Automaton army

[TheRedPrince]

Hey guys,

So, just wanted to get some feedback on an idea. Essentially the main antagonists of my WIP are the last remaining magic weilders. At this point in time they are mostly old and not really capable of combat like they used to be. So in order to exercise their power they use the Khaloon (race spawned from the smithing god) whom they had conquered centuries before to make automatons that they could then enchant and use in battle. Has anyone had any experience writting about automatons as a main form of offense in warfare? Could it work easily or is it something I might have a few road blocks with?

Cheers in advance.

 

[Queshire]

As soulless robots you heroes can cut through legions of them without having to deal with the pesky morality of actually killing people, which is always a plus, but other than that how little or how much of a headache they prove to be depends a large part on how you do them. What's the production like? Can they be made assembly line style and then have a whole battalion mass enchanted at once? Or do they have to go around and enchant each one singly? What capabilities do they have? Are they basically full plated knights only without the chewy center? Are there pikemen golems? Archer golems? Do they use magic to replicate gunpowder era weapons in which case would there be artillery golems or would they go all the way past that to something more closely resembling futuristic depictions of drone combat? Furthermore how would you kill them? Is there a way to disrupt the enchantment and shut the golems down? Can a strong man cleave through them with a sword? Do you take a hammer to them and dent them out of shape? Take a third option?

It's stuff like that which'll determine for you whether or not they're worth it.

 

[nightbug08]

All of Queshs' questions are very useful in deciding where to progress with your story. A handful more, how many heros are you dealing with? it'll be important for the Antagonists to know how many Automatons to make. How capable individually are the automatons? Can they think of solutions to complex problems on their own? Will they help each other by ganging up on or ambushing heros? Are they just dumb muscle cannon fodder to be tossed at the heros to show how strong the heros are? If they end up fighting next to a cliff, will the automatons recognize the danger? or could you just shove them off it?

OR, are the automatons puppets for the antagonists? carrying out their actions and thoughts directly, but with more physical capability? If so, are the Antagonists limited in some way by this? They are so busy focusing on the automaton they don't notice the man right behind them?

 

[TheRedPrince]

I was rethinking this idea before and I've started to lean towards the use of an automaton to be a vessel for the magicians to enter and fight through. Since the mage bodies are physically crippled from age they use the automatons as, I guess medieval Gundams hahaha. Following this idea I think they'd be constructed from metals known to have magical properties or enchanted to have magical properties so they could act as a conduit for magic. I'm leaning away from mass production of soldier and more towards scout and defensive roles. At this point I imagine them being able to be destroyed via heavy physical blows dealt by men of extreme strength and/or catapaults and the like. I would also say they are not perfect constructs so they would have weak points that could be exploited by stabbing weapons.

 

[nightbug08]

So less of an army, more of a . . . boss battle, maybe? Please tell me they don't all combine at the end! ;D

 

[TheRedPrince]

Hahaha no. I was thinking army to begin with but after the previous comments thought it'd be a little boring maybe. The way I'm thinking at the moment the mages could assume control of an automaton and further on some could even trasplant, I guess, their spirit into one. I had one idea for it to be post apocalyptic tyoe scenario with huge automatons terrorising the lands but thought "nah, too Days of future past".

 

[DassaultMirage]

Well if you take to good consideration the physical makeup of the automatons I think you're good. If I'm right, automatons have one specific purpose. Like in the film Hugo, the automaton draws one picture only. If your automaton is built to wield a sword, don't make automatic machine guns grow out of their nostrils just because.