Creating an Imperial MBT

[Captain tycho]

The rules first, of course:
1. It must be mass producible, i.e, no phrik armor or anything real fancy.

2. It must be relatively small and easily carried and deployed from ISDs and other vessels.

3. It cannot be droid controlled.

Prestige-class Dependent Anti-Insurgent Main Battle Tank

A repulsorlift tank, roughly the size of a modern day Abrams. It's equipped with a pair of long range concussion missile launchers for over-the-horizon engagments and for anti-aircraft duty. Armor protection is good, able to withstand any infantry carried weapon and most anti-vehicular weapons short of a heavy laser cannon or an anti-tank missile.
Blaster and LOS weaponry consists of 2 light repeating blasters, a medium coaxial laser cannon and a single heavy turrented laser cannon designed to completely destroy any opposing armor on the battlefield. The gun has an effective range of 12km, and a maximum range of 20km. Despite its firepower, it is slow to recharge, having a ROF of 6 RPM.
The light repeating blasters cover every angle of the tank from infantry attack, while the coaxially mounted medium laser cannon destroys light vehicles and infantry.
An advanced sensor suite provides 360 degree visibility up to 30km in infared, visual, and active scanning.
The tank is quite manuverable, able to climb to heights of 20m to bypass obstructions, and can hit 230km/h out in the open.

Every effort is made to make the tank compact, at the sacrifice of crew comfort and operating range.
The tank only has enough fuel for 2 days of fighting, and will only run on specialized Imperial fuel. This insures that any tank captured by the Rebels will quickly become useless, and it also discourages tank commanders from becoming independent, since their ability to fight effectively depends on logistics support from orbiting craft or nearby bases. This method closely follows the doctrine followed by TIE fighters; utter dependance on superior authrority.
While this philisophy can be limiting in the field, it is very effective at keeping Imperial Army units using the
Prestige-class tank from converting to the Rebel cause.

[Chris OFarrell]

Behemoth class Heavy Assault tank. I’m not sure if it’ll exceade the size limits, but meh


The Behemoth is Golan Arms answer to the AT-AT walker. While classed as a heavy assault transport, the AT-AT has found itself most often on the front lines attacking heavily defended fortifications. While it proved itself on Hoth against the rebels, the empire suffered the loss of a large amount of the strike force through enemy fire. The AT-AT's were further unable to effective deal with enemy aircraft or fully suppress the enemies infantry, who took a horrific toll on the assault Stormtroopers.

To counter this, Golan Arms developed a new Assault Tank, designed to spearhead walker formations and keep them out of the front line of fire and are offering them to the Imperial fleet for station with the quick response forces on board their Star Destroyers. Somewhat larger then an AT-AT body, it is expected five of these vehicles will be issued to a standard ISD ground formation, for the loss of two AT-AT Walkers and four AT-ST scouts.

A ground vehicle, the Behemoth uses newly developed magnetic field generators on its treads, allowing it to 'pull' itself through theatre shielding just as Walkers have always done. Which lets it take the point of any direct assault. Its ground speed is considerable, over twice that of an AT-AT. A series of repulsorlift pads set into the hardened floor of the tank allows it to hover for short time periods (60 seconds per use) to get past difficult terrain easily.

The body of the tank has twice the armour of the AT-AT and includes a moderately powerful shield generator able to ignore the types of anti-infantry weapons the Rebels used on Hoth, as well as take at least a few hits from proper anti-vehicle emplacements without shield failure. The treads are well protected with skirt armour and manufactured to high standards of resistance, in tests running over active proton mines has failed to impair the treads in any way. As has direct hit from infantry carried missile weapons.

The primary weapon of the Behemoth is a licensed copy of Arakyds Heavy Particle Cannon on the prototype XR-85 tank droid. It has excellent coverage / firepower, able to engage and defeat the heaviest opposing vehicles or fortifications, short of one directly protected by a class III or above theatre shield.
Two gunnery stations mounted on the join between the side of the tank and roof about halfway back mount a pair of quad laser cannon stations, for anti air defence work and between them sits a twelve cell VLS launcher equipped with a mix of six CM-8 concussion missile tubes (two missiles per tube) for over the horizon fire support or anti fighter work. And six TG-1 attack drones. Small flying recon drones with a tiny sensor signature designed to fly ahead of the force to act as a recon screen and provide targeting data for the concussion missiles as needed.

Six independent gunnery stations are spread around the Behemoth, each containing a heavy repeating blaster cannon for anti-infantry work. A multi purpose grenade launcher sits just forward of the heavy cannon. Capable of throwing any combination of HE, FRAG, GAS, or SMOKE grenades out accurately to a distance of 300 meters in clusters of six shot patterns.

There are however some disadvantages to the design.

