Yesterday, Tex and the Black Pants Legion debuted their latest Tex Talks BattleTech video on the Warhammer. TWO HOURS of Tex talking fake history and real issues.
The first hour isn't filler. A lot of people have no idea how fucking retarded military procurement is and what a vehicle for corruption it is whenever such a thing arises, and a lot of the reasons for why military powers decline into pathetic states that result in military disasters comes from corruption in the procurement process.
Tex has to spend this time up front because the story of the Warhammer is meant to directly contrast against this. In real world terms, the comparison to make is the Tiger vs. the Sherman; Tigers were clearly superior technology, but they were expensive and slow to produce in the numbers required as well as a pain in the ass logistically to maintain while Shermans were cheap, made in massive numbers, and easily handled in the field- and you'll find the T-34 to be the Soviet counterpart to the Sherman.
The previous video on the Catapult also follows the ethos of the Warhammer: "Be good enough for the job." You'll see a lot of other popular and lasting BattleMech designs fall into the same design ethos that Tex lays out for the Warhammer: off the shelf components, easily field-servicable, proven user interface design, clearly-defined mission profile- and never making the Perfect the enemy of the Good.
In short, the story of the Warhammer is the story of competent logisticians winning out over silver-tongued shysters in uniform because--as Tukkayid showed--what matters is being the firstest with the mostest that's good enough and not being perfect warriors with perfect warmachines perfectly pursuing perfect plans and procedures that never go wrong- because it is guaranteed to go wrong.
It's a lesson repeated time and again in real history, and playing out again now, and will play out again sooner than we think.
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