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Mountain Gun
where a goat can go
  (+3, -1)
(+3, -1)
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"Where a goat can go, a man can go, and where a man can go, he can drag a gun", said General Phillips, before startling Fort Ticonderoga into surrender by getting two cannon set up right on top of a nearby mountain.

For more than a hundred years after that, mountain guns proved useful at the margins of various wars, often being taken to bits and lugged around on the backs of mules.

Unfortunately, it can take a long time to get up the mountain this way, and meanwhile you and your mule (and the goat) are (nowadays) vulnerable to snipers. So, for a generation now, fire support in places where big tracked vehicles can't go has been provided by helicopter gunships (OK, and planes too).

But with helicopter gunships you can hear them coming, you can see them coming and their armour is limited by the fact that they have to fly.

Hence I propose a thing like a giant robotic spider packing a howitzer. Most of its fuel, ammunition and probably crew could be carried in a separate tender vehicle (perhaps also with spider legs, but maybe shorter ones). This separation would enable the tender vehicle to hide in a nearby crevasse while the monstrous spider reared up over a ridge-line and took a few shots, before scuttling off in the classic 'shoot and scoot' style.


pertinax, Oct 19 2007

Mountain Terrain Armored Transport http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/AT-MT
[21 Quest, Oct 19 2007]



Annotation:







       I wonder if you read about this in a Star Wars novel? I can't remember the title, but it was set when Han and Leia's kids were still toddlers. The Imperials invented the MT-AT (Mountain Terrain Armored Transport) to attack a hidden Rebel stronghold in a mountain. It looks just like a huge spider and bristles with weaponry. I'll look for a link.

21 Quest, Oct 19 2007
  

       No, I haven't read any Star Wars novels, and I wasn't thinking of a magical do-everything war robot, just a current-technology upgrade from a cannon and mule.   

       Having said that, I probably did have at the back of my mind the alien tripods which are common to 'War of the Worlds' and the 'Tripods' trilogy - but with a different number of legs.   

       Another influence was the Swedish S-tank (simplified vehicle, minimized silhouette, hard to shoot back at).

pertinax, Oct 20 2007
  

       Ok, I was just wondering because, you've got to admit, there are some striking similarities between what you propose and what I linked to. I've never doubted your sincerity, and if you say you never saw that before then I believe you. Anyway, your idea is for long-range artillery, the one in Star Wars was for assaulting the mountain itself, with close-range weapons. Different enough to earn you a bun, I should say. +

21 Quest, Oct 20 2007
  

       I've had a similar idea about spider leg gun "pods" for the past couple years. Maybe I'll post it up here soon. I don't know why I haven't already.

rascalraidex, Oct 20 2007
  


 
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