Tank—War Crawler Discussion

[chamir]

Hey all,

I’m hoping to make a second character associated with the Fire Nation as the head of tank/war crawler crew. Just a single one, not a squad or division of them. I’ll leave that for some other time or let someone else do that or joint venture it.

Anyway, if the powers that be are all for this then I’ll need a bit of help in hopes of getting something accurate:

1) Precisely how close or far away is this RPG to the FN’s assault on the Northern Water Tribe (I believe I read somewhere around here that it hasn't happened yet)?

2) How close or far away is this RPG to the FN’s assault of the repopulated Air Temple?

3) Would the head of crew be a non-firebender (seems unreasonable if he had to do both)?

4) How many firebenders are per tank, one or two or more?

5) I think a modern tank crew is four, so would the FN be seven or eight at least with room for coal shovelers (was it coal powered movement or steam?) and a firebender or two?

6) Does anyone know a site that has episodes screenshots (hopefully they’ll have some good pics of the inside and outside of those things as well as tank crew uniforms)?

7) Do I need minimal or detailed profiles for each member of his crew since they'll be NPCs?

[kura]

Okay, I'll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

1) I'm not sure about the time frame, as we don't usually refer to what's going on in the show.

2) See number 1

3) I'm pretty sure a firebender would lead the crew.

4) Hm...I think I remember seeing three in a tank, and one firebender, but I'm not sure.

5) All I remember is that the way the tanks were powered had something to do with water (which is how Katara was able to attack with her waterbending). I don't know if it was steam powered or something else, but it's likely.

6) Yes ;D firebender.com has a lot of screenshots, so I'm sure you'll find something. If not, you could always watch the episode on youtube (click). I would recommend re-watching the episode, as it would probably answer a lot of your questions.

7) If there is someone who has had a major impact on your character or is important to them, then you should be more detailed. Otherwise, a basic description is fine.

[chamir]

Thanks for your help Kura, especially for the firebender.com site. =)

It seems to be a three-man crew consisting of the firebending commander-gunner (center), non-bending driver-harpoon gunner (front), and non-bending mechanic-secondary driver? (rear). From what I can observe and guess at thus far, much like Fire Nation ships, they are steam driven though and probably use coal for fuel.

Below is a summary/outline write up of my three-man tank—war crawler crew. Parts of which will be used in the character profiles for the crew. In case anyone is curious, I’m describing the standard Fire Nation uniform, as much as I can, along the lines of Chinese armor. Yet I’m uncertain as to whether or which parts of Fire Nation armor is hardened leather and which parts are possibly iron.

I'd like anyone to comment on it as they wish; for ideas, criticism aid, suggestions, revisements, etc.

**** ****

The Crew:

Vu Ganesa; Lieutenant; commander and gunner

unnamed; Sergeant; driver and harpoon gunner

unnamed; Corporal; mechanic and secondary driver

Uniform and Armour:[/b] The standard issue Fire Nation uniform seen among many soldiers consist of heavy, slate gray silk for both shirt and trousers made a half-length longer than normal and completed with maroon colored, leather boots. Armor, worn over shirt and trousers, comes in total of seven pieces: light helmet, leg and arm vambracers, vest, pauldrons (shoulder plates), collar and skirting.

Central feature of the standard Fire Nation armor is the maroon colored vest, opening in the front and reaching to the hips but is split at sides below the waist. The vest has a seam or down the sides to separate front and back portions yet come quite close to meeting when fastened or when belt or sash is wrapped about wearer’s waist. The rectangular-shaped pauldrons and two-sectioned skirting, used to protect the upper and lower limbs respectively, are maroon colored with lighter maroon edges. Peripheral to these are the maroon colored, leather leg and arm vambraces to add light protection to shins and forearms respectively, yet the arm vambraces have additional, lighter marooned colored, cloth cuffs to keep them from sliding into the wrist and hands. A maroon, often cloth, shoulder-length collar with lighter trimmings is used to protect the neck. The fire bender of a war crawler crew wears a light, either leather or metal, maroon, cone shaped helmet with a lighter toned frontal crest. Other two-crew members have woolen cloth hoods that extend into a shoulder-length collar. All crewmembers are issued a pair of goggles to keep the sweat out of each member’s eyes.

Sidearm:[/b] With the usual exception of the firebending commander-gunner, war crawler crews carry a repeating crossbow (Cho-ku-nu) as a standard sidearm whenever crews are outside of the crawler for whatever reason. Able to discharge ten arrows within seconds, they are effective for stopping the rush of an enemy, temporarily defending a position, or securing an on foot retreat. Small and light, the bolts have little penetrative power and thus the steel heads are often coated in poison, allowing a wound to prove fatal. The stock is much the same in design and construction as the standard crossbow, yet has a replaceable magazine containing eight to twelve (depending on design) featherless arrows laid atop one another. The lever that works the crossbow, hinged to stock by metal pins, is moved back and forth to load and fire each arrow and can be worked as fast or quickly as needed. The crossbow’s effective range is around eighty yards with an extreme range of nearly two-and-a-half times that.

Miscellaneous: The following is what each member of a Fire Nation war crawler crew is supposed to have:

Standard uniform and three-piece armor (a vest, pauldrons, and skirting), two waterbags (approx. 1 liter), utility-use knife, leg and arm vambaces, light helmet, sweat goggles, medical kit, rucksack, ration packs, mess kit (clay bowl and spoon), repeating crossbow (ten-arrow single-shot with poison heads), three extra magazine for repeating crossbows, two smoke-grenade sticks

However items can be lost, bartered or sold over time. Equipment that is not being used or worn at any given time is stowed somewhere inside the vehicle. Many crews pick up additional equipment that is not official or standard (i.e. books, smoking pipes, combs, etc.), also repeating crossbows are often used only by non-firebending members of crew. Firebenders often carry no sidearm.
**** ****
Hopefully their equipment isn’t too anachronistic—modern day seeming as I was looking mainly at pre-Cold War tank history for help; though the Chinese repeating crossbow was used even before the single-shot crossbow came into Europe and the recent episode of ATLAB, “Avatar Day” had a firebender throwing stick grenades.