The Taressimian Martial State came into existence a mere century before the events of The Nine Empires, and in that time, expanded into a power to be reckoned with, on par with the Sondorian and Karadenian Empires to its west and east, respectively. Part of the Martial State's success was due to the slow, methodical, yet unrelenting expansion, enabling Taressim to gobble up small countries one by one. There were multiple technologies that allowed the Taressimians to do this, including reviving the ancient practise of literally breeding their army. The most feared of these selectively-bred troops were the trench assault gunners, a special breed of lavkin.
This is definitely not the final version, as that triple-barrel shotgun is a bit too futuristic for my taste. Likewise, I'd like to give these troops something other than a pith helmet.
The sleeveless look, on the other hand, will probably stay on the final version, since these troops ride into battle in METAL BAWKSES that get very hot.
I'd like to add some bandoliers to hold large numbers of shells for the assault shotgun. Truthfully, I'm debating whether or not the main weapon should be a shotgun or grenade launcher, but I suppose if it's a large enough calibre, it could fire both types of shells. Then again, I could just have two versions of this soldier, and units could make use of combined arms tactics.
I had thought about adding some melee weapons, but let's be honest: heavy guns make effective blunt weapons, and even unarmed, these guys would still be deadly in hand-to-hand combat.
The METAL BAWKSES that these troops are deployed from is a long, unarmed variant of the Taressimian trench tank:
This is a very old model of mine, which I made before I was even on the blockchain, and I discuss it here: https://kjworldsong.wordpress.com/2017/11/20/fighting-vehicles-of-the-nine-empires-part-1-trench-warfare-in-taressim/
In addition to the doors on top and in the back, there are also doors in the bottom of the hull, and the trench gunners drop down into trenches, directly on top of the defenders. They then spread out in either direction, clearing out the trench, like so:
That trench, incidentally, is 4,5 metres wide, and the APC is designed specifically to place itself across the trench, rather than simply traversing it. Given that the engine is in the back, I'm considering modifying the design and putting doors on the side for entry purposes. Perhaps that will be the second version of the vehicle. Hopefully, by the time I get round to doing so, I'll have enough additional props to make a a diorama (probably virtual) representing how the army truly functions. That is my intention for every faction in this story.
Oi, this wasn't supposed to be posted to the community, I'm not even active at the moment! Glitch?!