Welcome to the
Armored Fighting Vehicle Megathread!Here you can post about whatever disgusting blueprint tank you love, or gush like a fanboy about your nation's MBT. You could even start an argument about whether smoothbore cannons like the Rheinmetall L/44 120mm are less accurate than rifled cannons. Along with tanks, we also accommodate, uh, IFVs, APCs, SPGs, TDs, assault guns, and some other stuff. If it's got armor and it fights, it fits in just fine.
A tank is a large AFV designed to not only be heavily armed but heavily armored. This is so that infantry and light field guns have trouble dealing with it as it rides across the battlefield with its large cannon and any secondary armament it might have, such as a coaxial machinegun, or a .50 cal mounted on a crew hatch. Some modern tanks have remotely controlled machineguns on top of the turret. They tend to have issues dealing with urban environments because a tank's armor is almost always adapted to be resistant, primarily, against another tank. This means their frontal and side armor is the thickest... and the top and rear armor is the thinnest. In an urban environment, it's easy to get above something that is loud and can only navigate through the streets.
WHAT IS AN APC/IFV?First off, I put these two together because one or the other both tend to be capable of both roles. Anyway, an APC is an Armored Personnel Carrier. It's got thick armor, and a medium-light armament. Don't expect the armor to hold off heavier AT missiles or shells from a proper tank. These things are designed to transport your infantry through an environment that may have the following: Gunfire, explosions, explosions
and gunfire, terrorism, a significant lack of freedom. Deal with it. Anyway, you should only really expect them to be able to gun down enemy infantry. That's the thing though; they're built to fight and help infantry. Like an IFV.
Now an IFV generally tends to be armed with a range of weaponry such as an autocannon, multiple machineguns, a rocket launcher, perhaps a mortar... the list goes on. Basically, an IFV is a modern light tank. However, because they're designed to support infantry, it's common for them to also be able to transport infantry... like an APC.
WHAT IS A TD/SPG/ASSAULT GUN?These are all very similar vehicles. Some very common traits are-
-A lack of a completely traversable turret
-A huge gun, relative to the chassis
-Poor armor* compared to tanks, APCs and IFVs
*note that this does not apply to assault guns
Generally, these are the snipers of the AFV world, with SPGs sometimes even firing indirectly! This means that they're given coordinates to fire on thousands of meters away, and they fire after calculating where the shell will hit, without even IDing the target. They lack good armor but make up for it in speed and their armament. In some cases, expect these to lack any armor at all, really, short of a gunshield.
GALLERYcoming soon
