forum Wars

Started February 03, 2020 by @Jolyn

tune

What are things to know when your story is set in a war? Like general tactics or important things to keep in mind especially in a fantasy setting where there is a lot of magic?

The only thing that comes to mind, personally, is that sometimes war can really boost an economy, and sometimes it can kill it. I'm not a historian or anything, but I've read that in some ways WW2 was actually the thing that got America out of the Great Depression. I think it was because we had to manufacture so many weapons and machines that a bunch of people were able to get factory jobs that didn't exist beforehand.
On the flip side, war can cause two groups to stop trading with each other, meaning that some goods may become very hard to find. Let's say one kingdom has lots of forests but no farmland, so it trades wood with another kingdom in exchange for wheat, barley etc. But then suddenly there's a war, and the kingdoms refuse to trade with each other. Suddenly one has no wood, and the other has no grains. This is a good reason why not to start a war, actually, so maybe it was actually some third kingdom that came in all warlike and cut off trade between the other two.
Hope that made sense/was helpful! ^^

LOGISTICS. IS. EVERYTHING. During wars, the side that wins is the side that can get shit from point A to point B with as little cost as possible. Troop carriers, supply convoys, any and all major supply lines are fair game with bombing runs and blockades. Sieges were effective when one side could intercept supplies and keep preventing them from reaching their destination.

One fun fact is that war movies that act like women were invented in 1960 are actully rather historically inaccurate. Especially back ye older days, you actually had entire camps of women nurses, prostitutes, etc. that would follow armies around, never mind the women that did take up arms to fight (especially in popular causes, like rebellions) - often they'd just not be written about in official victor's accounts because they weren't considered political actors at the time, so admitting they were involved would have culturally trivialised the event.
so basically, if anyone says women in war stories are "inaccurate", eat them lol