30 Armored Vehicles

1. AX-1A Light Tank

The AX-1A, also known as the Axiom by the manufacturer, and as the Amos to military planners is a mundane if reliable light tank. Armed with a conventional 55mm cannon and a pair of machine guns, it is not really a match for other tanks on the the battlefield. But the main uses of the AX-1A seldom place it in contention with other heavy armored vehicles. The main uses of the tank are for fighting insurgencies, militias, scouting, and harassing missions. The tank is both small and relatively fast with better armor than armored cars and other dedicated scout vehicles, and its gun is quite good at taking out light and unarmored vehicles. In insurgencies and militia level operations, the tank is used to support infantry sweeps, and to fight enemies who have dug into buildings and other make-shift fortifications. These tend to be modified to carry grenade launchers, and have an armor skirt that can be used to keep things from being stuck into the road wheel assemblies. Given the low tech level of the AX-1A, there are few modifications generally available for the tank. The most common include removing most of the armor to carry a heavier gun, or dropping the 50mm for a quad set of machine guns in an open turret. Neither modification is popular.

2. MRK-3 Mandrake

The Mandrake is a conventional style tank with a turret mounted 75mm cannon. It is common, easy to repair, and the bar for average in terms of speed, and armor. It is also a very commonly modified vehicle. The Mandrake, and tanks like it, make up the vast majority of tanks in service. While not top of the line advanced war machines, these vehicles are more than capable of handling local and regional disputes, and can engage both unarmored targets and other tanks. The most common variants of the Mandrake include:

• MRK-3CF Minesweeper - this variant mounts a chain flail mine sweeping device that detonates mines before the tank reaches them. Sadistic crews have used the flail to attack infantry positions.
• MRK-3-R1 Recovery Vehicle - an unarmed and turretless model, the 3-R1 was designed to tow damaged Mandrakes from the battlefield. It can do the same with almost any vehicle 50 tons or less.
• MRK-3F Firedrake - Swaps the coaxial machine gun next to the main cannon for a flame thrower. A second flame thrower is mounted on the front of the hull. Firedrakes are used to take out bunkers and reinforced positions

3. Z-6 Zalinka

The Zalinka is a popular, is common tank. Tipping the scales at 65 tons, it has ample armor and impressive firepower. This generally comes at the expense of a high top speed, but the military wisdom behind this tank places it in advances with combined arms infantry and other armored vehicles. The Zalinka forms the core of the armored advance, while lighter faster vehicles perform flanking maneuvers. The main gun is a 120mm smoothbore cannon, supported by several machine guns, grenade dispensers, and other gear that varies from tank to tank. Swapping a grenade launcher for an additional armor plate is easy, as is swapping a pintle mounted machine gun for a flamethrower, or even swapping the heavy 120mm for a 75mm autocannon. The 75mm has a much shorter barrel, but a robust auto-loaded and increased magazine. The 120mm gun has impressive range and accuracy, but the rate of fire is around 2-3 rounds every 10-12 seconds, depending on the skill of the crew. The 75mm can fire 20 rounds in the same amount of time, but at the cost of long range accuracy, and the tank can expend all of its ammo in less than a minute of sustained firing. The autocannon Zalinka, also called a Zippy, represents less than 10% of models in the field, but is almost better known than its traditionally armed sibling.

4. H1/3 Tetsuo / Tetsaiga

Weighing in at 106 tons, the Tetsuo is a rare super heavy tank. The turret of the tank weighs as much as a light tank alone. The Tetsuo is a monster to behold, a thing of tank crew nightmares and the sort of thing that leaves infantry terrified with its mere presence. Sitting on four sets of treads, dwarfing other tanks, the Tetsuo brings a massive eight inch modified naval gun to the terrestrial battlefield. The tank is part terror weapon, part rolling fortress, and part bunker buster. When properly supported with smaller tanks and AA vehicles, Tetsuos can break apart enemy tank formations, smash fortresses and bunkers, and with spotters can rain down heavy artillery like a squadron of heavy cruisers. They are very high priority targets on a battlefield. All the more reason for the tank to have the sort of armor that can survive taking the damage they can dish out. The Tetsaiga is a radical modification of the Tetsuo, dropping the 200mm cannon in favor of mounting a 400mm mortar. The Tetsaiga fires the projectiles in high arcs, dropping the massive 16 inch rounds on buildings and fortifcations from above. Unlike the Tetsuo, it cannot engage targets with direct fire.

