Basic Trope: Combining several different war machines into one.
- Straight: Emperor Evulz has a fleet of amphibious battleships, the heroes - Airborne Aircraft Carrier.
- Exaggerated: The heroes' Battlestar is capable of atmospheric flight, operation on and underwater, and carries a fleet of Humongous Mecha which transform into Space Planes also able to go underwater. On the opposing side there is Emperor Evulz' space dreadnought harboring a Wave-Motion Gun, a giant drill, also capable of entering the atmosphere, and pumping out lots of spider-legged submarines complete with crews which are themselves APCs for hordes of unmanned Mini-Mecha.
- Downplayed: Heroes use tanks equipped with medical supplies (tankbulances) to both fight Emperor Evulz forces and heal their wounded, while Emperor Evulz armed forces use jeeps with mounted mortars, and other such combinations vehicles and weapons at least somewhat related.
- Justified: Emperor Evulz' doctrine is to overwhelm his enemies with artillery fire, which Land Battleships can bring anywhere. They are also handy for instilling fear in the enemies. The speed of Airborne Aircraft Carrier, meanwhile, allows heroes to pick their fights and strike the Empire's weakest spots.
- Inverted: Functions of a larger machine are divided between several types of unmanned drones, which are then produced en-masse.
- Subverted: Emperor Evulz' land battleship cannot open full fire on land, as doing so on hard ground would put too much strain on the chassis — forcing it to serve only one function at once.
- Double Subverted: ...but that does not stop it from crushing tank formations.
- Parodied: In an effort to create an unstoppable army, military scientists combine Mi-24 helicopter with an ice-cream van.
- Downplayed/Parodied: it's an Army Surplus Special.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Despite the setting being high-tech enough, no land battleships, flying aircraft carriers, or mobile factories are to be seen.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: "What now, a submersible aircraft carrier?! We're fucked."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz watches The Unstoppable Armada in his free time, and thinks: "Hey, that's actually a clever idea!"
- Exploited: Evulz calls an assembly of engineers and industrialists, and they cheer him on, since building land battleships will bring them a lot of money.
- Defied: His plans are then swiftly shot down by his advisor pointing out just how much it will cost.
- Discussed: "Battleship on treads is still a pretty good idea, dontcha think?" "Maybe, but not nearly as useful as an aircraft-carrying submarine." "Hey, then let's make one of those instead!"
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- The machines in question are a bitch to repair and ludicrously expensive.
- The collateral damage from Land Battleships is enormous, and Emperor Evulz ends up ruling over the smoldering wasteland.
- Land battleships and airborne aircraft carriers prove to be inferior at fulfilling the multiple roles when compared to their more conventional counterparts.
- Reconstructed:
- Easy Logistics and Applied Phlebotinum nullify the problem of maintaining such a machine.
- Evulz doesn't mind the massive collateral damage, however, because his plan is to remake the world in his own image, and he might as well start from scratch.
- The machines gain new roles the originals are not capable of: the land battleships can effectively carve a path for the other units simply by driving along due to their massive weight, while an airborne aircraft carrier can also act as a really well-stocked bomber... or a really big bomb.
- Played For Laughs: General Ripper sets out to create the ultimate all-aspect battle machine - an amphibious winged nuclear Drill Tank equipped with Frickin' Laser Beams and a minibar. And it works.
- Played For Drama:
- General Failure is convinced that littering his shoreline with mines, barbed wire, tank traps, and bunkers will halt any landing attempts... untill Emperor Evulz' battleships hit the shore and flatten every single line of defense.
- The war has been raging for so long that the heroes have no choice but to make new vehicles out of whatever spares they have left, no matter how impractical the result may be.
It would be a good idea to fly your shiny looking submersible Space Plane back to Military Mashup Machine.
