"Oh dear, it appears that I am being bombarded from every direction at the same time. It would be a shame if I can also shoot in every direction at the same time...even through outer space." - Best describing how a BOLO Tank fights.
Eh, a squadron of shadowswords in ambush positions will take care of anything up to and including a Reaver. With the shields down, they can even take a warlord out, sure.
Ork under a metal box(think Metal Gear Solid) with a gretchin on top with a shoota. "we's a tank we is." Imperial guard commander. "Green skins are sending in a tank! Get the baneblade!"
I like all the multi-ped tanks that you see in GiTS. (Fuchicoma, Tachicoma, and Logicoma) The Logicoma seems to be designed by someone who loved those coffee table brainteaser puzzles and Minecraft, if you look at its compact form when acting as a shield. If there ever are AIs, I hope they have personalities like the Tachicomas. The S.A.C. episode where they talk amongst themselves and talk to Batou about God and “What’s it like to have a Ghost?”, is probably one of my favorites in the whole franchise.
For my money, the ultimate tanks were the Bolo tanks that appeared in many short stories (later collected into books) by Keith Laumer. The Bolos were unmanned, and employed integrated artificial intelligence. The Mark XII Continental Siege Units had a half megaton per second firepower capability Later units, (Mark XXVIII and later) were organized into independent brigades that performed their own tactical and strategic planning.
the Mark XXXII Bolo Tank, is utterly terrifying, it weighed no less than 32,000 tons and mounted a main armament of three independently-turreted 200cm Hellbores with a secondary armament of fourteen 20cm Hellbore infinite repeaters in two lateral batteries. Equipped with a very sophisticated indirect fire system, the sheer firepower of the Mark XXXIII was a reversion to the old siege unit thinking, though it was normally referred to as a planetary siege unit, not merely a continental one.
CnC's Mammoth tank would have been a good one here. That said, the amazing thing about the AT-TE vs AT-AT match up from Rebels is, that AT-TE was on the low end of being maintained properly. If it was in full combat readiness I think it would have easily destroyed that first AT-AT with a little bit of effort. It also once again highlights the idiocy of the Tarkin Doctrine.
@Nicholas Wolf MARV would have been great. After all, "SIZE MATTERS." But of course the Mammoth tank should have been in the list. "Armor superiority."
It's a lot like the Zeon's Magellan tank in Gundam's One Year War. Only the Magellan tank's turret can lift off from the main tank and fly as a mobile cannon. The Federation's Type 61 tank is way more low profile than the Halo tank, and it's got 2 main guns.
@@Sargonarhes having 2 main guns is very much a disadvantage, it offers very little at a huge expense - why do you think modern tanks only have 1 main gun?
Another thing to consider, the tank can hide behind terrain while the gun can protrude above the cover allow the main tanke and occupant to safely in cover and having a very small target for return fire to shoot at. Russian cold war tanks and even some modern MBT's have used this tactic when fighting from a fixed position. A trench was dug to conceal the tank, one end of the trench would be high enough to allow the turret to freely turn and target incoming enemy formations. The tank could then back down into the deeper part of the trench while it reloaded.
Who else remembers the BOLO series of books from the 80’s about giant tanks with artificial intelligence? Most of the stories had to do with old tanks coming back to life.
Check out Hammer's Slammers while you're at it. The author (David Drake) was tank crew in Nam. That is the grittiest and most real sci-fi tank setting I've run into. And the Icarus Industries M2 "Ursa" Hover Tanks are pretty formidable themselves.
SuperMadman41, was thinking the same and half expecting to see them in his video (particularly the Bolo) but I'm guessing it was easier to get video of the tanks he chose from video games and movies than the cover art of books.
The problem is most of the cover art sucks, usually because the artist is often given the barest of descriptions and most have no military experience involving tanks and when the books were first published doing decent research was too time consuming for the given deadline. I'm not sure what the excuse is for cover art in the last couple of decades other than publisher giving the artist a bad description of things.
It helps that Drake was actually a tank loader in Nam and knows their strengths and weaknesses. That's why he made his tanks hover and armed with plasma weapons.
No Mention of Keith laumer, and David Weber's Bolo's...wow. Bolo's are by FAR the most insane tanks featured in any sci-fi universe their Hellbore main cannons are rated in Megatons per second of damage. Also no mention or Hammer's Slammers iconic Hovertanks and their 30CM powerguns.
Yea the Bolo series would be the No.1 choice for Tanks. The tanks used in the Renegade Legion / Tog / Commonwealth would be a distant second, for me :)
Spacedock didn't mention it because he's a hack who only looks at popular series. It's the reason why designs from Star Wars, notorious for their crappy designs, always get high spots over series with more competently designed vehicles.
@@rakaydosdraj8405 A modern Bolo is armed with megaton-scale weapons that can reach up to space and are designated as planetary siege vehicles. Land carriers are nothing.
The only thing I consider close was that mega tank/factory in Supreme Commander, but I can't think of the name. Still, not the same scale but pretty badass and technically AI driven too
@@TeddyOG Fatboy, has 4 hardpoints with 3 Gauss cannons on each of the hardpoints as the main guns serving as artillery, railguns for AA, Hells Fury machine guns for direct fire, a torpedo launcher for when it goes underwater and a shield to help protect it even further. Losses to every experimental that gets in range tho lol.
As someone who plays on the DoW- Apocalypse mod... I have been using it as a light tank :D Once you get to a ridiculous economy it serves as an excellent cheap workhorse that you can just drop on top of your enemy's tech to send them back to the Stone Age.
The thing is, if we took some reality to the battles, these tanks would be absolutely useless. They are just oversized and slow targets that can be taken out with ease. The armor is not even that thick so I can imagine that one Javelin could disable many of it's systems and another 3 to completely gut the thing if that.
Before John Ringo and a couple other authors were given permission to write stories about Bolos of the Dinochrome Brigade there were several books and many short stories written about them by the original author Kieth Laumer. First introduced into science fiction in 1960, they have been written about for decades. When Asimov was writing about the the 3 laws and what goes wrong when you break them, and Fred Saberhagen was writing of the Berserkers attempts to destroy all life, the Bolo stories are about military traditions and morality told through the cold lenses and speakers of giant cybertanks (and a couple of occasions from the people working with them). Late timeline planetary siege units massed thousands of tons, had shields, antigrav systems (although riding on tracks was more power efficient and it could go more than 90 kph easy), meters of armor, sensors for everything (including psychic powers at one point in their history), and an abundance of weaponry for all occasions. Similarly late period defensive units were even bigger and yes took on entire fleets. They have never been in movies or TV shows, nor any decent portrayals in computer games. They have been in book cover art which never really did them justice. They have however inspired a wargame, originally card board chits on paper now with miniatures, Ogre by Steve Jackson Games, the Paneuropean cybertank designs (not the copies of the NorAm Ogres) look the most like the description of Bolos to me.
Glad you put this up, I grew up reading both series and loved them...I would also add David Drakes' "Hammer's Slammer's" series although the main tank there only weighed around 170 tons it had a 20cm power gun that could punch holes through a mountain with only a few shots...
Hammers MBT Hovertanks were also very good, again most of the cover art was completely wrong for these as well. Also since it was fusion powered lift fans instead of antigrav, it's one of the few realistic scifi hovertanks that can sink in water, which was pretty much one of it's only drawbacks.
One thing I loved about Bolos is that they were carried on the outside of their transport ships so they could use their Hellbore cannons in space combat. A fully loaded Bolo carrier was said to be more powerful than a battlecruiser.
Weren't Bolos pretty undefined appearance wise until Baen let Weber overthink them? IIRC the genesis of Bolos was Keith Laumer in a trench getting run over by tanks in training and so the big thing is that they're terrifying and huge and may or may not have turrets, and thank sweet Space Jesus that think is on our side. Also pretty undefined in general, I recall that in one story a Mark 15 (?) was a crewed vehicle and that recurring LAumer character Retief defeated it with a length of pipe and possibly a handgun.
@@peternordgren Most descriptions include at least one turret for the main gun(s) depending on time period and model. Most Bolos were designed to have a commander, in some places the AI was cut back on and additional crewmembers added. Retief the diplomatic liaison of the Concordiate existed during a relatively long period of psuedo peace for humanity. During this time period the Dinochrome Brigade was practically never used. Decommissioned Bolos however old, in some case out right ancient, were refitted for security uses many of these were practically lobotomized and a crew was required. Retief is also a comicbookish super spy and a bit of a parody character, as such he pulled off all sorts of stunts that would otherwise be impossible. Very fun stories that poke a lot of fun at cold war diplomatic practices of the United States and some allied nations.
Just to add my voice to all the other Bolo fans of our favorite AI driven tanks. "Bolo's might fail. They might die and be destroyed. But they did not surrender, and they never - ever - quit."
