D&D General D&D weapons vs reality

[nevin]

Tank meets drone.
(Yes, high quality armor is expensive, yes, it does work.)

It's a story as old as time. Armored thing hard to kill till it isn't. Now one infantryman with the right missile or one drone equipped properly and tank is done. . It's got every 1st and second world nation terrified. The Ukrainian are stripping parts and batteries out of totalled electric cars and making cheap suicide drones that can fly or navigate on water fast enough to ram into planes, ships and tanks and carry enough explosives to take them out of the battle.
To give you an idea of how bad it is. The Russians have lost 3000 tanks and 9000 other armored vehicles this year so far.
They expect to produce about 1500 tanks and 3000 armoured vehicles a year. So the Ukrainian are blowing them up twice as fast as they can be replaced at a fraction of the cost. When you start talking about planes and ships the monetary losses and time to replace them gets far worse. Drones may replace artillery as the King of Battle before this is over And infantry has once again taken its place as the linchpin of the army. And the scary thing is that this is all being done with normal easy to access supplies and technology. The time of quick wars to prove your point may be over for the foreseeable future.

But it's just the modern version of what played out in ancient history. Technology makes someone king till it becomes cheap and Ubiquitous and then suddenly the king isn't unbeatable anymore.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's a story as old as time. Armored thing hard to kill till it isn't. Now one infantryman with the right missile or one drone equipped properly and tank is done. . It's got every 1st and second world nation terrified. The Ukrainian are stripping parts and batteries out of totalled electric cars and making cheap suicide drones that can fly or navigate on water fast enough to ram into planes, ships and tanks and carry enough explosives to take them out of the battle.
To give you an idea of how bad it is. The Russians have lost 3000 tanks and 9000 other armored vehicles this year so far.
They expect to produce about 1500 tanks and 3000 armoured vehicles a year. So the Ukrainian are blowing them up twice as fast as they can be replaced at a fraction of the cost. When you start talking about planes and ships the monetary losses and time to replace them gets far worse. Drones may replace artillery as the King of Battle before this is over And infantry has once again taken its place as the linchpin of the army. And the scary thing is that this is all being done with normal easy to access supplies and technology. The time of quick wars to prove your point may be over for the foreseeable future.

But it's just the modern version of what played out in ancient history. Technology makes someone king till it becomes cheap and Ubiquitous and then suddenly the king isn't unbeatable anymore.

I suspect this may be overblown.

They bogged down so drones wreck armor. Vs a good army airport has already crushed supply lines for several weeks so any near the front line with drones are probably hungry and have no new drones.

 

[nevin]

I suspect this may be overblown.

They bogged down so drones wreck armor. Vs a good army airport has already crushed supply lines for several weeks so any near the front line with drones are probably hungry and have no new drones.

They've been throwing waves of drones at Russia for over a year now. If you dig deep enough the Pentagon has people working with them to learn what they learn to make our drones better. Probably not overblown.

 

[Zardnaar]

They've been throwing waves of drones at Russia for over a year now. If you dig deep enough the Pentagon has people working with them to learn what they learn to make our drones better. Probably not overblown.

Pentagon probably doesn't need to rely on drones though.
Airpower focus.

Troops aren't going to be very good with drones vs that airpower.

 

[AlViking]

Umm ... is the war in Ukraine really relevant? Other than to point out that the tools of war change over time.

 

[MGibster]

The History Channel, back before they did Pawn Stars and Ice Road Truckers, had a series where they discussed specific weapons from different times and places, went into detail on how they were used, and had some experts teach people how to use them. I remember they had an episode on axes and they were focused on England circa 9th and 10th centuries. At first, the people learning how to use the axe didn't like them with complaints being they were somewhat slow and you couldn't parry with one. The expert explained to them they were using the axe wrong. You weren't supposed to use the axe the same way you use a sword, once you started swinging the axe you take advantage of momentum and kept swinging and hammering (axing?) away at your foe. They had one "volunteer" blocking axe blows with his shield and he noted every hit sent painful shivers up his arm.

 

[nevin]

Pentagon probably doesn't need to rely on drones though.
Airpower focus.

Troops aren't going to be very good with drones vs that airpower.

You are so wrong. Drones are what keep the Pentagon up at night. The ones that have scared them the most in the Ukraine are the fiber optic drones that jammers don't detect or stop. The Pentagon is looking at a new world order where anyone can build drones in their garage that are the equivalent of antitank or anti-aircraft missiles. Ones that have optical recognition and aren't fooled by anti missile countermeasures that mostly relied on radio and heat signature obfuscation. When you consider we can only build somewhere between 100 and 300 M1 tanks a year and planes are slower, the idea of drones with capabilities that no major army prepared for before this war are scary.

 

[Steampunkette]

"Bulletproof" as a word comes from armor-proving. Something blacksmiths had been doing for -centuries- by shooting crossbows, arrows, or swinging swords at armor plates.

Starting in the mid 1300s, Blacksmiths would test armor plates by firing hand cannons at them from middling ranges. These bad boys:

And as the weapons became more refined, armors were proved against new guns. Eventually armor was broken into two categories of bulletproofing.

Pistol Proof and Musket Proof.

Emperor Maximilian the 2nd, in the mid 1500s, was fond of shooting his -own- armor whenever he bought a new set to check if it was pistol and musket proof.

That said, while I largely agree with the assessment of the hour long video... I would say there's two separate classifications of Bow, and one of them is a Simple weapon: The Hunting Bow. Basically a Shortbow with a shorter long range but about the same normal range.

 

[Umbran]

You are so wrong. Drones are what keep the Pentagon up at night.

Mod note:
Hey, folks. Less Pentagon, more pentacles - this is a discussion of D&D weapons, not modern warfare.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

That show from History Channel was "Conquest", hosted by Peter Woodward in 2002.