31 replies to this topic

[Lonestar]

Forgive my ignorance, but I can't seem to be able to  put any tanks on any skyranger!  Everytime I try to a message pops up and says I need more HWP(whatever that is) cannon rounds.  So I get whole bunch of cannon rounds and the thing still keeps sending me that message!  How do I equip a skyranger with a tank?

[The Veteran]

Well obviously you know how to do it so it must be something to do with the amount of ammo you're putting on board...
You need to remember that there are two kinds of tank. The tank/cannon and the tank/rocket launcher.
Make sure you are buying the correct ammunition as the first point. On the purchase screen the ammo is displayed directly under the tank so you'll know which is which.
Second thing to check is that the ammo has actually arrived at your base as there is a delay between purchasing goods and them arriving at base. Return to the geoscape and you'll get the message when they arrive.
Thirdly and lastly here is the required amounts to be sure you have enough...
The tank/cannon needs 30 hwp cannon shells to board a skyranger
The tank/rocket launcher needs at least 8
Remember that after a mission has been flown with a tank the ammunition will disappear so you'll need new stuff.

Other than that I can't think of anything (except it could be in the wrong base but I doubt you have two bases anyway and you'd have to be pretty stupid to do it too!)

[Xcom-Warblade]

Tanks? they are easy use. Don't like using humans as scouts? Tanks!. They take a battering and are great for searching out the enemy. My tanks rarely fire upon aliens, they just scout and keep an eye on the alien's movement till I can get a trooper there.

Tank on!  

[NKF]

Yep, as Veteran said, you need the proper amount of ammunition to load them on aircraft. Although, I do recall not having enough ammunition at one time, and when my base was attacked, the tank had a full gun... Or maybe I was confusing it for another tank? Must remember to have a go at confirming this.

Anyway, if you don't want the hassle of purchasing ammunition all the time, just wait till you get laser tanks or plasma hovertanks. The last one's pretty expensive on elerium, but once its built, it's self sufficient. With either tank, you need not worry about ammunition ever again. They make great base defense units, especially since you can cram a lot of them in a base if the tanks are manufactured there. Yep, even well beyond the store capacity. In all of the three primary games, X-Com personnel are expert packrats.

Besides, it's great to see 6 or more laser tanks bravely charging down the corridors, risking armour and track for the good of the ... um, rookies.

- NKF

[JellyfishGreen]

Here's an important point: The flight crews reload the tank in the hangar from base stores before takeoff.

That HWP ammo has to be kept in the *Base* stores, *not* on the *Skyranger*.

Veteran's ammo requirements also apply. Just compensating for the "D'oh" factor.

I had a tank waiting in my base for ages because I'd forgotten to order rockets, then while the Skyranger was out, the rockets arrived, and then the base was attacked. Rocket-loaded tank and two limping soldiers manned the defences. Almost looked like foresight.

[Snikers]

I'm fond of using the rocket tanks as scouts. If you land in hot LZ, (as seems to happen
more often than it should to me) it'll take the first shot instead of the rookies. The only
thing is that I use the tank for a bit more of the shooting and killing bit. I know it's a waste
of experience, but if I have no soldiers within a turn of getting there, or it's a tricky situation
in which a rookie missing would be roasted by reaction fire, it's the safest solution.

[Solfius]

talking about taking the first shot, can you change the order the soldiers start on the transport? cause all my best people start at the front and take all the first shots

[Xcom-Warblade]

Unfortunately I do not think so. The tank is always at the front, blocking your way. Bit of a pity though, but can also become very handy.

[Cazbol]

I've heard you can do it with X-COM-util, but don't have it myself.

[JellyfishGreen]

Yes, one of the many lovely things XCOMUtil will do for you (if you let it) is put rookies next to the ramp, right behind the tank, and your experienced (and, later, psi-powerful) soldiers can hang back.

XCOMUtil rocks.

[NKF]

And now an unusual fact about tanks that I've only just discovered. More of a bug really, but a rather useful one.

You only need ammunition for loading a tank onto a ship. Okay, that's pretty normal. But get this:

You don't need ammunition to arm a tank for base defense. I purposely sold all my HWP rockets just before a base attack just to test this theory out, and guess what? All six tanks were armed. It did the same in the original and the Collectors Edition.

And what's more, if you have any HWP rockets left over after the battle, you get to keep them (I got 7). It seems you can't salvage ammunition from destroyed tanks.


- NKF

[V-Runner]

I'd only use tanks as  support weapons, as normally HWPs get wiped by the alien plasma weapons and I avoid getting the tanks in a scrap without infantry support. The last thing I want  is an Alien Grenade dropping on top of my two Soldiers and Tank/Cannon or Tank/Laser and blowing up all my  units in the blast radius.

[NKF]

Having trouble with grenades? I highly recommend you invest in power armour.  They're quite resistant to explosives. Resistant, not invulnerable.  

I experimented with power armour and high explosives, seeing as it is the most powerful 'grenade' in the game...  needless to say I was quite surprised. Anyone can get killed very easily if the grenade explodes underneath them, so power armour or no, that's not going to help much. But soldiers standing around the poor target could do well with the protection.

As for tanks, I usually prefer to leave them on their lonesome and have them move out to secure the perimeter around the landing site, and slowly expand outwards. I let the soldiers hang back and do all the real work, letting the tank be their eyes.  If I do include an escort, the escort stays well away from the tank. Well away. Tight formations of soldiers in unsecured areas tend to be a very bad idea if they are on foot.

- NKF

[Psy Guy]

Tanks have two main jobs. Blow up stuff and find aliens.  I try to keep my tanks from taking all the kills (tanks don't improve, people do).  When im feeling nice i let the tank find the enemy and let a few rookies get some target practice..... I was wondering if you could have rookies armed with rifles shoot at tanks for practice.  Hmm i gotta try that out. *writes down idea* Don't worry rookies ill still put c-4 (high explosives) on you  :devil: .

-PSY GUY-  

[Solfius]

so the only way to choose the order your men start on the transport is to get X-Com util?

how do you get it?

[JellyfishGreen]

XCOMUTIL has it's own homepage now,

http://xcomutil.scotttjones.com/

[darkvenom]

I still believe that they should have equipped the tanks with an alternative weapon such as a stund rod operation device (SROD) hehe

I just wonder if XcomUtil can do this?.... Hmm interesting!

Something to consider when workin on XcomUtil next time ladies and gentlemen!

[JellyfishGreen]

And in reply to the original question: HWP = Heavy Weapons Platform = Tank. So HWP ammunition is Tank ammunition as separate from Aircraft ammunition.

[BladeFireLight]

The xcomutil "improved Lasor weapons" option replaces the hover plasma with a hover lasor and makes it so you cant build any plasma tech. you can only use what you captuer.

with some tweeking you could make the tank have any kind of weapon. including stun bombs.

-Blade FireLight

[NKF]

People build plasma weapons? Oh, if it's the craft plasma cannons, okay, understandable. But I shouldn't think anyone would even need to ever build any of the tactical plasma guns...

A stun-bomb tank would be too good I should think. At least it would be devestating against the larger terror units.  

A tank that fires rockets that explode as smoke clouds would have some practical uses, although you might use up the smoke particle table and have dud smoke rockets. There's a limit to the number of smoke clouds you can have in any given combat arena.

- NKF