History Main / TechnologicallyAdvancedFoe

* The Neuroi from ''Anime/StrikeWitches''. They came en masse, massacred humanity without a word of communication, covered the land with miasma that ate at the crust of Earth until it shattered, and [[GodzillaThreshold pushed humanity to the point]] where sending teenage girls into combat with them was the only viable option remaining.
* Kuya and the nation of Kunnekamun in ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'' mark their entrance into the plot by walking all over the various medieval Japanese nations with their state-of-the-art ''HumongousMecha''.

* The titular [[HumongousMecha mecha]] from the ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'' franchise frequently prove this to whomever is [[MookHorrorShow unlucky enough to be on their receiving end]]. A LensmanArmsRace by the various factions to catch up to or maintain their technological superiority is the usual result.
** ''Anime/TurnAGundam'': The Moonrace is such to the terrestrial humans. Humanity on Earth got knocked back into the Stone Age a few thousand years ago and has only just managed to reach the Industrial Age again. The Moonrace, by comparison, have anti-gravity, particle cannons, and nanomachines. The only reason the Earth humans are even able to put up a fight is due to finding some ancient, buried Mobile Suits from a long past age, including the Turn A Gundam itself (which turns out to be technologically ''superior'' to anything the Moonrace has).
* ''LightNovel/{{Gate}}'' has the Roman/Medieval mash-up Empire ill-prepared for a counterattack from the JSDF. Legions of pre-industrial soldiers and fantasy-genre monsters were simply no match for heavy artillery. And to rub salt in the wound, said heavy artillery is technically '''outdated''' by the JSDF's standards.

* In ''Hengoku no Schwester'', the protagonist is on the wrong end of a WitchHunt by the church, and forced into their monastery. And while the story is set in 1542, the KnightTemplar church is shown to possess technology from later ages and hoards them jealously. For instance, they are able to conduct rudimentary blood transfusion and know the concept of blood types; for reference, the first recorded successful blood transfusion is in 1665. The church also employs a girl gifted with EideticMemory, able memorize an archive's worth of books at a glance and recall it perfectly, which the church uses as a human computer database. The church leader also believes that TheWorldIsNotReady for such knowledge, and the way she explains the potential of people being hunted and milked for their blood, [[VillainHasAPoint it's hard to argue that she's wrong.]]

* The Ironstorm Army is this in [[http://kleinerkiller.deviantart.com/gallery/41037509/Minecraftia-Saga Yognapped]]. In previous years, [[Machinima/YogscastMinecraftSeries Minecraftia's greatest battles]] were fought against a [[ReligionOfEvil shadowy cult]] with swords and bows. When teams of masked soldiers with advanced firearms appear out of nowhere and start marching into the largest population centers, [[spoiler:not even the heroes can prevent millions of casualties and the regression of Minecraftia to an AfterTheEnd state.]]
* The ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfic "The Squad", the British Army is this to the wizarding world. The titular squad is a group of SAS Commandoes sporting state-of-the-art anti-terror training and equipment. Let's just say high-powered scoped sniper rifles, assault helicopters, and claymore mines are all great equalizer when it comes to Death Eaters and their wands.
* In ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'', the ''Anime/MyHime'' cast faces [=SUEs=] armed with powers such as mind control, [[TimeMaster time manipulation]] and AntiMagic. One even [[spoiler:opens a portal to the ''Anime/MaiOtome'' world and brings over an army of Schwarz members with Slaves]].
* ''FanFic/MegaManDefenderOfTheHumanRace'' has the Stardroids, extremely powerful robot aliens that no one on Earth knew about before they invaded. Their mere presence en route to Earth enabled them to [[spoiler:scan Bass's memories and even make him go haywire]], when he was the most powerful robot in the series before they arrived.
* ''Fanfic/BetterLivingThroughScienceAndPonies'' boasts this too; Equestria doesn't have any science or devices more complicated than a steam locomotive or an old-timey newsreel. So when [=GLaDOS=] shows up looking for new test subjects, nobody has the slightest clue how to react to it.
* ''FanFic/RosarioVampireBrightestDarkness'': Part of the reason for TheMasquerade is due to [[MugglesDoItBetter advances in human weapons in technology]], which are stated outright to be superior to monster might and magic. In fact, in Act II, Dark and Kokoa confirm that Fairy Tail could easily take a Dark Lord like [[VampireMonarch Moka's father]] in a fight by using human technology.

