bolters

pikes maybe? warhammers and other bashing weapons might be good against exoskeletons

Best weapon against everything.

Greek Fire.

>Starship Trooper-esque bug swarm set in the medieval era.

polearms?

Treat them like cavalry, they're big armoured and fast, get a sharp bit of metal on a stick with a silly name and you should be OK

pikes and crossbows.

Fire.

Heavy glaives.

Blunt weapons.

>>16458728
>>16458726
>>16458715
>pikes
But what if the bugs start fielding giant versions of this shit?

holy shit. finally a game more lethal that dark heresy.

Magic motherfucker

I don't have to explain myself.

Ballistae, massed crossbow formations, basically anything long pointy at the end and keeps you further away from the bugs.
Catapults, trebuchets and siege weapons are for the most part out, due to not being able to hit swift targets.

You could probably send people in with swords, axes and shields but the bugs would tear them into pieces.

Depending on how late in the medieval ages it is, you might get a few bombards or flintlocks. But those would be the exception.

FORTH YOU FILTHY MONGRELS! DOST THOU WISH TO LIVE FOREVER?

>>16458754
They're gonna be slow, so I'd suggest enlarging the pikes.

And getting them to swim in the air somehow. They'd eat those bugs like breakfast.

>>16458790

Carapace would block most weapons. Even if you had a spear phalanx they would march past them with angled armor. It requires a hard THRUST and even then the bugs cannot bleed out. Otherwise any small puncture wound they suffer would outright kill them as their blood coagulates.

If it was an internal bone, perhaps mutant rat swarm or likewise giant cockroach (like Fallout Radroaches) it could be do-able.

SST size arachnids? No. One would sway through a whole army of men before being brought down. Unless they were downsized and were easy to chop up.

Question: would magic be allowed, or is this more of a low medieval setting?

Raid.

But seriously...you trying to kill everyone? You'd best nerf the hell out of the bugs.

After the non-ranged stuff, I'd imagine polearms+axes. A group of people make with the pokey to distract it with the polearms, while someone comes in with the ax to take off legs and do damage and such...

>medieval era
>peasants sent into battle poorly-equipment by commanders with little regard for their lives
>no automatic weapons
>no tanks
>no air support
>no heavy weapons aside from slow, inaccurate siege engines
>giant fucking bugs everywhere

BECAUSE THE ORIGINAL STARSHIP TROOPERS WASN'T NEARLY GRIMDARK ENOUGH

As somebody pointed out magic would be your best bet. As would any sort of primitive chemical weapons (tell your alchemist and engineers they best start working together). Depending on the exact tech level, gun powder and anything else that can be made to go boom when you want it to go boom is also your friend.

Take any long ranged weapon, add the word "repeating" to it.

>>16458848
The original Starship Troopers had power armor with man portable nuclear weapons as standard.

>>16458812
I was going to have it have no fantastic elements aside from the giant insects. So yeah, no magic. Just fire, steel and stone.

>>16458872
Tell your players to use whatever they goddamn please. It's not like they'll survive the first round of combat anyways...

>>16458848
>Them! in the high middle ages
Yup, found my next campaign.

>>16458868
Shh, don't burst the bubble of the people who think it was just a comic-relief pulp-spoof and not actually a setting to display Heinlein's political views (like basically all of his books).

But yeah OP, nerf those bugs because if they're even a quarter as tough as in Starship Troopers, people in a low magic, low tech setting are fucked and hard.

People overestimate how powerful the bugs are. In this setting, couldn't they have a weakness, like exposed joints or being easily crushed by warhammers and maces?

>>16458801
This. The carapace is probably at least steel plate quality in terms of defense and add the fact that they are so slim it would be hard to get anything better than glancing blow against them. Heavy crushing weapons that can hit at a good distance might work. Stuff like weighted poleaxes. But if they attacked in the swarms like in the movies then most medieval armies would be quickly fucked.

How do you guys think the church would react to huge-ass bugs carving a path of destruction along the countryside?

>>16458906
Or things like their horribly inefficient breathing system?
(Fun fact- tarantulas can't breathe and run at the same time!)

If we're talking swarms of bugs, seige weaponry might be good for a while. Don't need to do much aiming, just point in the general direction of the swarm and get off as many shots as you can.

