[RecruitMonty]

The Paladin originally looked a lot like the one out of C and C Generals, hence the name. I took a good, long hard look at it and decided to re-do everything as it was too fat on the bottom and too thin on the top.

The Turret was too thin so I fattened her up a bit. I thinned the gun down a bit and then began to experiment with extra weapon configurations (borrowed some of yours). The front part of the Hull is a reworked version of your Abrams and I borrowed the side armour off of your M11 series vehicle and changed the camo pattern and so on.

I took out the Block 3 series vehicles as they were too advanced for my time scale. In order to understand how the new armour works in te OOBs youfirst need to understand how the primary opponent's OOB works. The Imperial Armed Forces are that opponent and as they possess a good number of different tanks for different jobs it is necessary for others to broaden their selection too. It breaks down like this.

At the top we have the Super Heavy Tanks and their TD/Engineering variants. These vehicles play a supporting role (TD in defence and Heavy Tanks as the sharp end of any major armoured spearhead).

In between Super Heavy and MBT class tanks we have the Loewe Class of Heavy MBT (this vehicle is lighter than the other two classes of Heavy tank and is also faster and more highly engineered).

Then we have the MBTs which can either come in uparmoured or lighter forms (depending on the missions, climate, terrain etc). A series of dedicated TD and engineering variants exists for these weapons as well.

Right at the bottom we have the highly mobile Cavalry Tanks. They are used in an infantry support role or as a rapid responce armoured force.

In order to cope with this other nations, like the US and her allies, need a more developed force structure rather than the one size fits all approach embodied by the MBT.

For the USA it works like this:

Heavy tanks: From the T-29s to the Paladins. These weapons were developed to handle the Imperial heavies and work in conjunction with TD units and air support so as to maximise chances of a kill and in turn prevent being killed. During the 50s and right through to the 80s parity with the Germans is difficult to achieve but from the 40s-50s and the 80s-90s (and beyond) the heavy tanks of the USA are more than capable of handling the German heavies.

TD: (Under development) up armoured and mounting heavier guns than the medium tanks of the US.

Medium/MBT: Needs no explanation. Primary task is to deal with the enemies medium tanks/MBTs and to support the heavier armour when needed.

Light Tanks: Cavalry tanks designed for use alongside mobile infantry formations and as a rapid response armoured formation.

For the Soviet Union a similar force structure is in operation, the primary difference being that the Soviets do not lack heavy tanks comporable to those of the Germans.