Hmmm.
So, in a strategic sense, the Variable Fighter is a weapon whose advantages are hard to beat. It has as much or more range than anything else in the setting, only a fighter plane can catch it, only another variable fighter would want to, and if you equip it with limpet mines or grenades to scale or something, it can do as comprehensive a job wrecking enemy factories and infrastructure as any heavy bomber.
Because a giant robot going OH YEAH through the wall is just as bad for a factory's production schedule as a bomb falling through the roof.
The two ways to deal with that threat are to either intercept the VF before it reaches its target - implicitly assumed, with another VF - or to have defenses on-site capable of dealing with it once it arrives.
In the latter role, I think that the ground-bound Walker is going to have a chance to shine, given that it seems likely that they can afford to carry much more armor and weaponry than a machine that needs to be able to fly in its other mode, and that expected targets can be relatively-easily surrounded by hard pavement suitable for rollerskating on, allowing at least tactical redeployment even in the face of VF mobility.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
So, in a strategic sense, the Variable Fighter is a weapon whose advantages are hard to beat. It has as much or more range than anything else in the setting, only a fighter plane can catch it, only another variable fighter would want to, and if you equip it with limpet mines or grenades to scale or something, it can do as comprehensive a job wrecking enemy factories and infrastructure as any heavy bomber.
Because a giant robot going OH YEAH through the wall is just as bad for a factory's production schedule as a bomb falling through the roof.
The two ways to deal with that threat are to either intercept the VF before it reaches its target - implicitly assumed, with another VF - or to have defenses on-site capable of dealing with it once it arrives.
In the latter role, I think that the ground-bound Walker is going to have a chance to shine, given that it seems likely that they can afford to carry much more armor and weaponry than a machine that needs to be able to fly in its other mode, and that expected targets can be relatively-easily surrounded by hard pavement suitable for rollerskating on, allowing at least tactical redeployment even in the face of VF mobility.
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===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."