Guide to Designing a Fictional Army, an Introduction and Part 1: Technology · 5:58am May 2nd, 2019
First off, thank you all who commented on my last blog post when I was feeling rather annoyed and exasperated. It was much appreciated and I will be replying to you individually later tonight. But without ado, let's get this guide started!
Introduction
Today I shall describe some basic principles to designing realistic fictional armies. Now of course, what I’m writing in this guide is very much my opinion. However, considering that I have written a lot, have a Master of Arts in History (yes I’m not going to stop rubbing it in until people stop asking “What can you do with history?”) and I specialized in cultural-military history, I think I’m uniquely suited to actually write this.
First, what is an army? Now, an army isn’t just a band of warriors, and neither is it usually the hero’s entourage. If we go by the Google definition, an army is “an organized military force equipped for fighting on land.”
But what does that mean? It means that if you want to design or portray a fictional army, they have to address several areas: technology, manpower, culture/ethos, history/nature, organisation, strategy/tactics, and characterization/rule of cool.
As to what these areas actually mean? Well in no particular order, let’s start with technology.
Part 1: Technology
The technology of war is the easiest for people and writers to picture. It’s also really easy for writers to come up with critical questions for this area and answer them. For example, they can quickly decide if their fictional army using guns or swords. If guns what kind of guns? Most writers can also picture that if their world has magic, or is set in the future, then their army will have the appropriate fire magicians or railgun-wielding marines.
The issue is that is actually a little more difficult than that. If you design an army set in the future, or that uses magic, then you may think you can just include a few fire magicians and some railgun marines. However, you also have to think about why their army has just magicians and railgun marines. I mean, if those fire magicians can use this magic, then why do they just use fire? Why do those marines use railguns instead of lasers? How much future technology do they have?
To sum it up very quickly, you have to account for how the technological level of their army affects it in several fields.
Communications
Whether a fictional army uses some science fiction quantum entanglement subspace frequency transmitters, short-wave radios, or flags is critical to how it operates. All armies need some form of communication in order to identify themselves to friendlies and enemies, carry out orders, and report their status to their commanders. How your fictional army operates and is structured depends on what type of communication your fictional army uses. If your fictional army uses radios, then they need radio-men/women. They will also be able to coordinate over wide areas because of the range of radio. If your fictional army uses flags to communicate, then you need to include flagbearers. The men or women in these armies would tend to group up so they can see each other’s flags. As an example, in the right terrain, a sword-wielding army with radios can easily ambush a gun-wielding army using flags.
Detection
Similarly, you need to determine how does your fictional army actually scout or find the enemy. Opposing armies do not just walk in a straight line to each other. After all, nobody wants an even fight, so every army will be trying to hide its movements from the enemy, whilst trying to determine what their enemy’s movements are. As such, what detection technology an army has is also critical to how it will operate. Do the armies on both sides of the conflict use horse scouts? In that case then there’s the distinct possibility of opposing scouting groups coming into contact and escalating into a larger battle.
In fact, the historical American Civil War had several battles that came about due to the scouting groups of opposing armies running into each other, fighting each other, and then being joined by their main armies. If it’s a modern army, then what type of aircraft do they use for scouting? Do they have radar? Can it be fooled? Figuring out the detection capability of an enemy army in advance will allow you to be able to play with the possibility of the antagonist army being undetected, or surprise the reader. Furthermore, finding the enemy army can also factor into how you write the leadup to a large battle.
Killing Power/Combat Ability
The technology that dictates a fictional army’s killing power/combat ability is the part that all writers tend to remember fleshing out, and for good reason. Weapons can be really cool. Swords, muskets, railguns, lasers, all of them are iconic and cool looking. Thus, I’ll be focusing on some less-usually-thought-of aspects.
First, it is necessary for you to remember to deeply understand the capability of the weapons they equip your fictional army with. This is because it will affect the tactics, strategy, and organisation of the armies.
Secondly, you need to understand that there’s cutting-edge technology, and then there’s practical technology. What I mean is that the the best weapons and the best looking weapons are rarely the weapons of choice for real armies. For example, swords are pretty good personal weapons because of their sharp edges, and pointy point. So, they often show up in fantasy armies.