* ''Film/{{Battleship}}'' involves an international naval exercise being interrupted... by alien ships coming from underwater to seal an island chain in an impenetrable force field, leaving three destroyers to fight them.

* ''Film/IndependenceDay'' drives the point home early, as TheMothership is said to be [[PlanetSpaceship 1/4th the size of the moon]] and deploys individual craft to cities around the world that are still 15 miles across. In this case, though, it's said that human technological development is heavily based on the {{Area 51}} Roswell alien ship of the same design, so humans find ways to fight back in part because they had developed some familiarity with their technology.
* ''Film/SuckerPunch'': The WWI fantasy has the girls armed with modern guns and a MiniMecha vs WWI era zombies. The castle fantasy has the girls armed with modern guns and a plane vs orcs, knights, and a dragon.

* The premise of the ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series has UsefulNotes/WorldWarII being thrown into confusion when the alien Race arrives with its invasion fleet, forcing former mortal enemies to fight together to save humanity. Oddly enough, this works both ways - the Race had been expecting the same knights on horseback their probes found a mere seven hundred years earlier. But not only have the natives [[HumansAdvanceSwiftly gone on to invent tanks and airplanes]], they've also devised weapons the Race never conceived of, like chemical warfare, suicide attacks, and wet-navy warships (the Race hadn't encountered any planets with sizable oceans before). Combined with mankind's [[HumansAreWarriors extreme tenacity, fanaticism]], [[HumansAreBastards and potential for cruelty]], the Race consider just glassing the damn planet at least [[OnceAnEpisode once a book.]]
* In ''Triplanetary'', the first book of the Literature/{{Lensman}} series, the heroes have escaped from the clutches of the villainous Gray Roger, figured out his nefarious plans, have mustered the space cavalry, and at last have his evil forces on the ropes -- and then out of nowhere a brand new super-advanced alien species called the Nevians barges in on the battle, easily trounces every ship with its ability to partially neutralize inertia, and kidnaps the heroes several light-years away. This signals the beginning of the LensmanArmsRace.
** The Eddorians and their more powerful underlings are this to humans and other friendly species, while the Arisians and the most powerful Lensmen are outside context heroes to the Eddorians, who simply can't grasp the concept of any being having power and not immediately trying to conquer everything in sight. By the end of the series, the Children of the Lens are outside the context of everyone, including the Arisians who engineered them in the first place.
* The New Republic in ''Literature/TheEschatonSeries'' is essentially 19th century Prussia IN SPACE, trying to pretend TheSingularity never happened. It is therefore unequipped to even ''understand'' the Festival, which is the Edinburgh Arts Festival hopped up on nanotech, much less defend against it.

* Azania in ''Literature/{{Victoria}}'', who gender-flip stereotypes about masculine technology. A LadyLand that embraces technology and science, they field 21st-century network-centric warfare with modern-to-near-future equipment and tactics, compensating for the individual physical weakness of their AmazonBrigade troops. The [[ValuesDissonance heroes]] of the book, the Northern Confederation, are [[RightWingMilitiaFanatic a reactionary nation of right-wing Christians]] whose general tech standard averages out somewhere around the World War I/II level, and who must therefore rely on greatly superior numbers to break even.
* Creator/MikhailAkhmanov's ''Literature/ArrivalsFromTheDark'' series starts as this, with the incredibly-advanced [[HumanAliens Faata]] attempt to invade Earth and obliterate the fleet sent against them in a CurbStompBattle. Only a timely intervention by a friendly alien of a different species helps humanity defeat the invaders. By the following novels, humanity has managed to reverse-engineer enough of the alien tech to significantly narrow the gap, at least as far as space technology goes, yet they still spend over a century fighting the Faata in four devastating wars that end with the collapse of Faata society and humanity emerging as a galactic power. After that, the trope tends to be reversed, as humans actually have a number of technological advantages, largely borrowed from the Faata, that other races don't. The other big enemy of the series, the Dromi, are a threat not because of their technology, which is inferior, but because of their [[WeHaveReserves sheer numbers]] (outnumbering all other known races many times over). In ''Consul Trevelyan'', taking place centuries later, the titular protagonist manages to trick a newly-discovered race of a roughly equal technological level that humans have mastered teleportation, thus allowing them to easily overwhelm enemy ships by teleporting heavily-armed marines aboard. The trick works, even though only two people in all of Earth Federation are capable of this trick.

