If All Wars/Battles Were Still Melee Based...

I was watched Braveheart on the TV the other day, and it made me think... What if all wars were STILL melee based? I know that there were bows & arrows along with other projectiles in Braveheart, but I'm saying what if all wars were SOLELY melee based. Meaning, there were absolutely NO projectiles of any kind, no bows, no arrows, no guns, no bombs, no nuclear weapons, no planes, NOTHING.

But here's where it gets interesting... Let's say the rules of war were that people could ONLY use melee weapons in war/battle, BUT you could use ANY technology in order to increase your melee abilities. You could spend all the money (which you'd usually be using on planes, nukes etc) on increasing your armour & melee weapons. So I guess the military could even design some kind of lightsaber if they wanted to, or perhaps a weapon that causes the enemy to disintegrate when it strikes them. I don't really know, but I'm sure if they had all the military funding they have now and put it ALL into just improving melee weapons & armour, they'd make some pretty decent stuff.

So basically... No projectiles of any kind, no radar, no chemical weapons. JUST extremely improved armour & melee weapons of some kind, so it'd be like Braveheart or other medieval type wars.


What type of weapons & armour dya think would be created? This is assuming EVERYBODY follows the rules of war as stated above.

Just enough thought I suppose... but there is always a rule breaker in every crowd... someone would shot a gun, drop a bomb... etc etc... cos I know two things... if i was in battle... i would wanna be as far away from the "action" as I could be... looking down a scope... and two if I was in charge and my army was starting to lose and it was almost "game over" for my team... I would drop bombs like a mad man!

but then again I've spent too much time playing the Command and Conquer series...

iv been thinking the same
more or less
more into after end of world building a society up from scratch - age of empire jokes
but seriously the same problem . you would get a renegade nation like Iran or Cuba that change the rules to suit the problem
english american citizens not - global elite and minions - are people with pride and principles well iv seen none of that in the fareast ever
but yea it would be a lot simpler the leader allways got involved in the fight if not was the hero ...

I think we'd still be a long ways away from seeing a hand-held laser type sword like the lightsaber from Star Wars.

I imagine we'd probably find Katanas most efficient, probably find a way to make them even lighter and sharper. Hell maybe we'd be using ceramic weaponry by now and tungsten, steel and titanium would be out the window...

I hear where your coming from, scary ass thought thats for sure!

Right OK... Please, just imagine if EVERYBODY followed the rules. That's basically what I'm saying here. Let's say it was a perfect world and everybody followed the rules and there were no renegades or anything like that. Yeah I know, if it was really a "perfect world" there would be no wars anyway, but in this instance let's just say there were.

I guess you could make a really indestructible/sharp katana with perhaps an inbuilt sharpening device or something like that. I don't know. Actually, thinking about it, I'm not really sure what you COULD improve a melee weapon with using today's technology, whilst keeping it solely melee based.

unfortunatly the world doesn't work like that. and given the option that bows exist, one could easily choose to use that instead of a sword and shield.

"thats not fair your.." tough =) war never changes. its always unfair.

Originally posted by madscientistintraining
unfortunatly the world doesn't work like that. and given the option that bows exist, one could easily choose to use that instead of a sword and shield.

"thats not fair your.." tough =) war never changes. its always unfair.

Do you guys not understand what I'm getting at here? I'm saying just IMAGINE if everybody DID follow the rules. Obviously in today's world nobody would go back to hand to hand combat, but I'm saying let's say there was a certain scenario where it caused everybody to HAVE to go back to using melee weapons (don't ask me what the scenario was, because I don't know lol) what type of weapons would they design?

This is all theoretical of course & wouldn't actually ever happen. I'm just saying "WHAT IF...?"

Since this is a hypothetical scenario, am I to assume there are no cost restrictions?

If this is the case, I am equiping my army with the following...

Lonsdaleite swords...hardest material on the planet.

Carbon nanotube armor...i suppose this armor would have a morphing capability that would allow each warrior to utilize his armor to best suit his situation.

Well first off... if everyone followed the rules in a perfect world... there would be no need for any combat or any wars... guns, fists, knives, bombs would not be necessary... sadly this is never the case...

