If all the Martians have is the heat ray and the black gas, then I’d say they’re screwed. The heat ray is pretty much line of sight, and most artillery engagements nowadays are carried out at greater distances than that. Even the 120mm M256 gun on an MIA1 has been effective at almost 4000 meters (in Desert Storm), and that’s not a particularly long range gun. With effective use of terrain, an M1A1 could get off a shot or two from a mile and a half away and be back under cover before the enemy could respond.
Meanwhile, when you’re in an 80 foot tall tripod, there’s not really an such thing as cover unless you’re in a city or a redwood forest.
No artillery support, no infantry.
Tank vs. tripod only.
And that elevated Tripod can, equally, see over most cover. Great field of fire.
BTW–“Torpedo Rams” are a roughly Light Cruiser sized vessel, armed with fairly light deck guns & depending on true naval torpedos to attack. They also have rams, as in “Ramming Speed!” :eek: They were very fast for their size, & I assume lightly armored, with reinforcing structures in the bow so the ship wouldn’t sink after ramming the target. Intended for Coastal Defense, & planned as a command ship, around which a flotilla of PT-like boats would operate. Only one was ever built by the UK, but the Austro-Hungarian Empire was nuts over the idea, seeing it, I suppose, as a cheap way to sink British Dreadnoughts. Ancestor of the modern Guilded Missile boats, used in a similar role.
Tank v Tripod is a point worth discussing.
The modern U.S. Military v All the Tripods (in an area) is not. The U.S. Military can deploy a large number of weapons equal to or better 1900s artillery shells. in the blink of an eye.
(BTW, how the heck are Tripods supposed to walk? Does the trail leg just drag on the ground and serve as nice place to sit while zapping London or what?)
The tripods’ gait brings to mind a three-legged stool rolling along, only with a smooth organic motion.