However, they were rarely used in medieval armies except by the nobles (and even then the sword became less common on the battlefield as armour improved). Swords were good in one-on-one duels, but they weren’t so good against armoured opponents, against mounted opponents, or against groups of opponents armed with longer spears. Moreover, swords were really expensive, and were usually one of the most valuable possessions of a medieval nobleman or knight.
For a more modern example, Germany in the Second World War had undoubtedly some of the best tanks, but they were so over-engineered that more easily mass-produced Russian and American designs overwhelmed them.
Similarly, the weapon first invented is not always the weapon the army adopts. The Henry rifle, the predecessor of the famous Winchester rifles that dominated the American West, was actually available in the American Civil War of 1860-1865. Furthermore, the Henry Rifle was better than the existing rifled muskets in almost every conceivable way. However, they were never standard issue for the US Army, even after the Civil. That honour went to the Trapdoor Springfield rifle, which nobody reading this has heard of. The reason why? The Henry Rifle and those of similar make were expensive to make with the existing manufacturing technology.
This is not to say you can make your fictional army build an over-engineered superlaser and create a Death Star. However, you do have to explain why your evil empire’s army decided to make a super-tank with the technology they have. Not doing so can break the immersion of their readers. Moreover, you also have to explain, or justify, why such special weapons are not in common use and are special.
Transport
Transportation technology is often terribly overlooked in fictional armies because thinking about it and portraying it isn’t particularly glamorous. It’s also highly restrictive to most writers. This is because transport technology dictates the speed of an army and the pace of battle, which can be obstacles to a story’s flow and pace.
However, if you want to make a realistic army, thinking about how they move is critical to portraying how they fight. I’m not simply talking about what mounts (horses, unicorns, or are the mounted troops centaurs like in Chronicles of Narnia?) they employ. I’m talking about how does your fictional army negotiate terrain and move from place to place.
To illustrate my point, let’s look at the Roman Empire. Their army was entirely made up of heavy infantry that carried all of their gear on the march, which meant they were slow to respond and slow to move. To get around this, each Roman legion had engineers attached to them so they could get over natural obstacles, and build roads so they could be supplied easily. As such, the Roman Empire’s legions were excellent at besieging settlements and they could easily construct field fortifications. However, they were slow, and so they tended to stick to existing roads. All of this was because of the speed of the legionnaires.
In comparison, let’s look at the Mongol army under Genghis Khan. Their hardy horses meant they had an incredibly mobile army that allowed them to create an empire that stretched over some of the most inhospitable desert and steppe terrain in the world. However, their reliance on horses for transport meant they didn’t expand into mountainous Nepal or India. Their use of horses also meant that Mongol generals had very little worries about spreading their men out into smaller 1,000 man units. This was because they could group up to fight larger armies very easily.
As such, transportation real matters to how your fictional army fights.
Supply/Enhancement
French general Napoleon Bonaparte mentioned that an army marches on its stomach. He is more than accurate. If you want to write a realistic fictional army, you have to account for how the technology level of your world affects how your fictional army is supplied. Most authors tend to remember this, but what they don’t actually comprehend is how intensive fielding an army can be and how different technologies can affect their army’s supply needs. Different armies need to be supplied differently and they are supplied differently according to the world’s technology.
Of course, why should you describe how your fictional army is supplied? Well, depending on the story you’re writing, thinking about how the world’s technology level allows the army to be supplied will affect how you describe your army’s character and nature. This is particularly useful if your character is part of an army because how their supplied will become a critical part of how your character lives on a day to day basis.
Now, notice that I didn’t use the term “fed,” I used the term “supplied.” This is because armies need a lot more than just food to keep them operational. Even a “basic” medieval army needs a variety of equipment. They need tools to keep armour and weapons in shape, horses and other load-carrying animals in case some die or are lamed, wagons for carrying stuff, tents, bedrolls, etc. They do need food, but they also need fodder/food for the horses, and fodder for the pack animals (for transport). That’s not even going into the fact that most generals supplied their armies with a “special” ration for bad days, or to keep morale up, usually alcohol, but there are other “special” rations. The US Navy in the Second World War built an ice cream barge that they would guard with great care from the Japanese as it was that critical to the morale of their sailors/marines.
