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In lugnet.off-topic.geek, Shaun Sullivan wrote:
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In lugnet.off-topic.geek, David Rabadan wrote:
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As a power armor fan myself I believe that they can replace tanks and do a
better job than mechanized armor. They can carry a diversity of weapons;
they are a bipedal weapons platform system. They can access areas that
tanks may not. They can perform “surgical” strikes and with less collateral
damage. What do you think?
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Another thought is maintainability and cost. Consider that WWII Germany was
able to produce several tank destroyers for the cost of a single tank, simply
because the expense of the turret went away. As the end of WWII approached
and money became exceedingly tight, production of full tanks dropped off and
that of tank destoyers climbed. It follows that for a comparable armament, a
less specialized platform (i.e. tank) will be much cheaper.
I’d also much rather be the bloke in charge of replacing treads on a tank or
overhauling a tank transmission, as opposed to the one who has the sorry job
of fiddling with a couple dozen high-precision symbiotically-actuated
hydroelectronic pneumatically controlled joints. If dust is rough on a
modern-day tank, picture it on wreaking havoc on every point of power suit
articulation.
Technological hurdles aside, I can’t imagine power suits ever entirely
replacing tanks - at least, not as long as bean counters are involved.
-s
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In the storyline I’ve been “working up” for twenty years now (!!), in fact, I do
use both. Part of the reason is that I tend to think that bipedal combat
machines would have to develop very high levels of flexibility and survivability
before they would be able to supplant “conventional” armor.
If you look at most mecha, well, it’s a disaster area of shot-traps, multiple
centers of mass, and sophisticated subsystems that, if disabled, can cause any
number of weird problems. Compare that with the center of gravity on a tank;
compare too the silhouette of the two. A bipedal unit also has a great
liability in the extraneous mass and size; most armor is designed for mobility
and cannon; the body of the vehicle is simply there to protect the equipment and
the crew. When the crew is smaller in stature (see the armor of the JSDF, for
example, which takes into account the smaller average size of Japanese armor
crews), the vehicle can be made smaller. Not quite the same with mecha, which
tend to have one pilot and dwarf that individual.
This is part of the reason I like Mladen’s stuff so much; it tends towards
multiple pairs of legs (which I do see as a viable platform at relatively low
tech). The bipedal “samurai warrior” type of mecha, I find much less
compelling. I do use bipedal machines in my own “universe,” but they tend to be
highly specialized alien machines, or else role-specific weapons platforms. The
really heavy artillery and main-battle roles are still done by tanks (gravtanks,
sure, but still tanks), which at lower levels of technology survive the vagaries
of combat much better and can operate with enormous levels of damage.
all best
LFB
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