Mammoth Tank

The Mammoth Tank is a fictional super-heavy tank in Command & Conquer real-time strategy computer games, with an iconic status among the fan community. It has also become an icon for a super-powerful unit in RTS games.

Every installment in the series had featured a Mammoth tank or its lookalike, ranging from the original Mammoth Tank in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn to the Overlord Tank in Command & Conquer: Generals.

The Mammoth 27 is featured prominently in Command & Conquer 3 promotional materials, from trailers to screenshots.

Command & Conquer series
Command & Conquer: Red Alert

The Mammoth Tank look-a-like has appeared in Command & Conquer: Red Alert as well, when the Allied medium tank threatened to parallel the Soviet Heavy Tanks. To counter this, Joseph Stalin commissioned development of a new, monstrous tank armed with dual 120 mm cannons in the turret, two Mammoth Tusk missile launchers and an exceptionally strong armor, mounted on four separate tracks. The tank was so large that a whole engineering crew was committed to keeping it operational, allowing it to regenerate its health to 50% when badly damaged.

These advantages came at the expense of mobility — the tank could only move at a slow crawl, and faster, more maneuverable units could outrun its guns. Combined with high cost, Mammoths had to be deployed tactically — otherwise they could have been easily overwhelmed by the enemy.

In-game cutscenes show that the turret of the tank is completely isolated from the vehicle's interior, unlike modern tanks. In the original Command & Conquer, Mammoth Tanks would only fire their missiles on infantry if the turret of the tank had to turn more than 45 degrees to be facing the target. However, by Command and Conquer: Red Alert the Mammoth Tank would always fire missiles against infantry, which were much more effective.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn

The X-66 Mammoth Tank was GDI's versatile heavy assault tank in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Dawn and just left prototype testing phase during the game's events.

It is armed with twin 120 mm cannons and the complementary Mammoth Tusk rocket launchers, used to engage both infantry and aerial targets. The weapon systems were mounted on a heavy four track chassis and protected by extremely heavy armour. The tank was kept in working condition by an engineering crew inside, allowing it to repair to 50% of its strength. However, these advantages came at the expense of mobility, extreme cost (1500 refined Tiberium credits) and build time (80 seconds in GDI's automated war factories).

The tank was perceived as a great threat to the Brotherhood of Nod, and measures were taken by the organization to prevent widespread use of this treaded monster, which included destruction of prototype models in research facilities in Africa.

Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun
The original X-66 Mammoth Tanks are not constructible by the player in the regular Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun game, both single and multiplayer. They are, however, seen under the control of The Forgotten during campaign scenarios, and three units in working condition can be found and placed under the player's control in the last GDI mission taking place in Cairo. Compared to other units in the game, the Mammoth Tank's power diminishes. As a response to the Mammoth losing its power, GDI researched and developed its successor — the Mammoth Mk. II.

The vehicle in question is an enormous quadrupedal mech, over twice the size of the GDI "Titan" Medium Battle Mechanized Walker, making it by far the largest unit in Tiberian Sun. This behemoth, in addition to exceptionally strong armor plating, is armed with several weapon systems:

* Twin enormous, side-mounted railguns similar to the Ghost Stalker's, but several times more powerful (and medium to long range), with the capacity to destroy moderately armoured tanks in a single discharge. They can make short work of even heavily armored buildings.
* An anti-aircraft missile module mounted on the rear of each railgun.
* Twin autocannons underneath the 'head' (Similar to those of the AT-AT, but they are not seen in-game, due to technical limitations).

These weapons proved to be more than adequate for dispatching any vehicle, as during field demonstrations in Great Britain the Mammoth destroyed cars, mechs, aircraft and buildings with tremendous ease, and could easily lay waste to Brotherhood of Nod bases alone.

The prototype did not enter mass production during the course of the game and the player is only allowed to build one Mk. II during skirmishes or multiplayer games. Its high price (at 3000 Tiberium credits, a cost greater than that of the MCV) and inability to get past walls somewhat limited the Mammoth's usability, but it is nevertheless a very powerful albeit slow unit. As with its predecessor, the Mammoth Mk. II was perceived by Kane as a threat to mission, and he ordered his commanders to destroy the prototype units tested in Britain.

According to Mike Verdu's weblog on Tiberium Wars, the Mammoth Mk. II project was discontinued in the favour of the Mammoth 27 and the high cost maintaining them, and the last unit was built at the Los Angeles San Pedro war factory, marking the end of the mech Mammoths at 12 March 2039. This move was opposed by conservative GDI commanders, among them Colonel Nicholas "Havoc" Parker, decorated war veteran.

The Mammoth Mk II. is very similar in form to the AT-AT walkers from the second Star Wars movie. They are both large attack walkers designed to do massive damage.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

The Mammoth Tank makes a comeback in Tiberium Wars in the form of the Mammoth 27 / Mammoth Mk. III, which prior to upgrades tended to closely resemble the Mammoth tank. Production started in 2039 in Reykjavík shortly after the Mammoth Mk. II was retired from service.

The tank was designed with long-range operations in harsh environments in mind. Its design is a return to the basic, four-track system with thick, hexagonal armor to match enemy tanks head-on and defeat them in open combat. Each tank has the number "5" on the top of one of its treads. The turret's primary armament is a pair of 150mm cannons (upgradeable to railguns), supported by 4 3/4-inch missile pods that give it supplementary and anti-air firepower. The tank alternates firing its cannons/railguns and missiles, firing cannons/railguns first. The new Mammoth tanks can crush small and medium vehicles that are in their path. It's powerful, but it can't autoheal itself.

This version of the Mammoth Tank is featured prominently in promotional screenshots, wallpapers and trailers for Command & Conquer 3.

