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SilverMK2 wrote:I'm referring to the kinds of settings where mech appear - generally they are viewed as the "top dogs" of warfare.

Ah, that's fair enough. The idea of mech pilots as the aces of the future battlefield as well. It's just everyone should realise that's just for fun, there's nothing plausible about it.

There's a fun scene in 20th Century Boys where the Society of Friends has kidnapped a robot scientist to help them build a giant robot to attack Tokyo.

Brought up on Gundam animations, they're trying to persuade him to create a robot piloted by a man in the head.

He refuses, explaining that it will simply cause the pilot to have appalling motion sickness.

Haha! That is an excellent point KK.

It is kind of like the difference of being at the base of an undamped skyscraper in an earthquake and on the top floor

Still, we have to onte that mechs are more agile, and able to cover more terrain than tanks. If need be they could retreat into terrain unsuitable for tanks, and so the tanks couldn't follow them. As far as I can see, the tanks biggest advantages are in defenses, and advances across relatively open ground. Mechs are best at advancing through difficult terrain, and moving quickly.

***No we don't. Current tanks can boogie at 45 mph. Tweek the M1 slightly and it can burn rubber at 60 mph. Thats today's tank.
Again, if you want speed, you're going for a skimmer/helicopter, which laughs at all this argument.

Of course we have a real life image, the tripods vs. M1 from war of worlds. Tell equivalent technoologies wouldn't have tanks/helicopters obliterating a walker?

The problem (as has been mentioned previously) is the pressure applied by, say, a 60 tonne walker is all going through 2 (or 3, or 4, or 6, etc) small areas.

This is further multiplied when you are running.

We already see tanks breaking some roads that they run over and sinking into other types of terrain and they have a much greater weight distribution.

Try running in high heels in a muddy field and see how fast you can go before you break your ankles.

ANd let's not even get into crossing bridges. An M1 could cross the Golden Gate, or even an average highway bridge. I wouldn't be as sure about a battlemech.

GUYS, GUYS, why not compromise?

Melissia wrote:

n0t_u wrote:It's usually just the main character that is.

The main character and his love interest and their band of dysfunctional friends.

It's something I hate about anime.

If you haven't watched Evangalion yet, you should.

Yea whats up with that? Macross and Southern Cross had similar nonsense. The stupid sub plot was so stupid and dare I say childish that it put me off anime for everything else. Just show me crap blowing up and keep the weird/almost perv subplots to yourself thanks.

WARBOSS TZOO wrote:If you haven't watched Evangalion yet, you should.

That show makes absolutely no sense what so ever. As do many other anime shows. Not helped that there are about a million different versions of each of them, all slightly different from one another.

SilverMK2 wrote:

WARBOSS TZOO wrote:If you haven't watched Evangalion yet, you should.

That show makes absolutely no sense what so ever. As do many other anime shows. Not helped that there are about a million different versions of each of them, all slightly different from one another.

The last two episodes of Evangalion make absolutely no sense, sure (because they ran out of money with which to make the series, and also because of a nervous breakdown on the part of the creator), but the rest of it is extremely coherent.

The main reason I bring it up is that there's an extremely good (and also disturbing) reason that the mech pilots are children.

In fact, that's the case with everything in Evangalion. It took all the common points in the genre, threw them together, and made it make sense... and then took them to their logical, and generally horrific, conclusions.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

ChrisWWII wrote:ANd let's not even get into crossing bridges. An M1 could cross the Golden Gate, or even an average highway bridge. I wouldn't be as sure about a battlemech.

Don't be silly, they'd jump it.

Mechs are the mary-sues of military technology.

Sebster et al: So what if it's made up? I don't particularly give a gak... walkers themselves are made up and fictional right now anyway so boo fething hoo

And good morning.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

ChrisWWII wrote:ANd let's not even get into crossing bridges. An M1 could cross the Golden Gate, or even an average highway bridge. I wouldn't be as sure about a battlemech.

Don't be silly, they'd jump it.

Mechs are the mary-sues of military technology.

Correction, they'd jump it, with style.
(just because I'm arguing tanks are better doesn't mean I doesn't recognize the walkers aren't epic cool)

Battletech in general has the kind of mech I like. Namely the ones that aren't made for ballet. It does have its fair share of ridiculous looking monstrosities, *cough*Raijin*cough*, but on the whole it has the kind of aesthetic I want in a walking tank. Another good one is Heavy Gear. Not a huge fan of walkers with treads but their mechs all have a very solid quality to them.

Though the question was think is best/like best. I like chunky mecha, but tanks are going to be almost universally hands down better. And really the ultimate scifi ground based beat stick is a tank, the Bolos.

There was a Civilization IV Mod called Next War that let you field assault mechs. The units description basically said 'yeah, tanks are better, but mechs have one major advantag. The are. Really. Fething. Cool.'

Melissia wrote:feth Mecha, I want some Battletech.

/thread

4Channing aside, Mecha for me as well, but I prefer the 1980's Battletech style walking tank style mecha over the fins/samurai helmets/swords that mecha designs often get burdened with.

The Dreadnote wrote:Mechs are cool, tanks are cool, artillery and missiles are cool...where's the love for land battleships?

good point looks good

fatrhertime13 wrote:

The Dreadnote wrote:Mechs are cool, tanks are cool, artillery and missiles are cool...where's the love for land battleships?

good point looks good

Needs more Dakka.

SilverMK2 wrote:Have to say that generally I prefer tanks. There are a handful of mechs however that look pretty cool. The ones from Dust are quite good, as well as some from AT-43

Pretty much the same - I love the ring of red/dust weird war style antique mechs.

I also like battletech and heavy gear style mechs too.

It's a hard choice though.

I still think armored core mechs are awesome, they don't have the useless parts like gundams, but the same general job.

Biggest difference, every spiky bit has a reason for being there (balance system in armored core 4 etc.)

/Zoids

Lord of battles wrote:/Zoids

Of the "Freaka" variety?

Tanks are the best. You can't beat a tank unless you have another tank, or Godzilla. Although any nation that uses micro machines for defensive weapons will probably get creamed by Godzilla.

halonachos wrote:Tanks are the best. You can't beat a tank unless you have another tank

or a rpg, javalin, AT mine, dragons teeth, giant ditches etc...

But those beat Mechs as well, so it evens out.

I like Mechas,not the city sized ones now.

Just the one man combat support.
Like a Dreadnought,or the Dreadknight.

Personally I like to idea of being able to move an arm the full range of movement to shoot a gun and to run and get into cover.

I like the Battletech style of Mech better than the Japanese version with swords. I especially liked the little guys, what were they called? Elementals or something? They seemed to always avoid my LRM's. The little tactical battlesuits are neat and have less of a risk of falling through the ground every step they take, though I think suffer from a lack of defenses and are equally targetable by helo's and javalins as are tanks in n open battle.

FM Ninja 048 wrote:

halonachos wrote:Tanks are the best. You can't beat a tank unless you have another tank

or a rpg, javalin, AT mine, dragons teeth, giant ditches etc...

All fine until...



That's right, a flying tank. Your ditches, dragons teeth, mines, rpgs, and javelins are now useless!

RPGs and ATGM still move fast in a straight line, and I can aim them up.

To quote master pilot Flynn:

"Now you see these cheap russian RPGs are easy man. If that was like a javelin I'd have to do something really tricky."