ATTE is such a beautiful tank. If I could redesign it, I'd streamline the cockpit and give it smaller windows to protect the driver. I'd also add armored plates to its underside. EDIT: Right, also the pressurized main gun and 2 missile pod remote turrets on its back half. Also a shield generator similar to those seen on bombers. Small enough to fit with the tank and strong enough to provide decent protection.
Personally would have armour with slits in it , like the republic sabre tank has, as well as add a pressurised cockpit for the gunner and maybe add a module for missiles deployed from the rear pod as a modular feature for command tanks, to stay away from the frontlines. Interestingly there is a version seen in the battle of felucia with an underslung twin barrel turret on the rear half of the belly, likely to protect against infantry deploying explosives on the belly.
if I designed it I would add shield's, have an AT-AT style head to add more gun's and durability to it, replace those legs with crab droid style leg's to increase maneuverability and also slightly increase height to be a bit more off the ground making it less susceptible to anti-tank landmines and look way more badass put a hatch to cover and protect the main gunner, add a set of mini ark Mortar's to the back to increase damage capability, extended walkway's for more cargo capacity and troop maneuverability around the tank with some with the upper part having a flat storage roof area like in Rebel's with Rex's AT-TE and lastly, put 4 small port's with anti-Infantry turrets attached to then that open and close on the side to increase flexibility and create a near 360-degree range of fire at the cost of some durability this is how i would make the AT-TE, like if you would use this upgraded AT-TE, and note it is still cheaper than an AT-AT
I'd scrap the entire thing and start from scratch. It's a terrible design for a tank. It's too tall and slow with next to no armour, making it a big easy target. Its firepower isn't completely terrible, except compared to what you find mounted on star wars strike craft (which are smaller, far far faster, and often shielded). Its only good feature is the legs which allow it traverse most terrain, but also provide a very obvious point of failure, and will be maintenance intensive. That said, star wars tactics confuse me constantly, even modern armies know that tanks are only useful if you have complete control of the skies, otherwise they are just large easy targets for aircraft. In a universe were shields are a thing, you would expect all tanks to have them, and mount weapons comparable to the light/medium turrets on warships.
I laughed at the Scorpion's "no shot trap" bit, too. The inward recurve of the turret's lower front facing, which would redirect any ricochets, shrapnel, and explosives into the back of the driver's head, apparently doesn't count as a shot trap.
Scorpion is not a good tank for many reasons, I detailed in my own reply but, its shape is inefficient for armouring, the gun is tiny even compared to modern day air deployable vehicles, 1 crew is woefully inadequate even with automation and the extra tracks add unneeded production cost and mechanical complexity,
Just Headdie New version of Scorpion packs 150mm smoothbore gun so this one is outdated. I am expecting Grizzly or Rhino. These 2 tanks are better than Scorpion as it counts as light tank.
@@immortalwarrior2695 Even if it's upgunned, MBTs of today will be able to kill it quickly simply because of the fact that it only has one crew member. There's a reason why smaller-crewed tanks were dropped extremely quickly (the poor shmuck stuck inside couldn't possibly pay attention to every single thing he had to do) and even with automation, the driver would have had to pay attention to two separate view points (driver + gunner) while also operating the radio. Statistically, the tank that fires first often is the one that wins a duel, and with the singular crew member preoccupied with driving, shooting, and radio operations they would be at a MASSIVE disadvantage in identifying a target. As for it being classified as a "light" tank...it weighs 66 metric tons and is specifically classified as an MBT.
CommissarPancakes I don't think One man crew is a disadvantage tho. With packing so many advanced sensors, it can do it's job much better. But the point is that they didn't choose Grizzly or Rhino. If you see the Grizzly specification, it's even bigger than Blaneblade. Packs 2 dual 120mm smoothbore cannon or 1 250mm smoothbore cannon, it only requires 1 crew to operate and secondary crew for Manning machine gun. Crazy Much more crazy is that Rhino, which packs 350mm Plasma cannon dubbed as Zeus cannon is the most powerful tank weapon. And it's even bigger than Grizzly. Scorpion engine specifications (even though it's Easter egg, it's Canon) packs a engine of 121 Gigawatt which is truly ridiculously stupid. Imagine a bigger power packs on Grizzly or Rhino Sci-fi is a place where you can unleash your imagination, no matter how stupid it is
@@phoenixx913 Looking at the official definition of a military tank, the only thing its missing is caterpillar treads. Using that definition, only 2 of the 'tanks' on this list actually qualify as tanks.
@@phoenixx913 actually it is a tank bc it is the main fighting vehicle for armored warfare for the republic and it is even called a tank by rothana heavy engineering who built it. it may not be a tank as we know it but many of our ideas of certain things like vehicles and weapons are limited by our history. so for the most part the AT-TE is a tank but is a tank with a different method of movement. think of it like an Abrams walker. not to mention it is more of a tank than the AT-AT. i mean did you see how it just ignores several direct hits from those over sized Chihuahuas on stilts.
My favorites: 1. BOLOs all of them, but mainly mk. 33s 2. Asgard hull tanks (Odin and Thor) from Babylon 5 3. the Mako from ME (it is as much a tank as an AT-TE is so it counts) 4. the AT-TE 5. Hammer's slammers tanks
And good luck trying to Hit a Mako too, with the ME1 controls you could suddenly be driving 90 degrees off course with no warning, or climb up absurdly steep mountains like an oversized goat XD
Like many here I'm surprised you missed the BOLO and Hammer's Slammers super tanks. You could actually do an entire video just about the various tanks in the Hammerverse.
Agreed. I'm a big Slammer's fan. He was only focusing on game and movie sci-fi tanks. I'd say that the Sabertooth FSV from The Fifth Foreign Legion series by Andrew Kieth and William H. Kieth Jr. were pretty good too. Unlike the Hammer's vehicles, it was lifted by anti-gravity and steered and propelled by forced air. Interesting concept.
@@lukasprazak7362 it is a siege tank, because it has one of the biggest ranges in game and can effectively destroy any defense. Also it has very good splash damage, which is the reason it is used very effectively against attacking infantry
@@lukasprazak7362 It's actually a regular tank that does regular tank things, but it can also convert into an artillery mode where it becomes stationary with a huge cannon and really long range. I was also missing this one on the list. I distinctly remember transforming it to Siege Mode for the first time and it one-shotting a Marine. The sound effect when it converts into Siege Mode is just so powerful
JASOE the All-seeing Omnipresent Eye Bolos would eat babeblades for lunch. Multiple space cruiser class plasma Hellbore cannons as primary weapons. Super smart AI, multiple secondary, tertiary and defensive weapon systems. Bolos were built to take whole well defended planets. They would be a Heavy MBT in 40k
@@jetpackcthulhu I mean, dystopias are kinda like sci-fi series, and Thomas the Tank Engine is so powerful and masterfully designed that he should still be on the list.
The Ratte wasn't a tank though. This is a great misconception. It was a Land Cruiser, and it was intended as a mobile headquarters and fire support for armored divisions.
"This here is 66 tonnes of straight up, HE spewing Divine intervention. If God is love then you can call me cupid." "Ready to unleash 11 barrels of hell" "C'mon Wolffe its just a scratch. Keep moving forward soldier!* "I'm going for the legs; all four of them"
@@borttorbbq2556 good to know that you needed two comments to say that. Not sure how Scorpion's only railgun would help him vs tanks that can literary fire nuclear ammunition, survive one themselves and optionally mount twice of its amount of railguns, but at least you're absolutely sure of that. Good for you, bye:D
@@Kissamiess One of the big reasons it's so realistic is because Drake himself was part of a tank unit in Vietnam, so he understand the tactics, methodology and the psychology of the fighting men perfectly.
@Harli Baron Ou the times playing with buddy and 4 AI's... Nothing happens in half a hour, i'm on my corner of the map going full turtle like usual and finished my master peace of mass army, MARV and defense installations plus taken down one AI enemy... friend asks if i'm ready to receive 3 of his units.. say sure and 3 rifleman squads get decimated by my defences. Says he sends another 3... 1MARV, hexapod, redeemer slowly walk in decimating everything in their wake... buddy had taken over rest of the AI in the map and built their epic units.. ffs... and then he sends rest of his army made out of those 3 factions...
well if you believe New Zealand is a myth, then yet it is fantasy, but we did build 3 of them before converting them back to tractors cos they where just to unfair
If we are going for non-fiction tanks nothing beats the raw chaotic destruction of the KILLDOZER, imagine an army of kamikaze soldiers strapped into unstoppable ramming machines
@@BeyondDaX You know how the Baneblade was revealed to be a light tank? Imagine that. Imagine if a FULL TITAN LEGION was compressed into a tank. It can fight FLEETS from the ground and WIN. They are nigh unkillable. And they have lovely AI.