BUT.......... I like where your going OPster cos it is very likely that an event will occur at one point in our history that will end civilization as we know it... and the last time I checked bullets don't grow on trees... so eventually everyone will run out of basic munitions... the few do it yourself home bullet makers... will linger around longer... but eventually unless society rebuilds... people will HAVE to revert to melee combat/weapons... The Bow and Arrow would be the most common... its a hunting tool that most will have to obtain... if you know what your doing its "easy" to make... so if your out hunting breakfast and you come across some "evil doers" why not take as many out as possible from a distance...

as far as up close... hatchets work really well... you can but a lot of force behind a chop and most of them can be thrown...

but basically OPster you mentioned Braveheart in your OP... thats prolly the perfect example of how combat would be and what kind of weapons they would use

my personal choice of melee weapon would be... words....

...words like "Pain and Misery" the names of my two swords

Originally posted by vimanarider
Since this is a hypothetical scenario, am I to assume there are no cost restrictions?

If this is the case, I am equiping my army with the following...

Lonsdaleite swords...hardest material on the planet.

Carbon nanotube armor...i suppose this armor would have a morphing capability that would allow each warrior to utilize his armor to best suit his situation.

Very interesting. This is the type of reply I was hoping for. Some weird things there I had to Google, such as "Lonsdaleite". Never knew about that.

Originally posted by EvolEric
Well first off... if everyone followed the rules in a perfect world... there would be no need for any combat or any wars... guns, fists, knives, bombs would not be necessary... sadly this is never the case...

BUT.......... I like where your going OPster cos it is very likely that an event will occur at one point in our history that will end civilization as we know it... and the last time I checked bullets don't grow on trees... so eventually everyone will run out of basic munitions... the few do it yourself home bullet makers... will linger around longer... but eventually unless society rebuilds... people will HAVE to revert to melee combat/weapons... The Bow and Arrow would be the most common... its a hunting tool that most will have to obtain... if you know what your doing its "easy" to make... so if your out hunting breakfast and you come across some "evil doers" why not take as many out as possible from a distance...

as far as up close... hatchets work really well... you can but a lot of force behind a chop and most of them can be thrown...

but basically OPster you mentioned Braveheart in your OP... thats prolly the perfect example of how combat would be and what kind of weapons they would use

my personal choice of melee weapon would be... words....

...words like "Pain and Misery" the names of my two swords

lol, I never assumed people would run out of ammo, but yeah I guess it's a possibility.

Ya'll can bother with all the fancy armor, shields, and swords you want...

Give me a decent carbon steel blade 'bout 12", soft body armor made of layered silk
and steel mesh..The only modern tech I would add would be MultiCam pattern on all
garments...

You won't see me, or hear me coming.

Ya'll can hack away at each other on a large battle field.

I and 3 other dudes will be sneakin' around knifing people in their sleep.

Thanks for the interesting premise OP.

something like this?!
en.wikipedia.org...(film)
first episode says it all
sorry your post just really really reminded me of it

reply to post by JayXBraun


Whoa, someone else appreciates Escaflowne!

Under given sets of rules by the OP, I believe that having strictly melee based battles would result in greater amounts of improvements for swords and armor, but we would of had a lacking in technological advancements.

Weapons complementing a specific philosophy of use work mutually with the fighting style and philosophy of the user or the civilization using it. With that said, I doubt we'd have "blistering lightsabers" if we still used melee weapons till this date.

reply to post by Vanchatron




Well if we could only use melee weaponry these are a few developments that would be as effective as using bombs etc:

1) NANO MACHINE TECHNOLOGY: Nano machine research today is being developed for medical purposes. However this technology can be adapted for military purposes like in the video game scenario of the Crysis Series.

www.youtube.com...

A special armor can be developed to interact with nano machines in a humans body. They can increase the speed and strength and thinking capability of a soldier. Combined with the next advancement... Such armor development would truly be deadly and result in anti-nano suit technology.

2) STEALTH TECHNOLOGY: Why line up to be slaughtered when you can have a small army of ninjas. Combined with the later mentioned technological development with a suit of armor that can enhance physical abilities with nano-machines and make you invisible, DEADLIEST NINJAS EVER!

3) ROBOTICS: Why send human soldiers to die when you can send super strong 9 ft. humanoid androids with kill kill kill in their programing. Heck why not create giant robots that can be controlled by humans like gundams. No body said that human vs human was a prerequisite.

4) CYBERNETICS: Technology can develop to the point of the popular series Ghost in the Shell where the technology is so advanced Robot bodies (shells) essential function on the level that human bodies do. All you have to do is change out the brain case and you can be what ever whoever. Fully cyberized soldiers will be on the battle field they will never get tired or be effected by environment because they can cut off their sensors at will. Truely deadly to nations with a flesh and blood military as shown in the series. For those who don't want to forsake their human bodies can have cybernetic enhancements changing out body parts or replacing lost limbs. As long as your brain case isn't destroyed if you return home you can be rebuilt as good as new. Plus you can have swords or claws that come out of your arm like wolverine and essential have the same power as nano-suits.

