The balance of Power...

We just put the Churchill self-propelled assault gun to bed. Good work by all, but Geoff is the one who came up with the core writing, so my hat is off to him.

Next up is the answer to a question I've been sitting on for a while: what is the smallest effective tracked infantry support machine we can make with Rick Raisley's Heavy Metal Pro? I guess it depends on what you call effective. We figured it would have to end up just above the Thirty Meter Limit in terms of game use (more on that later).

What came out surprised us, to the point that it actually made the final cut and we squeezed it into the Periphery. It has the working name of Desert Rat, but you know that's gonna change. It is the result of joint effort by the Taurian Concordat and the Capellans.

Also on deck: I paid off the Battlemaster art and a third piece from David White, the Black Knight.

As of now, Vlad has promised me revised Velite art for the Marian Hegemony - hopefully he will get to it before taking off for the Continent. The current Velite has no less than five fifteen-tube rocket launchers mounted on the turret. Naturally, the art needs some tweaking...

Yes, the balance of power. We have two thirds vehicles, mostly ground types with a few aircraft. The rest are 'Mechs.

I have four writeups remaining. Last night saw a sort of breakthrough on the Werefox family of vehicles - the C3 variant was a blah, ho-hum vee carrying a C3 Master module and a bit more armor than usual. Then I looked at the art again, and realized that Vlad had not thought to include the LRM-10 launcher on the turret.

Next thing I know, I have something like eight tons open on the Werefox C3 and whaddaya know? Seems like a real good idea to include a second Anti Missile system, a second C3 Master and quite a bit more armor. Oh, and an ER large laser. Some of you may complain 'but that's pretty much the same thing as the Morningstar of 3062!'.

And you would be wrong.

About the only thing the two have in common are their C3 Master units. After that, there really isn't much comparison. After all, the Werefox C3:

- tracks have more terrain options than the Morningstar's wheels

- carries 15% more armor

- AND a nearly impenetrable anti-missile shield

- AND a Guardian ECM

- AND a longer-ranged, harder-hitting gun which is independent of ammo

- AND Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment

- AND a targeting computer

.... and it ends up being cheaper, too.

The designs we have are not cheese.... but simply certain ideas taken to their logical conclusion...

Steve