THE SETTING

The battlefields of the early 21st century were, fortunately, few. in number. Those few were dominated by one of four techno-ideologies: modified 20th century AFVs, dedication to smart missiles, BCAPs, and BattleFrames.

Most nations were conservative, and used technology that was composed of simple extensions of conventional equipment, troops, and tactics seen as early as WWI. High-speed, low profile missile tanks firing laser-designated mortars, and staballoy-encased, rail-gun equipped monstrosities roamed most borders.

Those countries with somewhat more ambition chased long-range, cheap, smart weapons. Destroying enemy military hardware and strategic resources from the safety of one's own capital was a glorious idea for some. It was antiseptic and politically safe.

The nations with the most ambitious military programs pursued either BCAP (BattleField Control Automated Platform) or BattleFrame technology as the core of their ground and air forces. In some cases, both technologies were investigated.

These technologies were necessary to cope with the constantly improving effectiveness of vehicle defenses. Fighting vehicles gathered increasingly lower profiles, higher speed, more effective (and just plain thicker) armor, smaller radar and IR signatures, and better reactive screens.

Two decades into the 21st century, infantry became virtually worthless. Lacking the firepower to easily damage enemy vehicles, and only able to operate in obstructed terrain, which could provide some measure of defense, the use of infantry was limited to close combat in urban areas. Special forces would always enjoy favor for their unique talents, but the day of the rifle infantry was forever gone.

Gone, that is, unless one is invading a country without a standing army. Smart missiles are wonderful things, but were never cheap enough, smart enough, or plentiful enough to trade, one for one, with foot soldiers. Several armies which invested primarily in smart missiles, suffered great losses to poor countries with excessive populations.

BCAPs and BattleFrames were what every nation wanted, but only a few could manage technologically, logistically, or financially. A BCAP was a large, pilotless, multi-role tank. Completely automated, and powered by a nuclear reactor, it could stand sentry for years, with unwavering loyalty and perfect alertness.

BattleFrames were single-pilot plus expert system-driven powered battle armor that used a wonderful combination of mundane and exotic technology to overcome conventional military forces, eventually replacing all types, from tanks to aircraft.

THE TECHNOLOGY

Since the day when Og hit Bog over the head and dragged off Raquel Welch, there has been a contest of one-upmanship between the protective value of armor and the penetrative value of weapons. As flint axes and spear tips were replaced with copper, then bronze, and finally iron, so were animal hides replaced with boiled leather, chain, and finally plate armor. Firearms and cannon blew down steel body suits and castles, but begat ironclad warships and tanks.

In every age, technology pushed, or was dragged by, the need to pierce and the need to deflect. The steel cannon shell was replaced by the shaped charge, the high-explosive squash head, and the depleted uranium penetrator. Steel plate was replaced with contiguous steel, reactive, layered, and depleted uranium-sheathed chobham.

When this game of one upsmanship was examined with the second rule of war in mind - always apply strength against weakness - some inventive people fathomed the Death Web. The Death Web is a projector of a chemical spray designed to infilitrate armor, rather than blowing through it. A Death Web hit would create stalagtites inside of gun barrels, clog bogey wheels, opaque periscope lenses, and turn gasoline into rubber cement.

No matter how thick an enemy vehicle's armor was, it would lose to the infilitration effects of the Death Web.

Computer software, driven by the fragile egos of self-proclaimed power users and the greed of tyrannical software moguls, became much more than user-friendly. Software, even the home word processor, became voice-command-driven and used intuition when responding to the user.

Higher-end software of this type found its way to the cores of armored fighting vehicles and smart munitions. As crews trained with their vehicles, the vehicles learned the behavior of the crew, and responded to it, anticipating it. The improved responsiveness of expert-systemdriven vehicles and munitions proved devastating to any enemy that didn't have it.

Titanium and carbon-composites made fantastic bones for human prostheses and cyber-organic replacement limb designs. What was lacking was intelligent, small, powerful muscles - the mechnical equivalent of the transistor.

The silicate flexor was developed by a particularly talented team in a university laboratory. The flexor was a electro-responsive sinew of great power and small size. Grouped into teams, and controlled by computer, they could operate a machine that could do more than lift, or perform simple assembly. The machine could dance, play the violin, or perform surgery.

All of these developments culminated in the design of the first Agile Armored Fighting Vehicle. With the removal of the last US military base from Okinawa and modifications to their constitution, the Japanese began a low-key rearmament. Without a standing military industrial complex or installed methods, the design of this new army would be from scratch. There was no desire to create a huge military. The Japanese had no desire for conquest. Neither did they wish to suffer the economic drain nor the political ramifications that would follow from a massive buildup. National defense, however, was essential and was to be performed with the fewest personnel and pieces of equipment. Therefore, the equipment had to be the very best.

Contracting with some US defense firms, the Japanese designed new equipment to avail itself of as many new technological realities as possible. To minimize the number of pieces of equipment, crewmembers, and support personnel, each vehicle was designed to perform as many tasks as possible.

The first assumption the Japanese used was that current military hardware was designed to deal with current military hardware. Tanks were slow, huge, and had no agility. They relied exclusively on thick armor for protection.

If a vehicle could be built that was fast and agile enough, contemporary weapons could not track it, and would be useless. The Conduction Flexor was the perfect device for construction of an agile, variable geometry, multi-role vehicle that would be difficult to hit.

The second assumption the Japanese used was to examine and use what worked. Some tried and true methods that existed for more than a century were found to be perfectly appropriate. Jiu Jutsu teaches to immobilize the opponent, then kill. The Japanese made use of the Death Web, in accordance with this philosophy. Conventional armor, far too clumsy to chip or pull off motion-arresting chemical blobs, found itself stuck and useless with a single hit. Powered battle armor, having limbs and wondrous agility, could be bogged down by such attacks, but not completely incapacitated.

Expert systems were required to keep such capable vehicles under control and to maximize the utility of the newest weapon systems, such as intelligent munitions. Expert systems also identified, tracked, and helped pilots avoid incoming threats.

To keep the vehicle agile, it had to remain light, which precluded heavy armor. A small number of thick armor plates were installed on extant limbs to intercept incoming projectiles when dodging them was impossible.

All of this required hundreds of large flexors on a single frame. Including a heavy power generation system, such a vehicle would create a huge amount of internal heat. Greenthink technology provided ways to use this excess heat productively: it was ported to magneto-hydrodynamic generators to produce electricity, plasma-projectors for offense, and VFF nozzles for powered jumps or even flight.

The first combat use of these designs revealed some minor flaws in design assumptions. On the other hand, yen for yen and vehicle for vehicle, the BattleFrames danced before the barrels of their conventionally designed opponents, disabling them with death webs and close-combat weaponry.

Over time, all nations purchased BattleFrames, and they became the conventional armored vehicles of the 21st century, taking the roles of infantry, tanks, artillery, and eventually even tactical aircraft.

BattleChrome: Fire and Steel Futuristic Warfare

Background
Game Rules
Game Maps (extremely slow: 464K)
Game Counters (large: slow 164K)
Game Counters (jumbo: extremely slow 665K)
Missions (Scenarios)