What are the most tactically sound ways to slay giants, assuming firearms aren't available and arrows have little to no effect?
How do you slay anything big and stupid?
Scare them with fire so they back up off cliffs.The actual answer is bigger arrows. Ballista would help. Also traps and men with pikes. Just think of how people hunted elephants
I would say spears in lots but when arrows are useless what chances do close combat piercing weapons have?
>>43833912
Punji pits and archers.
yea, a squad of men with polearms should beat most giants if they know what they're doing.
>>43833912
Siege engines would do quite well.
>>43833912
For a giant in the size of OP's image, I'd say someone agile or able to hit from a distance. He's probably big and slow, but you do NOT wanna get near him.
For something bigger, lots and lots and lots of cavalry with lances and thick rope or lengths of chain who ride around it's side to trip it.
If lots of cavalry isn't available, try just the rope/chain trick.
tamed spiders
giants won't even see it coming
>>43833912
Giant Robots. The answer is always Giant Robots.
>>43833991
>Big means slow
No. That giant is probably fast as fuck.
>>43833912
Nick his Achilles tendon with a billhook
>>43833912
Knock them off a cliff, or down a pit.
Think about what happens to a mouse when you drop it from ten feet. Think about what happens to a human when you drop it from ten feet. Think about what happens to an elephant when you drop it from ten feet. Now think about what happens to a giant when you drop it from ten feet.
>>43833912
Dude's gonna get destroyed.
>>43833935
is right. Ballista that fucker.
>>43833991
>He's probably big and slow
You've never seen Andre the giant in his prime, have you?
>>43833912
best way to kill all things big and stronk, you wait till its asleep and then do the deed when you have the time to look for a weak spot without having to avoid blows from mr big and stronk
>>43833912
Hurt their feet.
The larger an enemy, the more dependent they are on their legs.
And a threat that can pierce a giant's foot can be avoided by humans, and be hidden in things.
Let's see how much Mr. Giant likes to step on sharpened spears smeared with sewage.
If he's still walking around with painful puncture wounds, he might not be once infection takes hold.
>>43835187
Oh aye, that'd do it.
>>43833989
I was going to say a ballista. Sure, arrows don't do anything? What about a sharpened log launched with enough force to crack stone?
>>43833912
How I beat anyone bigger than me. Push them down the stairs.
First abandon all hope of blocking. it wont help
dodging is your only hope so armor will only weigh you down
i recommend anything to disable parts of the whole as opposed to point blank destruction since its such a large target
in general fight like bronn from game of thrones.
>>43833912
Harpoons and axes. Have men throw harpoons attached to cords at the fucker and then drag him down, either manually or using horses or mules or something.
Once they're on the ground, just have the men leap on it and start hacking away. It doesn't take that much damage to kill a big animal.
>>43833912
>arrows have little to no effect
Then I'll usea sling.
>>43835647
>giants getting infected from a foot ouchie
Tiny-thing make Torogg laugh! Ha! Ha!
>>43835812
Lookit this fucker, thinks he's David with holy rocks
>>43835776
Or a light armour dex character in DaS.Add pyromancy for ez mode
>>43835950
Literally what killed the last living giant.
>>43835776
But Anon, heavy armour improves your dodged score.
>>43835008
>fast
Cardio kills gains, bruh
>>43837631
I always thought it was ironic that he ended up dying from a weak heart.
>>43833912
Iron Javelins.
>>43833912
Traps. Lot of deadly traps.
Not the anime kind, mind you. Though you could use one as bait to lure a giant in the other kind of trap.
>>43833912
HOW big exactly is the giant?
If it's the one in the picture, it's just a 50% larger human, he'll die to everything that kills a human basically.
He can be disemboweled or bleed out same as everyone else, the real concern is that he's going to be ridiculously strong and have good reach, but on the other hand he's not wearing armour, so you want polearms to counter his reach. Whack him with a halberd or have a few guys with pikes or long spears poke holes in him and you're good.
I mean, fuck, there's no reason why arrows wouldn't have any effect, but throwing some javelins at him should also do the trick.