Real armies over time have acquired their equipment in many different ways due to their technological ability at the time. Medieval armies didn’t have the benefits of refrigeration or advanced preservation techniques like canning. So, they tended to live off the land, were small, and often having to loot or operate for short several month campaigns because their food couldn’t keep. They also tended to eat easily preserved things like salty pork, cheese, and porridge (made from easily preserved grains).
A more modern army would likely have their supplies brought in by vehicles owned by the government/military. So they would be better supplied, but also rather reliant on said supplies. Because the soldiers of modern armies are deployed for years instead of months, they tend to need more amenities like movies, ability to send letters home, and day offs. You could use this as a plot point for if that army becomes isolated.
As such, you need to think about how the existing technology level in your world allows your army is supplied in order to best portray what life is like I said army. It’s an excellent way to humanise your army, whilst also diving into the army’s capabilities and weaknesses.
Furthermore, one thing overlooked in more mainstream media is the fact that armies often have “followers” because the supplies and amenities they demand often change the environment around them. As a fact, armies need so many supplies and amenities that people often flock to it in order to make money off of it. If your modern army of mecha-robots is deployed in a military base near a town, you should expect that the pilots will go to town on their off days, and so the town should gear itself to make money off of these pilots. You should also consider that young singles would also be attracted to or attempt to make money off of said pilots sexually.
Similarly, your medieval fantasy army is unlikely to stay in one spot for too long due to the fact it lives off the land. As such, you should expect it to develop a “camp following.” A camp following is not simply a collection of prostitutes that follows a medieval army on the march (though prostitutes did follow armies because well… business). It usually includes blacksmiths, armourers, and if the medieval army was deployed for years, it will include the families of the soldiers.
What can you do with a camp following, or the fact that armies need supplies? Well apart from using the supplies and amenities of an army to humanize your soldiers, you can use the need for supplies and amenities as a source of tension in your story.
There was in fact a case where Eumenes, one of Alexander the Great’s generals won a battle, but lost the war due to his camp following being captured. When fighting his rival, Antigonus, Eumenes won the Battle of Gabiene because he had at his disposal, the Silver Shields, a unit of Greek pikemen that were veterans of Alexander the Great’s campaigns. However, Eumenes lost the war because Antigonus had sent cavalry to capture Eumenes’s camp and baggage train, which meant he was holding the families and children of the Silver Sheilds hostage. This led to the Silver Shields mutinying and handing over their commander to the enemy! If this story was fictional, the Silver Shields mutinying because the camp followers were captured would be a hell of a plot twist.
Protection/Medical
This aspect of your army is especially important if your story has a main character that is part of your story’s fictional army. This is because how well your fictional army is protected and the kind of medical technology it has access to affects what kind of challenges can your main character face and how he or she can overcome them.
The best way I can describe how medical and protective technologies affect a story is through reference to one of the most famous historical fiction authors, Bernard Cornwall.
For example, Cornwall in his Sharpe series writes his main character, Richard Shape as a soldier in the British army during the Napoleonic wars. Yet, there are certain wounds he avoids giving his main character through his adventures. Cornwall has his Sharpe get wounded through a milieu of sword, bayonet, and bullet grazes and hits. However, at least from what I recall reading and double checking with the Wikipedia page, he never gets any of his limbs broken by direct musket ball hits. This is because historically a musket hit that breaks limb bones would be an automatic amputation. So Cornwall, probably out of a desire to ensure Sharpe’s ability to move and fight freely through the various battlefields of the series, never risks his main character with that type of injury, but to preserve tension, ensures he gets wounded by nearly every other conceivable way
The way Cornwall writes and endangers his main character changes, though, depending on his setting. Uhtred, the main character of his other series, The Saxon Stories, often gets hurt or hit on his chain mail armour, but he actually gets hurt less severely than Sharpe due to the even greater lack of medical technology at the time. However, he gets hit more often due to the fact that armies of his time wore greater protection.
In short, medical and protective technology influences how your main character (if they are serving in your army army) can realistically your main character can negotiate the plot’s conflicts.
Of course, that’s not all. Medical and protective technologies often work in a balance with offensive technologies and can affect how armies fight. For example, the introduction of guns didn’t actually lead to less armour being used on battlefields. However, as guns got perfected, body armour became less important, and therefore less used. Yet, the use of early muskets also meant that soldiers started to group up and become more organized as the only way to use the fairly inaccurate muskets was to fire in large volleys. This was until guns got too accurate for this tactic to be used.