@@fanusobscurus4309 If Baneblades were the light tanks? Which are the actual heavy tanks of the Imperial Guard? I admit my guard knowledge is limited to Dawn of War series
One thing I really liked about the AT-TE was it’s ability to traverse any surface including vertical cliffs. This also allowed it to be attached to asteroids and participate in space battles (makes you wonder if they could be deployed on the surface of a friendly ship to supplement the ship-board weapons)
@@gargarmikejaphett.3840 any tanks in the list could be curbstopped by an Ultra bane blade? surprise underground flip would flip it over and the ultra is strong enough to do so. the heads of the ultras are shaped like shields to take the punishment. Also if they added those fancy hover tanks then a diamond back would be not so bad.
I'm a little disappointed you didn't include the Bolo AI-controlled tanks created by Keith Laumer. They have a long and honorable history. If Valhalla accepts mechanical warriors, the Bolos will be very well represented.
While i appreciate the awesome baneblade being here, I'd like an honourable mention for the Mammoth Tank. Two 120mm cannons on a turret, 2 SAM-capable missile launchers on the side, regenerative armor plating to assist sustainability, and a fantastic sloped design and a remarkably low profile. It is technically weak to bombers thanks to its low speed, but has enough armor to survive, and the regen can bring it back up to reasonable levels. Add to that the missile launchers that can take out said bombers, and few things want to directly engage one of these beasts.
Calling a bolo (other than the very early models) a tank is an insult to the bolo. They're planetary siege units. It would be like calling a WH40k Titan a battlesuit.
Interesting choices, Loved the Seige Tank from Starcraft as a mobile MBT/Artillery Hybrid as well as the Hovertank (And its command Variant) from Warcommander since its a Frontline MBT with an auto-loading system and Defensive AA missile systems but also can use a separate set of missiles for directed combat.
@@guamson8946 warcommander.fandom.com/wiki/Hover_Tank I wouldnt recomend playing since this game has long gone into P2W territory but i still cant fault the design and use of this during the more balanced era, it was good but you had to dodge otherwise you would just die, and non miss slow effects would just ruin that.
You missed the heavy tanks of the BOLO and the Hammer's Slammers series books. There is also the massive Tiger III tanks of the Posleen war series of novels. The classic OGRE setting is full of amazing and silly tanks that are just amazing. There are so many that were missed that outdo little pop gun tanks like the Scorpion or even the Baneblade in sci-fi books
Hell yeah Hammer's Slammers is where its at, hover tanks armored in solid iridium with plasma cannons that can hit targets in low orbit if the tank shuts down its hover systems and just dumps the fusion reactor into the shot
I was truly hoping that SHIVAs would make the list. But considering that the only real art of them were concept pieces, I can understand why they were excluded.
The SHIVA would have been amazing to see, even if they ignored SHIVA 'BunBun's' unique modifications of the book. SHIVA and Tiger III really were small, proto BOLOs in terms of what they were capable of doing. Especially Tiger III and the AIDs that drove that monster. The fact that both massive vehicles were not really acknowledged during the final Posleen War novel is also a detriment to their inclusion, despite them being platforms that are exceedingly powerful in sci-fi.
Oh no, Fail all fail! You forgot the Bolo. If you're going to make a no holds barred list and not include caveats about what IP is and is allowed the BOLO is the best SciFi tank. End of story.
Bolo is a mildly-mobile armored mountain-city more than it is a tank. While that's inarguably badass, it is ultimately not as combat effective as smaller vehicles. There's just not a solid combat role for such a vehicle, even if it was placed in 40k, it's not quite as mobile as war-titans. Undeniably impressive, but doomed to death by swarm, especially unsupported. Whereas the ATTE, ATT, and Scorpion can all carry a minor complement of troops inside or out to escort the tank itself. Solo bolo is a no-no.
@@TiernanWilkinson "it's not quite as mobile as war titans"... really? If I'm not mistaken, I don't remember reading anywhere that a titan can run through the battlefield at over 100 km/h, sometimes even more
@@TiernanWilkinson and death by swarm? There's a story where one Bolo, one which was not even close to a Mk 33 in power, resisted hundreds of nukes, some hitting it at point blank.
When you have armor meters thick and can still role at more than 90kph and still pivot spin without throwing a track your maneuverable and more durable than any walker.
@@TiernanWilkinson Okay so Not as mobile is just...I could go on such a tangent about that, lmao. They had multiple sets of tracks to vastly reduce ground pressure, and treads do great in all but the rockiest, most uneven of terrain. That, and a much lower profile than titans. Also, bolos are not the size of mountains or cities, more like mobile city blocks.
2:38 I give everyone the same piece of advice if they’re playing the campaign on Legendary or in Multiplayer with the Scorpion: “It’s a sniper rifle with wheels. Treat it as such.”
Great choices all of them, but i would have liked to see the Mammoth tank from Command & Conquer at least as a honorary mention. Now since you already defined the Scorpion as "low scifi", maybe the Mammoth would be too realistic for this vid?
Big doesn't mean good. That's why most modern MBTs are between 50-80 tons; current technology supports tanks of that weight that can move at speeds up to 60mph. Realistic scifi tech might support tanks of double that weight but not astronomically higher. Once size reaches towards mountainous, the tank becomes so slow it's just a massive target, and such is the fate of many a Bolo. That said I can't deny the cool factor but I'd still argue it'd be a thoroughly ineffective combat vehicle.
@@TiernanWilkinson Actually, given that most tank platforms are something like 30-40 years old currently, it wouldn't be hard to make a Mk. 1 bolo, which was a 150 metric ton up to 50 MPH. Also, most tanks go something like 40-45 MPH, not 60. You're probably thinking of KPH.
For video games the arcade game T-Mek. Berkoth can not be beaten. For the all the best tank you should have included almost any BOLO, from the Keith Lumner universe. They not only pass the rule of cool, but also surpassed any WH40K war machine.
Since the tanks from the Bolo series was already mentioned, how about the tanks from the Berserker book series or the tanks from the Hammers Slammers book series
@@Shortsircut1 no they are 2 separate book series. the slammers used hover tanks and hover cars using powered particle or plasma weapons. The Bolos were AI tanks that used standard, nuclear and something called "Hellbore" weapons
Completely agree. Pretty obvious this is not a "Sci Fi" run down, but more a rundown from SF gaming. I can think of several tanks from SciFi (including the BOLOs) that put all of these to shame.
Agreed wholeheartedly. That said, the Bolo isn't so much a tank as a starship on treads with main guns that fire DIRECTED NUCLEAR DETONATIONS at their targets.
I would say OGRE counts. It's an AI computer but, I would still say its a tank. I was hoping to see the OGRE tank here. However, I know it's a tabletop game that's always had a small audience in comparison to other games like Warhammer 40,000, so I don't expect Spacedock to know about it. For those that are curious, OGRE is a small pocket game (yes pocket, like you can throw it in your back pocket and play at it at lunch time at the cafeteria table) from Steve Jackson games. The designs are weird, but there's a charm there.
Out of the Halo tanks, if he had to pick the Scorpion I do not understand why he had to go with the M808 instead of the M820, preferably the Hannibal or O.N.I. variants. Honestly I would have chosen the grizzly or the Locust.
hover tank from Hammers Slammers series, those were nasty beast from the future. one or two tanks could take control of whole battle and crush the enemy.
When I saw the title of this vid I immediately thought about the GDI Mammoth Tank especially from CnC 3, then I thought about their big brother, the Bolo. Looking at the comments I'm glad to see I'm not the only one praising these absolute engines of destruction. As a GDI Tank Commander would say, 'Unrivaled!'
Command & Conquer Nod Stealth Tank, GDI Disruptor (sonic wave weapon), GDI Mammoth Tank. Lol @spacedock you never played Command and Conquer rts series right?
The best C&C tank bar none is the awesomely OP-tastic Emperor from Generals with its cheater-ific integral Speaker Tower, though. It's especially f-ed up because it still has the Chinese swarm bonus, so a late-game squad of about 4 could basically mow down anything like blades of grass.
I'm glad the AAT got attention in this. It's probably one of my favorite sci-fi tank designs and I've loved it ever since I saw it in episode 1. "Open fire!"
Bolos continental siege units on up through planetary, to star system defense units and John Ringo's posleen series, the SheVa named Bun-Bun "skiing" down a mountain, shooting interstellar landers out of the air
Honorable mentions: a) Type 61 Heavy Main Battle tank from Mobile Suit Gundam (UC) b) Apocalyps Sovjet super heavy tank from Red Alert 2 please add more
Calliopes are excellent for antiaircraft, overkill for anti infantry or riot control (where they were used once) but their lack of armor makes them useless verses MBTs
Tachikoma's are my favorite sci-fi tank. They are about the size of a SUV capable of high speeds, jumping great distances, scaling almost anything between grappling hooks or magnetic legs, have wire web launchers to tangle stuff like Spiderman, machine gun hands, typically a 1 shot tank cannon shell, cloaking technology, and they possess a loyal AI. Only downside is they seem to get a little sassy in groups with each other.
