I've done a question about Aerial battle of knights riding flying creatures... How would they fight?, that was put [on hold] for being too broad. So I'm splitting the question into a series.
The ...
- 5,818
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How can I make an anti-matter "rod" warhead for interplanetary delivery?
In the story I'm writing, a civil war is fought between Earth and Mars. Although there is a huge orbital and ground war campaign, conditions deteriorate to the point where Earth decides to unleash the ...
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Maximum effective range for a modified Long Tom cannon in high density?
My airships in combat come upon each-other and initiate combat with their 12-foot long-tom guns. My problem is, I don't know what range they would be at when they decide to fire, because the post-...
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How can a city protect itself from an invasion of knights riding flying creatures?
I've done a question about Aerial battle of knights riding flying creatures... How would they fight?, that was put [on hold] for being too broad. So I'm splitting the question into a series.
The ...
- 5,818
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Can a super-governmental military body like this work?
Setting: In my conworld there is a huge region (let's call it the Midlands) spanning from the northern borealis to the wide green pastures further south, of the northern continent, which is not one ...
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Airship combat in dense atmosphere - What charge for 26-lb cannons?
For an airship combat scene with cannons on a world with a dense atmosphere, what would be the powder charge for effective beam-to-beam attacks at a 100-yard range?
The projectiles are 26-lb cannon ...
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What are the implications for society if perpetual motion was possible? [closed]
Assuming perpetual motion was possible, what influence would that have on society? Would the ready availability of energy help the current third-world? Would that even exist given how history would be ...
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How many of a Typical Sci Fi Army would you need to take a planet? [closed]
I am writing a fan story for a well known universe with typical Sci Fi armies. (For those who want to knows which, in this universe people seems to love Pauldrons and gothic architecture)
They ...
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Aerial surface assault without bombs/explosives
After the invention of the aircraft and its subsequent use in the Very Big War, the world powers came together and came up with the Plot Device Treaty, setting and expanding on the laws of war.
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In a future where lasers are the weapon of choice, why not wear mirrors? [duplicate]
I'm designing a futuristic combat of a sort. Currently I've figured that soldiers would still be firing slugs from guns by reason of mirror beats laser if lasers are too common.
So the question is: ...
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Why Would an Enemy Army Retreat if they Will Die Anyway [closed]
I am Kaine!! God king of the Wraith-men exiles. With my brother Carrion and his twelve sons and their hordes, we have laid waste to many realms. It is only when we went to war with holy city of ...
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Can I use my earth-changing invention to hide in orbit?
I've built a device, it's capable of turning matter to energy and energy to matter with perfect efficiency, I've got the resources to build a space station in secrecy, and I want to get off the planet ...
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How can I build a door to repel a horde of zombies?
In The Walking Dead, the survivors have seen plenty a wall. From Woodsbury, to Wellington, to Alexandrea, they are all different and they all have their advantages. One issue that none of them have ...
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How would a war between immortals be fought?
Imagine a world similar to medieval Earth (technologically), populated by humanoid beings. For all intents and purposes, they are humans - they talk like humans, think like humans, have human-like ...
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From which point on would including a dragon on one side of a historical battle not be an instant victory?
Inspired by this question, I am wondering something similar. In a modern war a dragon that simply flies over enemy forces and torches them with its fire breath there are several ways of taking it down ...
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Wooden sticks are the only allowed weapons in a technological society - how far would these weapons have progressed by now?
Imagine that the inhabitants of Earth all follow a religion that allows only wooden weapons. How would warfare look nowadays?
Commandment 37.
37a) Thou shalt make weapons only from the wood of ...
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What good are herbivores in an animal army?
This is a multi-species animal army with predators of all shapes and sixes, foxes, lions, bears, tigers, leopards, wolves, lynx, eagles, falcons and so on.
The herbivores have been excluded from the ...
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Are nuclear weapons useful in space?
On Earth, nuclear weapons can wreak enormous damage to a country and for that reason, large-scale wars between nuclear powers don’t happen. But what would happen if humanity progressed just enough to ...
