Weapons ahead of their time

[auriga]

You don't get it. We're not after what's better or more efficient. The fact is that the Hildolfr might have been one of the first transformable mechs, regardless of how crude its transformation is. I think that's what Recon was gunning for.

[CYNICISM AT IT'S BEST]

maneuverability was the main advantage that the Zaku had over the Hildolfr, the tank had great speed and firepower, plus it could use it's machine guns for increased firepower, i think these make it a potent weapon, the main problem was that it was fielded with no escorts and wasn't able to compensate.

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

Well, when you think about it, that's how it was in real life a few times during some wars.

I mean, it was the Germans who came up with machine guns with the synchronization gear that allowed bullets to fire between a plane's propeller's revolutions, thus allowing machine guns to be installed on fighter planes during World War I. (Allies not getting it until they recovered a shot down German plane with it) Until the Allies got it, this gave the German Flying Corps a huge advantage in dogfights early on.

Also during World War I, the Germans had their sideways flanking tactic with machine guns that allowed them to effectively create a "wall" of bullets during trench battles, easily cutting down Allied troops that tried to invade their trench.

And it was German scientists who first came up with the atomic bomb during World War II (who later defected to the US).

It was the Japanese with the whole shallow water torpedos used in Pearl Harbor, IIRC. Nothing "ingenious" or advanced or anything, but it allowed them to effectively hit Pearl Harbor, despite all the belief that it would've been impossible for them to do so.


So it seems like whoever causes the war usually has more advanced or effective weaponry and strategies because of advanced planning and production on their part while the opposition is usually caught by surprise, especially when they end up facing a weapon they had never seen or expected before. I doubt the Earth Federation ever expected humanoid robots to be used by Zeon nor for them to work so well as they did.

[LaBambaMan]

What about the Satellite cannons from Gundam X? I'd say that's ahead of it's time. I mean, we may have the ability to harness solar power but it requires large scale solar panels and generators. There mechs have the ability to harness solar power into a small generator and then transfer that energy into a weapon with enough power to drop a colony? That's crazy. Still love the mech designs though.

-Spencer

[Dean_the_Young]

The Devil/Ultimate Gundam of G-Gundam: the Three Great Theories make it possibly the most powerful Gundam of all time in. if not invincible to the Love-Love whatchamacallit.

[Recon 5]

Except that the Devil Gundam wasn't initially a weapon. It could be likened to a farm tractor that spontaneously sprouted a 105mm gun rather than an advanced weapon. Beyond anything the military has at the time? Surely, but its not supposed to be a weapon.

[Dean_the_Young]

However, this is a thread about most advanced Gundams of their time, not the most effective war machine. So being a self-replicating, self-evolving, and self-learning mobile suit has got to win points there.

I mean, all the Shining and God had was a heat-palm and something to channel emotiongs.

[Recon 5]

Then I'd have to go with the Ultimate Gundam. It was able to evolve itself into the vaunted Devil G after unprotected atmospheric reentry. You can't get more advanced than that.

[Dean_the_Young]

Then I'd have to go with the Ultimate Gundam. It was able to evolve itself into the vaunted Devil G after unprotected atmospheric reentry. You can't get more advanced than that.

Wasn't the only difference between the Ultimate Gundam and the Devil G a programming malfunction that resulted from said drop? (And wasn't the main result of that malfunction to make the Devil G want to wipe out humanity but leave the Earth alone?)

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

Yeah, it basically ended up with the same kind of warped path to its goal that Master Asia did; that the only way to "save the Earth" from total destruction was to wipe out all the humans.