After that, go for spears and stabbing weapons. Aim for joints, eyes, wings.

>>16458917
Those are obviously demons brought on by the Jew-Muslim-Protestant-Pagans.

I have no idea why everyone's suggesting pikes, that sounds like a terrible idea - it'd probably glance off the carapace and they'd swarm you.

You'd want something that'd bite into the carapace and transfer the force of the hit; a warhammer with a teethed face would do the job, a poleaxe would be better. For range; slings and stone bows.

>>16458917
WE CRUSADE NOW

What if some bugs could be tamed? We could get knights riding gigantic spiders into battle!

>>16458939
You want guys with pikes to keep the fucker distracted while the guys with the things that can actually harm it get close enough to harm it.

Holy fuck this sounds like a terrifying/awesome idea OP. What's the fluff for this setting?

Nafta Throwers, very heavy crossbows and very heavy sledge hammers.

'Nuff said.

Sure, the sledgehammer guys wouldn't stand much of a chance, but that's about the only melee weapon that can pose a serious threat against large creatures with exoskeletons.

OP even if you brought SST bugs down by a factor of 10 in strength size durability numbers and ferocity, they would still lay waste to pretty much any medieval forces humanity could marshall.

I suggest this, keep that at full power but include that neural ganglia nerve sack bundle that is oddly unprotected. The one way to kill these things is to dance under them and stab 'em in the junk. Archers will have to aim level and low and pole arms swing up.

Even then though you're going to have to lower their numbers by nuts amount. I would put a ratio of 9man-1bug otherwise they are going to get rolled every engagement.

>>16458964
So what, they'll walk through the pikes and just hope to not get hit or not have sharp metal and wood shafts be in their way as they swing short warhammers?

lucerne hammers

>>16458917

Satan become depicted as a giant ant in religious texts.

>>16458967
There really isn't any yet. I came up with the idea earlier today and I'm still thinking whether it should be set in an alternate past medieval Europe or a fictional low-fantasy medieval setting.

I think everyone is forgetting something. If this is D&D, there is magic at the players disposal. This gives the players a great competitive edge against the bug hordes. A world of spell casters would do much better against the arachnids than regular human hi-tech armies ever could. OP should probably abandon the idea all together if he does not plan to use magic, I don't see it working at all otherwise.

>>16459018
>>16459018
> fictional low-fantasy medieval setting.
This.

>>16458964

Sounds like some weird Maurician formation. Expect that the muskets are replaced with hammers.

>>16458917
Game called Engel addresses this quite well.

This isn't dark enough. Have it set during the Black Plague.

Yeah, because there's no such thing as "flanking" and there has never been a tactic where one unit ties up an enemy unit while another unit comes in from the side to finish them off...

Not OP, but what about new weapons or machinery? I am not talking about anything wacky but it is likely that if something like this occurred people could quickly adapt (if they hadn't died yet) and make better stuff suited to kill the bugs. Ensnaring or slowing down the swarm would be important for melee troops to get a good shot in before being shredded. Maybe some sort of siege weapon that acts like a large bolas to break their legs. I mean those legs don't look very tough and they are quite large and exposed.

>>16459020
>OP should probably abandon the idea all together if he does not plan to use magic, I don't see it working at all otherwise.
Your pic describes my reaction to you.You basically said
>if OP doesn't do what I like, he shouldn't do anything at all
>herpa derpa mohammad jihad

Which reminds me -- what could the medieval Islam world do against bug attacks?

>>16459020 I think everyone is forgetting something. If this is D&D, there is magic at the players disposal.

You're the first person to mention D&D. I think we're already going with a low fantasy setting.

>insects sieging castle
>climbing up walls
>oil them all

>>16459039

>break their legs

GENIUS!

Aim for the legs, AND WALK BACKWARDS!

>>16459020

Hey asshole. Read the thread. This isn't DnD.

>>16459046

Nafta.

MORNING STARS

They pierce and are bashy!

>>16459039
Maybe due to the sudden insect invasion, the medieval guilds would start working on new weapons/siege engines to fight off the bugs? Maybe have it set just before the start of the Renaissance?

>>16459015
and the grim reaper became a mantis?

>>16459050
Idiot, now you've made the bugs slippery enough to bypass our defenses.

