The Soviet faction, more than any
other, is based on heavy use of armoured vehicles. The Hammer and
Apocalypse tanks are brutal, straightforward and powerful; perfectly
in line with the faction's philosophy. In RA3 Paradox, we hope to
expand this with a range of new Soviet tanks, each one a powerful
land vehicle in it's own regard and while working with other heavy
vehicles. If fact, the Soviets are getting so many new vehicles, the
build mechanic for land vehicles is changing, where a war factory
must specialize to either light vehicles (legged or wheeled vehicles,
like the Sickle or the Bullfrog) or Heavy Vehicles, or, in laymen's
terms... TANKS!
Tanks A Lot
The new Heavy Vehicle list consists of
nine vehicles. Four are familiar to players of Red Alert 3; the
powerful Hammer, the superheavy Apocalypse, the long-ranged V4
Launcher, and the vital MCV. These are retained with the minimum of
changes, mostly simply a longer range, which factors into our overall
plans for game balance. In addition, the multi-rocket option of the
V4 is being heavily buffed, allowing for much more powerful
anti-infantry attacks over a wide area. But enough of that, comrade.
How about the new stuff?
Tier 1
As the Heavy Vehicle list is
immediately available at tier 1, there has to be heavy vehicles to be
purchased at tier 1, of course. There are three such vehicles
available, the venerable Anvil Heavy Tank, the flexible Flak Tractor,
and the deadly Myech Rocket Tank.
The Anvil Heavy Tank is the most basic,
and least effective, tank in the game. Veterans of the franchise may
recognize the Anvil as the famous double-barrelled Heavy Tank of RA1,
which it is. It hasn't, however, aged well. Though robustly armoured,
it suffers from low damage and short range, and isn't very good
against other vehicles. Don't underestimate it though; the Anvil
almost won the First Great Patriotic War for the Soviets, and it
still has some tricks up it's sleeves. At tier 1, the slow vehicles
provide cheap anti-vehicle protection for bases and supply convoys;
later on, the Anvil can fill out a patrol of Hammers and Scythes
(basically big Sickles, they're a subject for another article). It's
special function allows the Anvil to carry a group of 5 Soviet
infantry, who ride on the sides and can fire off the vehicle. This
allows groups of infantry to support mobile blitzkrieg formations.
The Flak Tractor is a parallel
evolution of the second Red Alert's Flak Track. Where the Flak Track
was a fast and flexible transport, the Flak Tractor is a slower
anti-aircraft tank with a heavy flak cannon. In default mode, the
Tractor fires effectively against slow-moving aircraft like
helicopters and bombers, doing heavy damage with the large shells. In
ground mode, the cannon is turned into an powerful anti-infantry
weapon, which uses large splash damage effects to damage large groups
of infantry at a time. It is well armoured against small arms, but
don't expect the Flak Tractor to stand it's ground against real
tanks; it won't last long without support. It's a useful, cheaper
alternate to the Bullfrog, so you no longer have to pay the price for
a transport to get anti-aircraft support.
The Myech (Sword) Rocket Tank serves
the role of light artillery in the Soviet forces. It's large array of
rockets fire over a small area, doing heavy damage to vehicles. The
fast travel time of the rockets allows it to more easily strike
moving targets, but the high damage output is offset by long
reloading times; without support to protect them, they won't fire
many volleys before the enemy reaches them and takes advantage of
their light armour. Their secondary fire, Torpedo Rockets, are
special projectiles that do great damage to ships at sea, providing
long-ranged anti-ship defense for armies on the move as well as
bases.
Tier 2
In addition to the Hammer tank, two new
tanks become available at tier 2, the Mag-Lift Tank and the Flaming Ivan.
The Mag-Lift tank is an bizarre
vehicle that is help to mitigate one of the Soviet army's weaknesses,
speed. The Mag-Lift is armed with an extremely powerful variation of
the magnetic harpoon used by the Apocalypse tank, which allows it to
pull enemy vehicles towards Soviet armour where it can be destroyed.
It's shorter-ranged secondary fire, Lift Mode, picks up enemy
vehicles and lifts them high in the air, where they are helpless and vulnerable
to anti-air attacks.
The other, stranger Tier 2 tank is the
Flaming Ivan, a nickname for the ZM-42 Resupply Vehicle. Earlier in
the war, a group of these vehicles carrying vital supplies of vodka
to the troops on the front was ambushed by a team of Imperial
Tankbusters. They would have been destroyed but for the cleverness of
one of the vehicle's drivers, “Crazy” Ivan, a convicted arsonist
serving a field sentence. Crazy Ivan jury-rigged the delivery crane
into an improvised catapult, and employed the over-sized vodka
bottles as Molotov Cocktails, burning the Tankbusters out of cover
and saving the unit. The Flaming Ivan is a useful and flexible
flame-based vehicle that employs large Molotov Cocktails to burn
enemy infantry out of cover, where it switches to it's frontal nozzle
to create a cone of flame that is extremely effective against
buildings and infantry alike.
That is it in the first of what I hope
is a series of weekly articles that will eventually outline the goals
of Paradox; thank you for your time!
