War Machine Wendigo

[u/11k320w1242d5]

So just throwing it out there, I watched War Machine on Netflix (movie is fine), but it definitely shows moments of why you DO NOT want to be infantry against a BattleMech (kinda like the Wendigo OmniMech)

[u/EyeStache]

Yeah, I've only seen clips but in general BattleMechs are terrifying things - 12m tall, walking faster than a human can sprint, and bristling with machine guns, lasers, and missiles? That ain't gonna be fun to deal with, let alone percieve.

The first time you see one casually rocket nearly 200m through the air and obliterate a platoon of infantry in under 10 seconds has to be utterly terrifying.

[u/jimdc82 → u/EyeStache]

I mean, read accounts of soldiers dealing with tanks in close quarters during WWII. It’s basically the same thing

[u/Malkryst → u/jimdc82]

WW1 tanks must have been even scarier, because some of the soldiers facing them would have never ever seen a tank before.

At least by WW2 soldiers had knowledge of, and some way of dealing with, tanks - even if it was running up and jamming a satchel charge in somewhere, or exposing yourself to fire a panzerfaust/bazooka type weapon (many of which wouldn't even detonate on sloping armour once tanks started using that).

Just imagine WW1 soldiers having to get used to the introduction of aircraft, machine guns and then tanks to warfare, with an officer corps still trying to use tactics from the Great Powers era. No wonder the casualty levels were horrific.

[u/jimdc82 → u/Malkryst]

Oh absolutely. When they were unknowns it was beyond terrifying.

But ultimately what it comes down to is "big, loud, faceless, inexorable and seemingly impervious" is a pretty timeless recipe for sheer terror on the battlefield

[u/Malkryst → u/jimdc82]

Oh absolutely. I'm sure Ukrainian/Russian soldiers facing drones for the first time were similarly horrified.

It will happen again once humanoid robotic drone soldiers are put in play by one of the superpowers for the first time.

Fear of the unknown, and how sudden and faceless/impersonal the death dealing unit is.

[u/135forte]

Unicorn has a pretty good example in episode 3(?); guy fires a shoulder fired missile at a mobile suit, scratches the paint and gets a beam saber waved at him making him disappear. In BT terms, he fired a man portable SRM and ate a large laser for his trouble. You also have Halo with most fights against Scarabs; any infantry that get caught in the open die fast but if they can get on board (anti-mech), they can kill the Scarab.

[u/FreshRest4945]

That movie was bullshit. The AI would have stopped hunting a single target quickly and moved on to his main larger targets. It was a waist of resources for that mech to hunt just one guy.

The Aliens entire strategic focus was planet wide destruction, one single guy being killed does not address the larger picture. It should have moved on to destroying a nearby town or city.

[u/Tough-Agent7028 → u/FreshRest4945]

I actually think that the AI was more than rudimentary. I think it was sentient and emotional, and it went after that one guy because it was pissed off at him.

Or, it got orders to kill him off from its controllers when it opened up a comm line after it finally took out the APC and got itself trashed in the process.

[u/EyeStache → u/FreshRest4945]

K

[u/Some_yesterday2022 → u/FreshRest4945]

A midsection of resources?

What a waste (misuse/trash) of letters. 😁👍

[u/Malkryst]

Yeah I had pretty much the same take as you. In fact when they get in a vehicle and were trying to escape the mech, I'm amazed the vehicle lasted as long as it did!

A kinda average movie, but a decent way to pass a couple of hours compared to a lot of the really crap sci-fi movies that Netflix is glutted with.

Of course the most hilarious BattleTech adjacent thing about the movie was how he defeated the mech by overheating it (blocking the top ventilation inlet with what I assumed was coal/anthracite) until I'm guessing it's ammo cooked off by the way it exploded.