Chemical warfare in a steampunk world

Chemical warfare in a steampunk world

How does it work??

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Alchemical-y
Seriously though, what were your thoughts on having them work together? Was there a certain task you were planning on chemical warfare taking or just in general question?
If general, they'd probably work much like WWI. Lay waste to the enemy back lines and siege the front, hoping the wind doesn't blow it back into your face. Or just lob it into no-man's land. If your steampunk world went the vehicle way with steamships and what-not chemical warfare becomes a tool for zeppelins and steamships to use in order to attack population centers and supply lines. Think Dresden was bad with firebombs? Imagine instead a fog of chemical vapors blanketing the ground choking out life. Once the war is over you could then seize the means of production for your own nation.

The blisters in your lungs have tiny gears on them

Depends on the setting. Well, on the realism of the setting.

It's worth mentioning that today chemical warfare isn't particulary hip for many reasons, the biggest one might be not even the unpredictabilty (which is HIGH, anyway) but the fact that it needs massed enemies to be effective (shit isn't free). To elaborate, it's not a give that it would be useful in a steampunk setting, as it's not a given that you'd have something like trenches or whatnot.

It's not steampunk if they have chemical warfare. if you can make chemica weapons, you can make petrol.

WWI except you glue cogs to the mortar shells and trenches

I'd imagine clockwork mortars with three man teams. One mixes the chemicals in the shell, the other points the mortar in the proper direction, the third makes sure all the inner workings continue to move

There were cyanide gas shells developed in the 1850s for use in the Crimean War but not deployed out of humanitarian concerns.

>inb4 the Steampunk setting slowly transitions into a Dieselpunk setting.

Clockwork men sent into the battlefield that at the heart of them is a gaseous chemical that once all the cogs run out of steam the chemical is released in a most around the now defunct automaton. Just imagine seeing a humanoid figure walking toward you slowly through the smoke and fog only to realize too late it's not just a crazy shell shocked enemy but the vehicle of your agonizing death.

Specific compounds that react violently with high amounts of water vapour. Be they turn into acid, or explode, either way, things are going to go badly for anyone in a steam punk setting.

The gas itself is made up of tiny gears

you do chemical warfare
remove the staempunk world because it's shit

voilà

>Chemical warfare in a steampunk world

Gas always works well against infantry, even if they're masked up - there's almost always going to be some exposed skin, and the gas and masks restrict vision, thus enabling surprise attacks and harming morale.
Then there's napalm and similar "fuck you, you're now on fire" attacks.

It's one of the darker and grimmer steampunk worlds - especially if you apply the gung-ho empire mindset to the use of chemical weapons (something that nearly happened IRL).

A lot of steampunk settings have prominent inventors, in this case some would be chemists (and/or alchemists)

>Nearly
Oh boy
>The French use tear gas against the Germans
>The Germans escalate by using chlorine gas
>They then whine about foul play when Americans use trench guns
Truly a race of warrior übermenschen

Mustard gas?

Not to mention china's been grinding up hot peppers and whipping it in people's eyes since forever. It's definitely not a stretch to say that a steampunk setting could have something that qualifies as chemical warfare.

Just think of something you wouldn't want to breath in or have dumped in your eyes and pressurize it, alternatively burn it to make hurty smoke and bam you've got steampunk chemical warfare.

>microscopic gears that tear up your respiratory tract as they turn

I mean, considering how matter works at a molecular level you could definitely look at them, or at least some of them, in terms of being gears.

I mean shit just look at snowflakes, them shits look a lot like gears and that structure is exactly the same all the way down to a molecular level.

>not having biochemical weapons made of micro-organisms made of nano-gears

Something like what skaven are doing.

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Fluorine-based weaponry.

Most steam generators, especially for high power applications, use concentrated phlogiston gas. Created by refining flammable materials to release the essence of flame itself.

Phlogiston gas is however toxic, flammable and causes nightmarish mutations. Humans exposed often die or are twisted into terrible beast by the gas, when they aren't incinerated by it being ignited by any errant spark.

Shells with phlogiston payloads are frowned upon but used by cruel and evil men.

Kinda like chemical warfare works. It's a technology that fits perfectly into steampunk what changes do you need?

it's not about the means, but the knowledge/tradition that makes a setting

Take WW1, glue gears, cogs, and occasional jacob's ladder or tesla coil everywhere.

If you want something more exotic you could try something like youtu.be/oA7c6-u7kwA?t=25s

Nasty as anything, even by the standards of chemical weapons, especially if you're using stuff like ClF3 or FOOF.

Also I'd expect a steampunk army to have all sorts of interesting units for unusual troops - mechanical infantry (not to be confused with mechanised infantry), chemical (or even alchemical) units etc.

What kind of wizardry do you have going on that there's an army in the setting batshit crazy enough to a.) have enough FOOF on-hand to use as a weapon and b.) huck it at people?

I did say "like" FOOF, but I'd actually forgotten just how cold (-180C) you have to keep it.

Fun fact, an absolute madman did once react FOOF and ClF3

Steampunk is an advanced technology in a victorian setting - It's not only steam, it can be electricity, petrol, etc etc

You can also translate the all "chemical warfare" into the colonies, since it's a victorian setting.

I can easily see the evil british experiments on the poor indian subject for military reason.

...

If it has electricity, it is not steampunk. If it has internal combustion engines, it is not steampunk either.
Learn about teslapunk and dieselpunk, you dumbass. You probably think that Dishonored is steampunk, don't you?