Muv-Luv Alternative: Total Eclipse

Yuuya's in his 20s already? Huh.

Episode 7: Worth it just to see Yui get flustered over and over. But you know what, I would like to see more of the BE— ooooh, that's what we're getting next episode? Okay.

Episode 8: So close to seeing more BETA...

Oh and there's some issues about jerks.

So, new episode is out.

Hopefully, this is the worst it's going to get as far as animation quality is concerned. Other than that, we're back to the action, and we're starting to see some attitudes change in at least a few individuals.

QUALITY aside, we're seeing some of the ugly (and on some level STUPID) side of the setting's international politics here. We see here that the USSR was perfectly willing to sacrifice not only a flight of its army's TS Fs, but a UN contingent's as well, all to mess up the succesful firing of a new weapon that might give EVERYONE a slight advantage against the BETA... presumably to protect the country's "position" and humiliate Japan and its US backers.

Wait, they called it an EM Radiation gun (which would be a laser) but repeatedly referred to it as a rail gun. It seemed to fire both shells and a beam, which is it?

And why isn't that thing being tested on a tank? And why can't the tanks do any friggin' damage?

Fight smart, not fair.

Basically, it's a rapid-fire railgun. When you generate the electromagnetic field to massively accellerate several hundred projectiles per minute that's going to have an effect. Especially when your projectiles go so fast they start to turn into plasma.

Alternative Visual Novel spoiler: and the Xg-70d was supposed to have six of those guns. That would have solved a lot of problems.

As for the tanks: the railgun is a bit too big to mount on a tank. Not showing the regular tanks killing anything is probably a budget thing. After all, they even resorted to still shots for fighting scenes this episode. Using RuGP would probably have looked better, especially for the BETA.

edited 27th Aug '12 2:44:48 AM by MarqoD

The continued existence and use of MBTs does not even make sense in this setting.

Lazy and pathetic.

Red Shirt Army doing what it does best.

Tanks can still be pretty useful. After all, they can offer stable long-range fire that can kill most BETA. Only Destroyers really have the frontal armour to withstand their fire. They're also pretty fast over reasonably open terrain, just not as fast as some BETA species. Of course, you'd use them for long-range fire support rather than the front line like in the anime.

In a defensive fight, you'd run a firebase of tanks and mechanized infantry to protect your artillery, while TSF units move around and take care of key threats like Laser classes and large-scale Destroyer charges. If there are no Lasers (and your beurocrats aren't being backstabbing idiots) you also call in air support. It's basically how the ground offensive against a Hive is described in Alternative.

Self-propelled artillery can do the same better than MBTs.

It would be better to ditch both in favour of fighting vehicles powered by powerful tank engines and armed with multiple autocannons. BETA are mostly fast and soft targets who lack decicated ranged units against ground targets. The best counters against them are speed and powerful guns with a high rate of fire.

edited 27th Aug '12 2:23:08 PM by GrandPrincePaulII

Lazy and pathetic.

The setting breaks down badly if you think too hard about it. Just turn your brain off and watch the pretty robots.

Well, if I remember right, the TS Fs came into being as an armored platform that could accompany the troops as they infiltrated the hive on the moon. Things kind of snowballed from there I suppose.

Well, self-propelled artillery is indeed preferred over tanks because they deal more damage. But tanks are quite a bit better at firing on the move, so there's a niche for both. All in all, tanks still offer a reasonably economical way to increase firepower without the large technological and crew-training requirements of Tactical Surface Fighters.

As for the armament of armoured vehicles: I believe there are autocannon-equipped tanks in the Faraway Dawn strategy games. But multiple autocannons of a caliber that can hurt every BETA strain would probably be too heavy for a normal armoured vehicle.

TSF precursors were indeed deployed on the moon, based on loading equipment and the first military powered exoskeletons if I remember correctly. They can actually be seen in in episode 1. The actual development of TSFs for earth-based use was becasue the terrain inside Hives is too uneven and steep for stuff like tanks but there's not enough room for helicopters and the like. TSFs provide the speed, mobility, flight and firepower you need to get through tens of kilometers of labyrinthine tunnels where the floor, walls and ceiling are made of BETA to blow up the Reactor in the deepest part.