Now if, on the other hand, something like that had proper weapons and armour it'd be a fucking nightmare. Imagine an 8 foot tall guy with proportionally thick plate armour and a pollaxe or something, I'd nope the fuck out of there and get some guys with a really big crossbow.
>>43833912
Cut his achilles tendons, open wounds on his knees, make him bleed
Make him bleed good
>>43833912
traps
>>43838342
Funny you should say that - got a character in a book I'm writing about that size, product of a medieval eugenics program, well trained and a natural combatant who tends to use a heavy staff or arming sword (the size of a longsword for anyone else) and has a high quality suit of plate armour.
How would you kill someone like that? Not in an 'I lure him into a pit and twenty crossbowmen shoot him' sense, but meeting him on a battlefield or walking round a corner and seeing him charging at your group.
>>43838342
It'd be really nice seeing him cut people in half, though.
Use large nets/spears with rope to restrict his movement while another person attacks him.
>>43835008
You know, it's weird - But speed does count for a lot. At the very least, he can't hit you if you run the hell away. Sure, you might not be able to damage him, but assuming you aren't trapped in a big spiked ring, the faster guy has a slight advantage.
Of course, if one man has a bag full of dodges and the other guy has a bag full of punches, one man is going to look stupid for a while - But then he'll get lucky, and the other guy will look stupid FOREVER.
>>43838398
>How would you kill someone like that? Not in an 'I lure him into a pit and twenty crossbowmen shoot him' sense, but meeting him on a battlefield or walking round a corner and seeing him charging at your group.
Any infantry who see something like that are fucked. You'd probably have to take him out with cavalry charges/ siege weapons.
>>43838470
That giant can probably out run you fairly easily. The length of his steps are going to be way longer than yours.
>>43838342
>>43838398
>over 8ft
Unless they have an overhauled cardiovascular system they're not going to be having a very good time. Give him a nick on his foot (which he probably won't even feel because giants don't have much feeling in their extremities) and let it get infected and kill him after a couple weeks.
>>43838398
Cavalry charges?
>>43838502
You're actually right. Frankly, I've always thought that being insanely strong would also more-or-less remove the issues of a difference in speed. You could simply throw things at the fast guy, collapse whole sections of road, or jump after him with all the force of an artillery shell.
>>43833912
exactly how giant giants are we talking here?
>>43838517
He's not perfect, but it's been several hundred years of a pretty determined breeding. They hit big in size a while back, most of the breeding has had to do with mating the ones who had the least problems.
Proportionally larger feet and heart, larger veins to extremities, a few other things. Not as well adjusted to his size as a human a few heads shorter, but still mostly able to live a normal life.
>>43838556
Some people think that the Tyrannosaurs Rex couldn't run because it was too big and heavy. Even if he couldn't it wouldn't matter much because he could walk at the speed of an Olympic sprinter due to his size.
Just because you are big isn't going to make you fight slow either. I doubt anyone is going to say a gorilla is slow in a fight.
>>43833912
Throw vorpal daggers at them
>>43835008
>People laugh at "I'm sure to win because my speed is superior"
>People is serious at "I'm sure to win because my intellect is superior"
Why?
>>43838556
Some huge guy with big muscles will likely be faster too. Those muscles aren't just balloons that do nothing
>>43838517
This old argument only really works if it's a regular human who for some reason grew to be 8 feet tall.
It doesn't apply in a race of giants who'd presumably be pretty comfortable with their size, or various forms of scientific or magical creations where you can just compensate for it in other ways.
There's nothing that says they have to have a bog standard homo sapien heart working overtime trying to cope with a monster size body.
>>43833912
Can we slice off its tail?
>>43838398
You wouldn't, you'd die horribly.
His armour is going to be thicker than yours, his weapons will have more oomph, and he'll have better reach. I mean, assuming we're going by some kind of realism here rather than D&D rules, he'd have a massive disadvantage since people generally aren't armed and armoured to fight someone like that.
Now, since he's still roughly human, obviously he can be killed, and getting swamped is still going to fuck him over same as everyone else, since you're not immune to getting tripped up or attacked from multiple directions just because you're big, and he'll have gaps in his armour same as everyone else. But it's going to cost you a lot of effort and good men.
