Military Mashup Machine: Difference between revisions

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* GoGoVoyager from ''[[Go Go Sentai Boukenger]]'' is basically a battleship with wheels (and a terrain-flattening roller), able to go from sea to land and leave a path of devastation. Did we mention [[Combining Mecha|it also seperates into five assault vehicles]] [[Humongous Mecha|AND combines again into a big horkin' robot?]]

* [[Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger|Ultimate Daizyujin]]/[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|Ultrazord]]. [[Description Porn]] warning: Start with an oversized robot brachiosaurus on wheels. Split the tail into two [[BFG]]s, and put one on each front shoulder. Take a skyscraper-sized robot formed from a robot [[Tyrannosaurus Rex]], a robot mammoth/mastodon, a robot triceratops, a robot smilodon, and a robot pterosaur, and a robot aquatic dragon. Remove the chest armor and tail from the dragon, and retract its missile-launcher hands into the shoulders. Then tilt the feet around, split it at the middle, and put it on the humanoid robot as armor, making sure to tilt the head crest up. Put the brachiosaur's chestplate (which has several firing barrels) on the humanoid robot's chest, and put its front paws on the humanoid robot as gauntlets. Attach the dragon's tail to the and chestplate to the brachiosaurus in the appropriate spots. Then stand the humanoid robot in a bay in the brachiosaurus' back. Voila. The resulting machine can roll along at a good clip, and packs enough firepower to blow up even the devil.

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=== [[Real Life]] ===

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* [[Truth in Television]]: there was such a school of thought in 1920s to 1930s advocating the use of powerful vehicles to serve as trench-breakers and infantry support. As the expected pace of warfare was restricted by both technological limitations and the speed of infantry, these largely concentrated on larger and more heavily armoured vehicles.

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** Both the British and Germans considered building these during [[World War II]]. The Germans prototyped at least one, with several more designs in the works before the war's end prevented their construction. By contrast, the British eventually gave up on the concept due to it being more expensive than it would be worth.

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** [http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-viii-maus-porsche-typ-205-tiger-iip.htm Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus]. "Mouse". At 188 tons, it is the heaviest tank ever constructed. Yeah, they really built this monstrosity.

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*** [[Reality Ensues|Reality Ensued]]: it was a total failure. Sure, it had a [[BFG]] and was a fortress on wheels, but it broke windows on nearby buildings when it moved, and bogged down on anything except asphalt, cobblestone, or concrete.

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** One proposed German design featured ''a pair of battlecruiser cannon''. It's none other than the [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=293 Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte] (Literally "Rat"; the fact that they called it "land cruiser" rather than "tank" is in and of itself telling). Wanna know what it would have looked like? [http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/mauspic/ratte100.jpg Have fun]. Note the soldier standing on top for scale.

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*** Oh, it gets worse/better than that. Around the same time as the Ratte, they were also working on the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster, which would've been ''even bigger'', with a ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180831122824/http://paradiselost522.250free.com/dora_color.jpg Dora gun]'' mounted on it. Fortunately for the Axis (and to a ''much'' lesser extent, the Allies), Albert Speer realized how idiotic both projects were and canceled them.

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* A slightly more modest concept was "put more weapons on it" - to shoot at more targets. The basic idea was to have two machinegun turrets, to fire both right and left while crossing a trench. This wasn't thought out well, because against hard targets you need a strong cannon, while infantry is in cover anyway when you are attacking, trenches are zigzagged (if defenders are competent), and a tank is not supposed to do everything alone either way. The result inevitably was worse than simple specialized designs: too big (easy to hit) and expensive (more limited in numbers) for infantry support and too weak for breakthrough. "More light weapons" works for fast responce rather than quantity - in restrictive terrain where an enemy can pop up anywhere - but again, on specialized vehicles, not battlefield tanks.

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** French [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=282 Char 2C]. 69 metric tons. Big, but not exactly a land battleship. One short cannon, 4 machineguns.

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** British [[wikipedia:Vickers A1E1 Independent|A1E1]], Medium Mk I, and Medium Mk III,

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** Even the Germans got in on the act with the Neubaufahrzeug, though having a greater presence of mind, cancelled the idea soon after.