Aren't most battles with relevant non-TSF involvment defensive battles where firing on the move is not needed?

Modern MBTs aren't cheap and there are no good reasons not to adjust them against an alien enemy who is very different from human opponents.

They would not need the firepower to kill the biggest BETA-classes. Their targets would be the far more common smaller classes.

No, they are not, especially not in a setting where flying bricks armed with multiple 36mm autocannons are a common sight.

How often have TSFs succeeded in destroying the hive reactors?

edited 5th Sep '12 1:37:15 PM by GrandPrincePaulII

Lazy and pathetic.

Not quite. For example, Tanks are also used as a core part of hive assaults, where they form a large part of the front line alongside infantry in powered exoskeletons. And of course, a fighting retreat is also possible with the range and stable firing of a tank. The point is that you don't really need to adjust them to use them effectively. Plus, they're still quite a lot cheaper than Tactical Surface Fighters. That's what the autocannon-armed vehicles and the infantry with exoskeletons are for. They can kill anything up to and including Tank-classes. The bigger bang regular tanks bring is useful aginst Grapplers, Forts and Destroyers not directly facing them. I think you overestimate the size of a tank quite a bit. None in conventional operations until 2004. However, the internal damage caused to Hives by the S-11 Selfdestruct Devices the infiltration units carry stalls the expansion of the Hive's Stab and with that the expansion of the Hive itself. That's the main reason infiltrations are still attempted even with the low success rate. It at least slows down the BETA advance significantly.

Have you looked at the price difference between a fighter and a tank? A modern fighter is measured in hundreds of millions compared to an MBT which rarely tops ten million.

Fight smart, not fair.

Found this great Muv Luv fanfic called MuvLuv: Comet. I'm thinking of putting it on a page Fanfic Recs but i'm not sure if i should put it in the Muv Luve Alternative page or Total Eclipse page?

Did you see how the Shiranui had to fire both it strusters in the opposite direction just to counter the recoil of the thing while firing? Sure, you can mount it on a tank, but it won't be able to fire it without basically turning into an armoured rocket with an abnormally long and destructive exhaust.

Also, is it just me, or did the soldier class gain a couple more pairs of legs for the anime?

edited 16th Sep '12 9:05:41 PM by CannonGerbil

ALL HAIL THE WARGERBIL!

The TSF has to be light enough to fly - the tank can be as heavy as it needs to be, and can afford a much larger contact patch with the ground.

Again, don't think too hard about this.

Episode 12: I... I find the Soldier-class BETA adorable. The smile on the one that found Yui. D'aww.

Great episode, lots of BETA, lots of them being killed, and more Yui stuff. Plus a death that I somewhat cared about.

Next episode PV is up!

Welp, it doesn't look good for Venus. Also, Yuuya going melee spells means things that could have gone wrong HAVE gone wrong.

Episode 13:

Oh, wow. I mean, wow. That was an amazing episode.

The standards for American test pilots in the F-22 project must be something else altogether. I think there's maybe two or three other pilots in cannon who could match what Yuuya's doing this episode, and they have far, far more actual experience than he does.

Also, Top Tsun going full dere is a sight to behold.

Agreed, amazing episode. Yuuya shooting Destroyers to make way for Stella to take off! Then he runs out of ammo and decides to have fun with blades! And I liked the way he talked to the Shiranui.

Wow, the situation must be really dire in canon then.

Episode 14, holy Christ.

Glad Zhar Battalion got some more view time, even if they're probably all dead. It's a shame, I wanted to see more of them. The Soviet leader are being Stupid Evil as always, so no change there.

Also, dat Shiranui Second at the end.

edited 4th Oct '12 9:19:40 PM by AStrayBard

Tropers watching movies

So, sounds like this show is pretty amazing, huh?

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.