NationStates Jolt Archive

And no, the Death Star doesn't count. I'm talking either real or proposed weapons, a la a lot of the stuff to come out of Nazi Germany during the waning years.

You see, I just read a book named 'My Tank is Fight' and it got me thinking. There were plenty of things that could have been considered superweapons for the time, although the construction of them would, in many cases, have been ruinious to the nation involved.

So, what's your favorite proposed superweapon that never made it? Feel free to choose based on practicality, potential, or just sheer awesomeness.

For myself, I'm torn between the Ratte and the Iceberg Carrier. The first because A) It would have gotten World War II over that much more quickly, and B) Well, the sheer impractical theory that a tank that size would be the coolest thing ever. The second because, honestly, what better way to keep your drinks cold then a huge sawdust 'n ice aircraft carrier?

The Gay Bomb.

(or Da Vinci's corkscrew flying machine.)

I quite liked the idea of the Horten Ho XVIII.

German tank design went down the drain near the end of the war. They came up with silly ideas like the Maus and so on, while the Allies were building the next generation of tanks like the IS-2, Pershing and Centurion.

The Gay Bomb.

We're safe from that one, thanks to the Mutually Assured Homosexuality doctrine.

The Gay Bomb.

(or Da Vinci's corkscrew flying machine.)

I have to agree that chemical that the US military was working on would have had an extreme effect on the Muslim insurgents in Iraq and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.
Simply because their culture which (in the case of the Taliban is what they're fighting for) deplores such things and it would totally shatter the troops moral and psyche.

A nazi-super soldier. Not a nazi-supporter, but a 7 foot tall infantry immune to gas, disease, bullets, that has high motabilism and fast growth rates, sound cool.

The biomagical zombie nazis from the Illumanitus! Trilogy.

A nazi-super soldier. Not a nazi-supporter, but a 7 foot tall infantry immune to gas, disease, bullets, that has high motabilism and fast growth rates, sound cool.

7 foot tall, wouldn't that just make them easier to hit?, I mean if you want some one who's engineered for modern combat you'd want him to be a dwarf, so they make a smaller target.

7 foot tall, wouldn't that just make them easier to hit?, I mean if you want some one who's engineered for modern combat you'd want him to be a dwarf, so they make a smaller target.

Well, at seven feet they could run faster, are probably stronger, and can heft heavy weapons. Like M60s.

Not necessarily if they are 'immune to gas, disease, bullets'. Taller you get more shock value, much more so than a bunch of dwarves rushing your position :p .

What would be the point of something like the Ratte? A monstrously huge lump of metal filled with cannons & ordinary tanks sounds like an ideal target to me..

7 foot tall, wouldn't that just make them easier to hit?, I mean if you want some one who's engineered for modern combat you'd want him to be a dwarf, so they make a smaller target.

Perhaps a more ideal height would be 3 feet tall?

Perhaps a more ideal height would be 3 feet tall?Nah, if something that size was strong enough to lug around all the gear a soldier's likely to need, it'd haver all the grace & dexterity of a cannonball. Just wouldn't work..

What would be the point of something like the Ratte? A monstrously huge lump of metal filled with cannons & ordinary tanks sounds like an ideal target to me..
The idea was to have a land battleship. People came up with it during WWI, but for some inexplicable reason the otherwise pretty smart German engineers still had it in the back of their heads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Panzerkampfwagen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_2C

The idea was to have a land battleship. People came up with it during WWI, but for some inexplicable reason the otherwise pretty smart German engineers still had it in the back of their heads.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Panzerkampfwagen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_2C

Oh god, land battleship wars!

Well, at seven feet they could run faster, are probably stronger, and can heft heavy weapons. Like M60s.
your 7 foot tall dual m60 weilding giants are no match for my pygmies who can run faster through scrubland and forest, have better balance and can hide easier, whats the point of firing heaps of huge rounds when one bullet into their giant ballon heads would do the trick. :p

Perhaps a more ideal height would be 3 feet tall?

exactly :)

Nah, if something that size was strong enough to lug around all the gear a soldier's likely to need, it'd haver all the grace & dexterity of a cannonball. Just wouldn't work..

They’d still be unnaturally strong and fast, the hole point of a super soldier, but they wouldn’t need to carry as much food or water or shelter. Plus they'd be like chimps able to hide in the trees and scuttle along on al fours to increase their speed.

