If each age from 0-19 formed an army, who would win in a war?

Well let's see if we can give this a realistic rundown.

0 - 3 years old comprise of 74,000 soldiers, or roughly 35% of the 210,000 present. These individuals don't really have a place in this war. Killing them is unnecessary but I doubt any of the other armies will be capable of feeding and caring for a group of babies that outnumbers their troops.

4, 5 and 6 year olds - 45,000 soldiers.

These armies still hold a numbers advantage but still lack any real chance of victory. A four year probably doesn't have the strength to wield anything heavier than a pistol and even then it is highly improbably that they would be capable of using one proficiently since they probably can't even load bullets into a magazine without help. Same goes for most 5 and 6 year olds. There is a multitude of other reasons why these armies won't succeed but we can stop here since an army that can't use weapons is probably not much of a threat.

7, 8, 9 and 10 year olds - 46,000 soldiers.

Here we come across perhaps our first age group that may be capable of taking out others. There is a large disparity between a 7 and a 10 year old but they'll both suffer from the same setbacks that come with being this young. For example, a lack of regime. A ten year old might be able to use a gun, or an axe (the types of weapons available for this war were never specified but I doubt it would make much difference), but do you really believe a group of 10,000 ten year olds will be unified under some form of leadership? No, it would be chaos and I doubt disagreements over plans of action will be handled in a civilized manner.

There are now only 45,000 left unaccounted for, or a little over 20%.

11, 12, and 13 year olds - 24,000 soldiers

This group is a toss-up. Still considerably weaker and less knowledgeable than the older groups. Probably not unified either. They do, however, still have large numbers. None of these groups will win on their own, but there is the slight possibility that they would outlast the other groups simply due to their larger population.

14 and 15 year olds - 6000 and 5000 soldiers

It gets a bit dicey here. Most will be undergoing or will have undergone puberty by now. These armies are small enough that they could probably be controlled if there are enough mature members present yet large enough that they pose a serious threat (Team 14 has as many members as the 17, 18 and 19 year olds combined). On the other hand, their large presence may be what undermines them. An army needs food and shelter and these groups probably won't be as good at taking care of themselves as the older groups. The other armies will be well aware of where the 14 and 15 year olds get their food from and will probably be able to pick them off day by day as their numbers betray them. A great deal of speculation here, I've not a clue what the conditions of this war are but in most scenarios I see these armies losing. A win would not be impossible though.

16 year olds - 4,000 soldiers

A good balance. Strong enough and smart enough. Plenty of numbers. A safe bet.

17 year olds - 3,000 soldiers

A very small portion of the total overall combatants but they have a lot going for them. They have nearly all of the same advantages the later teens have in terms of physical and mental ability. They still outnumber the two oldest groups and while not being too badly outnumbered by the younger ones. Plenty of potential for some of the more precocious members to slip among the ranks of the older armies to sabotage them from within, thereby creating confusion. I doubt that among the 2000 eighteen year olds that everyone knows everyone else. It would not be hard to imagine this group emerging as the victors.

18 and 19 year olds - 3,000 soldiers

No chance. I split this up into groups for brevity's sake but this is a free-for-all among 20 different factions. An army of 1 or 2,000 soldiers caught between 207,000 others (or roughly 100,000 if you only count six year olds and up, little difference either way) stand almost no chance of surviving. They may be taking out greater numbers of enemy troops per individual soldier, but they will simply not long last enough to win; they lack the numbers.

tl;dr There are too many unknown variables in this Hunger Games: Extreme Edition version of war, but my guess is that a group between 15-17 will win as they are the most balanced.

Thanks OP, I just procrastinated my project for another hour but everyone else here at the library probably thinks I'm super productive since I haven't stopped typing since I got here.

/r/AskReddit Thread