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A chariot was more similar to a technical or an FAV. It allows one to advance quickly on fairly regular terrain, carry a slightly bigger weapon, and stock yours

A chariot was more similar to a technical or an FAV. It allows one to advance quickly on fairly regular terrain, carry a slightly bigger weapon, and stock yourself with more ammunition. It's not well protected and the weapon is not as devastating. The mobile ballista was more like a primitive field gun or crew-served mortar. Add black powder and a strong metal barrel and it served the same role through the 19th century. An actual tank cannot exist without a powerful engine. They were literally designed as the battleships or destroyer of the land. They used big engines and small naval-inspired guns. The most successful have always mounted those guns on turrets just like a naval ship. The reason no primitive tank can be found is that nothing did serve quite the same role.

CRConrad 4y ago
> The most successful have always mounted those guns on turrets just like a naval ship. To be fair, at the time tanks were created and (not quite immediately, but rather soon) adopted the rotating turret for their main gun, that turret wasn't all that age-old a tradition at sea, either. Wasn't Ericsson's Civil War-era Monitor the first with that? (If not the very first, then among the first to deploy it in combat, I'm fairly sure.) But yeah, their greatest proponent in WW1 Britain being the Admiralty is of course an amusing connection. (But I suppose if Churchill had been, say, Minister of Agriculture, then their greatest proponent would have been the Department of Agriculture.)
- cestith 4y ago
  Indeed it wasn't an ancient technology, but in the 19th and 20th centuries warfare adapted at a blistering pace compared to earlier centuries. Three to five decades of advancement was everything. Rifled barrels, self-contained cartridges, breach loading, tractors, planes, radios, morphine, acriflavine, and barbed wire were all fairly recent technologies still finding their practical and doctrinal uses in warfare.

CRConrad 4y ago

> The most successful have always mounted those guns on turrets just like a naval ship. To be fair, at the time tanks were created and (not quite immediately, but rather soon) adopted the rotating turret for their main gun, that turret wasn't all that age-old a tradition at sea, either. Wasn't Ericsson's Civil War-era Monitor the first with that? (If not the very first, then among the first to deploy it in combat, I'm fairly sure.) But yeah, their greatest proponent in WW1 Britain being the Admiralty is of course an amusing connection. (But I suppose if Churchill had been, say, Minister of Agriculture, then their greatest proponent would have been the Department of Agriculture.)

cestith 4y ago
Indeed it wasn't an ancient technology, but in the 19th and 20th centuries warfare adapted at a blistering pace compared to earlier centuries. Three to five decades of advancement was everything. Rifled barrels, self-contained cartridges, breach loading, tractors, planes, radios, morphine, acriflavine, and barbed wire were all fairly recent technologies still finding their practical and doctrinal uses in warfare.