Anthony replied to me:
> > So take a sufficiently advanced technology, say TL9 to TL11 in
> > 3E, complete with magic like reactionless thrusters. For which
> > roles are bipedal warbots reasonable, and where do flyers win?
>
> Given TL 11 reactionless thrusters, flyers win in all roles.
Consider a robot with 0.5 tons Lwt and a desired ST 200. For
reactionless flight, call it a 2,000-lb. super reactionless
thruster with vectored thrust and a 100-kW NPU.
Thruster: 60 lbs.
Power: 58 lbs.
-----------------
118 lbs.
Walking requires 3 kW to get the Body ST.
Drivetrain: 60 lbs.
Power: 19.2 lbs.
---------------------
79.2 lbs.
Roughly one third less ... against that, you save the legs
with their area and hence structure, armor, stealth, etc.
Then there is the question of sensor signature. A legged
vehicle can squat and power down even on moderately broken
ground. A flyer with underbelly skids (to save the landing
gear) needs even ground.
> At lower
> tech levels, walker-bots may be viable, though bipedal is generally not
> preferable (you can get better stability and a lower profile from
> quadrupeds).
Quads have gSR +2 compared with bipeds. Height doesn't
have to be a liability -- it provides sensor reach, and
TL11 bipeds should be able to crawl like a human.
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