Not necessarily if they are 'immune to gas, disease, bullets'. Taller you get more shock value, much more so than a bunch of dwarves rushing your position :p .

Speak for yourself, I've seen a bunch of dwarves rushing my position. *shudder*

Speak for yourself, I've seen a bunch of dwarves rushing my position. *shudder*

Bunch, try swarm.

I can't believe that we are arguing about what height a Nazi super soldier should be!

Speak for yourself, I've seen a bunch of dwarves rushing my position. *shudder*

yup, at first you think, these guy's are miles away we'll have plenty of time, then it's like oh crap their dwarves and their right on top of us, arhhhh.:eek:

I'm just speculating here, but wouldn't dwarves make you want to shoot harder while giants make you run? :D

Do my trained scrotum-seeking attack weasels count as a superweapon?

I'm just speculating here, but wouldn't dwarves make you want to shoot harder while giants make you run?
no when you're shooting giants it's easy, you cant miss their big balloon head, but when you’ve got swarms of insanely ugly dwarves charging you and you cant seem to hit them you'll become disheartened.

Besides my dwarves would be cheaper to maintain so they’d out number your giants 3-1

I can't believe that we are arguing about what height a Nazi super soldier should be!
Not that there ever was a real program to make a super soldier. There was the Lebensborn program meant to create a more "pure" creed of "Aryans".

So the Nazi super soldier would be a blonde, tall man with blue eyes and sunburn, pumped full of Pervitin.

Do my trained scrotum-seeking attack weasels count as a superweapon?

Aren’t they illegal by the Geneva Convention?

The problem with dwarfs as nazi supersoldier is that they wouldn't have met with their "Aryan" ideal and would have then had to be killed, so it would have been a waste of resources to engineer a super soldier just to kill it for being "inferior."

no when you're shooting giants it's easy, you cant miss their big balloon head, but when you’ve got swarms of insanely ugly dwarves charging you and you cant seem to hit them you'll become disheartened.

Besides my dwarves would be cheaper to maintain so they’d out number your giants 3-1

Ah, but we are forgetting the part where they are immune to bullets.... easier to notice bullets bouncing off a giant. If its a dwarf we can delude ourselves that the bullets just missed.

Ah, but we are forgetting the part where they are immune to bullets.... easier to notice bullets bouncing off a giant. If its a dwarf we can delude ourselves that the bullets just missed.

nope their not bullet proof thats cheating *put's fingers in ears an loundly declares* "laaallaalaala 'I'm not listening' lalalalaalaaa"

I choose... Captain America!

He's a superhero, therefore he has that annoying "I always win in the end" luck crap going on for him. Meaning everyone else loses (although not without getting the upper hand several times).

Aren’t they illegal by the Geneva Convention?

Not every nation has ratified that portion. :)

The Avro Arrow. A sophisticated fighter jet developed in Canada during the cold war, it was scrapped in favor of developing a missile defense shield. That was probably the best decision to make tactically, but I've always thought the Arrow was cool.

Reagan's plan for the orbitting space space stations that would swat missiles out of the sky. True, it did cost us a lot, but it cost the Soviets a lot more, and after all, isn't that the point, the dismantling of Communism? In a sense, though, Reagan was successful after all. While the so called "Star Wars" program didn't kill the Soviet military, it damn well destroyed their economy. 'Tis the successful failure amongst super weapon history, as it did what its duty intended without fulfilling its purpose.

While the so called "Star Wars" program didn't kill the Soviet military, it damn well destroyed their economy.

Actually, the CIA always reckoned that Soviet military spending didn't go up in response to Reagan. It's a popular myth that he somehow won the Cold War. Makes people feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

The Soviet Union managed to kill itself, just due to their impossible economic system. Because everyone needed to be employed, and bureaucrats needed to have forms to stamp, the defense sector provided the perfect outlet to produce unnecessary stuff. So from the time that the first cracks appeared, the easy answer was to simply produce more guns to keep people in work. If you look at it, you'll see a steady increase in the size of the defense sector relative to the rest of the economy - and whether or not Reagan happened to be yelling profanities on the other side didn't influence things.

The Tsar Bomba (before it was nerfed)

The ultimate superweapon?
About a million pissed off Russians. Seriously. Once theyre mad theres just no stopping those guys.

How about........................................ China conscripting its population if it went to war. There would be soo many guys that they would have trouble giving them guns so they would just hand them knives or if they were really unlucky they would be given nothing and they would just have to run up to the enemy and beat them up. :p

The Tsar Bomba (before it was nerfed)

How do you nerf the most powerful explosive ever detonated?

