| MBT-X8 Guardian Main Battle Tank | |
| File:NamGuardian.png | |
| File:AlliedGuardianTanksIngame.png | |
| The Guardian Tank | |
| Faction |  Allied Nations
|
| Unit Type | Main Battle Tank |
| Designation | Anti Tank |
| Tier | 2 |
| Production Building | Armour Facility |
| Secondary Ability | Switch Spyglass Spectrum Target Designator/Main Cannon  Reduces Target Defence/Ground attack |
| Cost | $950 |
| Production Time | 0:10 |
| Heroic Upgrade | Improved systems • Gains Machine Gun • Spyglass painting stacks |
| Dev. Status | Original RA3 Unit |
| Country of Origin |  United Kingdom
|
| Produced by | United Armour, Leeds |
| Key Features | » 120mm Smoothbore Gun » "Spyglass" Target Designator » Composite Armour Resists Impact » Rugged Split-Tread Chassis » Dual-Encrypted Comm Array |
"Spotlight's on that one!"
- - Guardian Tank Operator, using its target painter.
Tactical Analysis
- Hard hitting: The Allies' main battle tank is able to shrug off most small-arms fire and can handily deal with smaller armoured vehicles in the arsenals of other militaries. However, compared to the Soviet Hammer Tank, the Guardian is not nearly as well armoured, and fighting in the vicinity of an Allied Armour Facility and its repair drones is often necessary to handle large numbers of foes.
- Armour-piercing firepower: Guardian Tanks work well in small groups, as this way they can compensate for their average firing rate while dispatching armoured enemies and military facilities quickly and cleanly. Note that because most Guardian Tanks are armed only with their smoothbore guns for various reasons, they are not effective against smaller or faster targets. To this end, a high-priority memorandum regarding Soviet Terror Drones has reportedly been circulating very quickly among Guardian crews. However, elite Guardian crews have recently had their tanks upgraded with low powered but effective machine guns that allow them to better deal with such threats.
- Target Sighted: The Guardian's Spyglass target designator may not seem like an obvious trade-off given that it cannot be used to damage an enemy vehicle directly, unlike the Guardian's main gun. However, by functionally bolstering the attack power of all other Allied forces trained on the target of the Spyglass, a Guardian Tank crew using this device may prove far more essential to the outcome of the battle.
- Beware of air: Guardian Tank crews rely on anti-air support, for they make prime targets for Soviet combat helicopters. In what some see as an overzealous effort to counteract the Soviets' feared Twinblades, the Allies have begun deploying a variety of powerful anti-air platforms, including its Hydrofoils and the Icarus.
WWIII Operational History
Faced with Soviet incursions on multiple fronts, Allied nations hurriedly banded together to form a military coalition from the toughest or surviving bits and pieces of representative nations' defence forces. Although the need to form a cohesive military network of course was urgent, certain key elements needed considerable time to be flushed out.
After all, despite widespread differences of opinion within the Allied ranks regarding how best to repel the Soviet Union's advancements, everyone was on the same page about at least one thing: The Allies wouldn't get a second chance to keep their nations' sovereignty. So it was with great care (and some trepidation) that Allied War Council made the decision to move forward with plans to double down on production of the MBT-X8 Guardian Tank, mainstay of the Allies' armour divisions, and a crucial component in the free nations' ongoing struggles to keep the U.S.S.R. from expanding its borders any further.
Artwork of the Guardian Tank
A main battle tank of British origin, the Guardian became the mainstay of Peacekeeper forces on the ground worldwide after besting the Grizzly, an American-made design, in field tests across the board. While the Guardian's performance characteristics admittedly did not exceed those of the Grizzly by a wide margin, even a narrow victory was enough to justify switching production lines over to this newer model.
After all, the Allied War Council fully expected to have to deploy Guardians in bulk in order to stave off Soviet armour divisions, believed to be the strongest in the world. To that end, the Allied Guardian Tank has proven to be something of an underdog, effectively helping to repel larger Soviet forces while bolstering the combat-effectiveness (if not the morale) of coalition forces caught in the same struggle.
The Guardian boasts an impressive balance of power, durability, and manoeuvrability and has a molded frame that helps keep production costs down. Its 120 mm main gun can punch through Soviet armour reliably and packs more firepower, though a slightly lower rate of fire, than the Guardian's Soviet counterpart. However, the Guardian's Soviet counterpart was not the Allies' greatest concern, for they needed to be able to contend with an assortment of heavy vehicles.
To this end, a relatively heavy platform like the Guardian Tank proved to be a suitable home for a special targeting device that could be used to even the odds against the worst that the Soviets had to offer. Each Guardian Tank now comes standard with a target-designating module, which replaces the exposed machinegun mount found on older models. Designed to complement other Allied weapons platforms, the Spyglass target designator (colloquially called the "target painter") relays targeting information to nearby Allied forces.
By automatically interfacing with their weapons systems, the target painter makes other forces more accurate and deadly by compensating for wind direction, visibility, and more than 100 marginal factors--all of which add up. A Guardian Tank is unable to maintain the beam through the recoil of its main gun's firing sequence, so Guardian crews must coordinate well to decide which unit within the column is going to "cast the lure" (as Guardian technicians put it) while the others press the attack.