>>16459046
Raining arrows down upon the locust hordes while running away on horseback.

>>16459046

All fucking die?

Starship Trooper bugs will tear the fuck apart any normal force that uses mêlée weapons. The standard bug is like 3 meters tall with many pointy things to gore people on, there also fucking tough to kill let alone disable, add to the fact they tend to be fearless, run faster, are stronger, etc.

>>16459046
Would Damascus steel cut through carapace?
Otherwise they'd try to lure it into the deserts, where they'd die of exposure and starvation. I mean, with dark color, and surface area that big? Bug cooking.

>>16459050
Speaking about bug cooking, don't forget to add some butter in that oil. Mmmmm fried space lobsters.

Suddenly giant worm-things. What do?

Well, I've always wanted to make a mod for Mount and Blade...

You guys need to read Jim Butcher's Codex Alera series, it features Roman Empire style infantry lines (with MAGIC) fighting similar bugs, not to spoil too much of the story. It's pretty badass.

>>16459088
but it also made them slippery enough to not be able to climb our castle walls!
And it makes them tasty!

>>16459123
poke their squishy flesh until they bleed out.

Numbers.

Write the bugs as huge and powerful but in much smaller swarms than in starship. Individual bugs may take out a few men but a well trained group of 6-10 solders attacking in tandem could take one down. Multiply this scenario a few hundred times over the battle field. It then becomes a war of attrition the the humans might win.

Another idea. Bugs give birth in batches right? Give your humans (who get fresh numbers year round) a limit of time to route the bugs before any new ones hatch. Obviously if they don't make it...

Fun fact depending on when you want to set this in a semi historical setting cannons and hand cannons could be perfect!
Starting at around the the 13th century there were a hole bunch of cannons being created and used. Will post two types that were used during the medieval era.

First is the largest bombard used by the Ottoman empire around the 15th century.

>>16459133
But then they had elemental spirits to grant them magical power.

>Compound Spirit Embodying the Whole Continent! I choose you!

>>16459125
All of my money.

>>16459050

This is probably the best idea. Its going to be really goddamn hard to go on the offensive against these things. I think that Medieval era folks would rely on fortifications to survive.

However, this brings up another question. Is it the entire bug swarm in all its different forms or is it only the ones in the picture? Because the flying ones and the ones with the flamethrower-like natural weapons and plasma blasts would make it a complete slaughter.

>>16459123
FIRE BURNING ARROWS!
PIKES FORWARD!

READY THE TABLES, WE'RE HAVING THE FUCKING GRANDEST ROTISSERIE EVER

b-b-but, why would you wanna kill me?

Trebuchet, Ballistas and other seige weaponry would flatten them, obviously for use on hordes.
Warhammers would be equally goot at smashing through carapace and messing up the squishy centers.
Spears and other polearms of course would do nicely and would be a superb means of applying leverage to flip bugs onto their backs.
Claymores and other heavy twohanders would be good for taking out legs, slashing in between plate joints and provide much needed length as a last ditch stab between the mandibles.

I can't see bows or slings doing much except being a nuisance, though a well thrown bolo or boomerang could prove effective at damaging antennea.

This here is a hand cannon used in the 14th century. My guess is that you could have mass formations of these and pikes.

Insects just like animals are extremely fearful of shit they have no idea what to do with. Like fire. Just the smoke is frightening enough, cause they struggle to breathe and respire. SO! There should be a universal (land?) rule of villages and castles must constantly have a large fire in the center of town or surrounding walls. Of course, that's a shitload of wood, so wood is suddenly expensive and coveted. If wood supplies run low, the traders are late, out or it rains heavily, FEEDING FRENZY!

Also make some elite knights who have weapons dipped in tar and oil, wielding flaming warhammers, axes, lances and star weapons.

>>16459161
OP here. I was thinking that there would be multiple forms of bugs, not just pic related.

what could hurt a tank bug though?

>>16459199

I'd think fast, curved swords like scimitars and sabers would be very useful for taking limbs off.

Although of course, take off a limb and they're still 86 percent combat effective.

>>16459190

Yeah, you throw in the big ones against medieval forces and you'll destroy the human race. The spider-y ones, the flying ones, the little beetle ones (that feed the warriors because there's no way they can still eat with their jaws) and maybe the brain bugs and you'll have Humanity as the underdog but a chance of winning.