5) GENETICS: Nano-technology could be used in this field to breed super soldiers like captain america altering dna and selecting specific desirable traits as well as creating artificial traits. Clones could be mass produced and bread like in Starwars to fight battles. They can be created with a built in time clock which is only a few years so there will not be a poulation overload after the battles. Chimeras could even be created merging human with certain animal dna that will create beasts with superior abilities on the battlefield. Whether it is super soilders with superior traits or genetically breed killing machines with a humans body the tail of a scorpion and teeth like a shark... or even simply drugs to enhance human performance. genetic manipulation would play a key role in the development of soldiers that only fight with melee weaponry. WHO EVER HAS THE MOST SOLDIERS WINS!!!

6) WEAPONRY AND MATERIALS: Obviously we will have melee weapons with special abilities made out of the strongest materials know to man. H2H weapons would include designs like the modern WASP assult knife used by navy seals. This weapon is made out of a very unique material that always stays sharp and that injects compressed gas into the wound of a victim that will create a blow that is pretty nasty in someones gut. Apply this principle into nano-machine weapons and you can use a modified katana that will disperse nano-machines in a humans blood stream/through a nano suit that will destroy the target on a molecular level during the duration of the battle that can only be counter acted bu a micro machine injection or a system that exists in the targets blood streams. It would be a matter of who's nano tech is the most advanced.

Blades wouldn't be the only thing to advanced. Modified brass knuckles that can release a concentrated emp burst that would mess up a targets nano-machine or cyberized system would be effective.

You would have development on unique HUD's in armor systems mobile suit or personal to detect stealth tech.


There are thousands of possibilities and I assure you if development wasn't focused on bombs, guns, and projectiles things would be bloodier than ever. And there would be nothing to stop CHINA or russia from taking over the U.S. using such nano-suit, stealth, and cybernectic technology. Whoever is the most advanced would rule the planet with out any planet destroying deterrents. I am sure that most of this weaponry is being developed in black black projects. The future of warfare will be in space and on a molecular level that is unstoppable.

i'll have my army wearing those combat suits in crysis with explosives wired to the suit itself and set with dead man's switches. if any one of these soldiers die, they'll be sure to take out those who killed them.

I'm pretty sure with todays technology if it was really wanted they could make sword blade that goes down to an atom thick and strong enough not to blunt probably using nanotubes or something along those lines. As far as armour I'd guess the modern dragonskin types would probably do the job but they could probably be improved with newer materials also.

I can think of a lot of possibility using things like robotic exoskeletons but truthfully it's hard to imagine people having this level of technology and not just using a sniper rifle even if guns were outlawed worldwide I still think both sides would pull them out the very first time war struck.

First of all it is just a fantasy....man threw rocks, etc at the same time that he picked up a big stick to swing. BUT under the parameters given I would design some sort of anti-matter mace that would cause the person struck to disintegrate (or at least the area hit; such as the arm, etc).

I was watching braveheart as well. It always winds me up how they run screaming into a massive mixed mob. Real battle at that time was two sides packed pretty close and they would keep striking at each other while staying amoungst their own, perhaps some coming out being brave for a short time and then retreating to their lines before they are overcome.

Soldiers didnt want to get killed or hurt. There would be a lot of hiding behind shields and striking once and then quickly moving back and casualties would begin to add up slowly. Then when one side decided they were loosing and began to retreat thats when the mass slaughter would begin.

I hate how these films shoe suicidal tactics of running in going mental. In reality the bravest still stuck to the safety of their own lines and a few stories of heroics were they broke the lines were great irregular triumphs.

reply to post by clintdelicious


consider the context; what would you do if you're in the field of battle with your brothers, cousins, neighbors and your duke/clan chief/whatever facing the enemy that you know is going to rape and murder all the women in your community, including your daughters and your wives and all your female relatives? would you still hesitate to join the melee and try to kill as many of them before they finally kill you? that's how every one of those people portrayed in that film felt; it mattered not that they might get wounded or maimed, what mattered was to bring down as many of the enemy as possible and if you're still alive by the time the killing ends then you're lucky.

War never changes, only the means of fightings the wars do. If it was still melee based, who ever had the biggest sword/mace/weapon would win. Bigger+badder=winner.