“Burns? Burns. This is Braddock. I know you’re out there, and you know my frequency. I’m not sitting back on this one.” It’d be good fun to have a player to work together with in Combat Commander’s multiplayer against some AI. :P
@@CallsignYukiMizuki True, but his criterion was "called a tank in the IP", so I think it should have qualified. It's also a great example of a vehicle with both strengths and weaknesses, which it essentially had to have to be part of a balanced RTS.
@@GarlicAvenger Their so-called "tank" can't even protect normal bullets from marines and barely have any range that is longer than a marine's rifle when they are in unsiege mode.
The AT-TE is probably my favorite Star Wars ground vehicle. It seems to be well thought-out and have many aspects of its design either easy to understand or readily explained.
One honorable mention I'd definitely like to add is the Landmaster from the Star Fox series. Sure, it's a wheeled vehicle in SF Assault, but in SF Command and its overused appearance in Smash Bros Brawl, it's tracked. I think it deserves a mention simply because Space Dynamics had the audacity to make an Arwing-based tank.
*"I think some fool just shot at us..."*
- Baneblade commander, with amused incredulity, reacting to his vehicle being fired upon by the enemy.
Grymbaldknight leman russ is still my favourite
"Oh dear, it appears that I am being bombarded from every direction at the same time. It would be a shame if I can also shoot in every direction at the same time...even through outer space."
- Best describing how a BOLO Tank fights.
its all fun and games until you see an titan of the collegia titanica
@@toastertech1181 Then you call for orbital bombardment.
Eh, a squadron of shadowswords in ambush positions will take care of anything up to and including a Reaver. With the shields down, they can even take a warlord out, sure.
The imperial guards motto:
"We have a tank for that"
there's a tax for that
And a few hundred thousand men
@@neddavies4358 Seems a little light, take these extra two million just to be safe.
@@Koppu1doragon Maybe add another million just to be sure.
@@amob0019 I think we might not have enought yet.
"I think some fool just shot at us"
*a barely supressed laugh and pure disbelief* "Incoming fire?!"
"Permission to return fire!"
"We're under attack by a cute little Warboss, f*cking adorable like a puppy, Kill It!!" -Baneblade Commander
@@andhikasoehalim3170 From which game or book is that quote? I need to play/read it.
@@madtoffelpremium8324 That's a quote from Company of Heroes; just edited ^^
@@madtoffelpremium8324 I got it from this ua-cam.com/video/mY3sM0jtwaA/v-deo.html, at 0:18
I suppose if they where really lucky they'd give us a headache with their AT Rifles!
Ork:"I'm a tank I'm a tank I'm a tank!"
Spacedock:"I guess it's a tank."
My greatshield weilding halfling paladin....me2.
All it takes is for an Ork to believe.
@@gargarmikejaphett.3840 although it's much more likely to work if thousands of orks believe.
Ork under a metal box(think Metal Gear Solid) with a gretchin on top with a shoota. "we's a tank we is."
Imperial guard commander. "Green skins are sending in a tank! Get the baneblade!"
"Ready to unleash eleven barrels of hell!"
There you go. Obligatory Baneblade quote. :D
Tank beats Ghost
Tank beats Hunter
Tank beats EVERYTHING!!
Ha! I can do this all day!
"How's 90mm of tungsten feel?!"
Unless it's an A-10 Thunderbolt or an Apache, then the Tank is screwed.
Tank beats everything... except a Russian winter.
@@oliverewarthopkins7818 or field guns, tank traps, anti armor mines or my personal favorite, some rando with a rocket.
The Tachikoma Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. AI mini-tanks with the personalities of puppies.
Couldn't have captured their image better myself
The Tachikomas are pretty much exactly my 4-year-old daughter. Every time I watch SAC I get nostalgic for when she was that age.
A 4 Year Old hyped up on sugar and are geniuses. sm
And the ability to make grown men cry.... They were to pure for this world! Too pure!
I like all the multi-ped tanks that you see in GiTS. (Fuchicoma, Tachicoma, and Logicoma) The Logicoma seems to be designed by someone who loved those coffee table brainteaser puzzles and Minecraft, if you look at its compact form when acting as a shield.
If there ever are AIs, I hope they have personalities like the Tachicomas. The S.A.C. episode where they talk amongst themselves and talk to Batou about God and “What’s it like to have a Ghost?”, is probably one of my favorites in the whole franchise.
For my money, the ultimate tanks were the Bolo tanks that appeared in many short stories (later collected into books) by Keith Laumer. The Bolos were unmanned, and employed integrated artificial intelligence. The Mark XII Continental Siege Units had a half megaton per second firepower capability Later units, (Mark XXVIII and later) were organized into independent brigades that performed their own tactical and strategic planning.
Bolos are the premier sci-fi tanks for me, and even though Mechs take precedence in the Battletech franchise, its tanks are also top notch.
The Schrek is an absolute beast, an Awesome in tank form
Schrek is life, schrek is love
the Mark XXXII Bolo Tank, is utterly terrifying, it weighed no less than 32,000 tons and mounted a main armament of three independently-turreted 200cm Hellbores with a secondary armament of fourteen 20cm Hellbore infinite repeaters in two lateral batteries. Equipped with a very sophisticated indirect fire system, the sheer firepower of the Mark XXXIII was a reversion to the old siege unit thinking, though it was normally referred to as a planetary siege unit, not merely a continental one.
Best thing about Baneblade? It is not even the strongest tank in the Imperium.
Miloš Kalužnik Still one of the most powerful
best thing: It drive me up to the enemy, so I can hit them with my sword!
On Vraks, Shadowsword Kills You!
COUGH Adeptus Titanicus COUGH COUGH
But Baneblade isn't a tank, it's a light scout!
CnC's Mammoth tank would have been a good one here.
That said, the amazing thing about the AT-TE vs AT-AT match up from Rebels is, that AT-TE was on the low end of being maintained properly. If it was in full combat readiness I think it would have easily destroyed that first AT-AT with a little bit of effort. It also once again highlights the idiocy of the Tarkin Doctrine.
MARV tank would also nice
Mammoth Mk II was even better and heavier. But more like C&C version of an AT-AT. Haha ;)
It IS here... or rather it's "original character, do not steal" version aka Scorpion:D
C&C Mammoth tank Mk3
@Nicholas Wolf
MARV would have been great. After all, "SIZE MATTERS."
But of course the Mammoth tank should have been in the list.
"Armor superiority."
Mega Battle Cannon, for when a Massive Battle Cannon isn't enough.
@@subraxas We can go bigger.
I have a GIGA TERRA Battle Cannon!!!!
There are variants designed to killTitans.
@@subraxas
Lol
When orks use meteors as troop transports, nothing is big enough.
Halo Tank “Low Profile Design”
Lol nah that thing is too tall
Ann Lee the gun is elevated to give it the High Ground
Not to mention that it has a massive round trap
It's a lot like the Zeon's Magellan tank in Gundam's One Year War. Only the Magellan tank's turret can lift off from the main tank and fly as a mobile cannon. The Federation's Type 61 tank is way more low profile than the Halo tank, and it's got 2 main guns.
@@Sargonarhes having 2 main guns is very much a disadvantage, it offers very little at a huge expense - why do you think modern tanks only have 1 main gun?
Another thing to consider, the tank can hide behind terrain while the gun can protrude above the cover allow the main tanke and occupant to safely in cover and having a very small target for return fire to shoot at. Russian cold war tanks and even some modern MBT's have used this tactic when fighting from a fixed position. A trench was dug to conceal the tank, one end of the trench would be high enough to allow the turret to freely turn and target incoming enemy formations. The tank could then back down into the deeper part of the trench while it reloaded.
Who else remembers the BOLO series of books from the 80’s about giant tanks with artificial intelligence? Most of the stories had to do with old tanks coming back to life.
Check out Hammer's Slammers while you're at it. The author (David Drake) was tank crew in Nam. That is the grittiest and most real sci-fi tank setting I've run into. And the Icarus Industries M2 "Ursa" Hover Tanks are pretty formidable themselves.
Or "A Small Colonial War" by Robert Frezza. Not quite as many stories as Drake's stuff, but has good, plausible, futuristic motorized infantry action.
Any scifi tank video that doesn't include Bolos or Hammer's Slammers is sad.
David Drake "Hammer's Slammers" and Keith Laumer "Bolo" series. I would highly recommend these books
SuperMadman41, was thinking the same and half expecting to see them in his video (particularly the Bolo) but I'm guessing it was easier to get video of the tanks he chose from video games and movies than the cover art of books.
@@richardcramer1604 there are some 3d art of Bolos online, and pictures of model ogres as well.
The problem is most of the cover art sucks, usually because the artist is often given the barest of descriptions and most have no military experience involving tanks and when the books were first published doing decent research was too time consuming for the given deadline. I'm not sure what the excuse is for cover art in the last couple of decades other than publisher giving the artist a bad description of things.
Bolo's...the epitome of tank evolution and AI
Yes
IT IS THE BANEBLADE!
