Heavy Main Battle Tank

The heavy main battle tank of the Atomic Age is the final expression of a philosophy that began with the first armored vehicles of the Great War: concentrate firepower, protection, and mobility into one platform. Cold War designs like the Soviet T-64 and American M60 carried long high-pressure smoothbore guns firing fin-stabilized rounds at velocities that defeated any contemporary armor, paired with composite and reactive armor that defeated shaped-charge warheads. Fire control computers, laser rangefinders, and thermal sights allowed accurate first-round hits at two kilometers while moving. A single company of such tanks could hold a frontage a regiment would have needed a generation earlier. In game this unit is the supreme armored force of its era, devastating against all ground targets at range, but enormously expensive and vulnerable to guided anti-tank missiles and air attack.