How much history would have changed if Zeon actually managed to mass produce the Big Zam? The thing was practically unbeatable at long range, and tore through Salamis ships.
>>14238140
Hard to say. The Big Zam came late to the war and it could be killed by beam sabers. As such, federation GMs could kill it if they got close. On the other hand, with some Rick Doms for escort and it's I-field a Big Zam could carve through fleets in short order.
Overall, I think the Big Zam was simply too big and expensive to mass produce. Zeon was in too much of a resource crunch to properly fund a production line for Big Zams
>>14238374
The beam saber only worked after Drunky Mckamakazie Core Fighter suicided into the I-Field generator. The I-Field would more than likely disrupt the beam saber even if a GM got in close quarters if it were still active.
In space it would have been nearly unstoppable in large numbers with escorts. The only weapons selections that could do anything to it would be missiles and higher grades of explosive weapons. Machine gun rounds would most likely been to weak to pierce the units armor, so even some of the few units in space with access to those types of weapons would be useless against it.
Earth however, it would lose much of it's mobility and many units planetside were still using high velocity long range bombardment weapons, leaving the big zam as a massive sitting gun emplacement.
At best, Big Zam could have been used to rip past the Federations Luna II line and could have held the atmospheric defensive lines, but Earthside would still be hopeless without another colony drop or a weapon like the appsalus.
>>14238768
>The beam saber only worked after Drunky Mckamakazie Core Fighter suicided into the I-Field generator.
Considering the I-Field can't stop physical objects, wouldn't the Federation just learn to blast the shit out of any more Big Zams with missiles?
>>14238768
Why didn't they just put I-Fields on spaceships?
>>14239062
Spaceships don't have legs. Big Zam has legs. Legs are powerful. Dozel Zabi had big, powerful, manly legs and wanted his weapons to be the same. Then he died and Gihren made stupid useless shit like Zeong.
>>14239079
haha
>>14239079
>The Zeong is the direct result of Ghiren skipping leg day.
>>14239062
Why didn't anyone put I-fields on ships even into late UC?
No seriously, I've got no idea.
>>14238974
Basically this, with the I-fields you could have an entire squad of them do their all range attack together and not have to worry about friendly fire as long as their escorts pull back to a safe range. Not even Amuro with his newtype hacks and plot armor would be able to handle a squadron of Big Zams. Enough Big Zams would be able to solo all the Federation fleets and capture Luna II.
The bigger issue would be that we don't even know if the Big Zam is terrestrial worthy. (Personally, I don't think the legs would be able to handle to weight of the body in earth's gravity.) Plus do I-fields work in the Earth's atmosphere is another question. (I never recall seeing that or beam dispersal smoke being used on Earth.) So you'd have a new stalemate as the Federation race to build something to counter the Big Zam while Zeon's forces have to decide how to either re-invade Earth or start up peace negotiations again since all Zeon would have to do is keep a support fleet over Jaburo in orbit to deploy Big Zams that would wipe out any ships the Federation sends into space. The Federation doesn't have a means of establishing a foothold in space, while Zeon doesn't have the forces to re-establish a large foothold on Earth. (Unless they decide to tear up the antarctic treaty and drop another colony, but that would be a massive gamble.)
>>14239164
I believe the episode of Unicorn at Torrington might have been showing off some in atmosphere I-fields.
Pretty sure thats what the Shamwow used to bounce its beams around.
>>14239152
>>14239062
Best reason I can think of is the size and power required to create a functioning I-Field for a ship would be impractical. Plus size and maneuverability is a factor since a ship would still be extremely susceptible to bullets and missiles, so having an I-Field wouldn't help if a Zaku just flew up to your bridge and blew it up with their machine gun.
>>14239060
Because it was their first encounter with the I-field, so all they could do is 'FIRE FIRE FIRE' with their main cannons and hope the field would break down under the concentrated fire. In the future, they'd learn the only way to take down a Big Zam is through a concentrated barrage of missiles. But that makes the assumption that the Big Zam wouldn't just fly out of the way of them since they'd have to be unguided due to the Minovsky jamming. Or have its escorts shoot them down.
>>14239123
>>14239079
>He doesn't know about the Big Zeong...
>>14239079
the Zeong was supposed to have legs
Fun tidbit.
Though this is strictly non-canon and other works might contradict it, according to the photonovel Solomon Express, Zeon made one mass-production Big Zam that was used in the assault on Jaburo.
The Big Zam, in order to avoid being detected on radar during atmospheric entry, decided not to use it's I-field heat-shield (or something or other). Upon landing, it was sorely overheated and exploded (or self-detonated to preserve military secrets, can't remember which). The Earth Federation attempted to erase all records and images of this Big Zam to avoid the embarrassment of having allowed such a large object near Jaburo.
>>14239370
Correction. Its heat armor was improperly maintained and it didn't use its Minovsky Flight system to avoid being a big fat target during descent
>>14239062
It COULD have been a cost-effective measure to simply issue warships with anti-beam gas missiles and/or it's really energy prohibitive to give a warship both an I-field AND several mega-particle cannon batteries along with normal ship functions (life support, air, gravity, the human needs stuff that mobile armors need far less equipping for due to 1-2 pilots), and the Big Zam is in some sort of sweet spot where it's possible to do.
I have no idea why Zeon simply didn't make several I-field destroyers though.
Even if they had a single mega particle cannon, an I-field combined with their speed would have been quite effective, I feel.
>>14239361
>Upon landing, it was sorely overheated and exploded (or self-detonated to preserve military secrets, can't remember which).
Is there any way Zeon can still be villains without being horrendously incompetent to the point of ruining immense amounts of funding and project research due to silly shit that saves the Federation's ass?
>>14239531
No, if Zeon didn't get fucked over, either by their own forces or blind luck, they would have beaten the Federation and been the good guys.
>>14239361
>Upon landing, it was sorely overheated and exploded
Gundam Looney Toons when?
>>14238140
We see quite clearly across UC, especially F91, that smaller and faster things beat bigger and heavier ones. I see no reason why GMs couldn't just swarm the damn thing and slash it to ribbons with their beam sabers.
