How many tons are the walkers?

They seem pretty small for tanks, so was wondering. A 10 ton light tank seems to be a lot larger… Something to do with the super tech built into them that makes them tougher?

Most of this info seems off, I know I've seen a readout for the gunther which is a much bigger walker also listed as 2.3 tons. As for what it would actually be I really don't but the Ludwig is about equal to a Tiger tank in terms of fire power. I doubt a Luther sized vehicle would weigh any less then 20 tons.

Actually, no. That may be right for this mech…

A Light Panzer weighs in at almost ten tons, and is at least 2-4 time the volume of a light walker.

Looks like the (light) walkers have room for a single pilot. While the light tanks normally had a crew of at least two (gunner/pilot).

So we can assume with these lighter chassies that the boost from alien tech includes enhanced armor, something to deal with kinetic issues of firing cannons from lightweight vehicles, and other basic things like keeping the legs from collapsing under the weight and stress.

They also say the walkers are noticably faster and more manuverable than a normal tracked vehicle.

I guess that means we can deal with the fact that a light tank DOES match up in armor with a walker, mostly by being 2-4 times heavier. This also has the effect of meaning the tank will tend to have lighter weapons than the walker as well.

Just checked the length of the walker you listed vs a light tank's length.

Light tank 4.81 meters

Light Walker: 2.8 meters

Consider the chicken legs not taking a lot of that mass, and you have something missing most of the engine, armor, and extra crew space of the tank. Alien tech must have veeeery tiny power systems.

Oh…

Just relized the above is a frigging MEDIUM walker. After looking at how wide it is, seems to be duble the mass of a Hans LW… So, overall all the above still seems to apply, but the tonnage for the medium would be… double what they listed?

All right. I'll just make assumptions by ear then. Seems like they may not be dealing with any math in the mech design, and just making them look cool.

<wanders off to stat out an American Halftrack and German Light Panzer Kampfwagon>

You must also remember that these stats are made by a Japanese anime fan, a group notoriously famous for their complete fantasy-based ignorance of any sort of real-world physics. For instance, the stated mass on the RGX-78 GUNDAM (the original) is 85 tons or so…for a machine that's nearly 90' tall. I'm willing to bet that the ATMOSPHERE inside the suit would be a significant percent of that mass! In order for anime machines to mass what they're said to, they have to be made out of compressed dreams…or compressed fantasy (same thing).

(There is a full-size mock-up - hollow except for simple support members - of the RGX-78 in Tokyo Park. I wonder what it masses?)

As for walkers being faster than a tank or other vehicle, that's just poor rules writing. A walker cannot physically move as fast as a vehicle that doesn't need to worry about tripping or any of the other complexities of pedal motion. That's like saying a human can run faster than he can bicycle. It's dumb. Tanks should be faster, just not as maneuverable and less fond of difficult terrain. Chalk it up to the dips at Dust Studios, I guess (the same people who crank out the majority of lame stats for the game - equating a .50 cal MG with a .30 cal, indeed).

Normally, I would agree with you, but something to keep in mind:

It's alien tech. And it seems the aliens had walkers…

So, I'm thinking the premise is that they can't figure out how to do anything but mimic the alien walkers, and so they get to be VERY advanced with almost magical powrs, while other vehicles only get a minor upgrade using the same tech because they just don't know how to make it work better.

Anyway, the walkers are majorly smaller than an equivilant tank. It means the tech MUST have something that makes sheetmetal act like armor plate.

As to walkers being faster, by the time you throw the rest of that into your head, the walker running faster than a wwii tracked vehicle ain't a far enough toss to make me blink. <shrugs> Your mileage may vary.

Sorry, but the 'it's magic' excuse is typical of the 'I don't want to think about it,' or the 'I don't know enough to realistically weigh in' response. I've heard that lame blather for years and years. Why don't people just admit that they really don't know, or just not speak up, or anything but the 'it's magic' BS?

Yes, it's an anime game. Clearly, with a good dose of Ring Of Red inspiration. So why bother asking for stats that might have anything to do with the real world, particularly since those stats really don't matter to the game itself? Weapon stats and correlations to real-world weapons, yes, since those have to do with game play (see my continuing gripe about the turbo-nerfing of the .50 M2HB). But the vehicle masses and so on? What does it matter? I mean, what does it matter that the original Gundam was supposed to weigh in at just a bit more than a King Tiger, despite its being several times the Tiger's size and volume? It's anime, where things are as they are because they're cool. After all, the walker idea is useful in reality only, and I do mean only, for its ability to navigate terrain that tracked and wheeled vehicles can't manage. The reason walkers are anime favorites is because they enable a single person to pilot something like a tank, merging the idea of single-man fighter and AFV, thus enabling the protagonist and antagonist of the story to sling around some heavier (and more cinematic) firepower while still not being a team, which seems to be a lot less heroic than the single action hero.

Walkers are close-quarters brawlers, where their low speed, high profile, and lack of overall armor isn't as huge a flaw as it would be in open country. The only models I've seen so far that would work well on the Russian Front (outside of cities) would be the anti-tank models, which could crouch hull-down and snipe like tank destroyers. And they'd have to hide; in the open, they'd be eaten alive. So when Parente eventually gives us the 'epic scale' game (15mm or so), I'll simply put aside my objections to the anime unreality that will allow walkers to contend in open country, and play it anyway 'cuz it's cool. If I want to play something more realistic in that scale, I can always trot out Flames of War.

<shrugs> We have what they give us. And I'm not blowing days of my life doing mass vs volume calculations when none of it seems to align. That's a younger man's game. I come from a RPG background myself, so I did all that for decades.

And for the record? The creators are the ones that are using alien tech as a macguffin/duesexmachina. It's pretty obvious that the light walkers have less armor and engine room than the average VW bug. It's either boosted with "magic", or we're changing a lot of stats.

Either way, found some neat rules in the 3rd issue of dust chronicles. Not only an RPG ruleset, but a neat vehicle design set as well.

Just finished rebuilding a panzer to include a VK engine attached with dual laser cannons on the turret. After a shot of primer, is looking pretty good.

I'm figuring 3/3 with a speed of 6, and the damage for a single laser kannon with a machinegun backup. Maybe give it self repair as an experiment. I think it was about 23 point added up.

I mean, really? Can you see the walker taking even a single hit? Hoses on the outside? Chicken legs? Magic! Shiny shiny magic!

Aside from that, it does seem fun to kitbash old tanks into having lasers and wierd attachments. And I do like the walkers for how they look. Maybe I'll dig up some old robot toys I have, a tank model, and build something monsterous. And ugly.