Casualty rates among Guardian Tank crews are being kept close to the vest by Allied officials, though one might assume the worst given that these forces, well-equipped though they may be, were necessarily used to turn the tide of many losing battles. Now that the Allied forces have eked out a few victories along some European borders, some of the concern is turning to hope, even a bit of bravado on the part of some Guardian Tank crews, who quip that their vehicles ought to have been named differently now that they're occasionally taking the offensive. At any rate, in spite of the inherent dangers, many career military men strive for the honor of serving aboard such a vehicle in the name of the Allies' difficult mission to stabilize the most dangerous countries of the world.
Cancelled Experimental Project
The "Chrono Guardian"
One of the most promising cancelled projects was the "Chrono Tank". Allied commanders during World War III in Europe remonstrated about a lack of strong tank support. Guardians weren't enough to stop the heavily armoured superheavy Soviet tanks. When the level of the complaints became unbearable, Allied High Command gave FutureTech commission for a new advanced strike tank. FutureTech scientists came up with idea of implementing a small version of the Chronosphere on the Guardian Tank. With help from United Armour, Project "Chrono Tank" was started.
In late 1967, FutureTech unveiled the first production model of the MBT-Ch8 Chrono Tank, also known as the Chrono Guardian. Commanders were impressed with the new look and overall changes made to its interior equipment. The Spyglass target designator was completely removed to make room for the Chronosphere device. However, because of this new device, the tank could just disappear and reappear without use of tracks, although it still used them to allow normal movement. Its 90mm gun was left alone, but FutureTech promised a new weapon for it later, based on Chronorift technology, which would freeze an enemy unit in time for a few moments before removing it from time and space forever. The show inspired Allies enough that they ordered FutureTech to produce 1,000 more Chrono Guardians.
The first deployment of Chrono Guardians occurred one month after its introduction in France. Reports from tank crews confirmed that Chrono tanks, with the same firepower as a Guardian, were able to teleport behind enemy armour divisions, attack their weak rear armour, and escape via Chronowarp. The Soviet advancement in France was slowed, until a horrible accident. A group of five Chrono Guardians were dispatched to ambush a Soviet tank column. Everything was going perfectly and the Soviet units were seriously damaged with several Hammer Tanks destroyed and an MCV damaged. But when the Chrono Guardians attempted to teleport back to their base, an error occurred within the mini-Chronospheres.
The Chronospheres started gathering unknown energy and before the driver could teleport away to safety, an explosion caused by the Chronospheres destroyed them and the armour divisions, as well as three-quarters of the base they were heading back to. Allied High Command and FutureTech decided to cancel the project. All remaining Chrono Guardians were destroyed at the Boneyard in Nevada and the remains were thrown down the Laurentian Abyss. All documents about it were destroyed as well.
Post-War Operational History
A post war production model Guardian, with the machine gun turret. It isn't visible, but the supply of tea bags is quite generous.
After an enterprising Guardian tank commander figured out that his tank's Spyglass target designator could be swivelled to point upwards with a simple modification, it has become standard practice for Guardian tanks to use their target designators to assist anti-aircraft units by "marking" helicopters and the like.
Additionally, with the end of the war and the recent overhaul of the Leeds Production Facility, the newest model of the Guardian has finally been put into full production, with veteran and frontline units getting priority. While the previous model eliminated the exposed machine gun mount in favour of the Spyglass, the new model includes a machine gun mount in an remotely controlled turret, a change largely prompted by the heavy losses of unescorted Guardians to infantry. In theory, Guardian tanks were supposed to always be supported by infantry units, thus removing the need for the machine gun in the first place. In practice, however, Guardian tanks were often forced to operate without infantry support, whether because of Desolator Defoliant, enemy snipers, or use of the Chronosphere. In many of these cases, it was concluded that had the Guardians been equipped with machine guns, casualties would not have been as severe.
Another significant change is the installation of updated Spyglass target designators, which can have their frequency adjusted by the operator. In this way, the new Spyglass designators avoid the interference that would normally result when two Spyglass target designators are pointed at the same target; this allows for multiple Spyglass designators to 'paint' a single foe for even greater effectiveness.
Due to popular demand, inbuilt kettles have also been installed in these new models, along with a plentiful supply of tea bags. Tank crew morale has increased greatly as a result.
Behind the Scenes
- The "Chrono Guardian" was planned to be an advanced tank by EA, but was scrapped because of difficulties with counters.
Just the Stats
| Guardian Tank | |
| Main Battle Tank | |
| Cost | 950 |
| Build Time | 0:10 |
| Health | 150 |
| Speed | 70 |
| Armour Type | Heavy Armour |
| 120mm Cannon | |
| Move and Fire | |
| Cannon | |
| Range | 50/350 |
| RPS | 1/3 |
| Damage | 100 |
| Suppression | 30 |
| DPS | 33.3 |
| Spyglass Designator | |
| Move and Fire, Debuff(Armour 50%) | |
| N/A (Air and Ground) | |
| Range | 500 |
| RPS | N/A |
| Damage | N/A |
| Suppression | N/A |
| DPS | N/A |
| ★ Cupola Machine-Gun ★ | |
| Drop Off, Move and Fire | |
| Gun | |
| Range | 210 |
| RPS | 5 |
| Damage | 4 |
| Suppression | 3 |
| DPS | 20 |
| Experience Levels | |
| Default Kill Reward | 350 |
| Veteran | 1400 |
| Kill Reward | 700 |
| Elite | 2800 |
| Kill Reward | 1400 |
| Heroic | 5600 |
| Kill Reward | 2800 |
