Unbelievable
I watch movies to destress and I accept that part of the experience of watching movies requires one to suspend some rational belief so that the activity is enjoyable. There is, however, one genre of movies that is slowly grating on my mind that is making it difficult for me to swallow. It is action movies that imply that there is an ancient (read man-made) device or curse or knowledge that will make one person (or monster) unbeatable to modern weapons or technology.
I accept that having some ancient technology may give you an edge in certain forms of combat. For instance having a sword made out of Damascus steel would give one a serious edge (pun intended) in combat. But unless you going up against a civilisation without any metal weapon, you will not be able to make much of an impression. Even then, I need to point out that the Aztec have a wooden club with stone "blades" that gave the Spanish conquistadors some serious pause in battle. But let's assume that your ancient technology was more advanced and you have a lightsaber that can cut through anything. That would make you unbeatable in close combat but still venerable to ranged weapons.
As for ranged weapons, there was the lost technology of the Greek fire. That will defeat most weapons from the ancient civilisations. In the age of gunpowder, the Greek fire is still an impressive weapon but it is certainly quite beatable. Even if you have an advanced sonic weapon or a laser weapon, you still have a problem as your army is very much infantry based. As most armies today are aware of, the bane of infantry is artillery.
The issue of ancient artillery is that it was not pretty impressive. Besides catapults and ballista, the ancient world did not have much area denial weapons. The soldiers could burn crops or salt the earth but these were rather slow and labour intensive tasks. There were no known spells for sandstorms or earthquakes. There were also no automaton or robots that would be easily used for combat.
The ancient societies did have one possible area denial weapon but it had a problem of being indiscriminating in its victims. The usage of pestilence. However using biological warfare is not foolproof. A disease that is fatal and highly infectious will quickly dead out. It could even hurt a 20th-century army. But most action flicks defenders are using 21st-century army would be able to fight back. Moreover, as these action flicks are made in the developed countries, the defending armies will have access to biological defensive weapons.
How a modern army beat their enemies:
While kinetic weapons do have a performance problem under water (The best bulletproof device is a meter of water), there are weapons that excel both above and below water. Explosives are more dangerous underwater as water is not easily compressed and thus an excellent conductor of the shockwave. Explosives are also a good way of affecting one's footing so the monster would not have much leg to stand on. The other thing about explosive is that it has the ability to raise the temperature. This means that the monster better not have any heat sensitive parts or it is going to be in a world of pain. If the monster breathes oxygen it is going to be in a world of hurt as explosives have the side effect of using up oxygen.
My bottom line is 6 billion people linked via the internet with a fair amount of recorded history over the last 6 thousand years should overcome any ancient civilization.
I accept that having some ancient technology may give you an edge in certain forms of combat. For instance having a sword made out of Damascus steel would give one a serious edge (pun intended) in combat. But unless you going up against a civilisation without any metal weapon, you will not be able to make much of an impression. Even then, I need to point out that the Aztec have a wooden club with stone "blades" that gave the Spanish conquistadors some serious pause in battle. But let's assume that your ancient technology was more advanced and you have a lightsaber that can cut through anything. That would make you unbeatable in close combat but still venerable to ranged weapons.
As for ranged weapons, there was the lost technology of the Greek fire. That will defeat most weapons from the ancient civilisations. In the age of gunpowder, the Greek fire is still an impressive weapon but it is certainly quite beatable. Even if you have an advanced sonic weapon or a laser weapon, you still have a problem as your army is very much infantry based. As most armies today are aware of, the bane of infantry is artillery.
The issue of ancient artillery is that it was not pretty impressive. Besides catapults and ballista, the ancient world did not have much area denial weapons. The soldiers could burn crops or salt the earth but these were rather slow and labour intensive tasks. There were no known spells for sandstorms or earthquakes. There were also no automaton or robots that would be easily used for combat.
The ancient societies did have one possible area denial weapon but it had a problem of being indiscriminating in its victims. The usage of pestilence. However using biological warfare is not foolproof. A disease that is fatal and highly infectious will quickly dead out. It could even hurt a 20th-century army. But most action flicks defenders are using 21st-century army would be able to fight back. Moreover, as these action flicks are made in the developed countries, the defending armies will have access to biological defensive weapons.
How a modern army beat their enemies:
- Kinetic weapons
Most modern weapons are built around sending something very hard, very fast towards its target. To survive kinetic weapon, one needs to move faster than sound or be heavily armoured. The problem of having heavy armour is weight. Even before fighting, the monster will find itself sinking into the ground. And for beasts with very thick skin, there is always a bunker buster. In order for such a monster to move, it has to float on water or move underwater. Its skin could be made of pykrete but then the movie will not be very interesting. For those who think about moving fast, it is not easy to move faster than sound which is the speed most projectiles fly at.
- Explosives
While kinetic weapons do have a performance problem under water (The best bulletproof device is a meter of water), there are weapons that excel both above and below water. Explosives are more dangerous underwater as water is not easily compressed and thus an excellent conductor of the shockwave. Explosives are also a good way of affecting one's footing so the monster would not have much leg to stand on. The other thing about explosive is that it has the ability to raise the temperature. This means that the monster better not have any heat sensitive parts or it is going to be in a world of pain. If the monster breathes oxygen it is going to be in a world of hurt as explosives have the side effect of using up oxygen.
My bottom line is 6 billion people linked via the internet with a fair amount of recorded history over the last 6 thousand years should overcome any ancient civilization.
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