Type-88 Hatoyama-class walker

Development
The brainchild of Imperial Army colonel Hatoyama Tomoyuki, the Type-88 was created over five years.

Disparagingly known as "Hatoyama's White Elephant" or the "Dune Cow" (by civilian observers who saw the testing of the vehicle), the Type-88 walker was widely seen as a flawed concept with no clear battlefield role besides its extremely niche purpose as a long-range rough-terrain personnel and cargo hauler. However, the Type-88 was nonetheless accepted by the Imperial Army partly due to Hatoyama's ties to high-ranking procurement officials, and 200,000 units were ordered in 188. After the Type-88 was adopted by the Imperial Army, the Army struggled to find a combat role for the vehicle and placed them under special "Armoured Transportation Battalions". Besides the preceding nicknames, some Imperial commanders further derided the Type-88 walkers as overpriced and slow "trucks on legs". The subsequent outbreak of the First Empire-Hierarchy War (189-190) briefly caused the halting of the Type-88 walker program.

However, the outbreak of the Empire-Union War (190-193) saw the discovery of the Type-88's battlefield role. The bulk of ground fighting between the Empire and Union took place on Tazawa, which was still relatively less developed and required Imperial ground forces to be landed at less-developed landing sites before being shuttled to the front lines. Supply lines and routes often crossed difficult terrain that wheeled and tracked vehicles faced problems crossing, and at the same time occasionally faced attacks by partisans. Rapidly shifting front lines also occasionally forced transport vehicles to become involved in direct combat. In this environment, the Type-88's heavy armour and multi-legged design excelled, developing into the subsequently successful "All Terrain Armoured Transport" role.