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Description
As a young man (and adult) I loved Keith Laumer's "BOLO" series of science fiction stories. They featured stories of sentient tanks designed to capture cities alone and to operate autonomously on the battlefield. They were basically monstorous, land battleships.

So as I am working out concept and mechanics for a planned game featuring lunar combat, I wanted to slip a "BOLO" concept in.

The in-game conflict happens in the early to mid 21st century so I pulled on Elon Musk's penchant for cute names and came up with the concept.

In the game, the Moon is, contrary to established treaties, being surreptitiously militarized by multiple nations. The United States has quietly leased part of the Spacex fleet to deliver the first purpose-built Lunar combat vehicle. Spacex is publicly contracted to deliver them and as a cover Elon Musk's "Boring Company" is also part of their construction. Publicly called "Lunar Observatories", the Boring Company has developed the anchoring system for them when landed on the Moon. In typical Musk fashion, Elon bills them as the "Boring Old Lunar Observatories" or, "BOLOs". Sized to fit perfectly within the 9m width by 22m height fairing of the Spacex Lunar Starship, they are delivered by two Starship flights for each vehicle. Once landed, Boring Company and Spacex workers assemble them in situ.

The result is the Bolo IIIa, a nearly 144' long and 55' high (minus the laser sail extension) , eight wheeled mobile artillery vehicle. Able to tilt up or down by 30 degrees on telescoping leg shafts, toroidal gaseous fission reactors power a1.5 megawatt FEL laser and it's companion weapon, a 12" guass cannon that fires a magnetically accelerated frictionless projectile. The "rear" of the vehicle features a 57mm guass cannon that can act as an assault gun, serve as a close in weapons system (CIWS) and be used as indirect fire light artillery against less armored targets. The vehicle can drive in either direction at equal speed and has variable geometry tires and the option to attach anti-personel weapons to the outer hull. Stealth construction is integrated into the vehicle as is an option for optical camouflage.

These vehicles also have a extendable hull that adds nearly 40% more volume (necessary for crew and supplies) once assembled and deployed. Six crewman operate the vehicle. The nuclear powered FEL laser sail is retractable (for stealth maximization) and provides a 1.5mw laser beam suitable for use against enenmy armore as well as incoming missiles. A single beam can be fired at full power or it can be pulsed to fire 10x per second with less power per beam.

A hunter-killer variant of the Bolo, the IIIb which dispenses with the mass driver and replaces it with a particle beam. The particle beam inflicts massive EMP damage and can be calibrated in combat to pulse as a narrow beam or disperse in a shotgun-like arc to maximize EMP as lesser ranges.

Description
As a young man (and adult) I loved Keith Laumer's "BOLO" series of science fiction stories. They featured stories of sentient tanks designed to capture cities alone and to operate autonomously on the battlefield. They were basically monstorous, land battleships.

So as I am working out concept and mechanics for a planned game featuring lunar combat, I wanted to slip a "BOLO" concept in.

The in-game conflict happens in the early to mid 21st century so I pulled on Elon Musk's penchant for cute names and came up with the concept.

In the game, the Moon is, contrary to established treaties, being surreptitiously militarized by multiple nations. The United States has quietly leased part of the Spacex fleet to deliver the first purpose-built Lunar combat vehicle. Spacex is publicly contracted to deliver them and as a cover Elon Musk's "Boring Company" is also part of their construction. Publicly called "Lunar Observatories", the Boring Company has developed the anchoring system for them when landed on the Moon. In typical Musk fashion, Elon bills them as the "Boring Old Lunar Observatories" or, "BOLOs". Sized to fit perfectly within the 9m width by 22m height fairing of the Spacex Lunar Starship, they are delivered by two Starship flights for each vehicle. Once landed, Boring Company and Spacex workers assemble them in situ.

The result is the Bolo IIIa, a nearly 144' long and 55' high (minus the laser sail extension) , eight wheeled mobile artillery vehicle. Able to tilt up or down by 30 degrees on telescoping leg shafts, toroidal gaseous fission reactors power a1.5 megawatt FEL laser and it's companion weapon, a 12" guass cannon that fires a magnetically accelerated frictionless projectile. The "rear" of the vehicle features a 57mm guass cannon that can act as an assault gun, serve as a close in weapons system (CIWS) and be used as indirect fire light artillery against less armored targets. The vehicle can drive in either direction at equal speed and has variable geometry tires and the option to attach anti-personel weapons to the outer hull. Stealth construction is integrated into the vehicle as is an option for optical camouflage.

These vehicles also have a extendable hull that adds nearly 40% more volume (necessary for crew and supplies) once assembled and deployed. Six crewman operate the vehicle. The nuclear powered FEL laser sail is retractable (for stealth maximization) and provides a 1.5mw laser beam suitable for use against enenmy armore as well as incoming missiles. A single beam can be fired at full power or it can be pulsed to fire 10x per second with less power per beam.

A hunter-killer variant of the Bolo, the IIIb which dispenses with the mass driver and replaces it with a particle beam. The particle beam inflicts massive EMP damage and can be calibrated in combat to pulse as a narrow beam or disperse in a shotgun-like arc to maximize EMP as lesser ranges.