>>16459182
resulting in a religion of sun and/or fire worshipers who believe rain is the work of a dark insectoid deity?

>>16459199
Pop a ballista on the back of a cart - instant medieval tank.

>>16459182
Flame Knights? That's a pretty cool idea.

>>16459199
Lead it off a cliff. Like cave men used to do with mammoths. Having fast horsemen pester it and get it to charge after them. Then lead it off somewhere high.

>>16459171

WHY DO YOU WANT TO KILL ME??

>>16459237
What if, like in the movies, there were different varieties of bug but they're much fewer in number than the basic warriors? Like a giant beetle or mosquito thing for every thousand drones?

>>16459246
You mean medieval artillery.

And if the full might of the Bugs come in, you'd either need some high magic, or we'll be extinct real fast.

>>16459199
Build a special trebuchet. Turn your trebuchet around, lay its sling out. Attract the tank bug to run onto the sling, then launch the trebuchet. Should flip the bug over and probably destroy the trebuchet in the process.

But in Starship Troopers, the bugs live underground. If the bugs attacking this medieval world are burrowers, castles and their underground tunnels mean nothing anymore.

>>16459258

That would fail. For one it shoots burn lava or some hit so it'll burn anyone close.

Second cliffs are not all ways around.

>>16459238
YES

>>16459238
Rain is the drool from his dark maw, hungering for man.

Thunder is his cries of pain as the sun lord strikes at him with his great arrows of pure flame, striking back at the darkness. It is said that a weapon lit by the fires caused by his lightning will never fail to defeat a demon's carapace.

It's damn hard to shove a spike through through carapace, so I don't think pike squares and bows are the way to handle it.

I see paired teams of soldiers; one pins them to the ground by a leg with a polearm like this, the other uses a heavy two-handed maul to smash them.

EDF!
EDF!
EDF!
EDF!

>>16459322I see paired teams of soldiers; one pins them to the ground by a leg with a polearm like this, the other uses a heavy two-handed maul to smash them.

That's exactly what Chinese armies did to fight horsemen with infantry

or peasants vs samurai pirates

>>16459182
>blah blah blah

This is pointless drivel, because while that may be true about real life insects (but not any flavor of ants) It's not true of Starship Trooper bugs. Those things are fucknasty, evil and at least partially led (brain bugs).

I assume we're just tossing warriors at human fortifications and so on, because a few tanker bugs would fuck over every hairless monkey on the planet.

>>16459317
>>16459257
>>16459238
>>16459182
FUND IT FUND IT FUND IT

Europe will fall. The real fight would be the Mongols versus the Bugs.

With different types of bugs you could havest one wepon to use agents an other.

Just think knights in widely available carapace armor.

Nimble pesants slinging buckets of acid from captured spiters.

Arrows tipped with poisons and conbutestables harvested from organs.

Inge-fuckin-nuity.

>>16459371 It's not true of Starship Trooper bugs.

OP said the bugs are Starship Trooper-esque, not identical to Starship Trooper bugs. Obviously we can't use them without some modification, as they're a serious threat to future soldiers in power armor armed with nukes.

>>16459371
I don't think it's intended that the bugs be COMPLETELY based on the SST ones, as it says in OP's post:

>Starship Trooper-esque bug swarm

>>16459407
Obviously, but by the same token, you can't go "lol they be big but just like normal bugs". Obviously in this sceneario the bugs are larger then real ones, and at least throwing themselves at everything in range. You can't go "LOL FRAID OF EVERYTHING!" in that case.

>>16459407OP said the bugs are Starship Trooper-esque, not identical to Starship Trooper bugs. Obviously we can't use them without some modification, as they're a serious threat to future soldiers in power armor armed with nukes.

what the fuck are you talking about?? It was INFANTRY and SPACSHIPS vs the bugs, noen of that weaaboo jappy robot shit. Did you actually WATCH THE MOVIE??

This manga came to mind, someone posted it a day or two ago.

http://www.mangafox.com/manga/shingeki_no_kyojin/

It's about a sorta pre-renessaince culture living inside a walled city, with giants around the countryside that devour humans. Only techincal thing that they have above what they should according to what else we can see of their tech level is their 3d gear(gas-powered harpoons that they use to grappel shit with so they can combat the giants) and their switchable bladed swords.