* In ''Literature/ArkRoyal'', humanity encounters aliens for the first time and discovers that the aliens possess powerful plasma weapons that dwarf anything humanity has. Their fighters are fast and deadly. Their FTL drives are more powerful. They obliterate conventional carrier-based human fleets with ease. This forces the Royal Space Navy to BreakOutTheMuseumPiece - the titular [[TheBattlestar Battlestar]]-type vessel, long considered obsolete by modern standards and not scrapped only for sentimental and political reasons. The ''Ark Royal''[='s=] thick armor and powerful railguns, in addition to a fighter complement, prove to be an unpleasant surprise to the aliens. Later on, though, humanity catches up and equips its own ships with plasma weapons and energy-absorbing armor.
* The Trisolarans of ''Literature/TheThreeBodyProblem'' aren't the biggest fish in the pond. But they are a lot bigger and scarier than humanity, and their technology, though fundamentally comprehensible with some study, is far beyond humanity's.

* The Doomsday Machine, from ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries''. It came from outside the Milky Way, a weapon intentionally designed to be "too dreadful to use." [[Film/StarTrekIVTheVoyageHome Not even whales can stop it]]. It eats planets.
* The Borg from ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. In their first appearance, [[GreatGazoo Q]] uses them to give the crew of the Enterprise a lesson in just how dangerous the universe still is and how "prepared" they are.
** The Q themselves could also fit this trope.
** Interestingly, Species 8472 is an Outside-Context Villain for the ''Borg'': a species from another dimension that they can neither assimilate nor destroy. It proceeds to kick their asses.

* Similarly in ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}}'', the Americans and North Koreans are busily having a scrap on an island and managing to ignore various weird happenings around the mountain in the middle of it, until suddenly the aliens leap out and freeze the whole place solid.

* The Galactic Civilisations story is almost directly copied from the ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', with the Antarans having been the ancient enemies of the [[{{Precursors}} Orions]] who suddenly return and disrupt the younger races (ie. the player and their opponents) efforts to conquer the galaxy for themselves. Arguably the Harvesters are this in turn to the Antarans before the start of the third game. Bioweapons created by the Antarans themselves, most of the Antarans had no idea what they were, where they came from, or why their home systems had suddenly stop communicating, and were forced into desperate measures to avoid extinction. Finally, the backstory also mentions a third galactic power descended from those exiled from the original home of the Orions and Antarans, with one of the playable races apparently being scouts or infiltrators engineered to either investigate or soften things up for invasion. However, with no further games having come in the franchise, this idea was never expanded on.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':
** The Reapers, like Sovereign, are this to the entire galaxy. [[spoiler:They appear to wipe out all space-faring life every 50,000 years, and spend the intervening time asleep in dark space]]. Driven home in the ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' announcement trailer where it's made clear, given that the higher-ups constantly tried to silence his/her warnings about them, that no one besides Shepard knows what they are.
** What makes the Reapers so devastating is that the scale and capabilities of the Reapers sits outside of the context of the Citadel's military doctrine. The three primary Citadel species have geared their militaries to cooperate and specialize, with each species supporting one another: the turians serve as the primary heavy combat element, supplying most of the ground troops, armored vehicles, and spacecraft. The asari provide elite biotic special forces and economic and diplomatic clout, at the expense of heavy combat units. The salarians provide advanced technology, intelligence, and covert operations units at the expense of heavy combat elements as well. This works just fine for the enemies that the Citadel is accustomed to fighting. But when the Reapers show up, they're so fast, they have such huge numbers, they have nonexistent logistics requirements, they have technology that at times breaks the laws of physics, and they have firepower and armor more powerful than anything the other races can even hope to achieve, which means they can attack ''anywhere'' at their leisure. As a result, the asari military gets smashed and the salarians only survive the majority of the war because the Reapers haven't bothered with them because their intelligence apparatus (geared to fight more conventional enemies) is a nonthreat. The turians are the only ones who spend the entire game in a (losing) slugging match over their homeworld.
** In the ''Leviathan DLC'' for the third game, Shepard hunts for a mysterious Reaper-killer codenamed Leviathan. [[spoiler:Instead of a rogue Reaper as the characters initially believed, the Leviathan are revealed to be giant aquatic lifeforms, with incredible [[MoreThanMindControl mental abilities]] and a ''massive'' [[AGodAmI God-complex]]. They are also the race indirectly responsible for the creation of the Reapers, when a [[AIIsACrapshoot Rogue AI]] [[note]](the Catalyst)[[/note]] turned against them and created the first Reapers in their image.]]

* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars'', it's business as usual with GDI and Nod killing each other, then aliens show up. The humans are so startled that they call a ceasefire and manage a (''very'' short-lived) truce to deal with the new threat before continuing their war. The ''aliens'' are surprised because Earth was supposed to be uninhabitable by that point, so their fleet sent to harvest [[GreenRocks Tiberium]] is met with [[HumansAreWarriors unexpected resistance]]. [[MagnificentBastard And deep within his command center, Kane smiles to himself.]]
* In a ''VideoGame/{{Bodycount}}'' trailer an African militiaman is surprised by a skyscraper rising from the ground, with a large door opening. He promptly gets one-shotted by a laser from a guy in futuristic body armour.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', the [[TheEmpire Garlean Empire]] has highly advanced [[{{Magitek}} magiteknology]] that allows them to rival the might of their neighbors. Eorzea, on the other hand, has very low technology (what little tech they have comes from Imperial defectors), but the region's peoples can use magic, something Garleans are physically incapable of doing.

* In the storyline between the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' games, humanity was so completely unprepared for the Combine invasion that the entire planet Earth was conquered in ''seven hours''.

* ''VideoGame/MedievalIITotalWar'' has two of these in the Grand Campaign. Unless you know it's coming and spend the entire early game preparing for it, the Mongol Hordes can steamroll any faction on the eastern half of the map, and even if you've prepared it's not going to be an easy fight. Then, about the time you think you've recovered from the Black Death towards the endgame, the Timurids show up, and on top of all the Mongols' strengths they have cannon-toting elephants.
* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings II'' has this, unusually for a historically-accurate game, with an expansion pack that introduces an Aztec invasion of Europe. [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything They have different gods, powerful weapons, and spread diseases that Europeans have no resistance to]], making them a serious threat completely out of left field for all the dynasties engaged in intricate political machinations.
** The Mongols and Timurids are also present, and they will utterly WRECK the east side of the map on arrival.
** In the [[VideoGame/AfterTheEndACrusaderKingsIIMod After The End]] mod, the British and Brazilians take the place of other invasions.
* [[TheRemnant The Enclave]] functions as this in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}''. The player initially hears nothing from them except from a bunch of eyebots flying around the Wasteland blasting Enclave propaganda, which most people think is simply an old radio broadcast playing on a loop. So when a bunch of stormtroopers in advanced power armor (even more advanced than the Brotherhood of Steel's) and vertibirds fly in out of nowhere to seize control of Project Purity and start occupying the Wasteland, ''everyone'' is caught off-guard, including the Brotherhood themselves, who figured that they had been wiped out in the previous game.
** In the [[VideoGame/Fallout2 aforementioned previous game,]] they're this as well, with the Brotherhood and Shi (the highest tech-possessing factions before the Enclave's arrival) scrambling to catch up.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has [[TheConspiracy the Institute]], a shadowy cabal of scientists conducting ethically-dubious experiments in the surrounding Commonwealth. The level of technological prowess the Institute harnesses is easily decades ahead of anyone else in the country, including even the Brotherhood of Steel, who have made it their business to hoard all of the advanced tech they can get their hands on. In addition to maintaining a functioning, self-sufficient society that is safe from the dangers of the outside world, their greatest technological feat is the creation of Synths, [[ArtificialHuman lifelike androids that can easily assimilate into the wasteland population]]. Their laser guns also reflect their technological superiority, having sleek and streamlined designs in comparison to the bulky and old-fashioned energy weapons in the wastes[[note]]a close examination puts the Institute laser guns as a DoubleSubversion -- despite their sleek and streamlined design they're actually ''inferior'' in terms of average damage dealt to the normal pre-War lasers (the Institute lasers prioritise fire rate over damage per shot)... but they are also indicated to be easier to mass-produce, allowing the Institute to have practically no logistical issues equipping their ''entire'' armed forces with them, a feat otherwise only equalled by small, elite forces like the Brotherhood and the Enclave.[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has [[TheConspiracy the Institute]], a shadowy cabal of scientists conducting ethically-dubious experiments in the surrounding Commonwealth. The level of technological prowess the Institute harnesses is easily decades ahead of anyone else in the country, including even the Brotherhood of Steel, who have made it their business to hoard all of the advanced tech they can get their hands on. In addition to maintaining a functioning, self-sufficient society that is safe from the dangers of the outside world, their greatest technological feat is the creation of Synths, [[ArtificialHuman lifelike androids that can easily assimilate into the wasteland population]]. Their laser guns also reflect their technological superiority, having sleek and streamlined designs in comparison to the bulky and old-fashioned energy weapons in the wastes.

* ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' has the Haltman Works Company, who invade Planet Popstar for its rich resources. The company's tech is far superior to that of the natives. Even Meta Knight, who has a technological airship (and may, indeed, have some of the only technology on Popstar), is no match for them. Unfortunately for them, [[HoistByTheirOwnPetard this ends up being their downfall]] as Kirby, the only one left to stop them, is able to acquire their tech, specifically a MiniMecha. And the rest is history as Kirby uses this mech to absolutely decimate Haltmann's forces as a one-puff army.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', The Necrons qualify, being ancient robots with far better tech than the Imperium of Man, using weapons like Gauss Rifles, and being near immune to normal weaponry. It's impossible for them to even research it, as a Necron warrior self destructs after they die.

* In ''Fanfic/PerfectionIsOverrated'', the ''Anime/MaiHime'' cast faces [=SUEs=] armed with powers such as mind control, [[TimeMaster time manipulation]] and AntiMagic. One even [[spoiler:opens a portal to the ''Anime/MaiOtome'' world and brings over an army of Schwarz members with Slaves]].

This enemy is common in AlienInvasion stories, both large-scale (aliens from another world) and small-scale (aliens from another continent). Time travel often involves it as well; the ConquerorFromTheFuture in particular abuses this to a point.

* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', The Necrons qualify, being ancient robots with far better tech than the Imperium, using weapons like Gauss Rifles, and being near immune to normal weaponry. It's impossible for them to even research it, as a Necron warrior self destructs after they die.
** Zig-zagged in the case of the Tau, who have technology that ''looks'' sleeker and more advanced but on paper they are about evenly matched with the Imperium. What makes them qualify is that the Tau actually understand the advanced technology they use; while a plasma gun might be a rare AncestralWeapon to an Imperial Guard captain, plasma rifles are standard-issue among the Tau Fire Warriors, and the Tau versions are safer to operate to boot.

* ''Literature/OutOfTheDark'' borrows some elements from ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' in that the invaders are expecting a more technologically inferior humanity than originally thought, although the gap is much narrower this time (they assumed humanity would be at about 17th-18th century instead of early 21st). Still, the Shongairi have FTL travel, ArtificialGravity, OrbitalBombardment, and FrickinLaserBeams. Their opening strike [[spoiler:obliterates every national capital, as well as all the large military bases (plus the cities near them) and naval warships. The total human casualties on the first day of the invasion are over 2 billion]]. Then they try to land troops... and find that human ground and air combat tech is actually pretty close to theirs, [[InsufficientlyAdvancedAlien even surpassing it in certain respects]]. For example, their {{Hover Tank}}s have powerful beam cannons but relatively thin armor, which means even a 30-year-old ex-Soviet tank can punch a hole clean through it with a single shot (although the reverse is also true). Additionally, their combat tactics are woefully inadequate, especially when it comes to asymmetric warfare. Suddenly, everything the Western powers have learned about [=IED=]s and guerrilla warfare (used against them in the Middle East) is now very useful in fighting a technologically superior enemy, who can level entire cities on a whim. [[spoiler:Of course, none of that technology helps the aliens when a certain Transylvanian decides to take matters into his own claws and fangs.]]

* In ''VideoGame/UniverseAtWar'', Earth is invaded by an alien race of PlanetLooters known as the Hierarchy, and the human race is nearly wiped out in the resulting war as nothing they have can counter the Hierarchy's powerful giant walker robots. [[HumansNeedAliens Just as all hope seems lost]], another alien race turn up, a race of MechanicalLifeforms with a grudge against the Hierarchy known as the Novus, and begin aiding the human remnants and the tide begins to turn. [[spoiler:And ''then'', the mighty [[OurElvesAreBetter Masari]], the super-advanced race who once uplifted the Hierarchy only to be hunted to near-extinction by them, [[{{Atlantis}} rise from the Atlantic in their continent-sized colony ship]] to deliver a little "divine retribution" to their errant children.]]

