Warfare and war crimes I
31st of January 2022
wizard war criminal (she/they)Spells that dissipate electricity would be fatal if you targeted the brain, enchantments that make things move could be used to build a railgun capable of accelerating massive objects, you could lace a city's drinking water with forcibly-taken unicorn blood, dooming everyone within to a tragic, painful fate
Transfigure something and stop halfway, releasing the stored energy like a bomb
My old standby, casting fiendfyre, letting go of your control over it, and apparating away
Breed a couple dozen basilisks and let them loose in the middle of a city
Have you heard of grey goo
The self-replicating stuff that grows larger the more it consumes?
Oh! there's a couple species of mushrooms that irreversibly damage your cells' DNA and ability to replicate, you could probably do something horrifying and fatal with that
Ultimate Dumbledore FanMix that with grey goo, and you've basically made Armageddon
wizard war criminal (she/they)nah, ideally the grey goo would be, like, tungsten, or something else that's really hard to destroy.
the mushrooms would be best combined with the aerosolized draught of living death
or the unicorn blood
wizard war criminal (she/they)Instant stop button: like a protean coin with the same spell on it so that if you break it all the goo stops working too
Ultimate Dumbledore Fan You could also create some type of creature that makes house-elves obsolete and later use them to kill all of the rich families using them, devastating the UK
wizard war criminal (she/they)given that wizards have amazing healthcare, any methods used to kill them have to be either instantly or near-instantly fatal.
BlueOctopodwell. there is dragonpox in canon if you want to go that route?
like bioweapons that sort of thing
manufacture a disease
wizard war criminal (she/they)You could but it'd be pretty hard to keep your followers and yourself safe.
If you want to have anything left at the end, it's best to stick with things that you can control
Ultimate Dumbledore FanCrazy fast spreading dragonpox and use vaccines as a tool to take over
BlueOctopodyeah that's fair
wizard war criminal (she/they)Of course if you just want to see the world burn, that's fine
Ultimate Dumbledore FanLet's say you do
BlueOctopodI think the real question is whether, in this scenario, you're aiming for strategic deaths or just total annihilation
Ultimate Dumbledore FanTotal annihilation
wizard war criminal (she/they)periodic table, hands down
Ultimate Dumbledore FanYou hate everything and want it to be nothing but ruins
wizard war criminal (she/they)If you want to take over a wizard country, the best method would be to fake your death, create a nonmagical identity, a new wizard identity, and an anonymous wizard identity. The nonmagical one will be your 'everything-is-fucked-run' identity. You should maintain it diligently, perhaps masquerade as a trust-fund baby who doesn't work and collects, I don't know, globes or model ships. This identity supposedly travels the world for their collection, explaining your long absences and strange mannerisms. The wizard one will be your day-to-day face. Maintain this face with a time-turner, a minion, or an animated statue controlled by a portrait of yourself. This identity should have an upper-middle-class job, but not one that grants you access to anything particularly important. Make this identity as bland and forgettable as possible; DO NOT stand out. If you are found out, ditch it, hide as a no-maj, and then make a new one after six months. The anonymous identity is the one you'll be committing all your crimes as. Make it distinctive in mannerisms and dress; always wear a mask. Under the mask, wear some contact lenses and contour makeup. Put a illusion over the makeup to have a different face; anyone who cancels the illusory magic won't know what you look like anyway. If you like, you can layer the glamour over your mask, creating a distinctive face for the identity. If you have your hair visible, dye it with hair chalk or wash-out dye, and put another illusion over it in a different color. Wizards, I have noticed, are largely unperceptive and condescending towards nonmagical tools; you may as well carry a gun. And a knife. If somebody captures you, they may or may not remove your glamour. If they do, they find a mask. If they remove the mask, they find your "real" face, disguised using methods no wizards are likely to know about. The same goes for your hair. If you can, get some body armor and wear it under your robes. Combat or steel-toed boots are also good.
Leave the majority of the intelligence-gathering to your minions. Get a few of them inserted into the ranks of your enemies. If you can, get your wizarding identity into the ranks of your enemies.
I have also noticed that wizards aren't very conscious of how dangerous someone is. When you down an enemy, you should a. kill them and b. snap their wand. Monologuing can come after they're not a threat.
On that note, be as lethal as you can. If you can't kill someone, try to give them debilitating injuries (like removal of the hands or tongue) or make them the target of a mind-affecting curse (ideally this should impair judgement, cause depression, or otherwise harm their ability to fight)
Back to the wands. Learn to cast as many spells as you can without yours. Buy or make a backup or two, and keep them hidden. Go the extra mile and embed yours into your forearm.
If you have access to the internet, avail yourself of the resources there. If you don't, read some tactics books and use common sense.
4th of February 2022
wizard war criminal (she/they)If I were in charge of a wizard army, there would be a lot more coordination. Front lines focus on shielding, next few ranks alternate between area-of-effect and targeted spells, back ranks supply basic healing and can switch out to the front as needed. Everyone carries a Portkey back to base, password-locked or set to activate if you go unconscious.The way canon fights is very inefficient and ineffective?
StarsInefficient at best, ridiculously stupid at worst
wizard war criminal (she/they)It's all one-on-one duels with little coordination between fighters and no semblance of tactics beyond 'chase the guy'.
A good fighter should be basically a mobile tank.