While its size isn't much more then an AT-AT's main body and its height considerably less then an AT-AT extended to full height, almost all of this space is needed to mount its impressive weapons and defensive systems. Meaning there is no troop compartment at all. The Behemoth thus relies on AT-AT's or any other APC to actually carry the assault infantry. This and its size / maintenance requirements make it unsuited to garrison duties. Its shear firepower is often overwhelming, making it unsuited to assaults upon targets that need to be taken intact, although often it is used essentially as a moving shield for the assault transports. And although it uses the same assault barges as the AT-AT’s, only one rather then two per barge can be fit (though twice the number of AT-ST’s can be included).

But in the end, the Behemoth gives the Imperial Marines and Army a new dimension to their quick response forces that they had been lacking. A vehicle capable of assaulting the most defended of positions with superior firepower and mobility then any other vehicle yet developed by the Galactic Empire.

[000]

T-130S Fighter Tank.

AT-TEs, HAVw A5 Juggernaughts, HAVr A9 Floating Fortresses, and presumably AT-HEs all fullfill the role pretty well.

[FedRebel]

http://www.galacticempiredatabank.com/ImperialHRT.html
http://www.galacticempiredatabank.com/FireHawkeRT.html

[Noble Ire]

A repulsorlift tank, roughly the size of a modern day Abrams. It's equipped with a pair of long range concussion missile launchers for over-the-horizon engagments and for anti-aircraft duty. Armor protection is good, able to withstand any infantry carried weapon and most anti-vehicular weapons short of a heavy laser cannon or an anti-tank missile.
Blaster and LOS weaponry consists of 2 light repeating blasters, a medium coaxial laser cannon and a single heavy turrented laser cannon designed to completely destroy any opposing armor on the battlefield. The gun has an effective range of 12km, and a maximum range of 20km. Despite its firepower, it is slow to recharge, having a ROF of 6 RPM.
The light repeating blasters cover every angle of the tank from infantry attack, while the coaxially mounted medium laser cannon destroys light vehicles and infantry.
An advanced sensor suite provides 360 degree visibility up to 30km in infared, visual, and active scanning.
The tank is quite manuverable, able to climb to heights of 20m to bypass obstructions, and can hit 230km/h out in the open.

This sounds a great deal like the TX-130S Fighter Tank (Battlefront), except somewhat faster and heavily armed. http://www.lucasarts.com/games/swbattle ... ndex2.html

[Adam Reynolds]

^Actually that is how the tank was in Clone Wars, the game where it was created.

edit: I didn't read the OP very well, the Clone Wars version lacked all of the blaster weapons except the regular lasers

[Sephirius]

I think the tradefed tanks were a good idea for an mbt, heavy firepower, armor which is nice and sloped for added protection. my only beef is that it has somewhat of a high profile.

[Vicious]

I think the tradefed tanks were a good idea for an mbt, heavy firepower, armor which is nice and sloped for added protection. my only beef is that it has somewhat of a high profile.

The problem with the TradeFed tanks is they have horrible recoil. Watch how they rock back when they fire in TPM. It takes them several seconds to even return to a level postion. Then they have to require their target and fire again. A tracked or wheeled vehicle is infinitely better just from a recoil standpoint.

[Noble Ire]

I think the tradefed tanks were a good idea for an mbt, heavy firepower, armor which is nice and sloped for added protection. my only beef is that it has somewhat of a high profile.

The problem with the TradeFed tanks is they have horrible recoil. Watch how they rock back when they fire in TPM. It takes them several seconds to even return to a level postion. Then they have to require their target and fire again. A tracked or wheeled vehicle is infinitely better just from a recoil standpoint.

Or it could just be that the TF designer who commisioned the ATT was just as cheap as his fleet building counterparts. "What the hell are these shock absorbers for? 150 a unit! Toss them, no one will notice."

[Augustus Caesar]

Has there ever been a tracked Imperial vehicle with heavier firepower than an AT-ST or AT-AT? It would be interesting if such a vehicle with a low chasis, heavy armor designed to deflect fire, and a heavy turbolaser as a main armament existed. Also, have any hybrids(vehicles that use both tracks and repulsor lifts) been created in the EU?

[Noble Ire]

Has there ever been a tracked Imperial vehicle with heavier firepower than an AT-ST or AT-AT? It would be interesting if such a vehicle with a low chasis, heavy armor designed to deflect fire, and a heavy turbolaser as a main armament existed. Also, have any hybrids(vehicles that use both tracks and repulsor lifts) been created in the EU?

There's an Imperial weapon that fits the bill...mostly. The Arakyd XR-85 Tank Droid is an urban enforcer/ siege weapon that is equipt with AT-AT grade armor, actual tank treads, a heavy particle cannon, twin turbolasers, four dual laser cannon, and a antipersonnel scatter weapon. However, the tank is 30 meters tall, most likely for the same reason that the AT-AT was that size.