Atlantic Federation: Squad E ( Tank Commanders | Scouts | Shocktroopers | Lancers | Engineers | Snipers | Grenadiers ) | Federation Navy
East Europan Imperial Alliance: X-0
Note: This article is for tropes related to Tank Commanders when they are piloting their vehicles during gameplay. For character tropes, see the Squad E page.
Tank Commanders in general
- Mighty Glacier: With the exception of the Glory and Cactus, the Hafen has a lot of HP and armor, and can be upgraded to beef it up even more, but its bulk means that speed won't be one of its advantages, and sometimes its slow speed can make it awkward to get out of range of Lancers or wiggle out of a minefield. The Edelweiss also counts, if one has the right DLC.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Enemy grenadiers who use WB GW B-series mortars, which can be quite common later on. Tanks that are struck by these grenadiers are instantly depleted of AP, stopping them short of their destination. The Fortify Treads order can be issued to protect one vehicle from this status effect for one turn.
Squad E Tank Commanders
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Claude Wallace - Hafen
- Armor Is Useless: Zig-zagged. Upgrading the Hafen does indeed improve its defenses, but due to tank treads hitboxes not being implemented in 4, the armor skirts added with later remodels don't actually do anything. They also do nothing to protect the Hafen from enemy grenadiers, who could instantly deplete it of AP if using certain mortar types, and it takes the player issuing an additional Fortify Treads order to cover this shortcoming, something the skirts should have already been doing by themselves.
Ronald Albee - Glory
- Fragile Speedster: How much faster the Glory is compared to the Hafen is debatable, but some of its glaringly obvious advantages are its smaller size and (slightly) higher AP, making it more maneuverable overall and it can fit into tight spaces where Hafen clearly cannot drive. This still does not make it last any longer against enemy tanks, fixed-position anti-tank guns, or Lancers.
- Glass Cannon: With much more emphasis on "glass" than "cannon". The Glory is almost never used by players due to its fragility and low AP for its tactical worth. While its damage is appreciable, especially against infantry when using the flamethrower, it has the defensive capabilities of a wet napkin and gets destroyed very quickly (by anti-armor weapons or by explosives, not by small-arms, mind you).
- Kill It with Fire: The Glory is the only tank capable of mounting flamethrowers.
- Not the Intended Use: Running over an enemy will cause them to jump away, moving slightly. As the Glory is still functionally immune to small-arms fire and possesses a decent amount of AP, it is occasionally possible to repeatedly ram an enemy in order to line up multiple targets for a Flamethrower attack
- Overshadowed by Awesome: The Glory is theoretically quite useful, featuring more AP than the Hafen, much better anti-infantry capabilities, and a smaller profile that lets it maneuver into tighter spaces and can make it harder to hit than the Hafen. In actual practice, the fact that you are always limited to only TWO tank spots, with the Hafen frequently being mandatory means that the Glory's theoretical advantages over the Hafen are pointless, because you aren't picking between the Hafen and the Glory, you're picking between the Glory and the Cactus, and the Cactus' far greater mobility coupled with the ability to transport infantry safely straight to objectives relegates the Glory to being effectively never used.
Dan Bentley - Cactus
- Boring, but Practical: The Cactus lacks the damage potential of the Hafen, but it makes up for this by its extreme utility, essentially serving as free AP for the troops that you'd want moved somewhere quickly, while also protecting them from the gunfire that they would otherwise have taken.
- Also happens in-game: The APC tutorial tells you you can spend command points to get your soldiers inside it - And you can indeed do this in a pinch if you're willing to burn one command point per solider - but you also could just spend a single command point on just controlling The Cactus instead, since it can get a prompt to pick up said troops for free when it's close enough to them anyway. Also, since the easiest place to pick up troops is turn 1 at your base, it's almost always worth doing this since you can 1: Place troops you want close to The Cactus for easy pick-up and then 2: spend those 3 command points driving The Cactus up to the other end of the map and then dump your soldiers onto the enemy base to capture the flag.
- Locked Out of the Fight: Units loaded onto the Cactus do not trigger potentials, nor are they affected by external damage or orders given by Claude while they're still in transit.
DLC Tank Commanders
Welkin Gunther - Edelweiss
- Crutch Character: The Edelweiss provides the player with a second tank early on in the game, which can be useful in some chapters, but it doesn't do anything the Hafen cannot. While its stats are scaled with the Hafen's upgrades, the lack of applicable parts means it's only really useful if the player is looking for a two-tank setup instead of the infinitely more valuable Cactus for some reason.
