forum Please Mansplain War Terminology
Started by Sophie Herbert
tune

people_alt 47 followers

Sophie Herbert

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.

Deleted user

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

Deleted user

I got more shit like that if you have more specific questions

Deleted user

(Sorry if the mainsplain was too aggressive, I got a bit of a potty mouth)

Sophie Herbert

@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?

Deleted user

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

Sophie Herbert

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.

Deleted user

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

Sophie Herbert

Is there anything, in your experience, that books usually get wrong about war/weapons which makes them super unbelievable and just straight up naive?

Deleted user

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