How do you nerf the most powerful explosive ever detonated?

Well, it could have been a 100-megaton warhead, but they scaled it down to a 50-megaton.

How about........................................ China conscripting its population if it went to war. There would be soo many guys that they would have trouble giving them guns so they would just hand them knives or if they were really unlucky they would be given nothing and they would just have to run up to the enemy and beat them up. :p

They tried that once, it didnt work too well. Sure, it gave the Japanese a hard time, but it hardly won the war.

Now, as I said before, if you want people who are good at fighting for the motherland, look north.
The Ruskies arent so great at the 'God and King' thing, but when it comes to 'Country' I doubt you'll find any better. The Pissed Off Russian has been the deciding factor in two world-changing wars, is responsible for turning Poland and Sweden into shadows of their former selves, and kicking the Mongols back to Asia.
Of course, you run into the problem of the Non-Pissed-Off-Russian pretty much sucking in a lot of aspects of warfare. Such glorious events as the Crimean War, WWI and Afghanistan come to mind.

Not every nation has ratified that portion. :)

Especially not the US, which is host to the Ann Coulter Academy for Refined Scrotum-Seeking Weasels (:nostalgia:)...Think School of the Americas, but more sinister and with rodents.

The Soviet Union managed to kill itself, just due to their impossible economic system. Because everyone needed to be employed, and bureaucrats needed to have forms to stamp, the defense sector provided the perfect outlet to produce unnecessary stuff.Yups. It was things like having 25,000 people employed at a minor powerplant that did it (Yups, real life example). But hey, we all have our feel good myths. Every occupied nation in Europe, for example, has it's own myth of singlehandedly turning the tides of WWII through it's resistance, and of course, every citizen was an active part of it. Utter rubbish, but it sounds nice.

They tried that once, it didnt work too well. Sure, it gave the Japanese a hard time, but it hardly won the war.

Now, as I said before, if you want people who are good at fighting for the motherland, look north.
The Ruskies arent so great at the 'God and King' thing, but when it comes to 'Country' I doubt you'll find any better. The Pissed Off Russian has been the deciding factor in two world-changing wars, is responsible for turning Poland and Sweden into shadows of their former selves, and kicking the Mongols back to Asia.
Of course, you run into the problem of the Non-Pissed-Off-Russian pretty much sucking in a lot of aspects of warfare. Such glorious events as the Crimean War, WWI and Afghanistan come to mind.

Didn't the Mongols collapse due to the two invasions of Japan, breeding into the populace and lack of sufficient unifying figures? I know it wasn't the Russians because they got their asses handed to them.

super weapons are a super gratuitous waste of resourses that could be put to the good use of creating universal abundance instead.

capitolism itself has become a kind of doomsday machine, consuming everything with no one really in control. but that is not to take away from the equal reality that just about any economic idiology when fallowed fanaticly is capable of the same thing.

now i'm not saying the lack of a military posture is automaticly going to create universal abundance either. nor that any top down hierarchy is ever going to alone do so, whatever idiologies, beliefs or anything else it pays lip service to.

but a world where no one has to starve, freeze, or worry about getting beaten over the head, and with no other limit on the real gratifications of creating and exploring then that they be kept environmentaly harmonious and prevented from robbing anyone of their calmness, IS, very VERY possible.

that is why we are IDIOTS to premeditatedly brutalize our world, for the sake of transitory personal agrandisements that seldom if ever gratify anything nor for long, even if and when they might. and that is a damd big if, whatever the popularity of myths to the contrary.

=^^=
.../\...

Well, it could have been a 100-megaton warhead, but they scaled it down to a 50-megaton.

If they had set off the full scale one (with nearly a tone of natural urranium tamper) it would have irradiated most of Russia's population centers. Anayway, the 50-megaton version caused blast dammage at 1000 miles IIRC.

If they had set off the full scale one (with nearly a tone of natural urranium tamper) it would have irradiated most of Russia's population centers. Anayway, the 50-megaton version caused blast dammage at 1000 miles IIRC.

IIRC the plane wouldn't have made it away in time either :D

IIRC the plane wouldn't have made it away in time either :D

Oh, as a practical weapon the Tsar Boma sucked. When they tested the 'small' version the put such a large parachute on it, to give the drop plane time to escape, that a ground based anti-aircraft gun could have shot it down.

