Unsually modified Tanks

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Tessen

Canal Defence Light: A powerful carbon-arc searchlight carried on several types of tank inside a modified turret.

Yes, I'm somewhat surprised nobody has mentioned yet the other direction, taken by the Germans. They had prototypes using IR light. They had a special halftrack, the SdKfz 251/20D "Uhu" (Owl) equipped with an IR projector, and a Panther tank variant equipped with IR optics.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michele

Yes, but the Germans at least tended to use such a vehicle not just for command purposes, but also for FO service for the artillery. They had not just better radios and more room, but also better optical equipment. They tended to be fielded with the armored artillery units, of course.

The British used them for this purpose, too (as well as armoured cars).

[Michele]

Originally Posted by The Colonel

The other interesting rebuild of tanks would be "kangerooing" - de-turretting and stripping out to turn them into prototype APCs. Not very good APCs, but heavily armoured ones for the period and an idea much emulated by the Israelites into the present day.

These were medium tanks converted to APCs, but another reason to remove turrets was to convert light tanks into recon vehicles. The British did this to perfectly turreted Stuart tanks. The reasoning was that a much lower silhouette made the vehicle both less noticeable and more difficult to target, and that these advantages were more important, for recon, than a turreted 37mm AT gun.

[mstlaurent]

Don't forget the DD tanks. My dad drove one of those onto Utah beach on D-Day.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Þorkell

Some of them also had a wooden mock-up of the gun so that the tank wouldn't stand out too much. I think there's an example of this in the Imperial War Museum in London where they have one of Monty's command tanks.

A lot of tanks that lost the main gun in modifications had a mock-up gun.

[Rupert]

Originally Posted by Michele

These were medium tanks converted to APCs, but another reason to remove turrets was to convert light tanks into recon vehicles. The British did this to perfectly turreted Stuart tanks. The reasoning was that a much lower silhouette made the vehicle both less noticeable and more difficult to target, and that these advantages were more important, for recon, than a turreted 37mm AT gun.

It also has the advantage that, without the AT gun, the vehicle's crew won't be tempted to shoot things when they're supposed to be stealthily scouting.

[Racer]

Either mini unmanned or larger manned Tanks with large Demolition Charges .

Driver or remotely operate to where you want it , detach huge explosive charge in just the right place . Remove Tank to safe distance .

BOOM !

For a Car Wars Scenario I created two very large Tanks (160 Spaces+) with only convental Armour , rather than expensive Laminate to save money . Points were awarded from Pedestrians/Foot Soldiers killed , vehicles & buildings destroyed on large Midville Maps .

Top Front of Hulls: Main AFV Turrets had large Tank Gun & Coaxial HMG , a 105mm Mortar , Sponson Turrets L/R/B & two normal Car Wars Turrets on Top all mounting ATGs with APFSDS Ammo & extra mags .

Tank Sides mounted same Sponson Turret set up , with two on each side . One Tank mounted multiple Auto Grenade Launchers all-round - other mounted a couple of 50mm Mortars & Military Flamethrowers L/R/B .

Each had about 10 Crew & multiple Computer Gunners each . Buildings don't move & are easy to create many breaches to collapse if 5+ 3d6+6 or higher damage weaponry hit them every Turn !
Mortars ( & AGLs) used to Indirect Fire on buildings out of Line-Of-Site . White Phosphorus Grenades & Flamethrowers were used to set fire to Building/Rubble - Referee aloud Flamethrowers to sweep Area Effect fire on arc of targets , both Peds & Buildings etc - & smoke produced provided Tanks with cover .

Four day game over long Bank Holiday weekend : those two Tanks pretty much destroyed whole Map ! One was extremely heavily damaged with large hidden booby trapped explosive devices & Field Carriage mounted Tank Guns & Multiple Artillery Rockets . Cut out photocopies from damaged City Blocks 3 Buildings were placed over largely breached & destroyed Buildings on the bigger Map Sheets ... and we ran out those !!

Think I recall those two Heavy Tanks getting awarded about seventeen times Victory Points over the Town Defenders Sides VPs ... huge fun for all involved .

NOVA Pages has a giant (200+ Spaces ?) Robo Tank , with a number of small Turrets all firing four 7" LGL Artillery Rockets & dozens of Rocket Magazines . Could wreck 100 Space MBTs with a single volley , as even Armour Piecing Artillery Weapons still have small Burst Effect to penetrate/damage even heavy Laminate Metal/Plastic Armoured locations .

Also the very fast 'Triclops' Tank on NOVA pages - with three Tank Guns in a single Turret - to overwhelm opponent's Tanks with unrelenting firepower .

[cptbutton]

There was the "Big Wind", a T-34 with two jet engines instead of a gun, as a really big fire extinguisher.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Racer

Either mini unmanned or larger manned Tanks with large Demolition Charges .

Driver or remotely operate to where you want it , detach huge explosive charge in just the right place . Remove Tank to safe distance .

Yes, these existed and were the German remote-controlled Goliath minitank, and the (manned) British Churchill AVRE. The Royal Engineers could use it to lay several demo charges of varying weight, or to fire the big-bore, very short-ranged spigot mortar at bunkers or other reinforced-concrete targets. The projectile that it fired was aptly nicknamed the "Flying Dustbin".

For a Car Wars Scenario I created two very large Tanks (160 Spaces+)...

Well, interesting, but did you calculate the ground pressure figure for those land battleships?

[Racer]

Those 160+ Space Tanks only came in at about 140,000lbs each - less than 150K lbs of MacArthur Tank 200 Space Tank in examples of Car Wars: Tanks .

Nova had 125 Ton nuclear powered 'Ogre Mk.345' which it used versus ASAP's 45 Ton 'Fang II' Tank ... Due to oversights of Certain Someone , many characteristics & stats were overlooked in the 64 page Rulebook unfortunately .

After seeing 'regular' Tanks of 64 Tonnes in Warhammer 40K & 316 Tonnes for Baneblade super heavies , many modern players don't bat an eye at 100 Ton Car Wars Tanks .

I dread to think of weight & ground pressure of some of the larger OGREs ...

( In more realistic games we add Secondary Track Systems or Double Width Tracks - or both - to very heavy vehicles . Secondaries run under belly of tank to prevent bogging down , but weigh a fair bit & also take up 5% of internal spaces . Double Width Tracks weigh a lot more , are more easily targeted & can't use any sort of Track Guards . Big Mac had all the rules on his web pages & they seemed to work fairly well . )