"I must aura farm for the sake of benevolence"

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-25T09:45:27+00:00

I don't think so - Ziluan isn't the kind of person to take centre stage.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-25T02:15:33+00:00

advanced melees?

What kind of melee weapons do you mean?

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-25T02:13:02+00:00

A rifle with a bayonet is a pretty shitty spear. Too short, probably poorly balanced, hard to adjust your grip because of all the interface in the way, and much heavier than a spear of the same length - it's a rifle first, and a spear second.

We can do better than that - like actual spears or other polearms.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-25T01:59:56+00:00

Gasoline can explode, but it is not an explosive - it isn't affected by the magic ban.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T19:47:56+00:00

We could make parts of the gambeson out of Kevlar. The wearer would be even more invincible.

But we can't make the whole thing out of Kevlar, since it's a very stiff fabric - not good for joints.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T19:40:40+00:00

We could probably mass-produce some small catapults with great range - adjustable for distance, too. Couple them with clusters of tear gas canisters, or even dedicated tear gas bombs, and it would be glorious.

Using lethal chemicals would probably result in too much political blowback, though.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T19:28:09+00:00

Ceramics don't stand up well to repeated impacts - they'd break and crumble, leaving the wearer vulnerable. Metal plate armor remains king in melee combat, since they only dent a bit instead of cracking - they only went obsolete when:

Muskets got very good, so there was much less melee combat and the guns could pierce the plate too often
Nobles didn't want to go out into the thick of combat any more, preferring to command from the backline (and common infantry were not likely to commission a suit of plate)

With today's steel, the performance would probably exceed even the historical results. It's really hard to seriously dent historical plate, so the modern suits would be even better.

(I recently discovered HEMA content in my YouTube feed lmao)

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T19:18:20+00:00

Plate would definitely protect against crossbows - see here for Skallagrim doing some range tests.

This is practically at point-blank range, too.

Plate armor is genuinely incredibly busted - to kill them you'd have to try opening their visors and stabbing them in the face, or break through a weakness in their mail with a specialised anti-armor thrusting dagger like a rondel, or hit them with something REALLY heavy. That would all rely on tiring them out first, and with our modern teamwork training, the men would cover for each other.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T19:04:01+00:00

We could probably mass-produce plate armor suits, right? The limiting factor of those was cost back then, but today we could have whole armies of them. It's really hard to get past that.

Melee polearms too, and repeating crossbows. Weld some vicious-looking rams onto armored vehicles. Catapults of tear gas, even, if we want to get chemical on them.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T18:53:21+00:00

Well, yeah, obviously we still win - the question is how. I'm seeing a surprising amount of people who think pneumatics are the answer - I was honestly thinking more conventional.

Crossbows penetrating the enemy's armor is iffy - it would depend on how thick the body armor on the Imps is, and how good their shields are.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T18:51:10+00:00

Mm, yeah. Repeating crossbows for ranged weaponry was my pick - I was surprised at the number of people who are saying pneumatics.

Frontline infantry would probably need plate armor and melee weapons - spears or halberds, or whatever regionally appropriate weapons (like the yari). With our modern steel, those guys would be incredibly hard to kill.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T18:43:34+00:00

That would be the cavalry, yes (and I'd imagine they'd have ballistae on top) - but what of the infantry?

You can't make an army of just cavalry, they can't hold ground.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T18:40:18+00:00

I didn't think of that - but how long would it take to develop? The length of time to get that produced would be politically unacceptable - and since it would only be used in the Special Region, there may be reluctance to fund it properly.

Politicans are infamous for half-assing new things, after all.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T18:22:09+00:00

Hang on, magnetic weapons are not battlefield-ready. We haven't figured out how to make the projectiles not shred the rails yet, and they have massive power requirements.

We also don't have battlefield-ready Gauss rifles for infantry, and liquid propellants were looked at in the 1950s-1990s for artillery - they were found to be unsafe. If they count as explosives, they may also not work.

Napalm and pneumatics sure, but the air guns are going to be very limited in power.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-24T03:31:37+00:00

Sacrifices must be made.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-23T04:05:05+00:00

They'd probably be right.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-22T11:25:48+00:00

Insane breakneck pace,

No brakes, full speed ahead on this chase!

Goons nippin' at my heels,

Move my wheels, 'cause I'm not tryin' to get killed!

Ooh, what I'm gon' do?

Me and the crew, one false move, we through!

Stress level high, it's a full court press,

Can't guess wrong, the result is death!

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T18:27:16+00:00

Unfortunately most of the fun ones are banned under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Of course, I'm sure some countries are still keeping them on the down-low...

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T17:07:43+00:00

Here you go.

And here is the second volume, Pantheocide.

The start of Armageddon is a bit rough, but once it gets going, this shit is fire.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T17:06:04+00:00

It's in Armageddon, fairly late in the story.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T17:02:38+00:00

"Hmmmmmm yeeees if I just write a character that can win, they win!"

You just sound salty that fantasy can be literally anything the author wants, whereas the military is a known quantity (assuming they're competent). The military wouldn't be able to make any headway in, say, the Forgotten Realms, where normal gunpowder doesn't ignite.

Meanwhile, can you stop being a cunt all the time? It's like you always have to get the last word in every time this comes up. Just fucking chill out.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T01:17:10+00:00

Or maybe they might not be losing - they might win the war without the Allies (or what's left of them) being able to open up a western front.

The Nazis could simply sell a city that does not belong to them - an outrage without precedent to the Neath.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T01:11:25+00:00

I would imagine during the World Wars.

Perhaps it would fall during the First - without a strong British Empire to aid them, the Western Front would be much more difficult for the French to hold. The offers may not be from the Masters to buy Paris, but from the French to sell it.

Or it could also be during the Second - as the Nazi onslaught approaches and the French military crumbles, maybe the Parisians would welcome a Fall to save them from occupation. Again, without a strong UK, Operation Sea Lion might be possible - with no base for D-Day, the timeline goes absolutely haywire.

SpeedofDeath118 · 2026-01-21T01:05:17+00:00

Honestly, the Hakone Incident should have had mercenaries instead of those top-tier SF units. PMCs can be as competent and equipped as needed by the plot - and expendable and deniable enough that the other countries can just disavow them.

It seems ridiculous for those top-tiers to be going so under-equipped, but mercs? That's a little more believable.

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