OP, might want to give the players something more fantastical to even the odds a bit, nothing that dominates the combat, just something to level the playing ground. The artillery bugs need to be nerfed to hell and back though if you don't want everyone to die.

Also, I almost dropped that manga at the start because of it's artstyle, but HOLY FUCKMOTHERING SHIT ARE THOSE GAINTS TERRIFYING. The story is all kinds of messed up/bleak as well.

>>16459133
Fucking Zerg ripoffs.

Even with their own Kerrigan.

>>16459463
>Starship Troopers
>Did you actually WATCH THE MOVIE??

>Starship Troopers
>WATCH THE MOVIE??

>>16459125
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk5KO0tWWkM&feature=player_embedded

Medieval tech against over-sized insects?
Forget how durable they are. Have you guys considered how fast some of these fuckers can be, how some of them can fly, and how quickly they breed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjGIJR5Mxjo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daYvNM2IuOg

A couched lance might be the only weapon capable of piercing the carapace of the larger bugs. People would view the knights hunting them with the same sort of reverence normal fantasy settings have towards knights who slayed dragons.

>>16459463
...

You know, there was a book, right? And the book was vastly different form the movie.

I think there's some important considerations to take note of that have been missed. First off, in the novel there were two primary types of bugs, the workers and the warriors. The workers would just scatter when seen, similar to how civilians would react to some soldiers busting in shooting. The warriors were less numerous and to the amateur looked very similar to the workers, but in this instance have powerful rifles that can blast right through power armour. In this setting, they'd have scything limbs.

A European army in approximately 1500 would have access to excellent pike formations, and more importantly, rudimentary firearms and cannons. The sixteenth century saw the development of the Tercio formation, which is a mix of pikemen, swordsmen, and musketeers or arquebusiers to provide mutual support, and this is what would be optimal to fight against such an opponent. Pikemen would hold them at bay, swordsmen would hack off limbs of anything that gets too near, and the musketeers would fire shot into them. Sounds pretty effective to me.

>>16459463
4/10 I was about to respond.

>>16459497

but you also have to factor a larger vascular system with lungs which reduces muscle mass available and the increased thickness of the exoskeleton. these make the creatures slower and less powerful (in comparison to body mass) and with the increased size comes the constraints of food availability and increased growth time

The walls are built high, of the thickest stone. Higher are the watchtowers, ever vigilant. But highest of all is the always the great tower of the sun god's church, topped with the gleaming metal icon of our lord.

When the dark one's shadow passes over us, we gather within, praying for protection from his grasp. If our faith is deemed worthy, our lord will grant us his arrow of strength, striking his icon and blessing the sacred wood beneath with his holy flame.

Its simple, let nature do the hard work.

-Build Castles/ towns on high hills.
-around the walls bring 20 ton cylindrical Stones to lay against the outside of the walls.
-When the bugs come crawling release the stone cylinders allowing them to roll and gain speed crushing most of the insect horde.

For added fun have 3 or 4 stone cylinders lined up behind each other and release them separately. When the bug try to reform you keep on releasing stones

>>16459562
>>16459573
This is what led to the fall of Mycenaean civilization. The Aristoi were perfectly safe in their fortresses whilst the Hoi Polloi were raided and pillaged. While the castles could not be taken, they also could not be resupplied with food.

Logistics, you must be able to defend your food source.

>A few giant insects wandering around
No problem. We just deal with them like any other carnivorous beast.
>Swarms.
Fuck you. Humanity is fucked.
Don't give me that HFY nonsense, you might as well say how does medieval humanity deal with the floor being lava.

Fortifications?
How does humanity build fortifications in the first place when there are giant bug swarms roaming around eating people at will? How do we develop ANY sort of infrastructure for that matter?? You can't farm, or build when a swarm can descend on you at anytime.

Armies?
You'd face the same problem the ancients faced when battling the mongols. The bugs can just avoid you when you're prepared and attack when you're not. Heaven help you if they have decent nigh-vision.

Medieval humans were regularly fucked over by swarms of regular locusts, to the point that locust has become a cultural byword for rapacious despoiling.

