[ianargent]

I think of it as a gamist notion to support the GEV's "too fast to target" nature. Maximum Effective Range in Ogre is determined not by the physical range of the weapons, but by their targeting/sensor ranges. The GEV can make a speeding firing pass in on their target, fire at their target as they bear, and go speeding out again before the target can localize the GEV close enough to damage it.

It's certainly a gamist concept that breaks down if you think too hard about it, but it simplifies and speeds play; and the entire rules set is balanced around (among other things) GEVs being invulnerable to anything with a strike range less than 5. Once you add terrain in, you start having to factor the different effects of terrain vs unit type; and there's a reason that LTs are more strongly affected by terrain than HTs (otherwise 2x LTs would be better than 1xHT, and as it is I've seen strong arguments than 2x LGEVs are better than 1x GEVs, because they are impacted the same by terrain).