Mammoth Tank

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The Mammoth Tank is a fictional ground vehicle in Command & Conquer real-time strategy computer games. The Mammoth was superseded by the Mammoth mkII in Tiberian Sun, the Apocalypse Tank in Red Alert 2, and is similar to the Overlord Tank in . Most real time strategy games incorporate a large, powerful unit like the Mammoth, and a Mammoth-like tank often features in Westwood games.

Contents

1 ''Command & Conquer'' series

1.1 ''Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn''
1.2 ''Red Alert''
1.3 ''Tiberian Sun

1.3.1 Mammoth mkII

1.4 ''Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2''
1.5 ''Generals''
1.6 ''Command & Conquer 3''

2 ''Dune''
3 Trivia
4 References

Command & Conquer series

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn

The Mammoth Tank appears to be the Global Defense Initiative's (GDI) heavy assault tank in the original game.

Red Alert

A Soviet Mammoth Tank from the C&C Renegade mod

The Mammoth Tank was first conceived during the in which the Allies fought against the Soviets across Europe. In response to the Allies' Medium Tank technology threatening to parallel the Soviet Heavy Tanks, Josef Stalin commenced development of a monstrous tank with:

Dual 120mm cannons in the turret
Dual "Mammoth Tusk" missile launchers (specifically designed to attack infantry and aircraft)

The chassis utilised four separate tread units to move the tank, similar to the Swedish [UDES-XX-20] prototype. The tank had an engineer crew that would repair the tank to 50% armour capacity if it became heavily damaged - this was useful because the tank's size and weight meant it could only move at a slow crawl, allowing it to be overwhelmed if unescorted. The Mammoth was also extremely expensive, but deployed tactically, could annihilate enemy bases.

''Tiberian Sun

In Tiberian Sun, the Mammoth Tank can be obtained from bonus crates (which exist in every Command & Conquer game). They are sometimes seen under the control of The Forgotten during campaigns and are not constructible by the player at any time, but three can be found and placed under the player's control in the last GDI mission. However, the GDI research and develop the Mammoth mkII during the game.

Mammoth mkII

The Mammoth Mark II

The Mammoth mkII Prototype is a unit in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun. The prototype did not enter mass production during the course of the game - hence the player is only allowed to build one mkII during skirmishes or multiplayer games. Its high price and inability to get past walls somewhat limited it, but it is nevertheless a very powerful albeit slow unit. It uses

Two enormous, side-mounted railguns similar to Ghost Stalker's, but several times more powerful, with the capacity to destroy moderately armoured tanks in a single discharge.
Dual anti-aircraft missile launchers

The Mammoth Mk II is very similar in form to the AT-AT walkers from the second Star Wars movie, and is not a tank in the traditional sense.

It was often easily destroyed by 3-5+ Banshee's, a Nod air unit that fires green energy balls similar to the Cyborg Commando.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Soviet Apocalypse tanks

Although the Mammoth Tank does not appear in , a very similar tank, the Apocalypse Assault Tank, is used by Soviet armies against Allied forces. Although slow, the Apocalypse is a fearsome vehicle, featuring:

Dual heavy cannons firing nuclear armour-piercing shells.
Twin missile launchers firing weapons similar to the 'Mammoth Tusk' missiles employed in the original Mammoth; these are employed in an anti-aircraft role.
An integrated miniature nuclear reactor.

Generals

Although the Mammoth Tank itself does not appear in , the Chinese Overlord Tank resembles the Mammoth Tank. Like the Mammoth, it uses four separate sets of treads and two large cannons (though these are mounted at the sides of the turret rather than the front), but does not have the Mammoth Tusk missiles common to previous incarnations. It is able to run over smaller tanks much like the Mammoth could, and can have weapon upgrades built onto it. The Gatling Cannon upgrade resembles the Mammoth Tusk missile launchers in that it is used primarily for anti-air and anti-personnel defence.

Its upgrades are:

Gatling cannon
Bunker
Speaker tower

Command & Conquer Generals: Zero Hour features an improved Overlord called the Emperor, which is built with a Speaker Tower already installed and can be upgraded to mount a Gatling Cannon, but cannot mount a bunker. It features a lengthened turret to accommodate the Gatling Cannon in addition to the Speaker Tower.

Command & Conquer 3

A trailer to the upcoming game features a tank named Mammoth 27, which resembles the Tiberian Dawn Mammoth Tank. The trailer states that the tank has:

dual 150mm cannons on the turret
dual 4.75 inch missile pods specially designed to attack infantry and aircraft

Thus the tank is similar to the original. Also, in the EA C&C3 podcast with Mike Verdu, it is stated that the tank can be upgraded to have powerful dual railguns - similar to the Mammoth MkII.

Dune

The inspiration for the Mammoth Tank can be found in the Harkonnen Devastator, in Westwood's Dune series of real-time strategy games. The Devastator packs twin plasma cannons, can fire missiles in later games, and has a special self-destruct ability.

Trivia

"Mammut", or "mammoth", was also the name given to the Panzer VIII Maus in its early design phase.

References

Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2 and Command & Conquer game manuals.
EA C&C3 podcast.
E3 2006 C&C3 trailers.

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