Now you want to make the locusts a hundred times larger? and carnivorous to boot?
Humanity is fundamentally incompatible with bug-world.

For giant bugs to exist, you'd need to have a significantly higher level of oxygen in the air than on Earth.
A higher oxygen level means fires burn much, much hotter.
The solution, clearly, is barrels set on fire and launched from siege engines.
Infantrymen would be better served by the use of halberds and miscellaneous heavy cutting weapons to strike at the limbs, hydrated chitin has a hardness of 10~11 kg/mm^2 (Contrast an equivalent thickness of steel at 79+ kg/mm^2 [estimation]).
While we're still on the subject of cuticle, dehydrated cuticle has a hardness of 30 kg/mm^2 on the dorsal mesothorax, so you'd probably see the replacement of mail with insect exoskeletons.
Cavalry would still be able to punch through the exoskeletons with a lance (1100kg of man, horse and armour at 25mph behind a point of 1mm^2)

>>16459560
If you want to consider that, then you'll also have to consider the fact that insectoid respiratory systems simply isn't up to the task of supporting such a large creature in our current atmosphere.
>http://asunews.asu.edu/20071004_insects

Anyway, assuming that these are simply magically upscaled insects, most formations, and any type of phalanx with pole arms would be a bad idea because these things would outflank you in a flash. Also, you'll probably always outnumbered.

>>16459603

multitude of dead insects

Mycenaean's weren't cannibals

>>16459648
wouldn't there still be nutritional deficiencies from lack of non-insect flesh food, given enough time?

>>16459668
Not to mention the fact that eventually the bugs would stop swarming the forts and just attack anyone who left them.

>Cavalry would still be able to punch through the exoskeletons with a lance
You just skewered this fucker with a pole, now what?

>>16459480
And the Zerg ripped off the Tyranids who ripped off bugs from Starship Troopers, so we're back to square one.

Whee.

>>16459668

compared to the crap they usually ate back in the middle ages?

Given enough time yes, but who says the insects would attack 24/7? if they could attack 24/7 in such great numbers they'd kill off humanity in less than a day :/

The French knights are massacred by the insect menace, but the English longbowmen acquit themselves as well as can be expected. A maid from Domremy demonstrates an uncanny ability to sense the bugs, after uncovering the mimic roach masquerading as the Dauphin and rescuing the true prince from the mimic's hidden storeroom, wrapped in webbing, before he could be consumed. Her special senses truly must be a gift from God for the salvation of France, for she was able to locate the subterranean hive around Orleans and lead a small ragtag resistance through the labyrinthine tunnels to destroy it.

If her shieldmaidens and closest generals sometimes see mandibles protract from her face, they are awestruck by the divine majesty of the Lord to say anything.

>>16459728
it wasn't the most healthy meals, but they got what they needed. grain, veggies, legumes, fruit if it's in season or preserved.

>>16459550

Well if we're going with any kind of hive mind, the HM will gladly spend a few hundred to a few thousand warriors to leap upon your pikemen's pikes, dragging them to the ground via sheer weight, and pinning them there. Hell there could even be some bug warrior sub caste specifically bred to do so, or evolved to out reach them with some giant spikes or whatever. Once your formation's pikes are out of commission, the other ten thousand bugs swarm all over it, assuming a five ton killing machine was even slightly troubled by a twenty foot spike in the first place. At this point the soldiers morale plummets, since they're mostly mercenaries at this point in time, the national army having not yet been redeveloped, and are specifically NOT BEING PAID ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH GIANT BUGS, then they break, and the bugs kill everyone.

>>16459621

Pretty much this.

>>16459712
You let go of the pole and take out your axe, mace, pick, or sword.

King Kong Spider Pit

Katanas OP. They can cut through literally anything.

OP, this setting is basically exactly what you were talking about, only its set in Rome with MAGIC, also the Romans are also fighting druidic stone age cannibal elves, and werewolves that average nine feet tall, wear armor and wield swords longer then you are tall, and are capable of snapping your neck like a toothpick. Also its implied there used to be dozens, if not hundreds of intelligent species on the planet. Then the Romans showed up through a bit of wormhole dickery, and ended up wiping most of them out.

And then the Zerg show up.

>>16459819
...

Wouldnt humans be on a bigger scale as well?

