Some designs are masterpieces of military functionality, able to slide right into the battlefield like it was meant to be here by the will of heaven.

This thread is not about those. this is where I will place my "Lemon" designs- things which might've been good at one point, but through some trick of fate or incompetence, just never did the trick.

A-23 Ogre.

Like with any military technology, there are some who become so enamored of new developments that the toxic phenomenon known as "more is more" begins to set in at an alarming pace. The case of the A-23 Ogre is a cautionary tale in the history of combat walker design, a morality play on the bitter wages of the sin of excess.

The Ogre began its life as project thunderbolt, a design for a heavy quadrapedal combat machine armed with multiple heavy long-range weapons systems to control battlefield space and act as an anchor for other elements in a combat situation. the project had the misfortune to be handed over to Devasta Inc., which was hungry to make a big splash in defense contracting. They went over the heads of other officers to convince generals who wanted a nice big ribbon to tie on the ends of their careers to accept their modified specification proposals to turn it into the largest battle platform that current power and engineering technologies could allow.

Unfortunately, it was not long into the project that the goal morphed from "deliver a staggering next-generation weapon system" to "deliver something mobile." The original armor scheme for the vehicle proved to be too heavy for even the most powerful microfission reactors to propel at anything more than a centipede's sprint, so it had to be thinned for the machine's pace to approach plodding. The numerous optical and ballistic weapons systems installed caused it to light up on thermal scopes like a spotlight in a basement, so a new cooling system had to be engineered on the spot, one whose requirements were so extensive that it took up all of the remaining usable engineering space of the machine, meaning that other promised features could not be installed.

The only thing that Devasta was able to deliver on was the firepower- armed with two high-intensity combat lasers, many powerful anti-armor missiles, and a high-rate autocannon for close defense, it is likely to be the most well-armed machine on almost any field it manages to make it to.

The Ogre's career on the front line was short-lived. Only a few were purchased by Earth, so it was aggressively marketed to other governments, and most of the ones who were suckered into purchasing the machine soon found out its battlefield difficulties. Its low speed meant that it could not keep up even with the most lugubrious of modern transport vehicles, and its overworked coolant systems hoovered up substantial logistical capacity in the field. Those few units that do retain operational Ogres tend to utilize them as base security, a polite way of saying that they have effectively been reduced to the role of a (barely) mobile turret.

A-23 Ogre (104 pts)

Size: 10 (Assault)
Tech level: 5 (Fission)
Armor value: 6
Signature: 5/14
Movement points: 2

Legs: 4

Weapons:

Battle Laser (Front Torso, Energy): Range 4/8/12 ROF: 1 Damage: D10
Extra Damage

Battle Laser (Front Torso, Energy): Range 4/8/12 ROF: 1 Damage: D10
Extra Damage

Raptor ATGM (Front Torso, Ballistic): Range 5/10/15 ROF: 1 Damage: D10
External Tubes, 5 Launch Tubes, Heat Seeking

Raptor ATGM (Front Torso, Ballistic): Range 5/10/15 ROF: 1 Damage: D10
External Tubes, 5 Launch Tubes, Heat Seeking

Reaper Autocannon (Front Torso, Kinetic): Range 2/4/6 ROF: 3 Damage: D6 Ammo: 10

Other systems:
Thermal Dampeners (L4)