Roan self-propelled recoilless rifle (Patreon)

More development art for the first expansion book for the Roan RPG which is Roan: World at War. Its Kickstarter is ongoing through October 14th. Link  Often in a general war nations are forced to adapt tactics, equipment, or technlogies as the realities of war test pre-existing conceptions of how combat would occur. 

    With economies strained by the pressures of war, nations often cannot afford to waste or throw away existing vehicles, or materials. Also as new technologies come to the forefront there's often an awkward period as nations decide how  best to employ it. 

    The vehicle shown here originally was a light tank similar to say the German  PzKpfw II  or the US M3/5 Stuart that had been built in large numbers either before or during the early days of the conflict. However as the war progressed the vehicle was found to be either inadequate for it's original role, or other pressing needs result in the vehicle being repurposed for the new needs. 

    The small caliber autocannon and armor originally installed on this vehicle was no longer able to deal with the threats of the battlefield. However a new weapon were now available. The recoilless rifle. It was a lightweight weapon that packed a powerful punch which was useful as newer, more powerful, vehicles began to appear in the enemy ranks. The new weapon didn't require as heavy of a vehicle to transport it, but it did have special requirements and needs. 

     The recoilless rifle packed a heavy punch, but it also generated a very large fire signature due to the back blast it created. This also makes turret use very difficult to do so an open top design was pursued. This gave the vehicle a very low profile which allowed it to exploit the terrain to its advantage. However this gave the crew minimal armor protection.  Also to successfully employ the recoilless rifle required a crew of 4 which was one more than the original vehicle crew.  

     This means vehicle is rather crowded and was best employed as an ambush vehicle that used camouflage and terrain to get the element of surprise. Then once the weapon had been fired the vehicle would quickly vacates its firing location and takes up a new position and repeat the process. The vehicle also didn't provide much in the way of magical protection against things like the miasma. 

Edit. Here's another video that shows a different recoilless rifle in more depth. Video