->'''President Whitmore:''' ''"Can they be killed?"''\\
'''Dr. Okun:''' ''"Their bodies are just as frail as ours. These two died in the crash, the other a few weeks later. You just have to get through their technology, which is, sorry to say, far more advanced."''

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has the Institute, a shadowy cabal of scientists conducting ethically-dubious experiments in the surrounding Commonwealth. The level of technological prowess the Institute harnesses is easily decades ahead of anyone else in the country, including even the Brotherhood of Steel, who have made it their business to hoard all of the advanced tech they can get their hands on. In addition to maintaining a functioning, self-sufficient society that is safe from the dangers of the outside world, their greatest technological feat is the creation of Synths, [[ArtificialHuman lifelike androids that can easily assimilate into the wasteland population]]. Their laser guns also reflect their technological superiority, having sleek and streamlined designs in comparison to the bulky and old-fashioned energy weapons in the wastes.

** In the [[VideoGame/Fallout2 aforementioned previous game,]] they're this as well, with the Brotherhood and Shi (the most advanced before the Enclave's arrival) scrambling to catch up.

-->- ''Film/IndependenceDay''

-->'''President Whitmore:''' ''"Can they be killed?"''\\

* ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has the Institute, a shadowy cabal of scientists conducting ethically-dubious experiments in the surrounding Commonwealth. The level of technological prowess the Institute harnesses is easily decades ahead of anyone else in the country, including even the Brotherhood of Steel, who have made it their business to hoard all of the advanced tech they can get their hands on. In addition to maintaining a functioning, self-sufficient society that is safe from the dangerous of the outside world, their greatest technological feat is the creation of Synths, [[ArtificialHuman lifelike androids that can easily assimilate into the wasteland population]]. Their laser guns also reflect their technological superiority, having sleek and streamlined designs in comparison to the bulky and old-fashioned energy weapons in the wastes.

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

[[/folder]]

* In {{VideoGame/Destiny}} , the Darkness is explicitly referred to as an OCP/Outside Context Problem. Fitting, as what is known about the Darkness hints at a Kardeshev type-4 entity.

* ''Literature/OutOfTheDark'' borrows some elements from ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' in that the invaders are expecting a more technologically inferior humanity than originally thought, although the gap is much narrower this time (they assumed humanity would be at about 17th-18th century instead of early 21st). Still, the Shongairi have FTL travel, ArtificialGravity, OrbitalBombardment, and FrickinLaserBeams. Their opening strike [[spoiler:obliterates every national capital, as well as all the large military bases (plus the cities near them) and naval warships. The total human casualties on the first day of the invasion are over 2 billion]]. Then they try to land troops... and find that human ground and air combat tech is actually pretty close to theirs, [[InsufficientlyAdvancedAliens even surpassing it in certain respects]]. For example, their {{Hover Tank}}s have powerful beam cannons but relatively thin armor, which means even a 30-year-old ex-Soviet tank can punch a hole clean through it with a single shot (although the reverse is also true). Additionally, their combat tactics are woefully inadequate, especially when it comes to asymmetric warfare. Suddenly, everything the Western powers have learned about [=IED=]s and guerrilla warfare (used against them in the Middle East) is now very useful in fighting a technologically superior enemy, who can level entire cities on a whim. [[spoiler:Of course, none of that technology helps the aliens when a certain Transylvanian decides to take matters into his own claws and fangs.]]

* In ''Franchise/StargateVerse'', many of the enemies the [[HumansByAnyOtherName Tau'ri]] face have technology at a level above that of Earth. This tends to change later, as humans manage to acquire and reverse-engineer powerful tech (all while maintaining TheMasquerade among the larger population of Earth). Played with, when dealing with the Goa'uld, who do possess powerful advanced technology, but whose society in general is at Medieval level. Their tech is also horribly inefficient. For example, the powerful and intimidating staff weapons fire deadly plasma blasts, but it takes considerable training and skill in order to reliably hit a target from afar. Meanwhile, the far less advanced Earth assault rifles and sub-machineguns can actually be deadlier in proper hands, especially since the metal armor worn by Jaffa warriors is all for show, while the Tau'ri do, eventually, figure out a way to, at least, mitigate some of the damage from a staff blast, to the point where a staff blast to the chest may be survivable with proper gear.