Tactical Role[]
Superseded and outclassed in modern high-mobility warfare by grav tanks, tracked and wheeled vehicles are being phased out of front-line Legions and handed down to garrison forces. While a ground unit may be able to hold its own against a grav-mounted fighting force of similar tonnage in a straight one-on-one fight, on a strategic level they are severely hampered by their lack of speed and agility.
Ground tanks are seldom able to move above 100 kph even on level ground and are constantly hindered by difficult terrain. By contrast, grav tanks may reach safe speeds of over 900 kph in low altitude flight and completely ignore the terrain they move over. A grav unit can therefore decline battle indefinitely to a ground unit, engaging only where the odds are favourable, outmaneuvering the ground tank formations and hitting objectives not covered by their smaller zone of operations.
This means that in the majority of cases ground vehicles cannot be used in an offensive role. They work best when they are assigned a fixed installation to defend and can let an enemy come to them. For this reason, ground tanks are usually relegated to garrison duty and population control.
Armament[]
Many ground tanks carry laser or kinetic mass driver weapons (MDCs), invariably mounted in turrets for a 360° field of fire. The long range of those weapons compensates for the vehicle´s lack of agility and speed; since in most tactical situations a grav tank is able to dictate range and angle of engagement, the ground tank must ensure it can hit its enemy at any distance and cannot afford blind spots in its weapons coverage. Lasers have the added advantage of being independent of ammunition - since a ground Legion´s supply train also makes use of ground (as opposed to grav) transport, supply lines for non-grav forces tend to be vulnerable, short and slow, and logistics more complicated for the units in the field.
The issue with both lasers and MDCs being easily shunted aside by shields is alleviated by the fact that garrison Legions tend to have ample infantry contingents with painting lasers.
Since flicker shields require an active Marshman anti-gravity drive to function, ground tanks have no shielding. Thiis means that vehicles armed with lasers or mass driver cannons can target them at long range without the need for infantry or other vehicles to get in close and decipher the shields with painting lasers.
Tonnage[]
The capability of a wheeled or tracked propulsion system to move a tank's mass and the distribution of weight on the ground both hit a dead end at around 100 tons. Simply put, a tank with higher mass could not be propelled at a speed that would still enable it to function as a viable combat vehicle, and would be limited to high-traction, solid ground capable of supporting its weight - in effect, limiting the vehicle to reinforced roads. Grav vehicles have no such limitations; a sufficiently large anti-gravity drive can shift any mass without exerting pressure on the ground below.
This means that in comparison to grav tanks, ground vehicles are much lighter. The heaviest tracked tanks, such as the Crassus MBT, would fall somewhere between light and medium on the scale of grav tanks, with even the Nah Tikal light infantry carrier approaching this mass.
Crews[]
Garrison Legions are hardly the most prestigious of units. Lacking both the dashing image and the action of Strike Legions and other offensive-oriented units, they are the pits where other Legions dump their unwanted men. Transfer to a garrison Legion is something of a dead end to a soldier´s career.
Many of those Legions never see action. Cowing (TOG) or guarding (Commonwealth) the population of a planet far from the battlelines can be an exercise in boredom, and disciplinary problems can be rife. On the whole, Legionnaires and tank crews in a garrison force tend to be badly led, less motivated and less qualified than those in more glamourous outfits.
TOG garrison Legionnaires in particular may relieve their tedium by bullying and terrorising the local populace, and the actions of some infamous garrisons have been instrumental in bringing about the kind of rebellion the Legions were there to guard against in the first place. Commonwealth garrisons tend to cause less problems and be on better terms with the locals, but bored soldiers on liberty can still be a handful for their MP contingent to handle.
On the other end of the morale scale, the Commonwealth and Renegade forces include not a few planetary militias who make up what they lack in training and equipment with dedication and enthusiasm in the defense of their homeworlds. Ground tank crews ("treads" or "clodhoppers") are looked down upon with disdain by the pilots of grav tanks, who view them as second-rate soldiers with second-rate equipment, but even the soldiers of the elite Strike Legions have to concede the fighting spirit of the native ground-tankers.
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