And by blast dammage I ment atmospheric lensing breaking some windows in Norway.

When France tried to take the white flag to a new technological extreme about 10 years ago. It was a futuristic particle beam that would automaticly send out a surrendering signal into the minds of enemy soldiers whenever the simple idea of France being threatend had come about. That way making the surrendering process instaneous. The opposing forces would march all over the nation in a matter of hours with absolute zero resistance and confusion of the situation, and rightfuly take power.

As far as superweapons go, the Paris Gun and Project Babylon come to mind. Both were examples of Supergun technology that largely competed with advances in rocket technology throughout the 20th century. Project Babylon was supposedly supposed to launch satellites into orbit once complete.

Paris Gun (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_gun)

Project Babylon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Babylon)

Especially not the US, which is host to the Ann Coulter Academy for Refined Scrotum-Seeking Weasels (:nostalgia:)...Think School of the Americas, but more sinister and with rodents.

We also have bigger dorm rooms. :)

7 foot tall, wouldn't that just make them easier to hit?, I mean if you want some one who's engineered for modern combat you'd want him to be a dwarf, so they make a smaller target.
Did you not see the bit about immune to disease, bullets...
etc?
I quite liked the idea of the Horten Ho XVIII.

German tank design went down the drain near the end of the war. They came up with silly ideas like the Maus and so on, while the Allies were building the next generation of tanks like the IS-2, Pershing and Centurion.
There was nothing wrong with the Maus...

I say the Tsunami Bomb, New Zealand's secret contribution to defeating the Japanese empire.

The Avro Arrow. A sophisticated fighter jet developed in Canada during the cold war, it was scrapped in favor of developing a missile defense shield. That was probably the best decision to make tactically, but I've always thought the Arrow was cool.
I think i saw a movie on that, the Americans(Aand one other nation) were thrilled with it and were going to buys heaps of them but then pulled the plug and put doubts in the Canadian Prime Ministers mind, he may have been an evil socialist.

There was nothing wrong with the Maus...
Except that it would have been even more underpowered than the Tigers. The German designers never made that switch towards modern, mobile tank warfare, even though one would think they had plenty of opportunity to think about it.

Ultimately all the late models were best at sitting in an ambush.

The ultimate superweapon?
About a million pissed off Russians. Seriously. Once theyre mad theres just no stopping those guys.

well apart from a thin red line

well apart from a thin red line

Cossacks arent Russians :P
And besides, thats what you get for using skirmish cavalry in a head on attack. Its Cuirassiers if you want to smash an enemy line, and by the Crimean War even those were dated (Well, they were dated by the 1700's, but thats a different story).
The abilities of the Pissed Off Russian are often misused by the famed Russian Incompetent Commander.

On another note, I take most British claims about the Crimean War with a grain of salt.


Didn't the Mongols collapse due to the two invasions of Japan, breeding into the populace and lack of sufficient unifying figures? I know it wasn't the Russians because they got their asses handed to them.
Correction:
About fifty independant states who were also fighting each other got their asses handed to them by 150,000 guys on horses in 1239AD (When the Mongols took Kiev). There was no 'Russia', or equivalent to it, when the Mongols first arrived. Yes, there were 'Russians', but eh.
As to the second part, IE: the cause of the fall, there were many issues which led to the Mongols demise. Muscovy was one such issue in the fall of the Golden Horde, which did not, in fact, invade Japan.
I cant remember which Muscovite prince/duke it was, but I think it was some time in the 14th century when Muscovy flipped the Mongols off and started snapping up their neighbors without official permission.

Has anyone mentioned antimatter warheads?

Oh god, land battleship wars!

You!... haven't sunk anything! It just kind of collapsed in on itself. My battleship.

To quote a current recruitment advert for teachers in the UK

"Solar powered killing sheep"

I'm partial to Airships, the sort that can loiter in the air for weeks or months and bomb targets.

Nazi Germanys 1500 ton, self-propelled 80cm artillery peice. The design used u-boat diesel electric motors (four of them I think) and 28cm naval turrets as secondary weapons. Yikes!

I'm partial to Airships, the sort that can loiter in the air for weeks or months and bomb targets.

... And present themselves as great, big floating targets to fighter aircraft?

Nazi Germanys 1500 ton, self-propelled 80cm artillery peice. The design used u-boat diesel electric motors (four of them I think) and 28cm naval turrets as secondary weapons. Yikes!

