What form of ritualized warfare do you think is the most interesting? Let's define it as disputes being settled by combat with artificial constraints agreed upon by all parties rather than physically forcing submission via traditional military action.Giant robot bloodsports?Panzerfahren? Genetically engineered 15 foot tall female mud wrestling?The Ares conventions?
>Thinly veiled fetish thread
I wrote a setting once where medicine and cybernetic augmentation was good enough that if the skull and contents weren't physically destroyed then survival of anything short was basically guaranteed, up to and including decapitation. The result was combat sports, usually themed around historic conflicts, using anything short of large caliber cannons
>>65457422>war becomes so lethal its child's play to wipe out entire planets in minutes >to spare blood shed they agree to limit war by fighting in the middle of nowhere>battles are now minor skirmishes of capture the flag[VGS]
God RobotJox was a highly underrated movie. Supreme 80s B-movie
>>65457422The role of military duels in Heavy Gear. In the case of battle devolving into a stalemate, instead of it turning into a fight of attrition where thousands of soldiers will die needlessly, each side sends out their best robot pilot to engage in a 1v1 fight to the death. Whichever pilot dies, their side is bound to peacefully surrender to the victor's.
>>65457422Dota
>>65457468Loved that game. I was a menace on the point as a doombringer and eventually learned to master the soldier with assault rifle and thumper combo. I’d cut down a Brute indoors.
>>65457778Surrender is a strong word I think they were expected to withdraw.
>>65457422>What form of ritualized warfare do you think is the most interesting? The gym.
>>65457422Turn war into an international sport. >Conflict formalised, with location and forces deployed/weapons used, negotiated and agreed beforehand>Not permitted to reinforce your task-force once the conflict has started>Result is determined by control of a single, arbitrary, objective in the centre of the selected combat area (basically just a capture point/flag)>Entire conflict takes place under international supervision to ensure that all rules are adhered to>Combat areas are chosen specifically from uninhabited islands/jungle/tundra/desert, access is limited during the conflict by an international cordon at a safe distance from the combat area>Entire thing is recorded and released for the general public as a form of entertainmentFind one flaw, protip, you can't.
>>65457422Definitely would save lives and money but it only works if both sides are willing to accept it. That implies a degree of goodwill between the combatants but not enough to avoid conflict all together. And for the record, I'm fond of Zelbrigen.
>>65458587There's an old short story, "hero" that uses this as its premise.
>>65458587Mean the guy who wrote the screenplay for Robot Jox ended up shoving it into Battletech.
>>65458587>Find one flawThe "soldiers dying and killing each other expressly for public entertainment" bit.
>>65459632What do you think soldiers die and kill for today? Dying and killing for views is at worst morally comparable to dying and killing for Israel/the Oil companies/Putins offshore retirement fund.
>>65458587>>Entire conflict takes place under international supervision to ensure that all rules are adhered towho enforces it and how?
>>65459646The 'War Sport' people, and through international agreements (and any nation that breaches the rules losing access to the one relatively peaceful form of international conflict resolution and having to fight their wars the 'old fashioned and dirty' way).
>>65457822i never understood how people could be so pinpoint accurate with the mortars at long range.
>>65459652>(and any nation that breaches the rules losing access to the one relatively peaceful form of international conflict resolution and having to fight their wars the 'old fashioned and dirty' way).if complying means losing anyway, why would they care?
>>65459685Complying gives you a fair chance at gaining whatever you're fighting over (trade routes, fishing rights, concessions, etc). Considering that you only have to equip and train a single, relatively small, combined arms task-force rather than a full on All Domains armed force with expeditionary capabilities and all the bells and whistles you can imagine it's also going to be strongly supported by most nations, that really want to spend less on their military if they could get away with it. It would also open up a whole new world of absolutely gorgeously autistic vehicles and kit produced by smaller nations to suit their own particular doctrine, budget, and tactical needs. Which would just be fun.
>>65458621>it only works if both sides are willing to accept it.I feel like it works in battletech because the parties involved have already fucked around and found out. They're well aware of what the alternative is and they aren't eager to try that shit again
>>65459711>when your gucci-geared and hyperspecialized combat brigade is busy fighting Coca-Cola Presents: War! Brought to you by Powerade! so your neighboring nation rolls you with 5 adequately trained and equipped divisionsAll you're doing is requiring people to have an effective military alongside your warball team.
>>65459806Except, if you try to start a 'War Classic' in such a system every other nation (including every other nuclear nation and superpower/great power on Earth) suddenly has every reason in the book to fuck your shit up. Sure 'Warball' isn't great, it's pretty fucking horrific if you examine it too closely. It's still a hell of a lot better for everyone than total war with potential nuclear escalation.
>>65459827Which means everyone still has a regular military, defeating the purpose of warball. Not to mention it doesn't solve the inherent imbalance of power between larger and smaller economies.
>>65459908>everyone still has a regular military, defeating the purpose of warballThe purpose of warball is to reduce the likelihood and need for existential armed conflict (with the implicit and irreducible risk of activated alliances and nuclear escalation). The existence of a conventional military does not detract from that. Can you explain your point in more depth? I either don't understand it or it doesn't make sense.
>>65459918You're not actually reducing the risk for existential armed conflict (it underpins this system), you're just introducing new handicaps for everyone not already at the top. And then, if someone doesn't want to play your rigged game, they get a fullscale war anyway. You've essentially made it so where destabilizing nations and proxy conflicts are now the best course of action because all they can do is take it to warball.
>>65459908>Which means everyone still has a regular military, defeating the purpose of warball.NTA but not really, using an army is exponentially more expensive than having an army.
>>65457422>you dare refuse my batchall etc etc
>>65460466I don't have the right pic so have this one instead
>>65460487>Jade Falcons bullying FRRThey were only after Steiner booty.
>>65460900picrel
>>65460957Well at least its not incest this time.
EZPZHeads of States fighting in the Thunderdome™:-Putin vs Zelensky-Netanyahu vs Abbas-Trump vs KhameneiYou know you just want to see it.
>>65459940The system actually favours smaller countries dramatically. It's much cheaper for them to put together, equip, and train a single specialised division than it is for them to ever have a hope of possessing a credible military that could even slow down a first rate army.
>>65459724A good chunk of Clanner culture is just trauma over the Ameris Civil War. Entire worlds Burned while the SLDF was fighting on them.
