[TML] 20mm cannons and bulky aliens

[Art O'Mary]

> > I've mentioned in the past the idea of larger, bulkier aliens and
> > what that means in terms of weapons.
> > 
> > Fighting troops for whom a 20 mm anti-tank rifle is the standard
> > infantry longarm is going to be just a bit hard on human troops.
> 
> But how bulky can they get before physical limits get to be a problem?  If
> you scale a human leg bone up by a factor of 2, it's 4 times as strong, but
> 8 times as heavy.  As creatures get larger, their limbs tend to get stubby
> compared to the body.

Well, there's no requirement for them to be human proportioned. 

But just as an example, consider aliens built like one of the larger 
types of bear.

and several authors have done the "quadruped with trunk/tentacle" 
type of large alien
--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com

Something like the aliens in 'Footfall'?
Every time I read one of the 'War with the Posleen' stories I picture them as K'kree warped by some Hiver manipulation gone bad. Sure, being at the mercy of herd instincts and dumb-as-dirt 'grunts' has its disadvantages, but it's nothing that can't be solved by throwing another ten million or so warriors into the battle...
ALO