Tank Lovers Group
Hobbies & Interests
This group is for everyone who like tanks, sci-fi tanks, real tanks, funny tanks, you can put here tank mods, tank maps, simply everything with straps, armor and gun :D
M808B Main Battle Tank A.K.A. the Scorpion.
(view original)
Post a comment
Description
Length 10 metres (33 ft)
Width 3 metres (9.8 ft)
Mass 66 metric tons (65 LT; 73 ST)
Maximum acceleration 9 km/h/s
Maximum speed (atmosphere) 54km/h (33 mph)
Hull Ceramic-Titanium Armor
Armament 1 M512 90mm Smooth Bore High Velocity Cannon
1 M247T Medium Machine Gun
Crew * Driver
Gunner (only on M808B variants with separate machine gun placement)
Passengers
Passenger (4)
Never really got why this thing is so dam slow. The Abrams weighs 67 tones & accelerates way faster than this thing with a top sped of 45 mph (72 km/h) on road & off road it goes 33 mph (52.8 km/h).
To me its more like a light battle tank than a MBT when compared to today's armor. Hell an Abrams M1A2 or Russian T-72s upgraded & T-90s would tear the covenant a new one way better than anything this tank is capable of.
Balance my friend balance. Tanks are always nerfed in multiplayer shooters.
Wanna know something really disturbing ?
Fluff weight of the M808B 66 Tons.
Just as heavy as an M1A2 and still has less weapons, higher profile and a 90mm main gun.
And that canopy screaming SHOOT ME RIGHT HERE !
Well the "official" story is that it was relatively light so it can be air lifted by the Pelican dropships. So it can keep up with the rest of the UNSC's highly mobile armed forces.
I'm just thinking that Bungie had no idea how to design a tank when they started and the Scorpion's iconic design is too ingrained in Halo lore to be changed now. lol
I think the Grizzly is a much better example of a tank. But it only appears in Halo Wars.
How is it a light tank at 66 tons? seriously a modern day light tank has the equivalent capabilities or better at half the weight & twice the speed. Hell the Abrams is faster & its weighs 1 ton more.
Light by "in universe standards". lol
reality & physics are universal. For a light tank it should be faster & lighter than this. Now the Grisly tank from Halo Wars should have had most of these specs. & characteristics.
It' not a light tank. It's still classified as an MBT. But it's light compared to what the UNSC has had before and is capable of building. But it was designed to be easily stored en mass in a starship's hold and delivered rapidly to the field via Pelican dropship along with infantry.
The Grizzly is closer to a true MBT and is much better in pretty much every way and is quite a bit larger. But It can't be airlifted by standard dropships.
So it has trouble keeping up with the the fast moving UNSC infantry. Which is what their entire military is based around.
Think of it kind of like the Mongols from medieval times. Their entire military was based around the highly mobile horse archer. And their armor was designed that way as well. The heaviest of Mongol armor would still be considered relatively light compared to their European and Arab enemies. Who loved to field Knights and Cataphracts adorned with 90+ pounds of armor.
Could the Mongols make or use this captured armor for themselves? Probably. Did they? No. Because it didn't suit their fighting style. Slowed them down too much.
Yea but this tank is slow as ****. Its just a slow moving, under armed, & under armored AT magnet. An Abrams is indeed to heavy to air lift but A Russian T-72 could be: & trust me its far superior to anything this pile of shiza can do.
And note that most 20th century human tanks that predates the Halo universe are superior to the the Scorpion. At best Ill classify it as an under powered light tank. (Its slow as **** IE speed traded for half assed armor ... not a good deal)
You cant really argue that the UNSC is speed based in tactics when this thing can barely hit 35 mph ... I mean dam that's most WW2 tanks standard speed. In game the Grizzly should have the speed of the Scorpion & the Scorpion tank should at least be able to keep up with the warthogs.
You still have to remember that unless it's in a sim then tanks are almost always gimped due to balance issues.
In most shooters the only difference between an Abrams and T72 is the skin and maybe the hitboxes. In real life these tanks wouldn't really be vulnerable to small arms like grenades and assault rifles. Yet they are in game.
In real life these tanks could easily do 30+ mph but in game they'd probably be just as slow as the Scorpion.
In real life both of these tanks would at least require 3 people to operate. In game it only takes one person to drive, shoot and load. Maybe a 2nd person to operate the mounted machine guns.
In real life tanks like the Abrams, Leopard and T72 are giant metal monsters that dominate the battlefield. This will not work in game because it would be very much unfair to any player that isn't fortunate enough to have a tank. So the tank is scaled back considerably when compared to it's real life counterparts.
The in game Abrams and T72 are only about 25% as fast and have armor made of paper when compared to the ones in real life.
Now with the Scorpion swap out "real life" with "canon" and you have the same situation.
In canon the Scorpion is a reliable and agile, if a bit light MBT used by the UNSC. It's biggest threats are heavy weapons. Usually mines, rockets etc.
In game the Scorpion is a big slow moving pile of sheet metal with a cannon on top. It's biggest threats are caffeine fueled 12 year olds with an itchy trigger finger and a mouth full of racial slurs. Also the occasional dinosaur man in power armor may jump onto the vehicle and rip the driver out of the canopy with his bare hands.
A fictional tank should be judged by how it performs in universe and not by how it performs in game.
You see where I'm going with this? lol
And I'm not trying to say that the Scorpion isn't an average tank. Because it is. It's just that the games don't really do it any justice. It's an economy tank. Like the M4 Sherman. It's abilities are pretty mediocre but it is easy to mass produce, maintain and transport. And it can easily be assembled and deployed on the fly. They're usually shipped to the front or to a ship's cargo hold in large pieces and can be put together with very little tools and training. Almost like a prefab tank kit. lol
Only in dedicated sims do tanks reach their full potential. lol
Meh BF2 Project Reality Mod did a pretty dam good job at it.
I also don't see why the call the covenant wraith a "tank" when its more of a self propelled assault or siege gun.
The covenant are weird >.>
That's aliens for you. Completely different outlook on warfare, different command structure, different combat doctrine. Hell different everything.
The way Humans wage war is probably just as strange to them as their ways are to us. lol