Militaria Obscura
You learn something new every day: I'd never even heard of the MBT-70 project, and I consider myself something of an aficionado when it comes to obscure military hardware. Even though the project was a failure, many of the technologies led directly to the M1 and the Leopard 2. Though they didn't work, the retractable 20mm autocannon on the roof and the gyroscoped driver's cupola in the turret are just damned cool ideas.
The Germans had the sense to develop a variant with a 120mm smoothbore cannon, but we insisted on trying to put that stupid Shillelagh gun/missile launcher on it. You'd think the Sheridan would have taught us better by that point. Several prototypes were produced before cancellation of the project in 1971. Here's one:
You have to admit, that's a pretty awesome-looking tank -- though I don't imagine the hordes of T-55s and T-62s would have given a crap how it looked.
In case you're wondering how I discovered this odd little piece of history, it's due to Wargame: European Escalation, my latest obsession in PC gaming. If you've ever wanted to be the general in charge of a desperate defense of the Fulda Gap, (or overrun it and slaughter imperialist Yankee pigs), this is the best chance you'll ever get. Depicted in gorgeous real-time 3D, up to 8 players battle it out on maps that are as large as 150 square kilometers in area. The engagements take place at realistic ranges, with tanks engaging at 2000+ meters and artillery out to 30 km.
Hundreds of pieces of NATO and Warsaw Pact equipment from the 60s, 70s and early 80s are reproduced in loving detail, and you get to collect them to build your armies -- "Pokemon-style," I'm told -- by winning "stars" in multiplayer online battles. I have no idea about Pokemon, but the mechanic works wonderfully in W:EE, (the developers did not consider the ramifications of the acronymization of their title, obviously).
A word of advice should you choose to try it out: use realistic tactics and do not neglect recon and logistics. If you don't know where the enemy is, you can't maneuver to engage him. And if your shooty-things run out of bullets and go-juice, they're just providing an impromptu target range for the enemy. This isn't Starcraft; you must use your brains and your knowledge of enemy unit capabilities to win. Employing a tank rush will result in getting your ass kicked by Dragon gunners -- and you do NOT want to hear tank-bait types like Fundy and Curmudgeon crowing about that, trust me...
The best part of it for me is that I finally have a use for all that copious knowledge about military vehicles which the Marine Corps and Army spent years hammering into my thick skull (through a fog of alcohol and hormones) and that I still retain to this day. Huzzah for government training methods!
The Germans had the sense to develop a variant with a 120mm smoothbore cannon, but we insisted on trying to put that stupid Shillelagh gun/missile launcher on it. You'd think the Sheridan would have taught us better by that point. Several prototypes were produced before cancellation of the project in 1971. Here's one:
You have to admit, that's a pretty awesome-looking tank -- though I don't imagine the hordes of T-55s and T-62s would have given a crap how it looked.
In case you're wondering how I discovered this odd little piece of history, it's due to Wargame: European Escalation, my latest obsession in PC gaming. If you've ever wanted to be the general in charge of a desperate defense of the Fulda Gap, (or overrun it and slaughter imperialist Yankee pigs), this is the best chance you'll ever get. Depicted in gorgeous real-time 3D, up to 8 players battle it out on maps that are as large as 150 square kilometers in area. The engagements take place at realistic ranges, with tanks engaging at 2000+ meters and artillery out to 30 km.
Hundreds of pieces of NATO and Warsaw Pact equipment from the 60s, 70s and early 80s are reproduced in loving detail, and you get to collect them to build your armies -- "Pokemon-style," I'm told -- by winning "stars" in multiplayer online battles. I have no idea about Pokemon, but the mechanic works wonderfully in W:EE, (the developers did not consider the ramifications of the acronymization of their title, obviously).
A word of advice should you choose to try it out: use realistic tactics and do not neglect recon and logistics. If you don't know where the enemy is, you can't maneuver to engage him. And if your shooty-things run out of bullets and go-juice, they're just providing an impromptu target range for the enemy. This isn't Starcraft; you must use your brains and your knowledge of enemy unit capabilities to win. Employing a tank rush will result in getting your ass kicked by Dragon gunners -- and you do NOT want to hear tank-bait types like Fundy and Curmudgeon crowing about that, trust me...
The best part of it for me is that I finally have a use for all that copious knowledge about military vehicles which the Marine Corps and Army spent years hammering into my thick skull (through a fog of alcohol and hormones) and that I still retain to this day. Huzzah for government training methods!
posted by Jar(egg)head at 13:12
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