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[Yun.]

Hey ho hey.
Yippy ho.

I ran different tests, thank to Mul_Daya that helped me understand some things, thanks to the different pubbies overwhelmed pubbies, I could came up with a clearer opinion on tanks.

As it is said in the title, this is my analysis, feel free to discuss.

Tank C
Cost/Usefulness Factor: Expansive
Weakness: Melee, Boats ?
Strength:
Comment: A vulnerable tank against melee units, so easily trapped by "Nets", flanking and especially sea flanking. Can be useful in huge fight when micro is almost impossible. An unbalanced tank because it gives an advantage only when micro is impossible. It should be more useful in smaller fights considering his price.

Tank B
Cost/Usefulness Factor: OK
Weakness: Rifles / Private Marines
Strength: Tanks A
Comment: A very nice addition to the regular set of units. A balanced tank. Good to use in addition to a mortar force (but I dont use it that much anyway) in regard to its range (~780 ?!). And especially useful against Tanks C. Highly vulnerable to Rifles, dont let your rifle meatshield line die or else your Tank B will feed your opponent ! Probably the most vulnerable tank of the three.

Tank A
Cost/Usefulness Factor: Cheap
Weakness: Mortars, Tank B
Strength: Melee
Comment: The most useful tank thanks to its ability (more infos on Taunt below). Useful against swarms of Melee units (especially to stop Marine General's overwhelming, or to support it...). The ability has to be changed to balance the cost.



Taunt
Taunt is awesome.
It offers at least two new strategies.

Catch me if you can !
Used to defend.
If someone is loading a full transport ship of Marine Generals just train 4 generals and one Tank A and then mass rifles. Taunt with the tank and the Marine Generals will be useless for some seconds, trying to hit the tank behind your lines.
Or in big fights.
It works the same way, taunt with the tank A behind your meatshield line and your enemy units will kill themselves under your fireguns.

Breakline
Fill up a Transport ship with 7 Marine Generals, 1 Priest, 1 Leet Medic and 1 Tank A. When you load, click Taunt and Roar. The rifles will try to reach your tank, in other words they will run in front of your general's sword..

Help balancing Taunt
Give Taunt a mana cost (~30).
Give Taunt to Tank C.
Give Tank C 60 (40 starting) Mana and Tank A 70 (50 starting) Mana with a higher Mana regen.

[PsycoMarauder]

Btw Tank A and C need to be reversed.

Also some of my own notes:
Tank A is the ultimate tank vs melee because its damage type vs melee units but mostly because its taunt. Tanks in general can counter melee though, if defended with your own melee. (or rifles I suppose, but those can get raped by melee...)

A  Tank B can kill a Tank A. A Tank C can kill a Tank B. A  Tank A will take forever to kill another Tank A and can be used effectively to plug a bottleneck if noobs are Tank A spamming. Swarm/surround tank Bs with rifles and then focus = lots o bounty. Tank Cs and Bs are very good at pushing and collapsing lines in big battles when used properly.

As far as balancing taunt, I'm not sure I want to give Tank C taunt. Also, your changes would allow people to cast taunt all the time, and for Tank A, much more than what is possible now.

[Yun.]

Also, your changes would allow people to cast taunt all the time

Taunt can already be casted all the time. Keep the cooldown but add a manacost, I mean, it's a very powerfull ability.

[Mul_Daya]

Have to agree with you, Tank C is a bit useless, if the enemy micros. Since how it is now it dies rather fast when focused by rifles.

Great to see your guide is done and good job

[Yun.]

My guide is not done at all, I didnt even started it =D

It also needs a rework on starting positions, I managed to take Eu in 4 rounds in some game I played two days ago, I think I couldnt before, or maybe I was just too slow.

Anyway I have time to write for ten days so my guide should progress way quicker.

[Risker]

So, are you changeing your strategy guide?

[Yun.]

There's a thread about it on the strategy section.

[Risker]

Good Luck.
I know, that the tanks aren´t your favourite part of risk.
Atleast you told it in old ver.
Looking forward for updates.

[Mul_Daya]

Well.. you did a great job this far with the tanks I'd say
But.. Can you please tell me why you say the Tank B is especially usefull vs tank C? I would like to disagree with that since the Tank C got medium armor who recieves reduced damage from siege damage, while on the other hand the Tank A and B got fortified armor and is unarmored which recieves extra damage from siege damage?
Maybe I'm mistaken, but wouldn't the best way to kill a lot of tank C with a line of privates in front be to storm it with medium group of majors/generals and healers? The line would crack fast and the amount of damage a majors and generals deals to  tank C is AMAZING I tell you.

[Yun.]

I thought tank A were tank C and the contrary. Psyco saw the mistake and I edited.

[Mul_Daya]

Oh, sorry

[Fallen-God]

I don't see how you can't see the pros of the expensive tank.
It is an invaluable addition to a large battle.

Everyone knows taunt is powerful, but if you really know how to use it then it will win you battles every time.
It is also exceptional at defending your B tanks.

[Yun.]

Is this for me ?

EDIT: In a matter of maths, using Tank C is useless. Less DPS than marines for the same gold used. Less hit points. Less flanking uses...

[Fallen-God]

Is this for me ?

EDIT: In a matter of maths, using Tank C is useless. Less DPS than marines for the same gold used. Less hit points. Less flanking uses...

Saying less DPS, less HP, etc. is an extremely simplistic model of how the game works.

I am really not going to go into detail, I mean if you don't know how to use them then that is all the better for me.
But tank Cs can stop enemies from retreating (in a battle just before you think they are going to retreat move the tanks forward, and as they micro back do taunt).
If you think "oh they can just re-micro them back" you must consider that:
a) If you are fighting on multiple fronts then they will simply not micro in time
b) Those are valuable seconds where they are not hitting you and your entire army is raping theirs.

If you are fighting a war on multiple fronts, taunt at all the fronts at the same tim will catch them out on a few fronts, and you will make huge gains because of it.
I, for one, would never let my tanks die, and they keep dishing out damage and tactical advantages for literally hours.

[Yun.]

Taunt is really useful. Tank C is the 10g tank.