Cybran T2 Amphibious Tank

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Tech 1 Light/Medium Tank
Tech 2 Heavy Tank
Tech 2 Amphibious Tank
Tech 3 Siege Tank
Tech 3 Shield Disruptor

Cybran T2 Amphibious Tank:  Wagner
Submersible, amphibious tank. Armed with a heavy bolter and torpedo launcher.[ e ]
Build costs	-1980  -297 1320
Max health	1200
Speed	3.7 (3.0 Underwater) (Amphibious)
Veterancy	7  (+2/s)
Intel (radius)	Vision: 15 Water vision: 20
Weapon: Meson Rocket Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	50
Projectile damage	200
Reload time	4 seconds
Range	22
Weapon: Heavy Electron Bolter Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	50
Projectile damage	50
Salvo size	2 Projectiles
Reload time	2 seconds
Range	22
Weapon: Meson Torpedo Anti Navy - Torpedo
Damage per second	3
Torpedo damage	6
Salvo size	2 Torpedos (in 0.7 s)
Reload time	4 seconds
Range	32

The Cybran T2 Amphibious Tank, nicknamed the Wagner, is a Cybran unit. This is a direct fire unit.

The Wagner is the Cybran amphibious tank, capable of submerging itself underwater and crawling along the ocean floor until it reaches its intended destination. The Wagner is equipped with a Meson Rocket and a Heavy Electron Bolter for surface use, and a Meson Torpedo for use when underwater.

Utility

In vanilla, Wagner can be occasionally useful on water maps, but overall has a very poor track record. This is mostly attributed to the unit's extreme vulnerability to submarines, despite its claim to a torpedo launcher. Moreover the Wagner cannot fire it without assisting sonar, and the torpedo itself does very poor damage, unlikely to destroy even the weakest of naval vessels or even a T1 floating engineer.

Additionally, the Meson Rocket has low muzzle velocity and the Heavy Electron Bolter has extremely low DPS, making the Wagner poor at operations on land as well. Wagners may be able to clear out a small area of enemy occupied territory to allow Transports to land, and their Meson Rockets are quite effective against T1 Point Defenses, but they will not be able hold that ground against any significant retaliation by themselves. They should be used accordingly. In Vanilla SupCom, Salem-Class Destroyers are a better bet due to their walking ability, bring along some T3 engineers to quickly put up Tactical Missile Defenses, as parking Destroyers outside coverage is asking them to be eliminated, two missiles can kill one (from a Tactical Missile Launcher structure, not a mobile one).

In Forged Alliance, however, the Wagner gains a significant advantage over its obvious alternate choice: the Rhino. The Wagner is about twice as tough as the Rhino, and gets about 30% more damage. For double the life and a significant damage increase, the Wagner only costs 50% more than the Rhino. In addition, the Wagner boasts other benefits over its cousin, one of which is a ballistic arc. The Rhino fires a beam weapon which has no arc, meaning it will often be blocked by small hills and terrain deformities. This can seriously hinder a force of Rhinos. The Wagner fires a projectile, which will miss a moving target more often, but will be completely negated due to terrain less often. Given the simplicity of the AI, a Wagner missing a moving target will eventually hit and score a kill while a Rhino missing due to terrain will blindly fire into the hill forever (or until either the moving target or the moving Rhino is no longer obstructed by the terrain) . Given these facts and the versatility of amphibious units, the Wagner stands out as a superior choice in the role of a Cybran heavy tank. Another way of looking at this is the Rhino being a half cost, half health and lower DPS alternative to the other faction's heavy tanks and the Wagner being their equal. It may even be preferable, considering its superior speed and the fact that it is amphibious. Against hordes of T1 units however, the Rhino is still far superior at holding the line, due its high ROF and very little overkill.

Concealment

Unlike the other amphibious tanks, the Wagner is not a hover unit and moves underwater on the seabed instead. This means it is only detectable by sonar and makes for some interesting stealth strategies. The low profile of the tank allows it to hide in even shallow water, making possible some sneaky tactics in areas without sonar and omni coverage. Wagners are great for staging ambushes on maps with only a little bit of water such as a river, because most people won't expect naval units and so will not try to build their own. In maps such as these, the Wagner becomes very useful as both as a T2 assault unit and a surprise attack unit. Defenders exploiting the landscape of the map may not consider attacks from the water, and could be vulnerable to an amphibious attack. An example might include Wagners appearing out of the water (on a shoreline without torpedo defences), closer to a shield generator than the expected attack route by land.

These tactics are much like its bigger cousin, the Monkeylord experimental, which is also submersible.

Vanilla SupCom Description

"While surfaced, the Wagner utilizes a Heavy Electron Bolter. When submerged, the Wagner reconfigures its Bolter to fire torpedoes."

Gallery

An Idle Wagner

Wagners emerge from the ocean to attack

Wagner fires its Electron Bolter and Meson Rocket

Trivia

The Wagner is named after Gary Wagner, one of the developers of Supreme Commander.