As a rule, offensive technologies are usually developed first in a war, and then are followed by defensive technologies. Do your research on real armies, and if you are writing a fantasy or science fiction one, then consider how the current medical and protective technologies attempt to address the wounds inflicted by offensive technologies.
That's the end for this part of the guide, and I hope you've enjoyed it. Please comment if you have any further questions or if you just wanna tell me if it's terrible or good.
Neat. Personally I really like military conflicts, and realistic stuff in fiction, so realistic armies are right up my alley. I would recommend the futurewarstories blog. It mostly discusses topics in the context of science fiction, but it does an incredibly good job of detailing the historical development of various weapons, tactics, logistical devices, etc.
5052457 futurewarstories? Will check them out. Glad you liked this post though. I was beginning to think nobody was bothering to read this lol XD
5052460
I liked it, I am a big fan of war and the like, so this is right up my alley.
Yup. Rank and file tended to use maces and clubs and things like that.
Germany: This is a marvel of mechanical engineering. If one part fails it dies because the Allies bombed the only factory that makes replacements last week.
Soviets: Every part of this can be replaced with baling wire.
Americans: Not only can we we fix this one, but we've got another and crews for both on back-order.
Given that it was manufactured in the area I grew up in, you can speak for yourself darling.
Standard field ration kits in the Second World War contained cigarettes and candy for this reason (and because candy is calorie-dense in the form of raw sugar, and a chocolate bar can fill a decent portion of a combat trooper's calorie deficit).
You were also issued candy and a ration of cigarettes, usually a carton at a time (There's a great scene in Band of Brothers where a character is rattling off all of the various stuff that the boys dropping into Normandy were carrying).
This section is also important because you can use it to create particularly heroic extended battles like the 506th PIR holding Bastogne, where they ended up being encircled with zero supplies.
An interesting offshoot of this is the Ring of Fire series by Eric Flint and associated others, where a fairly modern chunk of the US gets dropped into 1632. I found the use of a balloon for scouting quite useful in ways that I didn't expect.
Really great read. Thanks for writing that up.
5052528
To be fair, I'm from Springfield, and have been to the former armory where they made those guns, and I couldn't have named that rifle.
5052597
Well we did actually use hot air balloons in WWI and WWII.
5052833
I've also owned a New England Pardner, a 20ga break action shotgun that was manufactured by a company whose name escapes me in Gardner.
Also, Gun Valley represent!
I needed this.
5052516
Glad you enjoyed it!
5052528
But every single movie (minus Outlaw King) that i've seen has every singe person, even poor commoners, equipped with swords XD
I recall the contents of standard ration kits... but I wasn't sure if I should call the typical cigarette ration a "special" ration due to their nature or something else. They aren't special rations, they were standard issue, but i used the term because I thought people not in the military would understand it better. The "I thought regular people wouldn't get it" idea was also why I thought people didn't know about the Trapdoor XD
5052597
Sounds super interesting Georg.
5052736
Glad you enjoyed!
5053285
XD
5053404
Yup!
Also "prophylactic kits" (condoms)
And the origin of "proof" as an alcohol content measure comes from rum rations.
You'd pour it on gunpowder and light the powder as "100 proof" that it was over 50% alcohol.
Also "balls out" / "balls to the wall" etc have nothing to do with male genitals.
(It comes from an old type of large engine governor for ships and things. Spherical weights on swing arms. The faster the engine turned, the further out the weights would go.)
Pretty well thought out Vren, God I really do need to check in more often. Nice touch on the medical side, that seems to get forgotten a lot.
Another series that touches on this is the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. Pair of WWII American destroyers, actually WWI era since they are that old, get dropped into another world were mankind never rose and the Dinosaurs never went extinct. They have to help they're new allies, the Leumarians, build an army and navy, supply it, maintain it, and just about all the little things that many writers forget all the while hold back an invasion.
5053698
Thanks man!
Also thanks for recommending Destroyermen.... I’m hooked and have some nice discussion material for the guides next part on “manpower, culture and doctrine”
5058053
You're welcome Vren, happy to know that I got someone else pulled into the series. It is a long one, 13 books currently out and number 14 coming out this summer but it worth the read.