I knew someone would make a quote
BBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENONONONONONONONONONONONOBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENONONONONONONONONONONONOBBBBBBBBBBBAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
THE BAAAAAAAAAAANNNE BLLLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE
ELEVEN BARRELS OF DEATH!
THIS NOOOIIISE CANNOTT DEFEEAT MEEEE!!!!!!!!
As has already been said:
Any of the Bolo series tanks.
Any of the vehicles from Hammers Slammers.
My choices, plus Steve Jackson's OGRE universe.
Long live the Dinochrome Brigade!
No really, they do. Even on minimal standby power...
This
Agreed.
Yes! Hammers Slammers!
You completely missed the BOLO tanks. Dinochrome Brigade Forever!
What he said!
Probably because BOLO's are less tanks and more mobile fortresses of doom.
To say nothing of the tanks from "Hammer's Slammers". Boo
Planetary Siege unit
Or the Ogre. Yes!
When it comes to Sci-Fi tanks, my favorite is the Ursa hover tank from Hammer's Slammers
Mine too. I'd put the Slammers up against anyone on that list.
It helps that Drake was actually a tank loader in Nam and knows their strengths and weaknesses. That's why he made his tanks hover and armed with plasma weapons.
No Mention of Keith laumer, and David Weber's Bolo's...wow. Bolo's are by FAR the most insane tanks featured in any sci-fi universe their Hellbore main cannons are rated in Megatons per second of damage. Also no mention or Hammer's Slammers iconic Hovertanks and their 30CM powerguns.
Yea the Bolo series would be the No.1 choice for Tanks.
The tanks used in the Renegade Legion / Tog / Commonwealth would be a distant second, for me :)
Thanks, you saved me the trouble. But what makes a tank? No crew in the later Marks.
To add to this, later makes of Bolo's are able to target ships in low orbit with hellbores and even fly.
Spacedock didn't mention it because he's a hack who only looks at popular series. It's the reason why designs from Star Wars, notorious for their crappy designs, always get high spots over series with more competently designed vehicles.
Randy, later tanks still have Commanders to augment them.
I'm missing the Mammoth-Tank from CnC.
A group of them equipped with Railgun-Upgrade always was an awesome sight in CnC3
Cannot believe i found someone who thought of the exact thing i did here lol
Woah yeah, mamoth is pretty neat
Dont forget about maurader and overlord from generals... Of
Apocalypse Tank's richer brother.
Don't forget the MARV.
Despite the problems with the initial The Clone Wars movie, I will always love it for the vertical AT-TE battle. Made me love the tank even more.
Kieth Laumer's Bolos are the ultimate SciFi tank. Nothing else can compete
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak Carrier Base.
@@rakaydosdraj8405 A modern Bolo is armed with megaton-scale weapons that can reach up to space and are designated as planetary siege vehicles. Land carriers are nothing.
The only thing I consider close was that mega tank/factory in Supreme Commander, but I can't think of the name. Still, not the same scale but pretty badass and technically AI driven too
All hail The Dinochrome Brigade!
@@TeddyOG Fatboy, has 4 hardpoints with 3 Gauss cannons on each of the hardpoints as the main guns serving as artillery, railguns for AA, Hells Fury machine guns for direct fire, a torpedo launcher for when it goes underwater and a shield to help protect it even further. Losses to every experimental that gets in range tho lol.
The fact that the Baneblade was considered a light tank during the Dark Age of Technoogy is delightfully ludicrous.
Humanity was up to some serious shit ....
If you realize they still build emperor Titans than its pretty easy imagin banes are"light" tanks
As someone who plays on the DoW- Apocalypse mod... I have been using it as a light tank :D
Once you get to a ridiculous economy it serves as an excellent cheap workhorse that you can just drop on top of your enemy's tech to send them back to the Stone Age.
The thing is, if we took some reality to the battles, these tanks would be absolutely useless. They are just oversized and slow targets that can be taken out with ease. The armor is not even that thick so I can imagine that one Javelin could disable many of it's systems and another 3 to completely gut the thing if that.
@@gdragonlord749 except a javelin wouldnt be able to penetrate it when you realize that 40k tanks arent made up of the same material as todays tanks
Before John Ringo and a couple other authors were given permission to write stories about Bolos of the Dinochrome Brigade there were several books and many short stories written about them by the original author Kieth Laumer. First introduced into science fiction in 1960, they have been written about for decades. When Asimov was writing about the the 3 laws and what goes wrong when you break them, and Fred Saberhagen was writing of the Berserkers attempts to destroy all life, the Bolo stories are about military traditions and morality told through the cold lenses and speakers of giant cybertanks (and a couple of occasions from the people working with them).
Late timeline planetary siege units massed thousands of tons, had shields, antigrav systems (although riding on tracks was more power efficient and it could go more than 90 kph easy), meters of armor, sensors for everything (including psychic powers at one point in their history), and an abundance of weaponry for all occasions. Similarly late period defensive units were even bigger and yes took on entire fleets.
They have never been in movies or TV shows, nor any decent portrayals in computer games. They have been in book cover art which never really did them justice. They have however inspired a wargame, originally card board chits on paper now with miniatures, Ogre by Steve Jackson Games, the Paneuropean cybertank designs (not the copies of the NorAm Ogres) look the most like the description of Bolos to me.
Glad you put this up, I grew up reading both series and loved them...I would also add David Drakes' "Hammer's Slammer's" series although the main tank there only weighed around 170 tons it had a 20cm power gun that could punch holes through a mountain with only a few shots...
Hammers MBT Hovertanks were also very good, again most of the cover art was completely wrong for these as well. Also since it was fusion powered lift fans instead of antigrav, it's one of the few realistic scifi hovertanks that can sink in water, which was pretty much one of it's only drawbacks.
One thing I loved about Bolos is that they were carried on the outside of their transport ships so they could use their Hellbore cannons in space combat. A fully loaded Bolo carrier was said to be more powerful than a battlecruiser.
Weren't Bolos pretty undefined appearance wise until Baen let Weber overthink them? IIRC the genesis of Bolos was Keith Laumer in a trench getting run over by tanks in training and so the big thing is that they're terrifying and huge and may or may not have turrets, and thank sweet Space Jesus that think is on our side.
Also pretty undefined in general, I recall that in one story a Mark 15 (?) was a crewed vehicle and that recurring LAumer character Retief defeated it with a length of pipe and possibly a handgun.
@@peternordgren
Most descriptions include at least one turret for the main gun(s) depending on time period and model. Most Bolos were designed to have a commander, in some places the AI was cut back on and additional crewmembers added.
Retief the diplomatic liaison of the Concordiate existed during a relatively long period of psuedo peace for humanity. During this time period the Dinochrome Brigade was practically never used. Decommissioned Bolos however old, in some case out right ancient, were refitted for security uses many of these were practically lobotomized and a crew was required. Retief is also a comicbookish super spy and a bit of a parody character, as such he pulled off all sorts of stunts that would otherwise be impossible. Very fun stories that poke a lot of fun at cold war diplomatic practices of the United States and some allied nations.
Just to add my voice to all the other Bolo fans of our favorite AI driven tanks. "Bolo's might fail. They might die and be destroyed. But they did not surrender, and they never - ever - quit."
ATTE is such a beautiful tank. If I could redesign it, I'd streamline the cockpit and give it smaller windows to protect the driver. I'd also add armored plates to its underside.
EDIT: Right, also the pressurized main gun and 2 missile pod remote turrets on its back half. Also a shield generator similar to those seen on bombers. Small enough to fit with the tank and strong enough to provide decent protection.
I'd add a touch more protection for the main gunner.
Personally would have armour with slits in it , like the republic sabre tank has, as well as add a pressurised cockpit for the gunner and maybe add a module for missiles deployed from the rear pod as a modular feature for command tanks, to stay away from the frontlines. Interestingly there is a version seen in the battle of felucia with an underslung twin barrel turret on the rear half of the belly, likely to protect against infantry deploying explosives on the belly.
if I designed it
I would add shield's, have an AT-AT style head to add more gun's and durability to it, replace those legs with crab droid style leg's to increase maneuverability and also slightly increase height to be a bit more off the ground making it less susceptible to anti-tank landmines and look way more badass
put a hatch to cover and protect the main gunner, add a set of mini ark Mortar's to the back to increase damage capability, extended walkway's for more cargo capacity and troop maneuverability around the tank with some with the upper part having a flat storage roof area like in Rebel's with Rex's AT-TE
and lastly, put 4 small port's with anti-Infantry turrets attached to then that open and close on the side to increase flexibility and create a near 360-degree range of fire at the cost of some durability
this is how i would make the AT-TE, like if you would use this upgraded AT-TE, and note it is still cheaper than an AT-AT
I'd put literally anything other than legs on it
I'd scrap the entire thing and start from scratch. It's a terrible design for a tank. It's too tall and slow with next to no armour, making it a big easy target. Its firepower isn't completely terrible, except compared to what you find mounted on star wars strike craft (which are smaller, far far faster, and often shielded). Its only good feature is the legs which allow it traverse most terrain, but also provide a very obvious point of failure, and will be maintenance intensive.
