stormbringer951
Against Eternity
Yeah, the end result of a lot of these thought experiments doesn't really feel medieval but starts to approach a fantasy-themed army that can be described neatly in military technothriller weapon systems terms:
Project: Create a Fantasy on-par with Modern Warfare
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Yeah, the end result of a lot of these thought experiments doesn't really feel medieval but starts to approach a fantasy-themed army that can be described neatly in military technothriller weapon systems terms:
NonSequtur
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The obvious starting point is something conceptually similar to the Holtzmann Shields from Dune. Tweak as necessary to blunt non-kinetic ranged weapons further, and apply to fortifications to prevent the strategic dominance of artillery or breach charges.
It's not perfect, the modern army still has telling advantages, but it does a lot to force swordfights and sieges-with-swordfights-on-castles.
It's not perfect, the modern army still has telling advantages, but it does a lot to force swordfights and sieges-with-swordfights-on-castles.
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Indeed, a major element of what has traditionally been described as feudalism is the result of a lack of centralisation and poor communication, which results in heavily localised authority.
This kind of magical war-power-infrastructure made to parallel the modern world immediately results in centralisation and communication because that's kind of the defining thing of the modern world.
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
I'm not super concerned about all this since a lot of what we classify as 'medieval fantasy' isn't really medieval in real world terms anyways. Take dark souls for example. Gwyn and his family don't rule because of a complex series of technological and social factors. They rule because they're literal effing gods, not to mention anor londo is way too big for a medieval society.
Also, this thread is more about fun ideas than strict realism.
Also, this thread is more about fun ideas than strict realism.
Communication, yes. Centralization, not necessarily because the communication also enables effective decentralized systems and it takes only a dash of fantasy considerations to promote those over central administration. In particular, the barrier to entry for the middle tier of modern military competence is the ability to make major tactical decisions locally without losing the benefits of your supporting organizations.
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Honestly, a funny way to do it is to have Fantasystan to be a rediculous deathworld with stupidly huge distances. Yeah the kingdom is the size of All of Europe, and it's a smol bean compared to Evilstan, the size of Russia. Also, Fantasystan is filled with impassable forests full of poisonous breathing dragons and also the trees there drink blood, and Evilstan's primary enviroment is noxious swamps full of idk ghosts or something. The only viable army model is a couple of super swole dudes and the absolute minimum amount of baggage porters leveled high enough to hoof it across the Iron Mountains That Hate You Yes You Personally.
SemiSaneAuthor
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So basically, westernised version of Xianxia is what you are suggesting. [/Have only been able to get into Beware of Chicken for Xianxia, so other than that, the genre is a closed book I have ortillery pointed at.]
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Unfortunately nothing here really makes up for the sheer size disparity involved. Fifty thousand troops is an enormous medieval army, the sort of thing that could be the unified efforts of a continent. Most of the Crusades were smaller than that.
In a modern military, that's a single corps. In WWII, the US alone fielded over twenty such units.
In a modern military, that's a single corps. In WWII, the US alone fielded over twenty such units.
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Not really. Or well, it could be, but what I'm really positing is that the enviroment is hostile enough that you basically can only casually travel through X Endgame Enviroment if you're some sort of high leveled badass. Like, if you tell some modern officer that they have to conquer City X, located around a divine oasis behind thousands of miles of Fuck You Desert (populated by Dune sandworms because why not), the most they're probably going to authorize is maybe sending a couple of missiles at the city and planting a mission accomplished flag (the mission was not accomplished) instead of even trying to put boots on the ground.
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
So baseline fumans should be more physically capable than humans, but to what degree? Are we talking a race of composite olympic atheletes, or bulletproof bullet timers?
If medieval fantasy is literally just vibes here you could just make your MLRS look like a church organ and call it medieval fantasy and/or give any random capabilities you want. If you don't care about the second order consequences of the capabilities you're assigning, it makes the question meaningless in a different direction.
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Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
Ah, but that's no fun. What's fun is playing around with things the modern world doesn't have, like mind control, time, geography, fate, conceptual and weather manipulation, crazy stuff like that. I did specify in the OP that we wouldn't just be lazy like that.
This isn't a dry intellectual exercise. It's a fun creative one.
This isn't a dry intellectual exercise. It's a fun creative one.
Necromancers have been brought up, but how about ghosts? An opponent that's intangible is difficult for a modern army to deal with, while not out of character for a fantasy realm. Something like Aragorn's Army of the Dead in Lord of the Rings would absolutely wreck a modern armored corps simply because things like bullets and tank armor just pass right through.
Rather than trying to "nuh-uh!" nukes and airplanes, I would think about the fantasy realm's divinities. Can the god of the sky simply lock his domain against intruders other than birds? How many missiles or planes get squashed flat before the modern world understands they're limited to 300' above ground level? Or after a castle does get nuked, the wounded land goddess goes on a mad, vengeful rampage into the modern world.
Rather than trying to "nuh-uh!" nukes and airplanes, I would think about the fantasy realm's divinities. Can the god of the sky simply lock his domain against intruders other than birds? How many missiles or planes get squashed flat before the modern world understands they're limited to 300' above ground level? Or after a castle does get nuked, the wounded land goddess goes on a mad, vengeful rampage into the modern world.
Mustapha Mond
World Controller, Western Europe
The fun of this exercise is like the fun of trying to create a good asymmetrical boardgame. You want two factions that are completely different, have different strengths, weakness, and ways of playing, but still end up being even due to the way their differences interact with each other.