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** The Soviet [[wikipedia:T-28|T-28]], nicknamed ''Postivaunu'' (Stagecoach) by Finns in [[Winter War]]. Formidable three-turreted monster, but an abysmal failure in practise. The follow-up [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=346 T-35] was a veritable Games Workshop Tank with five turrets (reused from already produced tank designs, in different variants), but about as much use as you might expect. This one got into series, but soon canceled as obsolete. Their roles were split between [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=254 T-26] (mass produced infantry support tank), KV series (heavy) and T-34 (medium - reinforcing lighter or beefing up heavier forces rather than specialized).

=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===

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* The Nazi wheel tank from the ''[[Justice League (animation)|Justice League]]'' episode "The Savage Time". These were taken from the old ''[[Blackhawk]]'' comics during that time.

* [[Losing Your Head|Skullus]], one of the [[Evil Sorcerer]]s from ''[[Thundarr the Barbarian]]'', possesses [http://images.wikia.com/thundarr/images/b/bb/Skulluslandmachine.png a huge war machine] which runs the gamut from land battleship to [[Base on Wheels]]...er, treads.

⚫

=== [[Real Life]] ===

⚫

* [[Truth in Television]]: there was such a school of thought in 1920s to 1930s advocating the use of powerful vehicles to serve as trench-breakers and infantry support. As the expected pace of warfare was restricted by both technological limitations and the speed of infantry, these largely concentrated on larger and more heavily armoured vehicles.

⚫

** Both the British and Germans considered building these during [[World War II]]. The Germans prototyped at least one, with several more designs in the works before the war's end prevented their construction. By contrast, the British eventually gave up on the concept due to it being more expensive than it would be worth.

⚫

** [http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-viii-maus-porsche-typ-205-tiger-iip.htm Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus]. "Mouse". At 188 tons, it is the heaviest tank ever constructed. Yeah, they really built this monstrosity.

⚫

*** [[Reality Ensues|Reality Ensued]]: it was a total failure. Sure, it had a [[BFG]] and was a fortress on wheels, but it broke windows on nearby buildings when it moved, and bogged down on anything except asphalt, cobblestone, or concrete.

⚫

** One proposed German design featured ''a pair of battlecruiser cannon''. It's none other than the [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=293 Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte] (Literally "Rat"; the fact that they called it "land cruiser" rather than "tank" is in and of itself telling). Wanna know what it would have looked like? [http://strangevehicles.greyfalcon.us/mauspic/ratte100.jpg Have fun]. Note the soldier standing on top for scale.

⚫

*** Oh, it gets worse/better than that. Around the same time as the Ratte, they were also working on the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster, which would've been ''even bigger'', with a ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20180831122824/http://paradiselost522.250free.com/dora_color.jpg Dora gun]'' mounted on it. Fortunately for the Axis (and to a ''much'' lesser extent, the Allies), Albert Speer realized how idiotic both projects were and canceled them.

⚫

* A slightly more modest concept was "put more weapons on it" - to shoot at more targets. The basic idea was to have two machinegun turrets, to fire both right and left while crossing a trench. This wasn't thought out well, because against hard targets you need a strong cannon, while infantry is in cover anyway when you are attacking, trenches are zigzagged (if defenders are competent), and a tank is not supposed to do everything alone either way. The result inevitably was worse than simple specialized designs: too big (easy to hit) and expensive (more limited in numbers) for infantry support and too weak for breakthrough. "More light weapons" works for fast responce rather than quantity - in restrictive terrain where an enemy can pop up anywhere - but again, on specialized vehicles, not battlefield tanks.

⚫

** French [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=282 Char 2C]. 69 metric tons. Big, but not exactly a land battleship. One short cannon, 4 machineguns.

⚫

** British [[wikipedia:Vickers A1E1 Independent|A1E1]], Medium Mk I, and Medium Mk III,

⚫

** Even the Germans got in on the act with the Neubaufahrzeug, though having a greater presence of mind, cancelled the idea soon after.

⚫

** The Soviet [[wikipedia:T-28|T-28]], nicknamed ''Postivaunu'' (Stagecoach) by Finns in [[Winter War]]. Formidable three-turreted monster, but an abysmal failure in practise. The follow-up [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=346 T-35] was a veritable Games Workshop Tank with five turrets (reused from already produced tank designs, in different variants), but about as much use as you might expect. This one got into series, but soon canceled as obsolete. Their roles were split between [http://www.militaryfactory.com/armor/detail.asp?armor_id=254 T-26] (mass produced infantry support tank), KV series (heavy) and T-34 (medium - reinforcing lighter or beefing up heavier forces rather than specialized).

== Submersible Carrier ==