That said, star wars tactics confuse me constantly, even modern armies know that tanks are only useful if you have complete control of the skies, otherwise they are just large easy targets for aircraft.
In a universe were shields are a thing, you would expect all tanks to have them, and mount weapons comparable to the light/medium turrets on warships.
First place should have been Keith Laumer's Bolo.
I have to add my love for the BOLO, also known as a Continental Seige Unit.
mk 33 and 34 were used to attack or defend whole worlds
The Scorpion low profile hahahahaha that thing is taller than the Maus
I laughed at the Scorpion's "no shot trap" bit, too. The inward recurve of the turret's lower front facing, which would redirect any ricochets, shrapnel, and explosives into the back of the driver's head, apparently doesn't count as a shot trap.
Scorpion is not a good tank for many reasons, I detailed in my own reply but, its shape is inefficient for armouring, the gun is tiny even compared to modern day air deployable vehicles, 1 crew is woefully inadequate even with automation and the extra tracks add unneeded production cost and mechanical complexity,
Just Headdie New version of Scorpion packs 150mm smoothbore gun so this one is outdated.
I am expecting Grizzly or Rhino. These 2 tanks are better than Scorpion as it counts as light tank.
@@immortalwarrior2695 Even if it's upgunned, MBTs of today will be able to kill it quickly simply because of the fact that it only has one crew member. There's a reason why smaller-crewed tanks were dropped extremely quickly (the poor shmuck stuck inside couldn't possibly pay attention to every single thing he had to do) and even with automation, the driver would have had to pay attention to two separate view points (driver + gunner) while also operating the radio.
Statistically, the tank that fires first often is the one that wins a duel, and with the singular crew member preoccupied with driving, shooting, and radio operations they would be at a MASSIVE disadvantage in identifying a target.
As for it being classified as a "light" tank...it weighs 66 metric tons and is specifically classified as an MBT.
CommissarPancakes I don't think One man crew is a disadvantage tho. With packing so many advanced sensors, it can do it's job much better. But the point is that they didn't choose Grizzly or Rhino.
If you see the Grizzly specification, it's even bigger than Blaneblade. Packs 2 dual 120mm smoothbore cannon or 1 250mm smoothbore cannon, it only requires 1 crew to operate and secondary crew for Manning machine gun. Crazy
Much more crazy is that Rhino, which packs 350mm Plasma cannon dubbed as Zeus cannon is the most powerful tank weapon. And it's even bigger than Grizzly. Scorpion engine specifications (even though it's Easter egg, it's Canon) packs a engine of 121 Gigawatt which is truly ridiculously stupid. Imagine a bigger power packs on Grizzly or Rhino
Sci-fi is a place where you can unleash your imagination, no matter how stupid it is
The AT-TE will always be my favorite. Versatile, iconic, and a mainstay of the Clone Wars.
It's awesome for sure but sadly it's not a tank.
@@phoenixx913 Looking at the official definition of a military tank, the only thing its missing is caterpillar treads.
Using that definition, only 2 of the 'tanks' on this list actually qualify as tanks.
The Galactic Empire really screwed up the idea of a walking tank with the AT-AT and the chicken walker.
@@phoenixx913 actually it is a tank bc it is the main fighting vehicle for armored warfare for the republic and it is even called a tank by rothana heavy engineering who built it. it may not be a tank as we know it but many of our ideas of certain things like vehicles and weapons are limited by our history. so for the most part the AT-TE is a tank but is a tank with a different method of movement. think of it like an Abrams walker. not to mention it is more of a tank than the AT-AT. i mean did you see how it just ignores several direct hits from those over sized Chihuahuas on stilts.
My favorites:
1. BOLOs all of them, but mainly mk. 33s
2. Asgard hull tanks (Odin and Thor) from Babylon 5
3. the Mako from ME (it is as much a tank as an AT-TE is so it counts)
4. the AT-TE
5. Hammer's slammers tanks
And good luck trying to Hit a Mako too, with the ME1 controls you could suddenly be driving 90 degrees off course with no warning, or climb up absurdly steep mountains like an oversized goat XD
When was there a tank in B5?
Like many here I'm surprised you missed the BOLO and Hammer's Slammers super tanks.
You could actually do an entire video just about the various tanks in the Hammerverse.
Agreed. I'm a big Slammer's fan. He was only focusing on game and movie sci-fi tanks.
I'd say that the Sabertooth FSV from The Fifth Foreign Legion series by Andrew Kieth and William H. Kieth Jr. were pretty good too. Unlike the Hammer's vehicles, it was lifted by anti-gravity and steered and propelled by forced air. Interesting concept.
Siege tanks from starcraft were fairly devastating anti personnel units.
and shoulb be on this top
I am not much of an expert when it comes to tanks, but isn't calling an antipersonnel tank "siege tank" a bit weird? Like, can you besiege a person?
@@lukasprazak7362 it is a siege tank, because it has one of the biggest ranges in game and can effectively destroy any defense. Also it has very good splash damage, which is the reason it is used very effectively against attacking infantry
@@lukasprazak7362 It's actually a regular tank that does regular tank things, but it can also convert into an artillery mode where it becomes stationary with a huge cannon and really long range.
I was also missing this one on the list. I distinctly remember transforming it to Siege Mode for the first time and it one-shotting a Marine. The sound effect when it converts into Siege Mode is just so powerful
Mammoth Tank - Tiberium Wars was an epic thing
Oh my God yes
Bolo? No Bolo.... Awww...
Giant sentient nuclear land battleships that can use mountains as permeable cover wl always be my favorite.
They got their Baneblades, but we got the real man's Battle Tank. 😎😎😎
That was my reaction too. So sad...not even Sonny from Road to Damascus?
JASOE the All-seeing Omnipresent Eye Bolos would eat babeblades for lunch. Multiple space cruiser class plasma Hellbore cannons as primary weapons. Super smart AI, multiple secondary, tertiary and defensive weapon systems. Bolos were built to take whole well defended planets. They would be a Heavy MBT in 40k
@@ace448 Like I said, real man's Battle Tank.
Yep not much can stand up to a Bolo MK23B Continental Siege Unit
*If Thomas The Tank Engine isn't at number 1 I'm unsubscribing.*
Jeff Vader Thomas isn't sci-fi it's a dystopian alligorical series
@@jetpackcthulhu I mean, dystopias are kinda like sci-fi series, and Thomas the Tank Engine is so powerful and masterfully designed that he should still be on the list.
@@jetpackcthulhu Not so fast...
@@jetpackcthulhu I dunno. He's got a face. He can talk. He's sentient. Sodor is obviously home to some sort of hideous steampunk cyborg experiment.
ZygmaExperiment I always assumed it was a sisyphean hell
I feel like Games Workshop simply looked at the Nazi Rat and went “dude, this is tight”
first thought when i saw nazi rat was not the hypothetical tank with a ships cannon but the rat from ratatouille in an ss outfit
The Ratte wasn't a tank though. This is a great misconception. It was a Land Cruiser, and it was intended as a mobile headquarters and fire support for armored divisions.
@@wolfehoffmann2697 it could have been a shitpost made by drunken nazi engineers as well
The imperium of man in 40k is full of nazi references and inspirations.
@@wolfehoffmann2697 The ratte is some valkyria chronicles shit
"This here is 66 tonnes of straight up, HE spewing Divine intervention. If God is love then you can call me cupid."
"Ready to unleash 11 barrels of hell"
"C'mon Wolffe its just a scratch. Keep moving forward soldier!*
"I'm going for the legs; all four of them"
Looks at Scorpion
*Laughs in Mammonth and Apocalypse*
Actually scorpion would do pretty good vs those two
Though those two if 5v5 Vs the scorpion would have 2 left
@@borttorbbq2556 good to know that you needed two comments to say that. Not sure how Scorpion's only railgun would help him vs tanks that can literary fire nuclear ammunition, survive one themselves and optionally mount twice of its amount of railguns, but at least you're absolutely sure of that. Good for you, bye:D
Aye but what about the Grizzly from Halo Wars?
@@vridiantoast7096 are you implying it was created before they've stole the design to make Scorpion in Halo CE?
David Drake's Hammer's Slammers. More science fiction, and less science fantasy.
Mmmm 20cm Power Guns
Holy fucking shit someone else actually knows about The Slammers? Finally!
Smooth slope Iridium armor rocks!
I read one of them, I was fairly impressed.
@@Kissamiess One of the big reasons it's so realistic is because Drake himself was part of a tank unit in Vietnam, so he understand the tactics, methodology and the psychology of the fighting men perfectly.
No Slammer tank? No BOLO? Good heavens.
