Mars vs Earth

[Fallman]

They most likely used giant guns, like humans used to go to outer space in another of Wells' books. Presumably, Martians have really good shock absorption technology.

[Powerboy]

My problem with this is that from the sounds of things in Wells' book, they didn't USE rockets. They used...I don't know, projectiles.

1. Scientists see 'explosions' on the surface of Mars. They don't see rockets rising off of the planet.
2. They don't see the rockets approaching. Ever.
3. The 'cylinders' slam down like meteors. They don't land. They end up in a huge crater.

As BS as the physics is, I'm more inclined of thinking of the Martian 'ships' as basically big bullets. So I'm not seeing them actually being capable of travelling to the asteroid belt easily (given it's 3x the distance to the belt from Mars as it is to Earth, roughly), and I'm not sure what they could do once they arrived without any rockets.

I don't really see them as 'space-faring'. They're more 'point our landers at a place and shoot them into that place'. They don't display ships, capacity to maneuver, anything of the like.

But mileage, etc.

That's a good point. In "A Trip to the Moon" by Jules Verne, which was amazingly accurate considering when it was written which was fairly contemporary to Wells, I seem to recall it was an explosion that propelled the ship to the Moon with lots of explanations for how the occupant could survive the acceleration. It was a one-way trip.

I read the book around forty years ago so I'm not sure how accurate that is but it seems that must have been the only conceivable way even people like Verne and Wells could imagine it being done in that time period. Basically a super cannon.

And Verne was no slouch when it came to science and technology so I'm thinking that's about the best someone in the 1890s could conceive of.

[The Watcher]

In any case, even if the Martians could have glassed the Earth via asteroids (and there are good arguments above for why they don't have that capability) doing so would destroy one of the major reasons they were invading in the first place, namely an plentiful food source that is the human population. Or more specifically, the human population's blood.

[Captain Smith]

The Wells Martians showed no capability against our indirect long rang fire weaponry. It is not clear that they could even detect aircraft at height. Artillery ranges of 25 miles negates the heat rays as they are vulnerable to shells.

The most formidable Martians were the 1953 folk who were able to resist nukes and demonstrated sophisticated AA abilities. The Tom Cruise Martians - never really saw a good fight between them and significant armed forces. Given they talked, mines, etc. might have wor

[The Arbiter]

The Wells Martians showed no capability against our indirect long rang fire weaponry. It is not clear that they could even detect aircraft at height. Artillery ranges of 25 miles negates the heat rays as they are vulnerable to shells.

The most formidable Martians were the 1953 folk who were able to resist nukes and demonstrated sophisticated AA abilities. The Tom Cruise Martians - never really saw a good fight between them and significant armed forces. Given they talked, mines, etc. might have wor

The 2005 Martians flattened a significant military presence on the outskirts of a hill. They all basically suicide charged in order to buy the civilians time. Tanks, infantry, helicopter and even what looked like some F22's went flying into battle, never to return.

At one point, long range missiles were shown to explode harmlessly on their shields.

They also shot down a Boeing 747.

Edit:
https://youtu.be/jLttoq9BksA

It's a scene totally worth sharing. The movie in general had some highs and some lows but this scene is burned into my brain. I cried the first time I watched it. The military straight up KNOWS its suicide but do they even blink before they charge? Nope. They double down and do their damned best. Also when he's yelling "I love you!" to his boy. :'(

[Captain Smith]

That was a point people made at the time. We saw the armed forces charge but not fight.
I see two weaknesses. The Martians walked. Unless the shields were underneath their feat, they are vulnerable to mines or explosions around time to disrupt the surface.
Second, transparent shields. If they let in visible light, what else of the electromagnetic spectrum do they allow. Magnetic fields to disrupt kinetic projectiles make sense. However, if you put off a nuke next to them, the radiation pulse of visible light should fry them. For the shields to respond, they would have to be FTL and how to we explain that.

ID4 had the same problem.

[big_adventure]

That was a point people made at the time. We saw the armed forces charge but not fight.
I see two weaknesses. The Martians walked. Unless the shields were underneath their feat, they are vulnerable to mines or explosions around time to disrupt the surface.
Second, transparent shields. If they let in visible light, what else of the electromagnetic spectrum do they allow. Magnetic fields to disrupt kinetic projectiles make sense. However, if you put off a nuke next to them, the radiation pulse of visible light should fry them. For the shields to respond, they would have to be FTL and how to we explain that.

ID4 had the same problem.

You are asking for wayyyyyyyy too much from a movie. By that argument, Green Lantern shields, which let in light, would let in lasers, and they, you know, don't.

[Captain Smith]

Yeah, but to get into the weeds, the GL rings of various sorts can have some sort of AI and have FTL capabilities, thus, they could (IMHO) block an intense visible light. We have optical instruments that do such to cut down light for eye damage but they wouldn't stop enough to keep you from going in flames.

[big_adventure]

I see what you are saying, of course, but that's just not how force fields work in fiction in general.

[Sol_M]

Or to be more exact, that's not how we consider forcefields to work here in general.

In reality, it's a perfectly valid thought experiment and would probably be one of the actual strategies we would try if we were to encounter such enemy technology.

[jetengine]

OG Novel Tripods were taken out by Victorian Artillery (the issue as mentioned earlier was targeting the fast moving machines) so modern anti tank weapons would be fine. Theres also the issue however of the black smoke, Chemical weapons went out of vogue a while ago so when these assholes start using them again people are gonna be angry

[U.N. Owen]

OG Novel Tripods were taken out by Victorian Artillery (the issue as mentioned earlier was targeting the fast moving machines) so modern anti tank weapons would be fine. Theres also the issue however of the black smoke, Chemical weapons went out of vogue a while ago so when these assholes start using them again people are gonna be angry

Said chemical weapons could be taken out by Martian high pressurized stream and high pressure water, two things that are common in the chemical industry for the former and good for cutting in the latter.