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Storming Area 51 [closed]
As you've probably heard, there's been a recent tongue-in-cheek event on Facebook to storm Area 51 on September 20th. Over 222,000 people have "confirmed" that they are going, with more than 251,000 ...
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Given an "indestructible" material used for armor - what are ways to explain that material not being used as a weapon as well?
Usually this "indestructible" material is unnaturally strong for its weight; the armor "just exists" and doesn't go into the feasibility of such a material.
Given that the material isn't "hard to ...
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Would we see cannons in a magic-using society?
In a society that has relatively plentiful magic, enough that spell casters would be a standard part of any size-able army, would cannons and artillery still develop?
For the purpose of this question ...
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Warrior caste in an utopian society: what would keep them peaceful for centuries?
There is an Earth-like planet with human-like inhabitants. After almost destroying the ecosystem with weapons of mass destruction, toxic waste and such, the civilization changed to survive and an ...
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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 ...
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How would sentient intelligent, normal-sized mice fight against humans?
Assuming that the world still uses melee weapons like swords and spears, has magic and medievalesque warfare tactics.
They are a race of smart mice (they still look like mice, just that they can use ...
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How do the zombies win when they're so weak?
I'm writing an autobiography of my life in the post-Zed world. Now, I think the effects of the Zeds have been obvious – total obliteration of any worldwide infrastructure, severe depopulation, turning ...
anon
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Can realistic planetary invasion have any meaningful strategy?
The sea is used as an analogy in space travel, and sometimes it works well. Ships sail on long journeys, between distant lands, across a hostile medium.
But these analogies tend to break down when it ...
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How do I wage war against a collective consciousness?
I am revisiting an older scenario I came up with, but I have been experiencing many of the same problems. I have a swampy, jungle world which flooded, causing a species of fire ant that made an ant ...
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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 ...
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How could flying soldiers influence medieval battle tactics?
Two medieval armies are fighting one another. Their infantries are approximately equal, and their artillery pieces are well matched. During one battle, they enter what appears to be a stalemate.
Then ...
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What advantages would bovines have over horses when used as cavalry?
What advantages would bovines have over horses when used as cavalry?
I've got a culture whose way of life is based around cattle, and I'm wondering what kinds of advantages they might have in combat ...
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Combat in a subterranean environment and how it would be waged
Dwarves and their underground cities and the vast network of tunnels that connect them, a stereotype older than Tolkien. What I wonder is how would warfare be waged in this tightly restricted area?
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Weapons for boarding spacecraft?
With today's technologies firing a gun inside a spacecraft could be catastrophic, although not certain it's widely agreed that firing weapons inside the space stations is very risky.
Assuming space ...
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How would rudder protection against water elementals affect ship's performance?
In my world, there are two countries constantly in cold or warm war with each other, and one of them has quite a lot of magi in their army. In my RPG campaign, the party is sailing one of the best-...
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Does mirror armour work against laser guns?
The next war will be fought with lasers beside computers, I'm wondering could a bullet proof vest coated with a highly reflective surface protects user from laser blast. The laser in question is ...
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What traits or behaviors would favor female warriors over males?
In human cultures around the world, most wars are fought by men. There are many theories as to why this is the case, first and foremost that females are simply less expendable than men when it comes ...
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Tactical Advantages to Dragons with Riders
Given a fantasy world in which magic exists and which dragons are real, what kind of tactical advantages could a dragon and rider pair have over dragons without riders?
To expand on the setting:
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Can an interstellar war be remunerative from an economic point of view?
I was thinking about writing a short story about an interstellar war, but there is something that does not leave me rested:
My invaders (the race of the protagonist) would start the war against a ...
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Can a civilization be reduced to the Stone age by a conventional war?
I need to arrange a situation in which a major conflict occurs in a relatively advanced civilization and where the fighting is of such a magnitude that all the participants are eventually reduced to ...
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How to exterminate a psychic race?
So, this race of Wussname are a peaceful people. Each and everyone of them possess this weird ability of sympathy that allows them synchronize their emotions and share their knowledge with other each ...
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Creating super soldiers by removing emotion (singular)
Futurestan, the nation that deals with its problems by shooting them into space, has a serious problem. You see, their economy is largely dependent on industrial processes that, among other things, ...
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