The Two Jerseys wrote:USS Monitor wrote:
Even if they run out of gas for their trucks, they would still be able to do better than donkey carriages.
I don't use oil for fuel, but I am still a modern ship for the purposes of this debate. Steam trains also don't use oil. It's traditional to use coal, but you technically could use wood-fired boilers to run steam-powered machinery if you had that much trouble finding oil or coal. You can also use vegetable oil to run an engine.
Steam-powered combat vehicles are a really terrible idea. Fuel takes up too much space, they're useless until they build up a full head of steam (which could take hours from a cold start), and the exhaust and blow-off steam is a huge tactical disadvantage.
Using your food to produce fuel also poses some problems.
If you have no other options, then you must use the methods available to you no matter how inefficient they are.