5. Potez Model A, Model 66, and Model 3G

In an age of mecha and advanced weaponry, the Potez company is known for making dated and borderline obsolete vehicles. Their series or armored personel carriers fits this bill to the letter. Widely available and seldom wanted, the Potez Model A is an armor box with a motor and some light treads. The main use of the vehicle is for police para-military forces and private security companies (real security companies, not politically correct mercenaries). It is unarmed, has no turret, and only has a single man crew and space in the box for seven more troops. Speed is mediocre, and the armor is thin. The Model 66 is a major improvement over the model A, adding an open top machine gun, a larger engine, and room for ten rather than 7. The 66 does suffer from having an open top and the same thin armor as the A. The 3G is considered both the best, and possibly the worst of the vehicles offered in the series of armored personel carriers. It has six road wheels rather than treads, and is easily the fastest of the bunch. It can only carry the same seven man squad as the A, but has a twin machine gun mount on the top of the vehicle. The light armor has not been corrected, it is still an open vehicle, and its terrain handling ability is less than the other two vehicles.

6. Infantry Fighting Vehicle
7. Infantry Assault Vehicle
8. Assault Gun
The assault gun superficially resembles a tank, but the main cannon is embedded deep in the chassis and the vehicle lacks a turret. The main role of the assault gun is to support infantry in blowing up bunkers, reinforced positions, and other things that are best delt with via high explosive but not necesarrily armor piecing or high velocity rounds. Due to simplified construction, assault guns are cheaper to produce than tanks.

9. Self-Propelled Gun
10. Tank Destroyer

11. Wheeled Tank
12. Armored Car
A mainstay of armored combat since WWI, the armored car is a light combat vehicle armed with a small calibre weapon. The main role of the armored car is recon, with a minor secondary skirmisher and raider. The most successful armored car crews tallied few if any kills as they spent their time scouting enemy locations, spotting for artillery fire, or providing emergency supplies to troops in tight areas. Those armored cars that went about shooting up enemy trucks and foot patrols tended to draw the attention of tank forces, or anti-tank infantry.

13. Hover Tanks
14. Repulsor Tanks
15. Laser Tanks
The Laser Tank is a sure thing to eventually appear on the battlefield of tomorrow. The laser has a number of advantages over missle and ballistic weapons. It doesn't require ammunition, there are no moving parts to wear out, or be damaged by use, and firing a laser produces no muzzle blast, no recoil, and doesn't give away a position since most lasers are not visible to the naked eye. These tanks would have long endurance in the field, requiring little upkeep in terms of ammunition. Unfortunately the laser doesn't have stopping power, and it deals damage by heat. Laser tanks are unlikely to be used in battles against other tanks, but more likely thin skinned or unarmored vehicles, infantry and buildings, the sort of things that light tanks, skirmish vehicles and the like are employed to take out

16. Particle Cannon Tanks
17. Rail Gun Tanks
18. Gun Carrier/Mammoth
The Gun Carrier differs from a traditional tank in that it mounts a pair of primary weapon systems instead of a single main gun. The most famous armored vehicle of this type is the Mammoth Tank of Command and Conquer fame. The Gun Carrier tends to be on the heavy to super-heavy end of the scale, and is as likely to be a psychological weapon versus regular tanks as much as a combat vehicle. Gun Carriers have the advantage of having two guns, it is harder to knock both weapons out, and the amount of damage the vehicle can project is usually quite impressive. Gun-Carriers tend to sacrifice either speed or armor to maintain their weaponry. The slow variants tend to be expensive and heavily armored, while the thin skinned variants tend to favor long range weapons and are either wonders of technology or quicksell vehicles.

19. Ontos/Thing
Ontos is the Greek word for ‘Thing' and this tank is directly referenced from the Battletech heavy tank of the same name. The Ontos type tank is generally going to be a very large and heavy tank. The thing that seperates it out from the basic heavy tank is that rather than mounting one main weapon system, it mounts a large number of smaller weapons. This is the class of tank that would mount four or more smaller autocannons, or a cluster of half a dozen medium sized lasers. The advantage of the Ontos type of tank is that fire enough weapons and some of them are bound to hit the target. Damage also tends to be much higher from a larger number of potential hits. The weakness of the Ontos style of tank is that this breadth of firepower often lacks range or penetrating power. A target that can weather the storm of damage will be in a good position to return fire on the weapon menagerie that is the Ontos.

20. Missle Tank
21. Minesweeper
22. Demolition Tank
23. Tank Drone
24. Landship
25. Tower-Tank
Drawn from sci-fantasy, the Tower-Tank is a rolling fortress, towering over a battlefield and spraying all around with a variety of weapons. This large and imposing weapon crushes fortified positions, and serves as the core of an assault force. In typical fashion, these giants have Achilles heels as most are deployed by the bad guys and have to be destroyed by daring do rather than precision artillery or airstrikes, both of which the tower-tank should be an easy target for.

26. Anti-Aircraft Vehicle

Probably the best example of this is the ZSU-23-4, or the newer 2K22 Tunguska. The defining feature of these vehicles is the ability to fill airspace with high-velocity projectiles, though some will supplement this with Surface to Air Missiles. They also are quite viable weapons for attacking light to medium ground targets.

27. Urban Assault Vehicle
28. Legged Tank
29. Mecha-Tank
30. Recovery Vehicle