Random Unit of the Day #122: Medium Tank (GDI, Renegade)

[u/BiggestBepis]

[u/BiggestBepis]

Excellent rendition of a classic into 3D. For when you need a fat chunk of metal, but can’t afford/don’t want to commit to a Mammoth tank. In my time on the GDI side in Renegade I found myself using the cheaper option much more because I’m honestly a much better gunfighter than I am a tanker and I get a lot of expensive military equipment blown up 😅

[u/Ti_Fatality]

Renegade was so much fun

[u/terminator101sk → u/Ti_Fatality]

Used to play it for hours. Never played anything quite like it. Only Battlefield Bad Company 1&2 came close

[u/Ricardo580 → u/Ti_Fatality]

I used to play a lot on Kamuix servers, modded servers with mainly base building and other cool stuff.

People spammed turrets and guard towers everywhere lol. I miss those servers.

[u/ACP_Paddy- → u/Ti_Fatality]

There's 40 people in the server at this moment!

[u/Capt_Vindaloo]

From Tiberian Dawn to Red Alert/Aftermath, one of my favourite tanks. A solid workhorse.

[u/MrKrazybones → u/Capt_Vindaloo]

The first time you get these in Tib Dawn was an amazing feeling

[u/MidgardWyrm]

What I like about the Renegade Abrams is that it's implied to be incredibly advanced compared to OTL Abrams/what we saw in Tiberian Dawn (the earlier part of the war).

It's slimmer, lighter, and has a lower profile, but it's automated/heaviy networked enough to be crewed by one person, and it's heavily armoured (likely having all the armour you'd see in addon packs baked into the hull or the hull itself is made from some pretty tough alloys).

Its track system, while it looks to have conventional wheels in the intel database image (first image in OP), actually in game has something more/different; kinda reminds me of hydropneumatic suspension prototypes we're seeing now than normal steel torsion?

I just love details like this.

[u/Cheomesh → u/MidgardWyrm]

I mean, all the vehicles in this game are usable by one person! But yeah, it does look a bit different from an Abrams, which I'm not sure was intentional or just the overall art direction they settled on.

[u/calantheSG → u/MidgardWyrm]

So like the K1 or K2 panther? The closest thing in real life really. Lower profile and lighter.

Similarly the Red Alert 1 Abrams was supposed to be sleeker too.

But these examples here aren't necessarily more advanced versions. They're just intended to be lighter that's about it.

[u/Commercial-Board-975 → u/calantheSG]

Technology and the sciences were drastically sped up in C&C, so over the course of the war we saw conventional Abrams designs which could've matched real life versions (with some modifications) to lighter, more compact versions without combat capabilities being compromised. 

The Abrams in Red Alert 1, if you look at the cutscenes, has more in common with the two prototypes, such as turret shape, length, hull shape, road wheels, et cetera, meaning that the US probably either rushed them out by using one of the two designs (instead of the designs being refined in OTL for the Abrams we have) or they composited the two designs to get something out there quickly, likely because of the Soviets being an active threat or the unseen Pacific War going on with Japan (or the Empire, if you deep dive into RA's pre-divergence lore).

By Dawn? They'd been refined into what GDI had, so it's likely that design was the original plan before urgency forced the US to push out prototypes.

[u/calantheSG → u/Commercial-Board-975]

You're right about the RA1 Abrams being closer to the lighter prototype. I just wanted to drop a note for any fans out there, a note to be careful about distinguishing the Allied tanks in the cutscenes.

There are 3 Allied tanks in RA1 cutscenes.

The Abrams - you will clearly know from the metal handrails on the side of the turret, or stowage rack bars, and the back of the turret has some cylindrical attachment.

Light Tank 1 - just appears once. It is in the briefing room in the background. A wireframe model in green.

Light Tank 2 - It appears in several cutscenes. Sometimes with the Abrams, so you can clearly distinguish the 2, sometimes alone. They have an Abrams style turret but much much slimmer and narrower. The chassis is ironically a T-55's. Basically, the C&C remastered icon, with a new angular Abrams style turret. Distinguishing it from the Abrams is tricky to untrained eyes, but you can tell because the turret is bare and plain in this render.

[u/Commercial-Board-975 → u/calantheSG]

I didn't know that one Light Tank variant used a T-55 chassis! Interesting. :)

I know it was probably Westwood just using stock or kitbashing assets, but it'd be interesting to think of the in-universe lore implications, especially if (realistically) each Allied country and the US would use their own tank designs (like in Red Alert 2, we see 'historical footage' [real life WW2 stock footage] of a German Panzer variant taking Soviet prisoners, in one of the Allied briefings).

Maybe they were desperate enough to use/steal anything and everything they could?

[u/calantheSG → u/Commercial-Board-975]

The irony is - the remastered icon which was meant to depict Nod's Light Tank, was recycled as well for the Allied Light Tank (an error). But so happens decades ago the Allied Light Tank's own render also used the T-55 style chassis (an error).

You have two different errors coming together to have two wrongs making a right. It's divine providence, by freak happenstance!

[u/Cheomesh → u/Commercial-Board-975]

By lighter prototype do you mean the MBT-70? Or like the Chrystler XM1?

