In the early days of the Terran Empire, technological advances changed the face of battle in ways none had
foreseen. Previous to this time the size and weight of an Armored Fighting Vehicle (AFV) had been restricted
by considerations relating primarily to mobility. The width of the vehicle was restricted to not more than
eleven feet, (the international railway clearance gage). Extremely heavy tanks, such as the proposed German
Maus were too heavy for most existing bridges and, had they been produced would have been mostly road bound
by their high ground pressure.
A second consideration restricting the size of AFVs was the fact that a large tank is just that much more a
target for a strike aircraft or flying missile. However, at the beginning of the 21st century advances in
laser technology drove the combat aircraft from the sky. By the year 2020 only aircraft capable of using
terrain masking had any chance of survival over the battlefield. Even incoming missiles and artillery shells
could be intercepted and destroyed in flight. Since anything that could be seen and fired at directly, could
be hit, only the heaviest of armored vehicles could hope to survive in the thick of battle.
As a consequence, tanks began to grow in size to accommodate larger guns and heavier armor. Mobility, while
still a problem, was improved by lighter weight composite armors and be new engine technology which greatly
improved the amount of available power. The AFVs of this period were required to be sealed against the
effects of Chemical, Bacteriological, and Radiological warfare; making them submersible was the next logical
step. Most AFVs of the Empire period were capable of underwater operation, limited only by the endurance of
their batteries or fuel cells.
Late in the 21st Century, the emergence of anti-
grav technology and the availability of high power to weight ratio Hydrogen Fusion Turbines (HFTs), made the
great tanks of the Empire period a practical reality. The MBT-
100, one of the earliest and most typical of the great tanks was twenty-
four feet wide, fifty feet long and over eighteen feet high. AFVs of this size were common in the early days
of the Empire. But science, driven by the urgencies of war, was about to unleash an even more terrifying
weapon onto the battle field, the Landship!
Landships; huge segmented, caterpillar like, armored vehicles equipped with multiple heavy gun turrets;
covered with secondary turrets and laser projectors for interception of incoming missiles and over all, the
seemingly impregnable force screen. Grinding their way across the land, swimming or submerged in the rivers
or seas, the great landships were the terror of their age.
The Days of Empire and the Landship Battles had begun!
