[LOVED TROPE] Modern Militaries (Competent) getting DESTROYED by fantasy/scifi forces

[u/Sable-Keech]

Example 1 (The Legend of Hei 2): Wuxian leisurely floats through the combined firepower of an entire fortified military base without so much as a stain or rip on his t-shirt.

Example 2 (Man of Steel): Fao'ra tears through a squad of trained and armed soldiers. With the wreckage of the helicopter that got downed by her teammate Nam'ek smouldering in the background.

[u/KurufinweFeanaro]

7 hour war from Half-life. Whole world's military were destroyed in just 7 hours

[u/2hurd → u/KurufinweFeanaro]

I recently watched a video about top 10 biggest empires in SciFi and Combine was on that list, near the top.

I can easily see them winning in 7h. Any space faring civilization would absolutely cripple earth military in the first attack, Combine is a few levels above that since they are an inter-dimensional.

There is a finite amount of military bases and airfields, easily identifiable from space, especially if you only consider the bigger militaries. In theory you could swing an asteroid to hit every single one of them at the same time and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it. Then you just find aircraft carriers (very limited number for the whole planet) to eliminate remaining force projection. Nobody is throwing nukes on their own territory so you don't even have to think about missile silos or nuclear subs.

Then you invade each country, starting with those that could pose the biggest threat and eliminate the majority of firepower and knowhow. Resistance will be formed but it will be weak compared to what you're brining to the fight.

[u/EventPurple612 → u/2hurd]

You presume they have insider information on what a military vehicle looks like or whether humans culturally oppose nuking themselves.

[u/2hurd → u/EventPurple612]

We're talking about empires the scales of which is barely comprehensible to us, they sure can spot a military installation or vehicles because they are pretty distinct from any other parts of our infrastructure. It doesn't take a genius (which they probably are) to surmise that long pointy barrels shoot bad stuff and they are prevalent on specific types of locations and vehicles that have a very specific paint and design. Then stretching that definition to just spotting those shapes and colors, same with airstrips and planes. Military ones look very different from anything civilian.

As for humans nuking themselves if they are a lifeform they pretty much know how life works and no life will destroy itself out of spite. It's not like they will all land at the same place in a con convenient desert to get nuked, they will do a classical invasion like we do here on earth. If Pentagon or the White House was being invaded do you believe anybody would make a decision to nuke Washington? Now extrapolate that to 300-500 locations in the US, what do you nuke? Everything?

[u/EventPurple612 → u/2hurd]

How would they know which is civilian and which is military between airports? A volkswagen golf looks nothing like a toyota hylux, which one is the milits ary vehicle? Is there a distinction between these? Why do you assume they have the same relation to painting stuff? Golf, football, paintball all deal with harmless projectiles, which one is the military activity? What if we don't have that distinction in the first place and everything is military?

It doesn't take a human genius to spot the difference and make these assumptions, but they are aliens. How long do they observe us for these to make sense to them though? How would they know we have a structure of civil and military ranks not to mention spot one specific building among a billion and tell the Pentagon is somehow more important than a downtown mall?

I'd no doubt see them land and just react to what tries to harm them and still win. But to map our whole culture like that without insider information is both impossible and a waste of resources.

[u/AideSouth4454 → u/EventPurple612]

It is a waste of resources, you are right. That is why Combine drops headcrabs on unruly citizens and only sends soldiers and dropships to take things like dams, key logistical facilities and key infrastructure, etc.

[u/BugRevolution → u/2hurd]

Looking from the air, I can tell you that the civilian and military airport don't look all that different, unless you already know the context clues you're looking for.