As some have said for insects to be that size naturally, there would have to be more oxygen in the atmosphere.

couldnt it have the same affect on humans as well?

>>16459712
Hate to break it to you bro, but lances are typically a one-shot weapon.

>>16459772
I like that thing you did there where you ignored the first paragraph and then responded to the second one non-contextually as though you've pointed out some manner of flaw. Oh wait! That's how most people try to argue.

Given that the OP was trying to make this a feasible RP setting, I was providing a possible option for the bugs against which humans would be able to have a fighting chance against. Otherwise, the game goes something like this:
A WILD SWARM OF THOUSANDS OF GIANT BUGS APPEAR
YOUR PARTY OF FIVE DUDES USE STAB
IT'S NOT VERY EFFECTIVE
SWARM USES SWARM
YOUR PARTY IS FUCKED

>>16459819
>>16459133

Nevermind, I see someone else posted it before me. Also Tavi is officially the non 40k poster child of "just as planned".

>>16459712
Leave it to die. Insects dehydrate very quickly once the exoskeleton is gone, it's how boric acid works.

Speaking of which, caltrops and pikes.

Keep the bugs lethal but develop battlefield tactics and strategies that slowly allow humanity to gain momentum as they learn the best ways to engage them; like trying to hold a fort against a swarm where prior to the battle the outer fields are strewn with hay bales damp with morning dew - then lit by archers from the walls as the swarm approaches -- the resulting smoke spreading across the battlefield has the same effect it would have on honeybees, slowing their reaction time and coordination down to the point where the hopelessley outnumbered garrison sallies out for a desparate last stand only to encounter a meandering mob of clumsy and non-responsive bugs - easily dispatch with lance and sword. A discovery like that could mean the turning point in a war.

>>16459801

In all seriousness, I would imagine a claymore could do something? And spears. Don't forget spears.

I wouldn't charge in with horses, that would end in butchering.

>>16459884

are you stupid

>>16459801

I commissioned a genuine katana from a Lord of the Fae; in exchange for my ability to perform mathematics. He folded over 2,000 sharp minds, sharp tongues, piercing gazes, and cutting remarks into the blade.

I tested the sword out on a passing metaphor, and it cleaved it in twain. My katana is so sharp it can even bisect an entire civilization right between rise and decline in a single vertical slash.

>>16459905
Cute.

How does the Empire deal with giant spiders?

1/2

>>16459894

No. I was merely thinking of how to kill giant insects in the dark ages. Spears are long reach and could do something. Horses would end up like the cow in the SST movie.

>>16459953

2/2

"It's always easier to swat a fly in October than it is in July."

Following defeat after costly defeat in the lowland areas, the characters get the idea to take the remaining livestock animals that belonged to refugee farmers that no longer have the means to keep them. They leave them in the path of the approaching swarm and create a sacrificial trail that leads up into a frigid mountain pass where they have dug small squads of specialist troops amongst the craggy peaks - groups of 6 men - 4 with polearms and halberds accompanied by 2 more with 2-handed swords and axes. The strategy is to bait them into the colder areas where the bugs won't be able to react and move as quickly, distracting with the polearms and pinning their legs to the ground with billhooks while the sword & axemen approach from safer angles and blind spots to cleave entire limbs off and render them helpless for a killing blow to an eye or a nerve cluster before systematically moving on to the next one.

>>16459958
>>16459953

You have no idea how terrifying reading that was for me.

>>16460008
No, he knows. That was one of the good writing pieces GW has.

>>16459905
>>16459931
That actually sounds like the perfect weapon for an expedition into Eloge, the Sphere of Speech.

>The Flipping Company
>A traveling group of mercenaries that specialize in hunting down bugs. Their pikes flip the monstrosities onto their packs and men with hammers and picks do the rest.
>5000 florins.

OP your picture is from a movie called Bug Hunt, there was no Starship Troopers movie, only a book where the bugs are intelligent, very few are fighters, and they have laser guns.

Wasn't there like an episode in TT or whatever where Cyborg goes back in time to like some dark-fantasy barbarian setting, loses his powers, and he and the barbarians fight bug-demons with swords, maces, ax and spears?

>>16460146
Lol what?

Franciscas, many of them. Also pilums to slow them.