>>43838986
Psssht, don't you know being super strong makes you a clumsy meat sack that gets outsmarted by the skinny, clever protagonist?
Nice try jock. Try playing some videogames or watching some anime before you open your mouth next time.
>>43839050
I once saw a video of some big fuck off football type running thirty miles an hour briefly.
>>43833982
thems spears
>>43839062
Clearly fake.
D&D has thought me that you can't be BOTH strong and fast, that would be imbalanced and I'd have to make angry threads about it. You can be strong OR smart OR fast, anything else is just powergaming.
>>43839034
He's got good armour - slightly better than is possible in real life, since magic is possible (but not super useful in a lot of ways, we're not talking iron man armour here, just alloys and metalworking techniques that make slightly better full plate than existed in the 1500s possible).
In full plate and wielding a sword or polearm, how would you kill him?
And since he obviously doesn't walk around in full plate all day, two and a half metre guy bred to be huge with it and comfortable with his weight is walking around in the city and only has a mail shirt and a quarterstaff/shortsword, how best to kill him there?
>>43833912
If they're optimized for size and physical ability, they're dangerous to fight but don't take well to injury of any sort. Shallow wounds in the right/enough spots will be enough to take it down, no need to drive it into a corner. The issue is just getting past the presumably thick skin/armor. Spears and hooks will do the job, make them the twisty triangular ones if you're breaking conventions and want to be sure.
Another way is through heat exhaustion, as square-cube law again affects their ability to cool down. If a horse can overheat, so can these guys. Just pelt them with fire and moist warm air.
If you want to get through this without casualties, you'll probably need at least one guy with a big shield and not much else. Maybe throw fire bombs/crackers/torches to harass?
This all assumes that the giant is pretty damn big, maybe twice the height.
>>43839080
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TV_KM8zYFsk
>>43833991
Ever seen Usaine Bolt's legs?
They are huge and muscular as fuck. That giants legs, as far as I can tell, look pretty strong and muscular.
Believe it or not your movement speed is largely based on how large and powerful your muscles are, not how lithe and tiny you are. A guy that size, with those proportions will have no impediment to his movement from his size, his running gait may look more clumsy than a normal sized person because of the way larger bipedals have to run, but it will likely be much faster than you due to stride length and force-to-weight ratio.
Considering the height of the knight and the leg spread on both of these guys that giant is at least 10 feet, probably closer to 12 or 13 feet tall (The knight would gain a few inches if he straightened his legs, but the giant would gain closer to a few feet due to increased leg length and more extreme pose).
The average running stride length of a man is 1.14-1.35 times his height. That puts the giants stride (assuming 12ft tall) at 13.68-16.2ft.
The average recreational runner has a cadence of 150-171 strides per minute, taking into factor a slightly slower cadence (say 120) and up to a maximum cadence of 180 (Not uncommon for runners of 7ft to achieve) we are looking at a being that clocks in at 1641.6-2916ft per minute. That means at a full run this giant clocks in at a minimum of 18.7mph and a upper maximum of 33mph, if he simply has moderate experience with running. This gives him and average speed of 25.8mph.
This giant can very likely outrun the fastest man on earth while expending proportionally a fraction of the effort. That is the speed of the average 12ft tall fit giant.
Now tell him that he is slow again, I dare you.
Also remember, he is likely well into the 700-900lb range (Halfthor is 400lbs at 6'9" and this guys only slightly less muscular). Imagine that kind of force rushing at you. Roughly 40,000 joules of kinetic force, give or take. Like being hit by a small car.
>>43839034
>gigantism in humans
>totes unproblematic
Anon, the frame only supports a certain percentage of deviation. Above and below that you will end up with a host of health issues.
Netorare. That'll finish em
>>43839102
Magic nigger. Also possibly evolution or something.
>>43839095
Let me rephrase: if you want to get through this with ONLY ONE casualty, you'll need a relatively big guy with a big shield throwing hot coals.
He won't survive, but he'll last long enough that if the giant commits to killing him the others have time to spear and back off/scatter.
>>43835475
...It... it stares at you angrily because its entire head is still above the opening of the pit, then it pulls you in and beats the shit out of you?