That's what I was thinking too.
He Bolo'ed that list!
absolutely cultured post
No decent art work to accurately depict either.
@@jlokison shimmering sword made some good stuff
It's not in a video game or movie, but my favorite sci-fi tank is the M2A main battle tank used in Hammer's Slammers, by David Drake.
Slammers forever!
What? What about the Icarus Industries M2 "Ursa" Hover Tank from Hammer's Slammers?
Mammoth tank taking it to the front. Unstoppable
Dead in one shot from any of the Baneblades AT weapons and stardust if shot by the main gun :P
@@zameliz At least you make make more Mammoth Tanks.
@@zameliz Baneblade is just an anemic MARV.
@@gracecalis5421 da fuq is MARV?
@Harli Baron Ou the times playing with buddy and 4 AI's... Nothing happens in half a hour, i'm on my corner of the map going full turtle like usual and finished my master peace of mass army, MARV and defense installations plus taken down one AI enemy... friend asks if i'm ready to receive 3 of his units.. say sure and 3 rifleman squads get decimated by my defences. Says he sends another 3... 1MARV, hexapod, redeemer slowly walk in decimating everything in their wake... buddy had taken over rest of the AI in the map and built their epic units.. ffs... and then he sends rest of his army made out of those 3 factions...
Actually there is a tank that's the best one in all of science fiction: *_"The Bob Semple Tank."_*
(Just kidding it was a joke)
That's non-fiction, man.
It's raw power and imposing stature kept the Japanese from invading New Zealand out of pure fear.
@@dekuscrublord3737 I know it was only a joke.
well if you believe New Zealand is a myth, then yet it is fantasy, but we did build 3 of them before converting them back to tractors cos they where just to unfair
If we are going for non-fiction tanks nothing beats the raw chaotic destruction of the KILLDOZER, imagine an army of kamikaze soldiers strapped into unstoppable ramming machines
@@cyborg_v271 Aghhh why didn't I think of that.
The tanks from the bolo books they are the best ever
Bolo books? Wut
@@BeyondDaX You know how the Baneblade was revealed to be a light tank? Imagine that. Imagine if a FULL TITAN LEGION was compressed into a tank. It can fight FLEETS from the ground and WIN. They are nigh unkillable. And they have lovely AI.
Fanus Obscurus Baneblades aren’t light tanks, they’re some of the best the Guard can offer
Are you referring to Hammers Slammer the merc tank outfit? If so, those were excellent! Love the bolo tanks.
@@fanusobscurus4309 If Baneblades were the light tanks? Which are the actual heavy tanks of the Imperial Guard? I admit my guard knowledge is limited to Dawn of War series
Supreme Commander's UEF Fatboy's were pretty darn nice tank-factories.
Spacedock: "The AAT has a hammerhead design". T'au fans: FOR THE GREATER GOOD!
One thing I really liked about the AT-TE was it’s ability to traverse any surface including vertical cliffs. This also allowed it to be attached to asteroids and participate in space battles (makes you wonder if they could be deployed on the surface of a friendly ship to supplement the ship-board weapons)
Baneblade: when you Need 11 Guns of pure and holy Emperor bothering
Baneblade: When Fire Dragons say, "Urmmm... Farseer, are you sure about this?"
Dam right
When you absolutely must remove all the heresy in front of you, and you don't have enough space Marines.
Or the stormhammer, When a baneblade doesnt have enough guns
Repulsor: Space Marines fully embracing 'moar dakka'.
What? No BOLOs(Keith Laumer's series of stories, about cybernetic controlled super-tanks)
Spacedock: Brings up Battlezone
Me: "I get that reference!"
Siege Tanks from Starcraft would’ve been a nice inclusion.
Agreed
I disagree. It only had a single cannon as a weapon, and nothing else, and an Ultralisk stomped down on it hard in the SC2:HotS cinematic.
@@gargarmikejaphett.3840 any tanks in the list could be curbstopped by an Ultra bane blade?
surprise underground flip would flip it over and the ultra is strong enough to do so.
the heads of the ultras are shaped like shields to take the punishment.
Also if they added those fancy hover tanks then a diamond back would be not so bad.
I'm a little disappointed you didn't include the Bolo AI-controlled tanks created by Keith Laumer. They have a long and honorable history. If Valhalla accepts mechanical warriors, the Bolos will be very well represented.
Dave, There will be buxsom serving wenches drawing large barrels of the finest motor oil from Odin's cellars for the Bolo Brigade.
@@jesseberg3271 All hail the Dinochrome Brigade!
BOLOs guard the gates to Valhalla!
@@danielallenbutler1782 They would be one hell of a security if taken taken too literally.
While i appreciate the awesome baneblade being here, I'd like an honourable mention for the Mammoth Tank. Two 120mm cannons on a turret, 2 SAM-capable missile launchers on the side, regenerative armor plating to assist sustainability, and a fantastic sloped design and a remarkably low profile. It is technically weak to bombers thanks to its low speed, but has enough armor to survive, and the regen can bring it back up to reasonable levels. Add to that the missile launchers that can take out said bombers, and few things want to directly engage one of these beasts.
Not even an honorable mention for the Bolo?
I kinda see BOLO'S as a real man's main battle tank.
"For the honor of the regiment!"
Calling a bolo (other than the very early models) a tank is an insult to the bolo. They're planetary siege units. It would be like calling a WH40k Titan a battlesuit.
Dinochrome Brigade!
@@Anon33467 I mean....if we ignore the fact they're huge, Titans kinda are battlesuits. Kinda like the Jagers from Pacific Rim in that sense
I don't know how this video left out the Siege Tanks from the Starcraft series.
One of my favorite Sci-Fi Tanks is the Tachikoma from Ghost in the Shell...
Hammer's Slammers? SJG Orge/GEV?
How were these missed?
Interesting choices, Loved the Seige Tank from Starcraft as a mobile MBT/Artillery Hybrid as well as the Hovertank (And its command Variant) from Warcommander since its a Frontline MBT with an auto-loading system and Defensive AA missile systems but also can use a separate set of missiles for directed combat.
Duncecap64 the siege tank is 1 of my all time fav tanks
The Siege Tanks packs a punch and can be a bit of a pain dealing with them.
never heard of Warcommander. You have any images of the tank?
@@guamson8946 warcommander.fandom.com/wiki/Hover_Tank I wouldnt recomend playing since this game has long gone into P2W territory but i still cant fault the design and use of this during the more balanced era, it was good but you had to dodge otherwise you would just die, and non miss slow effects would just ruin that.
I stopped play starcraft 2 thanks to that tank, it is a good artillery but as a tank...... my eyes asked for mercy
You missed the heavy tanks of the BOLO and the Hammer's Slammers series books. There is also the massive Tiger III tanks of the Posleen war series of novels. The classic OGRE setting is full of amazing and silly tanks that are just amazing. There are so many that were missed that outdo little pop gun tanks like the Scorpion or even the Baneblade in sci-fi books
I forgot about Hammer Slammer. He still needs to learn how to read.
Hell yeah Hammer's Slammers is where its at, hover tanks armored in solid iridium with plasma cannons that can hit targets in low orbit if the tank shuts down its hover systems and just dumps the fusion reactor into the shot
I was truly hoping that SHIVAs would make the list. But considering that the only real art of them were concept pieces, I can understand why they were excluded.
The SHIVA would have been amazing to see, even if they ignored SHIVA 'BunBun's' unique modifications of the book. SHIVA and Tiger III really were small, proto BOLOs in terms of what they were capable of doing. Especially Tiger III and the AIDs that drove that monster. The fact that both massive vehicles were not really acknowledged during the final Posleen War novel is also a detriment to their inclusion, despite them being platforms that are exceedingly powerful in sci-fi.
You can't go wrong with BOLO
I do love how passionate he gets when talking about 40k :) plus everything is cooler, Mega bolters, Mega Gatling Cannon, Mega Lasers
Oh no, Fail all fail! You forgot the Bolo. If you're going to make a no holds barred list and not include caveats about what IP is and is allowed the BOLO is the best SciFi tank. End of story.
Bolo is a mildly-mobile armored mountain-city more than it is a tank.
While that's inarguably badass, it is ultimately not as combat effective as smaller vehicles. There's just not a solid combat role for such a vehicle, even if it was placed in 40k, it's not quite as mobile as war-titans. Undeniably impressive, but doomed to death by swarm, especially unsupported.
Whereas the ATTE, ATT, and Scorpion can all carry a minor complement of troops inside or out to escort the tank itself. Solo bolo is a no-no.
@@TiernanWilkinson "it's not quite as mobile as war titans"... really? If I'm not mistaken, I don't remember reading anywhere that a titan can run through the battlefield at over 100 km/h, sometimes even more
@@TiernanWilkinson and death by swarm? There's a story where one Bolo, one which was not even close to a Mk 33 in power, resisted hundreds of nukes, some hitting it at point blank.
