By far and large, tanks are the backbone of your mechanised army. Armoured to a certain degree, and with the addition of some supplementary hitpoints and the ability to host a more powerful gun than normally used by armoured cars, tanks are a highly versatile bunch of units, even if they seem made of cardboard in the face of fighter-bombers and antitank infantry! Tanks are initially very weak - save for the Whippet, LK and FT-17 variants, they are easily taken out by direct hits with artillery, which deals a lot of damage but is rather slow to fire. Later, the speed and armour of tanks increase, making them ideal for destroying other units ... except tank destroyers.
Generally speaking:
- Tanks are armoured, and deal added damage to all other vehicles, and while mostly impervious to normal gunfire, they are vulnerable to artillery weapons, especially dedicated anti-vehicle weapons. They may be built only in a heavy engineering depot which requires Homeland Security and Stainless Steel.
- Tanks have poor LOS (3r) but tanks of the Electronics, Synthetics and Atomic eras have a base of 2 and an increase in Sci-based LOS of 1r per tech researched.
- Germans receive this bonus 1 Era earlier (with Mechanisation) and an added science bonus of +2r,
- British tanks retain their base 3r LOS, and have a science bonus of +3r for tanks with Electronics.
- Additionally, tanks can be fairly costly, eating up a fair amount in population cap and also require a fair amount of resources - light tanks consume a fair bit, but heavy tanks in excessive amounts can murder your economy.
- All tanks from [2] onward require Armoured Corps Doctrine to be obtained; and their SPG counterparts require Combined Arms Approach and flame weapons require Intergovernmental Initiative.
- Tankettes, while considered armoured vehicles, are a cross between armoured cars and light tanks. Although they seem faster and cheaper, their somewhat poor armament means that they are often fighters in tin armour, easily slaughtered with sufficient infantry and artillery, but can be built without requiring Armoured Corps Doctrine.
- SPGs and flame tanks are not manufactured at the Heavy Engineering Depot, but are instead created from the Foundry.
Unit roster[]
Population cost:
- Light tank - 1
- Medium tank - 1
- Heavy tank - 2
- SPG - (-1)
- Flamer - 1
Tank variants[]
- Light tanks: relatively weak in armour and armament, but are useful as infantry escort - they are fast, decently armoured and can punch a few holes into enemy infantry and armoured cars. These tanks are best used for escort duty.
- Medium tanks: slower, but possess better guns and better armour, but not as efficient at taking infantry apart as light tanks are.
- Heavy tanks are the slowest and most inaccurate, but are the hardest to destroy. Yet, nobody should complain greatly of them: used efficiently, they will tear apart all other units easily. Heavy tanks tend to be extremely hard to destroy, unless someone is currently using SPGs.
- Self-propelled assault guns (SPGs): SPGs are artillery pieces set on a tank chassis. For a list of all possible SPGs, see here.
- Flame tank: A flame tank is an armoured vehicle capable of firing a high-velocity jet of burning fuel at enemies. This flame attack is most useful at clearing out entrenched infantry and garrisons in buildings, and also deals some added damage against light vehicles and buildings. Although flame tanks have reasonably good armour, they are considerably less mobile than their mainstream counterparts (on which they were based) and also take considerably more damage if hit from behind. Different flame tanks are based on different models, and are indicated along with their parent models.
- While not as powerful as normal light tanks, tankettes tend to be cheaper and have the advantage of being capable of being assembled without requiring Armoured Corps Doctrine. Some factions such as Italy and Japan do not require a Heavy Engineering Depot to build them, making it easier to create an armoured force to crush your foes before they can create proper tanks to finish you off.
Tank producers[]
Japan[]
- Fast-firing guns, but poor armour.
- Tankette line is built at Munitions Factory.
- Japanese tanks are initially cheap to upgrade but over time become very exorbitant to upgrade.
Germany[]
- Costly tanks
- These tanks however are legendary in power and defence - they have the best attack and armour parameters in the whole game.
- Tanks do not increase production time.
France[]
- Tactically well-balanced, the only thing which sets them apart from other factions is that except for the ARL 44, French tanks do not require Armoured Corps Doctrine to upgrade beyond [1].
USA[]
- Initially very costly to research and upgrade, but becomes cheaper than most factions after [3].
- USA SPGs and specialised vehicles build faster and have lower non-oil ramp coss.
Britain[]
- Added LOS, no minimum range.
Italy[]
- Tankette line is built from Foundry
- Italian SPGs and specialised vehicles tend to be cheaper than others.
USSR[]
- Tactically well-balanced, comparable to France.
- Research time for USSR armour is the fastest, allowing them to out-tech as opposed to out-tanking or even out-shooting opponents.
Oslo Group[]
- Faster production time for all unique armour units.
Argentina[]
Argentina has one single tank: the Nahuel. While it is comparable to a Sherman, the Nahuel however comes into the game one age earlier (with [4]), but is slower and tends to require more oil in its ramp costs - the Argentines can still upgrade to cheaper Shermans.