Re: Infantry Walkers

On Mon, 24 Aug 1998 18:39:34 -0500, Thomas Barclay
<Thomas.Barclay@sofkin.ca>
wrote:

>I question this somewhat. Let's take swamp. I'm assuming an armoured 
>walker with heavy weapons would weigh quite a few hundred kilos 
>anyway.... I'd think that would be problematic in many swamps. Heavy 
>jungle - I've been in bush way to dense for any walker to pass here 
>in Canada - and that isn't jungle! There are places that give MEN 
>problems. I'm assuming in light forest, you might have more mobility 
>than a tank, but in really tough forest, you'd be SOL just like the 
>tanks.

Not only that, could you imagine the noise made by one of these things
traipsing through a forest? You can forget about any kind of stealth.
One of
those things running (tripping? falling over logs isn't a problem that
tankers
usually worry about) through a forest is just begging any team with a
man-portable anti armour weapon to "come and get it."

Speaking of swamp, swamps are notorious for having soft, porous ground
under
all that water (and, of course, a bog is even worse). I'd be willing to
bet
that the walker would get into the swamp but not out. Funny enough, this
is
how Jon models it in SG2. Walkers can't enter swamps.

> And as for the 'rough terrain' component - if it is craggy or 
>boulder strewn or the equivalent, I think your simple act of moving 
>about becomes far more problematic in a walker. 

I'd imagine anti-armour mines would be more of a problem for walkers
than
tanks. In fact, I think they'd be problematic for Power Armour, too. I'd
imagine you could build plastic explosive based pressure mines that are
triggered by walker and PA ground pressure. (This brings up the point
that
mine detectors might have to be chemical sniffers as opposed to metal
detectors.)

>And apparently the infantry weren't using morale rules either.....

Or they kept under cover until they noticed the darned thing wasn't
firing
anymore... :-) 

Allan Goodall	       agoodall@sympatico.ca

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart