Rifle Infantry
patreon
(WIP) Steam tractor
🕑 Added 2024-08-05 07:12:25 +0000 UTCThe first vehicle in the Santagrine roster, and a 5-point one at that. It might be massive, slow, ungainly, and uncomfortable to operate--but enough earth-moving torque to shift 60 tons remains as useful today as it did many decades ago.
Steam tractors are extremely robust pieces of equipment: mechanically simple, long-lived, and operable with just water and anything that burns. While long outmoded by various more modern prime movers by the time of the atomic war, they saw a resurgence in use after the dust cleared: dug out of barns and boneyards they could be made to work with very little on hand.
Naturally, steam tractors found a place in baronial forces as logistics vehicles, hauling towed guns or wagons full of infantrymen and supplies. The downsides of a slow-moving, thin-skinned mobile pressure vessel became fairly evident quickly. Many examples today--such as the one above--have been up-armored with steel plates in half-burnt factories to render them proof against rifle fire.
This tractor is very closely based on the real-life Fowler B5 armored road locomotive. These, dating back to the turn of the 20th century, were designed with the Second Boer War in mind; that is, to render a wagon train proof against guerilla attacks. Similar situations in the lawless Santagrine countryside encourage similar solutions.