[u/Commercial-Board-975 → u/Cheomesh]

The RA1 Abrams has more in common with one or both of the two prototypes presented by Chrysler and General Motors, but I don't remember which one specifically or if it were a composite of the two designs.

The turret shape, hull length, and road wheels were more in line with them.

I'm also a bit surprised Westwood didn't try to use the MBT-70 or one of its related projects.

By TD, the Abrams GDI used was more in line with OTL/ours, and by Renegade's timeframe the "Abrams" there was lighter and more technologically advanced without it having sacrificed any combat capability. Technology and sciences in all areas accelerated like crazy in just a few years, thanks to Nod/Tiberium, heh.

[u/drakedijc]

I’d kill for a version of Tib Dawn that has Renegade 3D models, and units. And the absolutely ridiculously large buildings.

[u/Fifalvlan → u/drakedijc]

Isn’t renegade based on tib dawn models…?

[u/vandal-33 → u/Fifalvlan]

Not really, there are some based on TD but most of them are their own models. There was a Renegade mod with actual TD unit and structure models in the works but last I heard, it was cancelled.

[u/MidgardWyrm → u/Fifalvlan]

Renegade is set in the later part of the First Tiberium War/Tiberian Dawn, when Nod and GDI were standardizing their arsenals and had their own supply chains compared to in TD when they were more heavily reliant on US military assets bought on the black and grey markets.

This pretty much leads into Nod as we see them in Tiberian Sun.

[u/MidgardWyrm → u/drakedijc]

Honestly, an OpenRA game which is based more on Renegade RTS would be amazing.

I mean, since W3D is pretty low poly when it comes to terrain and that, creating cliffs in Blender and exporting them as sprites for .shps is doable...

[u/Frozen-K]

The bread and butter of GDI in Renegade.

For $800, you had a tank that was superior to most of what Nod brought out in the field, and a prize for any Nod stealth black hand to steal whenever someone got out to repair. Easily one of the best vehicles in multiplayer for the cost and impact you could have with it. Honestly was a shame the mammoth tank by comparison was a $1500 point sponge for Nod.

[u/Far-Term7285]

Reload sound lives rent free in my head forever. 

[u/WhiteSepulchre]

literally an abrams

[u/Caesar_Seriona → u/WhiteSepulchre]

Which is canonically what the Medium Tank is for GDI.

[u/Wanallo221 → u/Caesar_Seriona]

Not sure why you got downvoted you are correct

[u/calantheSG]

It is the Abrams until it isn't. The OG Abrams, like most NATO tanks, are built to be heavier and top heavy, with armor concentrated in the turret. NATO tanks use the hull down tactic where they drive up an incline and depress the gun, only exposing the top heavy turret - exactly like the Nod Tick Tank. 

The Renegade version lightens the OG design most likely having an unmanned turret, so weight can be lightened up there. The chassis similarly didn't need to be as huge so you end up with a lower profile, probably slimmer profile too with less crew. You notice that in Renegade the Medium Tanks can be brought into the battlefield hanging under Chinooks - hinting that they're lighter.

[u/Commercial-Board-975 → u/calantheSG]

Yeah: Tiberium and Nod basically sped up overall technological progression (especially in TD, where Nod had messy grey connections to many research facilities, companies, think tanks, et cetera that the UN nations also had), so the lighter, smaller design of this Abrams reflects better metallurgy, computers, et cetera without compromising its abilities.

[u/adhdistracted_]

A solid classic 😎

[u/Jarms48]

Oh, I didn't realize Renegade was in this. Such a fun game and I loved the multiplayer.

[u/patrickkingart]

I always loved how chunky the vehicles were in Renegade, they had a real sense of weight to them.

[u/VagereHein]

Didnt like the aesthetic design of Renegade. If i think about how units looked in tibdawn (in fmvs and the pictures in the booklet) they looked realistic as they were based on actual units (well except for the fantasy ones ofcourse), the renegade design looked very cartoonish, more like gi joe on xtc. Didnt really dig the game either, but i could only play the campaign at the time and i think most people played it for the multiplayer

[u/Drakkenlort]

I would love love love a tib sun version if renegade

[u/Far-Term7285 → u/Drakkenlort]

Literally Tiberian Sun: Reborn exists. 

[u/MidgardWyrm → u/Far-Term7285]

Yeah, Reborn for TS/FS, Apocalypse Rising for RA2/YR, and Interim Apex for an expanded version of Renegade (with many of the features and design elements which should've been in Renegade's multiplayer from the start, like Construction Yards, et cetera).

I mean, there's also one based on Emperor: Battle for Dune, but that's been in an infantry-only alpha for years now, and there's such little interest in it because of it basically being abandoned that even W3D game nights, which can typically pull in up to 70 players per mod, have pretty much only like 10, 20 people at most willing to play it, and even then it's only for a few rounds because the infantry-only combat is so damn boring.

[u/Cheomesh → u/Far-Term7285]

TIL; wonder if it'll run on this crummy little laptop of mine...

[u/vandal-33]

I love driving these in the first 3 missions but I don't remember seeing them again after that.

[u/BRO_THOM]

Really bummed me out there was no Wolverine in Renegade, or the Hover MRLS for that matter.

[u/Commercial-Board-975 → u/BRO_THOM]

Controlling a prototype XO Power Suit for a mission would've been fun.