Please mansplain to me war terminology for my fantasy novel. Things like what the difference is between a siege, ambush, battle, crusade, etc. What are some different weapons used in war? General war tactic terminology/ideas. I am a big rookie at this kind of knowledge.
siege: A long battle that involves one side being surrounded by the enemy and basically suffocated by lack of food
ambush: A surprise attack
battle: two sides going at it with the stab weapons
crusade: A long journey to take back certain things, such as land, objects, people, ext. Mostly religious
weapons: There's the broadsword
a sword with a wide blade, used for cutting rather than thrusting.
(Slice rather than stab)
the claymore:
a two-edged broadsword
(just a big ass sword)
and an infinite amount of other stabby things
crossbows and bows and arrows
Terminology:
Flanking: Going around the enemy to get a better angle for an attack
Charge: Running straight at them
Push: A better organized charge
I got more shit like that if you have more specific questions
(Sorry if the mainsplain was too aggressive, I got a bit of a potty mouth)
@pixlr-demon Hhahaha no this is amazing! I need things to be explained like this. Do you know any war strategies one would use to get a country/city to surrender?
Also, any soldier rankings/important figures needed for an army also including people who help plan attacks and stuff.
well, a siege for sure
just surround the city with soldiers and wait for them to fuckin die from lack of food/water
a blockade, which is essentially the same thing, but without violence
They just stop everything from going into the city and keep people from going out
or they just run around setting shit on fire until people give up
Oooh yes that is perfect thank you
What happens when someone surrenders in war, other than backing down. Like do they get kicked out of their land or something? On the other hand, what happens with a truce.
typically the soldiers were imprisoned, but the civilians living on the land typically were allowed to live
Truce? Both sides are like "my bad bro" then go back to their respective countries
Okay, awesome! Thank you!
Is there anything, in your experience, that books usually get wrong about war/weapons which makes them super unbelievable and just straight up naive?
Just
like
swordfighting
a lot of books make is seem like its super organized on the battlefield
it wasn't
it was utter fucking mayhem
yeah this is true, fighting is chaotic