A Quadruped and a Bipeds bodies handle the force of a fall totally differently. Also a mouse absorbs all of the impact with its rib cage since it is so low to the ground. You might injure the giant sure, maybe twist his ankle, but its no worse then him getting shit faced and falling on his ass.
>>43839154
In fairness falling over is a bigger deal for a bigger person cause he is heavier and shit.
>>43837662
Congenital heart defect, drugs, and a sauna don't mix to well together sadly.
>>43838398
>How would you kill someone like that?
Seriously, completely unautistically; skill.
You're not going to get through his armour, and he'd be likely to shrug off any blunt blows. So really you gotta trip that guy up. Once down, (of course you don't want him getting back up again and he can still hurt you) he's basically like any other knight on the ground. A stilleto through unarmoured/weak armoured points can injure him. Eye sockets, underarm, neck. Any place where there's veins and is badly armored.
Or cavalry. Nothing hurts like a lance at 40mph driven through your armour. Unless his armour is too strong. In which case.
It's still the same answer, but you do it in a tactically sound area, where the mud is of the right consistency to suck him in. You drown him. Worked for the english peasants against the french.
>>43835505
I don't know if you read the filename or not but Arthur wrecks that giant, chops off his balls, guts him open, stabs him in the head then rolls down the hill getting crushed stabbing it repeatedly with a dagger
>>43837539
Dude, slings were actually a pretty nasty weapon.
That itty bitty rock comes off that thing going fast as fuck, like a primitive bullet.
>>43838711
Because those people challenge you at chess.
>>43839287
damn, king arthur is not someone you fuck with
>>43839287
Well sometimes the answer to "how do I kill this?" Is to be a huge badass.
>>43839359
>>43839360
unfortunately the popular image of Arthur in the modern day is a fat old man sitting on a throne wearing red and white, basically the generic 'good' king you see in the most banal fantasy fiction
he killed several giants actually, one on 'the mount of Araby' and another the Romans fielded in battle that he chopped the knees off and gave a medieval one-liner
>and he slew a great giant named Galapas, which was a man of an huge quantity and height, he shorted him and smote off both his legs by the knees, saying, 'Now art thou better of a size to deal with than thou were', and after smote off his head.
>>43839738
damn, that's just glorious. now i wanna paint up some knights
>>43839261
Wouldn't a lance at 40mph basically knock him shitless even if it doesn't penetrate plate?
>>43833912
It's kinda stupid when you ask a question and then immediately put very strange and unexplained conditions on the answers given just so you can arrive at an answer you like more.
Clearly the fact that you omitted firearms and arrows means you ALREADY KNEW arrows or crossbows in a medieval setting would be the best way to kill Giants, so you aren't looking for the actual best answer, just one that you like the sound of.
So why don't YOU tell US what the best way to kill giants is?
>>43839912
Someone is pretty mad about a thread started half a day ago.
>>43839875
Depends on the armor and skill of the people involved. Given that his armor is better than normal 1500's armor, most blows will slide off it. If the lancer manages to aim perfectly and hit one of the weak points(neck, groin, shoulders, or head) right, the lance should go through the armor, or at very least knock him off his feet. After that, just send in the peasants with daggers and pick axes
A deadfall trap if it is a giant roughly as big as posted in the OP.
If he lives in a cave smoke him out or try to set him on fire because that shit fucks up everyone
>>43839875
The entire point of a lance is you get all the force of a barded warhorse and rider and put it in an itty bitty spot, and make sure the rider has trained long enough they can A) transfer the force through themselves properly and B) transfer it where they want.
Even if the blow doesn't straight up kill him, it's going to seriously wound him and probably knock him senseless. Being hit by that much force hurts, even if you're bigger thna a normal person. That's not even counting if he gets trampled by the horse after he goes down.
I mean, 50% bigger than a normal human in the Middle ages means 8.5 feet, maybe? He'd probably weight 400 pounds or so, but a heavy riding horse might weigh 1200 pounds and carry another 300 pounds of weight.
1500 pounds at forty mph in one spot will fuck anyone over something fierce.
