WORLD WAR (1942-1964) Mod

[MarkSheppard]

continued from

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/showt...009#post833009

to avoid more off topic stuff.

I actually have a folder in my Steel Panthers mod work folder titled "World_War_Mod", along with a early attempt at a SPWW2 OOB for the Race; so this isn't exactly new for me.

There's also been a kind of "spiritual clone" of this for John Tiller's Campaign Series (Matrix) with the K'talan Mod (google up the name).

Story background:

The WORLDWAR timeline is contained in two book cycles plus one standalone book.

The first cycle began in 1994, with releases on a yearly basis until 1996; when the first cycle concluded. This cycle is essentially 1942-1944 or 1945(?)

The second cycle began in 1999 when the first book in the COLONIZATION cycle was released and concluded in 2001. It runs from 1962 to I think 1965ish.

The standalone book was published 2004 and runs 1972-2031.

Abbreviated in-universe timeline on what matters to us:

Sometime c~ 1121: The RACE's probes arrive in earth and surveil the planet; before returning home.

Sometime in 1921: The RACE's conquest fleet departs for earth.

December 1941: The RACE's conquest fleet arrives in Earth Orbit.

May 1942: After six months of reconnaissance, the decision is made to invade Earth anyway; despite apparent technological disparities.

30 May 1942: After detonating nukes high in the atmosphere for EMP to try and neutralize communications; the RACE invades.

1945ish: Race agrees to a truce and to withdraw from certain areas they control; but in the end they control large portions of Africa, South America, Asia etc.

Fast Forward to...

1962: The Colonization fleet arrives, some twenty years after the Conquest fleet. The expectation was that the Tosevites (their name for us) would have been conquered by now.

Whoops!

Eventually there's a short but brief European war between Poland and Germany in about 1963 or 1964 with the Race kind of in the middle of it all.

I'm flipping through some copies of the books I have and looking for tech hints; they're buried throughout the text.


RACE LANDCRUISERS:

metal/ceramic composite armor.
Automatic Loader
Crew: Commander, Gunner, Driver

4 to 5 inch gun firing Tungsten Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot rounds + Coax MG

Through his periscopes, Ussmak saw flame leap from the muzzle of the gun. Armor shielded him from the roar of the report. Recoil made the landcruiser seem to hesitate for an instant. The aluminum sabots fell away from the tungsten penetrator arrow. Ussmak did not see that, of course. A heartbeat later, he did see the turret leap off a Tosevite landcruiser. “Hit!” he yelled, along with Votal and Telerep.

The Lizard tank was not much bigger than its English foes, but looked more formidable. Its armor was smooth and beautifully sloped, so that it brought to mind the “cars of the future” magazines sometimes hired artists to draw. As for its cannon -- “If that’s not a four-inch gun, or maybe a five -- , I’m a Lizard,” Goldfarb said. “I wonder if the shell would even notice one of our tanks on the way through.”

Missiles on landcruisers which can act as SAMs against 1940s aircraft.

"The Stuka pilot couldn’t have been more than a hundred meters off the ground when he pulled out of his dive. Two of the Lizard panzers fired their guided rockets at him but the missiles shot harmlessly past his plane. He skimmed away, his landing gear just above the waving grass of the steppe."

Armor can defeat at least 100-125mm of KE penetration frontally:

A shell knocked down a tree behind the Panzer IV. When the Lizards missed, it was commonly because they couldn’t see well. Their panzer did move out into the open. The Tiger fired at it. The 88 scored a clean hit, but the Lizard panzer kept moving. It was unfair, how tough they were.

But is vulnerable to maybe 75mm PAK from the sides:

“Truth,” Ussmak said. Deutsch antilandcruiser guns could wreck you if they caught you from the side or rear.

They have thermal imaging:

“Superior sir, should we consider a night advance?” Skoob asked. “Our vision equipment gives us a great advantage in night fighting.”

Even with infrared gear, Tosevite forests were frightening places at night for males of the Race.

Earthmoving blades are used as attachments:

A male with fancy body paint ran up to the landcruiser, waving his arms. “Driver, halt,” Nejas said, and Ussmak did. The male clambered up onto the landcruiser. Ussmak heard Nejas open the cupola lid. The male shouted, his voice deep with excitement. “Yes, we can do that, superior sir,” Nejas answered him, “provided you have a clearing blade to fit to the front of the vehicle.”

RACE TROOP CARRIERS

Carries a small automatic cannon in a small turret.

Jäger recognized the ones with small turrets as troop carriers, on the order of the German SdKfz 251 but far more dangerous--they could fight his panzers on largely even terms.

Somewhere up there in the woods, a machine gun began to chatter. Bullets spanged off the transporter’s armor. Its own light cannon returned fire, filling the passenger compartment with thunder.

Armored against small arms fire, but not heavy weapons. A US bazooka round can defeat the frontal armor of a troopcarrier.

Troop carriers were armored against small-arms fire but, unlike landcruisers, not against heavy weapons.

A Lizard tank’s frontal armor laughed at the shaped-charge head of a bazooka round, but not an armored personnel carrier.

Has a three man crew.

But a mechanized combat vehicle was not a landcruiser, nor was it armored like one. Flames and smoke shot from the turret, and from the door by which the infantrymales had exited. Escape hatches popped open. The three-male crew bailed out. One of them managed to reach the second combat vehicle. The Big Uglies shot the other two on the ground. A moment later, the stricken combat vehicle brewed up.

RACE VEHICLES

The RACE has about 65% fully tracked mobility -- all their tanks and APCs are tracked; as are a lot of their supply vehicles.

The fleetlord knew Kirel could not possibly answer a question like that. Even if he could have answered it, responsibility still rested with Atvar. The Race’s landcruisers and troopcarriers, of course, were tracked. They managed after a fashion, even churning through sticky mud. Most supply vehicles, though, merely had wheels. Back before Atvar went into cold sleep, that had seemed sufficient, even extravagant. Against spear-carrying warriors riding on animals, it would have been.