>>16460206

lol denial.

So let's say you've got a couple of different castes of bugs.

You've got the big, tanky armored ones. Their armor is difficult to pierce with any man-portable weapon. Drawbacks could include being slow (due to an inadequate respiratory system) and being unable to climb walls like their brethren (we can bread cube-square and the oxygen limit without suspending disbelief, but that'd just be ridiculous).
Methods to combat these bugs would likely include massed pike formations to keep them away from the troops while they tried to get a hit in on a weak point in the armor. Some could be equipped with specialized blades such as spears for skewering eyes and curved blades for hooking the vulnerable backside of the leg joint.
These formations could also come equipped with a large weapon (aforementioned ballistae and hand cannons) that would fire on the bug at close range.

(cont)

>>16460639
Next are the small, swarming bugs. They're small, fast, and can climb up walls and obstacles. The important thing is to thin their ranks before they hit the line. As they've got less armor, massed bows and catapults are quite effective at this. They also make defending fortified positions a lot harder, as they can scale any non-oiled wall, and have the numbers to overwhelm a weakly garrisoned stronghold.

I propose that in order to counter the large bugs, one would use massed arbalests (draw weights upwards of 300lbf) with quarrels dipped in a saline solution or some other poison (e.g. Arsenic/Curare/misc. circulation inhibition poisons). Large creatures are highly suceptible to the use of poisons.

For the smaller bugs, an overhang and machicolations in said overhang would allow the garrison to attack the bugs as they climbed up. The use of pikes and boiling oil in this situation would greatly improve the defensibility of fortifications.

This is retarded, you're all retarded.Your problems:
-BUG IS TOO BIG, WILL MASSACRE SMALL MEN
-MAN MUST HAVE FANTASTICAL EDGE TO BEAT INVINCIBLE BUGMENCH
-BUGMENCH SURELY HAVE TERRIFIC WEAKNESS DUE TO PHYSICS AND BIOLOGY

Actual Problem :The OP gave you a vague (the vaguest?) possible description of the bugs. Obviously they work in his setting; no biological deficieny, no physical weakness beyond the typical bug. If he WANTED that stuff? He would have specifically noted it, because it's esoteric, and doesn't immediately come to mind when you hear 'Low Fantasy' or 'Bugs' unless you hobby in both of those things.

Maybe, MAYBE, these things can be dog/horse sized? Nice and managable? The bigger ones, the siege bugs or the general bugs or the kings or the wasp-stinger-artillery, THAT can be big. But not the grunts.This shit ain't writ but it's NEUTRAL, goddamn. Quit writing the dude's setting for him. He came here asking about weapons.Weapon choice, you're all retarded. Have the exo-skeleton be tough enough to make punching useless. THAT'S ALL. These things HAVE to be able to be taken down by small groups, because the OP hasn't made it clear what his campaign is about. Assume it's a small party, because that's the most likely; if he wants squad-based or grand-strategy against bugs, there are systems he can imput that into. But it's more likely, given the range of systems, that it's a small party. So that's gonna prey on these bugs, so that's what they should be vulnerable to. Not 20-man formations, not immobile siege batteries. Small men, who drink ale, whore around, and travel in bro-groups. If the OP wants bigger, he can make it bigger, but it doesn't help him if you all say 'COUNTER-SWARM'. Start it small, he can work up.2/10 thread guys, and that's generous. This guy came to /tg/ for help, he deserves better.Any misspelling is the MAD talking.

>>16462527
>2/10 thread
>almost zil trolling, various discussions about the topic, some back and forth about feasability of said topic in the real life (but we always get those fags)
>TERRIBLE THREAD, I AM MAD!

You're also the single most retarded poster i've seen on /tg/ that wasn't posting roll and fap threads, fat naked chicks or traps. Please kindly keep it to yourself.

On topic:

Flying bugs - scourge of the sky, or only menacing in swarm numbers?

Yo, OP, the bugs in the novel used plasma guns. They were also just as intelligent as any human, if not moreso.

You are now imagining cunning bug-men with steel armor worn OVER their nigh-impenetrable exoskeletons wielding all manner of melee and ranged weaponry; they also have two or more sets of arms with which to implement these armaments. And they're riding atop bigger, faster, nastier bugs.