When you have armor meters thick and can still role at more than 90kph and still pivot spin without throwing a track your maneuverable and more durable than any walker.
@@TiernanWilkinson Okay so
Not as mobile is just...I could go on such a tangent about that, lmao. They had multiple sets of tracks to vastly reduce ground pressure, and treads do great in all but the rockiest, most uneven of terrain. That, and a much lower profile than titans.
Also, bolos are not the size of mountains or cities, more like mobile city blocks.
you misspelled mega battle cannon
its actually spelled HIS HOLY EMPEROR'S MEGA BATTLE CANNON!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you read the Bolo books by Keith Laumer or David Weber (Primary writers)?
Can you make a Planetside review of the Separatist Supertank from Star Wars Clone Wars? It was only featured in the final episode of the Geonosis arc.
Intreductor second episode, of 4
@@CD-Freedom mb
2:38
I give everyone the same piece of advice if they’re playing the campaign on Legendary or in Multiplayer with the Scorpion:
“It’s a sniper rifle with wheels. Treat it as such.”
Gonna jump on the bandwagon and express my disappointment that the BOLO was not mentioned. Makes a Baneblade, look like a Hotwheels car.
IT'S THE BAANEBLAAADEEEE
Great choices all of them, but i would have liked to see the Mammoth tank from Command & Conquer at least as a honorary mention.
Now since you already defined the Scorpion as "low scifi", maybe the Mammoth would be too realistic for this vid?
All of these are tiny when compared to a Bolo Mk. 33.
UNIT D N E
@@stevekelley5635 DNE was a Mk. XX
Big doesn't mean good. That's why most modern MBTs are between 50-80 tons; current technology supports tanks of that weight that can move at speeds up to 60mph. Realistic scifi tech might support tanks of double that weight but not astronomically higher. Once size reaches towards mountainous, the tank becomes so slow it's just a massive target, and such is the fate of many a Bolo.
That said I can't deny the cool factor but I'd still argue it'd be a thoroughly ineffective combat vehicle.
@@TiernanWilkinson Actually, given that most tank platforms are something like 30-40 years old currently, it wouldn't be hard to make a Mk. 1 bolo, which was a 150 metric ton up to 50 MPH.
Also, most tanks go something like 40-45 MPH, not 60. You're probably thinking of KPH.
No love for the OGRE? Maybe I'm just too old.
OGRE is based off of a type of tank called the Bolo
For video games the arcade game T-Mek. Berkoth can not be beaten. For the all the best tank you should have included almost any BOLO, from the Keith Lumner universe. They not only pass the rule of cool, but also surpassed any WH40K war machine.
Since the tanks from the Bolo series was already mentioned, how about the tanks from the Berserker book series or the tanks from the Hammers Slammers book series
I was going to bring up the slammers.
Didn't Hammers Slammers guys use bolo tanks? I know it's been a few years (cough) but I thought so.
@@Shortsircut1 no they are 2 separate book series. the slammers used hover tanks and hover cars using powered particle or plasma weapons. The Bolos were AI tanks that used standard, nuclear and something called "Hellbore" weapons
@@1228carlito Well like I said, it's been a few years...lol
@@Shortsircut1 Don't worry, i had to look some of it up lol
Bolo....Bolo.....Bolo..... oh, and one more thing....BOLO!!!!! enuff said.
Completely agree. Pretty obvious this is not a "Sci Fi" run down, but more a rundown from SF gaming. I can think of several tanks from SciFi (including the BOLOs) that put all of these to shame.
If a Baneblade is a light Tank, a late series Bolo is what a super heavy tank wants to be when it grows up.
Bolo, now that's a great choice, but my vote is the OGRE, from Steve Jackson, admittedly a derivative of Bolo.
Some of my favorite books.
Agreed wholeheartedly. That said, the Bolo isn't so much a tank as a starship on treads with main guns that fire DIRECTED NUCLEAR DETONATIONS at their targets.
I call shenanigans! Obviously the Mammoth Tank from C n C should have been on this list
Mammoth tanks are the best.
Does OGRE count as a tank?
Personal favorite is the Magrider from Planetside 1. Narrow body, accurate at range, agile, quick, and hovers.
I would say OGRE counts. It's an AI computer but, I would still say its a tank. I was hoping to see the OGRE tank here. However, I know it's a tabletop game that's always had a small audience in comparison to other games like Warhammer 40,000, so I don't expect Spacedock to know about it. For those that are curious, OGRE is a small pocket game (yes pocket, like you can throw it in your back pocket and play at it at lunch time at the cafeteria table) from Steve Jackson games. The designs are weird, but there's a charm there.
I got hit in the feels by the Battlezone, ah those were the times. But then I'm slightly disappointed by the absence of Bolos. They are THE TANKS!
How about top 5 anti-infantry light vehicles? I'd love to hear you talk about the Harkonnen DeathSaw from Emperor: Battle for Dune.
Ghosts unpopular opinion
Out of the Halo tanks, if he had to pick the Scorpion I do not understand why he had to go with the M808 instead of the M820, preferably the Hannibal or O.N.I. variants.
Honestly I would have chosen the grizzly or the Locust.
If there's no Bolo I'm gonna be pissed...
hover tank from Hammers Slammers series, those were nasty beast from the future. one or two tanks could take control of whole battle and crush the enemy.
When I saw the title of this vid I immediately thought about the GDI Mammoth Tank especially from CnC 3, then I thought about their big brother, the Bolo. Looking at the comments I'm glad to see I'm not the only one praising these absolute engines of destruction. As a GDI Tank Commander would say, 'Unrivaled!'
Command & Conquer Nod Stealth Tank, GDI Disruptor (sonic wave weapon), GDI Mammoth Tank. Lol @spacedock you never played Command and Conquer rts series right?
The best C&C tank bar none is the awesomely OP-tastic Emperor from Generals with its cheater-ific integral Speaker Tower, though. It's especially f-ed up because it still has the Chinese swarm bonus, so a late-game squad of about 4 could basically mow down anything like blades of grass.
I'm glad the AAT got attention in this. It's probably one of my favorite sci-fi tank designs and I've loved it ever since I saw it in episode 1.
"Open fire!"
What about the Ogre (the heavy battle tanks in the old Steve Jackson Games Ogre)?
This was the FIRST thing I thought of seeing the title.
Bolos continental siege units on up through planetary, to star system defense units and John Ringo's posleen series, the SheVa named Bun-Bun "skiing" down a mountain, shooting interstellar landers out of the air
"Park a BaneBlade somewhere valuable, Consider that area Defended."
Honorable mentions:
a) Type 61 Heavy Main Battle tank from Mobile Suit Gundam (UC)
b) Apocalyps Sovjet super heavy tank from Red Alert 2
please add more
Apocalypse is just a rename of mammoth from tiberian series and RA1. So mammoth all the way
"Drive me closer, I want to hit it with my sword!"
Needed the Hover tanks from Hammers Slammers, including the Calliopes.
Calliopes are excellent for antiaircraft, overkill for anti infantry or riot control (where they were used once) but their lack of armor makes them useless verses MBTs
Tachikoma's are my favorite sci-fi tank. They are about the size of a SUV capable of high speeds, jumping great distances, scaling almost anything between grappling hooks or magnetic legs, have wire web launchers to tangle stuff like Spiderman, machine gun hands, typically a 1 shot tank cannon shell, cloaking technology, and they possess a loyal AI. Only downside is they seem to get a little sassy in groups with each other.
“Burns? Burns. This is Braddock. I know you’re out there, and you know my frequency. I’m not sitting back on this one.”
It’d be good fun to have a player to work together with in Combat Commander’s multiplayer against some AI. :P
And where is Siege Tank from StarCraft and Mamooth tank from C&C? Not the best list ;)
Tbh I wouldnt put the Siege Tank on this list since it's more of a self propelled artillery than it is a tank
@@CallsignYukiMizuki True, but his criterion was "called a tank in the IP", so I think it should have qualified.
It's also a great example of a vehicle with both strengths and weaknesses, which it essentially had to have to be part of a balanced RTS.
Probably because they are both quite terrible in comparison to the other options already on this list.
@@GarlicAvenger Their so-called "tank" can't even protect normal bullets from marines and barely have any range that is longer than a marine's rifle when they are in unsiege mode.
That's exactly what I was thinking.
You missed out the North American Combine Ogre MkV Cybertank
How destructive are Star Trek Phasers compared to Star Wars Turbo Lasers or Covenant starship Plasma weapons?
The AT-TE is probably my favorite Star Wars ground vehicle. It seems to be well thought-out and have many aspects of its design either easy to understand or readily explained.
One honorable mention I'd definitely like to add is the Landmaster from the Star Fox series.
Sure, it's a wheeled vehicle in SF Assault, but in SF Command and its overused appearance in Smash Bros Brawl, it's tracked.
I think it deserves a mention simply because Space Dynamics had the audacity to make an Arwing-based tank.