DRONE ARMY
In 1915, with World War One raging in Europe, each nation was trying to find ways to break the stalemates that had stopped their regular infantrymen from achieving strategic goals. In November of that year, there were two technologies, tanks and mechs, which intrigued military leaders. Parties quickly formed in high commands of the Central Powers and Entente; pro mech and pro tank. With tanks being easier to produce and more reasonable than a, "Giant walking robot person with super big guns" as the skeptics said about the possibility of the mechs. On September 16th, 1916, with mech research falling behind due to setbacks and lack of funding, tanks solely saw battle that day. The tanks saw minimal success which only further hurt the prospects of ever seeing a mech on the battlefield.
The Russian Empire saw the possibilities of a mech that a tank could never fulfill. The Tsar took great interest into the mechs, with wooden mock ups being shown to the populations in Petrograd and Moscow. These wooden mechs alone helped sale hundreds of thousands of war bonds for the war effort as well as stroking the ego of the Tsar even further. The Tsar, for better or for worse, would put those war bonds towards the research and eventual production of mechs in the future. A prototype was planned to be finished by late October of 1917.
The Russian Tsar’s dreams for a mech army would be shattered in October of 1917. All the remnants of the Russian monarchy would be shattered by a Soviet Revolution, overthrowing the previous Russian government. Unorganized rioters and Soviet troops would destroy the near complete mech prototype seeing it as a result of the old government’s evil oppression of the people to fund fantastical science experiments. Luckily, for the researchers in France, Russian researchers fled two months before the revolution and escaped to French shores. The researchers shared their knowledge with the French. This greatly sped up research and the eventual production of a French mech prototype by February of 1918. The first French mech would march through the streets of Paris to gain further support from the people and show skeptics that these fantastical creations were possible. This allowed them to gain more funding for the production of mechs. Twenty mechs were produced by the middle of July 1918. Each mech was of varying quality due to there being no streamlined production method for such a machine. These mechanized beasts would be used in the Battle Of Amiens on the 8th of August.
The mechs would see limited success in the battles along with tank support. The massive height sparked fear into German troops when seeing the tall machines lumber towards them. However, the early gears and mechanical instruments were crude in design. The "Walkers", as they were beginning to be known, had light armor which made them easy targets for most German weaponry. Six Walkers broke down before even reaching the battle. The leg of one ripped off the chassis due to poor construction. Another eight broke down mid-battle, not to damage from weapons, but from tripping into a massive crater created by the artillery and mud clogging the exposed gears. The machines were brought to a halt. Four more would be lost to combat, being ripped apart by multiple German weapon squads focusing fire on the slender machines. The last two would see success, with one causing German troops to flee trenches as it got close enough to fire its Vickers Machine-Gun upon the German troops. The machine-gun fire only killed one German with a lucky shot to the head. This caused the other Germans to flee in terror.
After this battle, the Walkers showed great potential, but massive amounts of errors and poor design choices resulted in horrible stability and almost non-existent armor protection. This was enough for skeptics to be open to accepting Walkers with assisting the infantry and tanks that were in combat. However, they were expected to be nothing more than support weapons.
After the end of the war, many advancements would take place with mech technology. These advancements include improved firepower, stronger armor, better stability of their legs, and streamlined production methods. These advancements made mechs a viable weapon to produce on the same scale the tanks were produced. Over the decades great advancements would be made, allowing Walkers to become serious threats. Also, early drone research would take place replacing soldiers on the field. This has only provided minimal results. Time will tell if these two new technologies can find a place on the battlefield providing support for other weapons, and the ability to destroy entire enemy divisions on their own. One thing is for sure; the future will be decided by those who can master these epic, sometimes mystical, machines.
Red: Coder, head modder.
Utah: Writer, comment section assistant.
Tinax: Play tester
-working on balancing
-gonna be adding more technology
-will be adding more parts and drones, walkers out now but still need work on art and balancing
-working on 3d model as of right now its just tanks
-this is are discord https://discord.gg/ESbTkvU82N
Required DLC:
These DLC should be installed in order to use this item.
Hearts of Iron IV: No Step Back - "Katyusha" (Pre-Order Bonus)
Revisions:
Old revisions of this mod are available below. Click the link to download.