The old Mammoth Mk. II can also be seen in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars as an unusable husk in an 8-player skirmish map, The Rocktagon, as well as a 6-player map, Six Shooter. This is obviously due to the retirement of the Mammoth Mk. II and its replacement by the Mammoth Mk. III as seen in the Third Tiberium Wars.

Other Command & Conquer titles
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

Although the Mammoth Tank does not appear in Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, a very similar tank, the Apocalypse Assault Tank, is used by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against the Allies. Although slow, the Apocalypse is a fearsome vehicle, featuring:
* Dual 120 mm cannons firing a special warhead capable of annihilating buildings and tanks in seconds, and is better then other tanks attacks at attacking infantry.
* Twin missile launchers similar to the 'Mammoth Tusk' missiles employed in the original Mammoth; these are employed in only an anti-aircraft role. Note that the Apocalypse Tank's missiles come in sets of 7 per each side of the tank while the Mammoth has eight per side. These rockets travel farther than Mammoth Tusks, although they are somewhat slow and have a hard time hitting retreating aircraft.
*The capability to heal back to full health unlike the original Mammoth Tank. (With less armor, however.)

Note that the Apocalypse Assault Tank in the official Renegade 2 model pack appears significantly different from the one in Red Alert 2.

The Apocalypse needs support from other Soviet vehicles, otherwise hit and run units can easily eliminate this vehicle.

With veterancy, the Apocalypse tank's firepower doubles (fires 4 shells in one salvo,) making it extremely effective against all targets. Maximum veterancy sees a further upgrade to the Apocalyse's firepower, shooting salvos of six rounds, each containing a minuscule nuclear warhead.

Command & Conquer: Generals
Although the Mammoth Tank itself does not appear in Command and Conquer: Generals, 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 can run over and crush all units (including vehicles) besides other Overlord tanks, and can also have weapon upgrades built into it. The Gatling Cannon upgrade serves as a substitute of the Mammoth Tusk missile launchers in that it is used primarily for anti-air and anti-personnel defence. The Overlord cannot repair itself unless it has been promoted to higher ranks or has received the speaker tower upgrade.

Upgrades available for the Overlord tank are:
* Gatling Cannon — provides anti-aircraft and anti-infantry defence for the tank, as well as the ability to detect stealth units. It reacts slowly to air-units, however.
* Bunker — up to five infantry may garrison the bunker, and fire out of the gun ports.
* Speaker Tower — repairs the Overlord as well as healing or repairing surrounding units, and increases their rate of fire.

Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour features an improved 'Overlord' called the 'Emperor Overlord', which is built with a speaker tower already installed and can be upgraded to mount a Gatling Cannon in addition to the speaker tower. The Emperor Overlord cannot mount bunkers on the turret like its predecessor, however.. It features a lengthened turret to accommodate the Gatling Cannon in addition to the Speaker Tower. The Subliminal Messaging upgrade does not apply to the Emperor tank, a possible oversight by the game's developers, although subsequent patches correct this. The 'Emperor' can only be built by General Kwai, the Chinese tank general.

Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath
Though not strictly a tank, a new type of Mammoth appears in Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath known as the MARV (Mammoth Armoured Reclamation Vehicle) - while retaining the same basic shape as the Mammoth MK 3, it is considerably larger and functions both as an assault unit and a mobile tiberium refinery, able to harvest and refine tiberium by simply driving over it. It is armed with a triple barrel sonic cannon and has 4 upgradable turret hardpoints to increase combat effectiveness. The MARV is shown as part of the ZOCOM branch of GDI forces.

Dune strategy games
An apparent Westwood Studios precursor to the Mammoth Tank is the Harkonnen Devastator, in the Dune series of real-time strategy games. Similar in appearance to its Tiberian Dawn counterpart, the Devastator has twin plasma cannons, can fire missiles in later games, and has a special self-destruct ability. The version in Emperor: Battle for Dune appears as a mech.

Star Wars: Empire at War
After the disbanding of the original Westwood Studios, a number of its members went on to form , which released Star Wars: Empire at War in February 2006. The Rebel Alliance's heaviest armor unit, the T4-B Heavy Tank, bears a strong resemblance to the classic Command and Conquer Mammoth design. Like the GDI/Soviet Mammoth Tank, the T4-B is a heavy tracked vehicle which mounts twin main cannons supported by a missile launcher. It is not the heaviest armor unit in the game; that title belongs to the enormous Imperial AT-AT.

Additional notes
* "Mammut" (Ger. "Mammoth") was the name given to the Panzer VIII Maus in its early design phase.
* The design of the original Mammoth Tank has been compared to that of the , the Soviet heavy Obyekt 279, the German twin-barrel MBT Leopard 3, and the Swedish UDES-XX-20. It never proceeded off the drawing board due to its impracticality.
* The original Mammoth Tank from Command & Conquer had white gun barrels and missile pods. In later incarnations these are changed to black. By Tiberian sun the Missile pods are also changed to match the owner's colors. Mammoth tanks also all have two antennae. All other tanks only have one.
* In the game Hostile Waters, the enemy has a "Mammoth Tank" that is exactly like the original Mammoth Tank in Command and Conquer: Tiberian Dawn, with two heavy cannons and two missile pods. The game also featured a "Medium Tank", exactly like the from from Tiberian Dawn as well.
* In the ', both good U.F.S.C. and evil Beho-Sunn factions have a medium tank that resembles the Mammoth Tank in Command and Conquer, except it doesn't equip with more armor and the 'Mammoth Tusk' missile launchers. Then a heavy tank which equips with 3 turrets.

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu