Walkers vs Mecha was RE: Walkers

If you take giant humanoid machines (mecha) in the anime spirit over the
strict current realism "walker" description, then mecha are a viable
battlefield vechicle.

Why?  Well in anime, mecha have at least the mobility of a human,
including the ability to crouch, go prone and even roll.  If you view
them in that mode, a 20 meter mecha lying prone probably has the same
profile head on as a tank.  It then has some advantages that a tank
doesn't normally have - one is that it's guns are on a 5 meter
extensible arm so that it doesn't have to leave the prone position to
have the gun reach a firing position on top the hill or whatever.  The
Head/sensor pod is located at the highest point, so you only have to get
the head to clear an obstacle to get full sensor readings. Unless the
pilot is in the head, the "head" can be quite small, maybe a couple of
cubic meters, again a much smaller target than a tank.	If equipped with
jump jets / anti-grav it has greater off-battlefield mobility and can
still fit between tall buildings that might inhibit VTOL or larger AG
vehicles from landing.

I think that "walkers" should be allowed to crouch or go prone, reducing
target size by 1 or 2 respectively when in those positions.

--Binhan

> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Atkinson [mailto:johnmatkinson@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 10:51 AM
> To: gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu
> Subject: RE: Walkers
> 
> 
> 
> --- Brian Bell <bbell1@insight.rr.com> wrote:
> > I think the solution to the +1 size problem is to:
> > 1. Limit it to medium range or less.
> > 2. It should work both ways. A mech that is tall
> > enough to warrent the +1 size should also be viewing
> > the top of standard vehicles, not the front of them.
> > This is a much larger cross-section. So normal
> > vehicles should be +1 size to the walker.
> 
> Not really.  Do the verdammt math.
> 
> At 2km, even a 20m height advantage is how many
> degrees off of horizontal?  .9 degrees?  It's been a
> long time since high school trig.
> 
> However, a mech 15m tall and 4m wide has 5x the target
> area relative to a 4m wide and 3m tall tank.	 This
> does not change over range.
> 
> John
> 
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