Fantasy warfare

So for the sake of argument the setting is more akin to WWII era as far as weapons and combat doctrine tends to go. That said, you have a side of the conflict that makes use of magic creatures sort of like pic related that they let loose into a city under siege the main use of such creatures is to get as close to various enemy units and cause as much physical and psycological damage as possible utilizing a sort of illusion like ability that works so long as you don't look to terribly hard (i.e. a passing glance would have you see a woman in distress but the close and more carefully you looked at it the more of the spider features you see).

How would the deployment of such weapons shape the combat?

Suddenly, people care a lot less about civilians. If you ain't in uniform, or ain't in a designated spot (probably wearing a uniform), you ain't worth saving.

So it becomes a shoot first, ask if it's really that imortant later?

Would probably make really bad PR to shoot kids. But then imagine something shaped like a kid tearing through your squad?

I mean something like that would invariably have to back fire on the people who use it unless they just didn't give any fucks at all.

Wildbow's Twig online serial kind of explores this concept.

maybe some weird spectre-ish creature for torturing would go well. a patrolling wraith could do the trick

would the other side have access to magically enhanced stuff as well? or is this a horror setting?

"oh look a survivor"
and suddenly boneblades, exposed muscles, fangs and eyes pop out of the hood and sleeves and start tearing soldiers apart

that's how I picture that creature.

>maybe some weird spectre-ish creature for torturing would go well. a patrolling wraith could do the trick
>would the other side have access to magically enhanced stuff as well? or is this a horror setting?

It's something akin to magic resident evil. In this setting the "magic" primarily comes in the form of Alchemy and the various branches of it, one in particular being Transmogrification. Which was iffy in academic and intellectual circles at best until an entire country became the unfortunate victims of it as the ruling class were wooed by the prospect of immortality without being undead.

They are essentially responsible for irrevocably changing the environment of the world as most creatures have been changed by breeding with transmogrified versions of them.

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>more akin to WWII era as far

1000 flying brooms night fire bombing by RWF (Royal Witch Force).

I love everything about this.

lol! Me too! Its fun and creative!

Not the guy who posted it but there is another one where it's horse with the skull and spine split apart. It then grabs a human and forces them waist deep into the body and covers the head with it's skull creating a "centaur"

Significant question is whether these creatures can be controlled and to what extent. Do they follow spoken orders? Do they recognize specific signals (light, word codes, smells, pheromones, whatever)?

If the creatures are just biological weapons that follow a basic instinct to kill and don't really try to preserve themselves, they could be spooky but fairly easy to take down with organization.

If the creatures are animal level intelligence, they could be deterred as any animal.

At some point, if they're unleashed against an organized force, some of the creatures would be captured and possibly reverse engineered/ re-purposed.

lol! Thats' up to you!

A little of both. I imagine the situation where the first few sent would be the sort that can be controlled and can be recalled back if needed or would have the nessceary level of intellgence to realize if it can or cannot press certain advantages.

Later on as things get desperate then you get the "Just point them in the direction and don't be near it" types that may have been half made or just churned out quickly and let loose.

That said, I'd argue that something that is willing to simply wade in with no sense of self preservation would be easy to deal with, at least initially. If you can anticipate them and bait them then you can take advantage of that.

I feel like if you're at WWII era weapon tech and can infiltrate an enemy base with stealthy humanoid monsters, you'd probably be strapping bombs to them.

There's no moral dilemma if the creature is dumb enough and you're already skirting whatever ethics might be involved in warfare by introducing combatants that pretend to be civilians, so why not go all the way.

lol! What if people started makign monster with minds that helped them be unpreditable?

like a random number generator that controlled where they attacked

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No doubt that would be the case, which would also facilitate extreme measures such as leveling whole areas just because such creatures are on the loose there.

"Oh, those suicide monsters are there? Ignore any calls for help and just level it to the ground"

Hmm. If you strapped it down you could fuck it's ass which looks like a human mouth. Ass-mouth monster sex. People would pay good money for it.

Humanity: Always the true monster. Always.