Also known to the German Army as 'Der Fuhrer Penis'

Since I consider this to be a discussion about plausible weapons, the anti-matter bomb is out. Much like the scrotum seeking weasels – they are just impractical since they are easily defeated by issuing your soldiers athletic cups, though horrific to the unprotected soldier.

Were it to come down to a total war, my money would be on neutron bombs. Not the crappy ones the US actually built, but the original design.

Used in a high atmospheric detonation, it delivers an immediately lethal dose to anyone within a couple miles and a slower kill for another mile after that. The exact radius of the range is inversely proportional to the humidity in the atmosphere (perfect for use in the desert).

Even armored units don’t stand a chance (where as tanks or naval vessels easily take a near hit by a standard nuke). Locals could take shelter in shielded fallout bunkers for a week for the fallout to dissipate and emerge to an intact city (finally get rid of the rat problem, but I’m afraid the cockroaches might have taken over).

Oh god, land battleship wars!

That'd be a good idea for the NBCyIPsW Party! Huzzah!

Ilaer

Didn't the Mongols collapse due to the two invasions of Japan, breeding into the populace and lack of sufficient unifying figures? I know it wasn't the Russians because they got their asses handed to them.
Actually the territory of Russian states wasn't occupied. They just, one by one, lost the battles, and submitted to certain taxation, sending gold to Mongols. With time, as Mongols grew weaker and Russians rebuilt the armies, many of them just ignored that and send nothing at all, forming pacts in the meantime. Then it broke out.


"Solar powered killing sheep"
Solar powered black gay sheep.
(BGSAA)

Mecha Cheney...the most evil and destructive force on this planet.

Mecha Cheney...the most evil and destructive force on this planet.

His only known weakness being Robo-Reagan and Cyber-Clinton.

Also known to the German Army as 'Der Fuhrer Penis'

No, that was the 80cm railroad gun that they did build and use. The shells weighed in at 7 tonnes.

No, that was the 80cm railroad gun that they did build and use. The shells weighed in at 7 tonnes.

When youre the supreme dictator and/or a global superpower you can have a lot of steel penises. The Soviet Union and US had over 10,000 each at one point :P

And no, the Death Star doesn't count. I'm talking either real or proposed weapons, a la a lot of the stuff to come out of Nazi Germany during the waning years.

You see, I just read a book named 'My Tank is Fight' and it got me thinking. There were plenty of things that could have been considered superweapons for the time, although the construction of them would, in many cases, have been ruinious to the nation involved.

So, what's your favorite proposed superweapon that never made it? Feel free to choose based on practicality, potential, or just sheer awesomeness.

For myself, I'm torn between the Ratte and the Iceberg Carrier. The first because A) It would have gotten World War II over that much more quickly, and B) Well, the sheer impractical theory that a tank that size would be the coolest thing ever. The second because, honestly, what better way to keep your drinks cold then a huge sawdust 'n ice aircraft carrier?

I'd say the Tsar Tank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Tank). The most impractical thing ever to be tested in the military. Or the Breitspurbahn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitspurbahn). How Hitler thought a 3000 mm (over 9 foot) gauge railway could be practical in any way is beyond me. But, it was never built.

I'd say the Tsar Tank (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Tank). The most impractical thing ever to be tested in the military. Or the Breitspurbahn (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breitspurbahn). How Hitler thought a 3000 mm (over 9 foot) gauge railway could be practical in any way is beyond me. But, it was never built.

As far as war goes? Probably couldn't. As far as a symbol of status for the Großdeutschland's elite, had the Reich succeeded...

His only known weakness being Robo-Reagan and Cyber-Clinton.

His only weakness is Mecha Intelligence Committee Hearing.

Except that it would have been even more underpowered than the Tigers. The German designers never made that switch towards modern, mobile tank warfare, even though one would think they had plenty of opportunity to think about it.

Ultimately all the late models were best at sitting in an ambush.
Yeah you could say that they developed the mobile tank battle concept to a level but then lost their way, but i suspect that was a mass production problem, yes armour production was slowed as Germany tried to develop new tanks but they were hoping that bigger is better would do the job, they couldn't compete with the level of tank production of Russia or America, but they could produce better/stronger tanks, which they did they just never had enough or crews.

Though when the USSR and Germany were all cosy the Russians were inspecting a German tank factory and couldn't/wouldn't believe the PzIII was the best thing the Germans had in production/on the drawing board.