And don't get me started on the fact that nobody bothers to wear armor. I realize that many spells effect only a person, but the effects of things like a cutting spell or an explosive hex can be partially mitigated with PPE
Kiritaru Fucking thank you
wizard war criminal (she/they) Or uses potions. There are obviously potions that can make you impervious to flames, that can poison or explode or cause any number of nasty effects, and we never see them used.
StarsCombat apparition, single, double and group tactics, fighting in different environments, application of different disciples of magic based on strengths, battlefield manipulation Application of protective enchantments (if Fred and George can put shield charms in hats, grown wizards can do further)
wizard war criminal (she/they)Even transfiguring things-- if you can create a dog or a pig you can damn well create some horrifying creature out of fiction and set it on your enemies.
StarsPotions of luck, potions of healing, stamina, someone develop Witcher style potions for augmentation, staggered safehouses
KiritaruThe three of us should team up on a fic that actually does combat right
wizard war criminal (she/they)You could even have Portkeys to a safehouse embedded under the skin. You're always in contact with it, after all.
StarsGuerilla tactics, how to work a seige, learning the basics of architecture will help you plan how to take down a building correctly, fiendyfyres entire implication
wizard war criminal (she/they)The whole roman-legion-turtle formation would actually work amazingly for wizards.
StarsWhy, despite a whole series based off a single fight, does no one actually use magical beasts in fighting
wizard war criminal (she/they)I wonder if you can portkey objects instead of people...
KiritaruYou can make the object the portkey and it comes with you
It's not a huge leap to make it go by itself
wizard war criminal (she/they)And we already know that Portkeys can be made to leave on a timer
StarsHippogriph flight, broomstick maneuvers in the air (dive in, throw a bombarda or fiendfyre and zoom tf away)
wizard war criminal (she/they)I wonder how Portkeys are made. Like, if you know the coordinates of a place under the Fidelus charm, could you make a Portkey go there?
StarsSabotage DE Floo Connections so they simply step into fire, application of Time Turners
wizard war criminal (she/they)If your army wears full-face masks and applies voice-changing spells, you pretty much eliminate the risk of "seeing yourself"
KiritaruI think fidelius would make you forget the coords
wizard war criminal (she/they)And what's the whole deal with seeing yourself in the past driving you mad? You know you have a time turner, why the hell would you freak out about it?
KiritaruNot that this was a risk to start, I mean seriously... Had none ever heard of twins. I saw myself every day for the first 18 yrs of my life
StarsMedical methods are used once, with Arthur, and never again. Learning battlefield medicine, of all kinds. Natural medicine, how to make salves and potions out of cheap ingredients, why is no one batch making salves, why did no one drop a dragon on Malfoy Mansion
wizard war criminal (she/they) Do we ever find out if you can go to the same time twice with a time turner?
wizard war criminal (she/they)I hate the fact that nobody ever bothers to snap wands
Helios [xe/xem]just polyluice yourself as the enemy and kill them from within
StarsThe wizarding world is so dependent on their sticks fuckin target them
wizard war criminal (she/they)Like, your enemy is unconscious on the ground. Either kill them or incapacitate them in a way that they won't really recover from
wizard war criminal (she/they)Also if you're a member of a terrorist organization why the fuck would you use your personal wand for it
Helios [xe/xem]learn muggle weapons or fighting its like no one knows how to dodge
wizard war criminal (she/they)Like that is. Evidence.
wizard war criminal (she/they)just shoot them
Buy a grenade.
Start a grease fire, I bet wizards would just dump water on any fire they see
Helios [xe/xem]poison gas
wizard war criminal (she/they)Or, if you want people alive/have your own people in there, gases that reduce cognitive ability or knock people out
Helios [xe/xem]disorientate them with flashbangs
wizard war criminal (she/they)Wear actual practical clothing instead of a massive robe that'll get in the way when you're running
StarsTbh these are tactics you can also do with a wand, but if you get disarmed and chuck a grenade at someone they're gonna freak out
wizard war criminal (she/they)fsdasdsfaadfsadhlf disarming someone with a grenade and it just yeets itself at you
THAT IS CANONICALLY WHAT THE SPELL D O E S
Helios [xe/xem]get one of the twins fake wands to explode
StarsThis is a little morbid and a sensitive topic but Crabbe was a halfway set up to a suicide bomber with the uncontrollable fire, and he actually mostly finished his education
Helios [xe/xem]then get someone to disarm you
wizard war criminal (she/they)Duplicating fireworks in a small space would be deadly
Helios [xe/xem]duplicate grenades
StarsIf every wizard should learn one wandless spell, it should be wandless accio to get the wand back
wizard war criminal (she/they)Yeah if there was a single ability I would drill it would be telekinesis
StarsThe twins even did this and it was never used in combat. Slap a heat seeking spell on it. Third degree burns
KiritaruOr make your own. It doesn't seem hard
wizard war criminal (she/they)Make sure to buy a few from different parts of the world.
wizard war criminal (she/they)Don't want him to recognize you, but some random wandmaker in Asia is much less likely to be paying attention to a British war
Helios [xe/xem]go to multiple different wand makers
KiritaruI'd say alohamora, in case you get locked up
StarsBanish a bullet into someone. If u can time delay a portkey, time delay a Fireball (ripped this one off from dnd)
StarsYou won't get locked up if you have your wand
wizard war criminal (she/they)Telekinesis. Telekinesis all the way. Tied up? Untie the ropes. In a cell? Unlock the door. Unarmed in front of your opponent? Yeet them into the stratosphere