Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Rama Tank

"..."

-...

The Rama Tank is the standard medium tank of the Regal Sultanate of Elona. Planned to be voiced by.

History
"The Search for Knowledge takes on his multiarmed form and says, "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds.""

-The Vedas

The Sultanate, on paper, has a lot of money with a huge GDP and industrial output. In reality, it has to spread this out over nearly two-thirds of a billion people, and a military with more soldiers than many countries have people. This means to equip its millions-strong Frontier Corps with proper armored support, the Sultanate needed a vast number of vehicles. The PT-76, Ursa, T-62, and the T-54, old standbys of the Voshkod, were considered; but dismissed; the PT-76 was cheap, but simply not powerful enough to be their main vehicle. The Ursa and T-54 were too mechanically complex to be conveniently operated by Elonan forces who were often poorly educated, and too heavy to use most of the dunes in the region.

Other tanks were looked at and dismissed for Frontier Corps' service in turn. The new generation of MBTs were simply too expensive, the T-64 Rhino was again, not powerful enough, with its small cannon not having a decent high explosive capability for infantry support. The Armadillo was simply too slow, the Bulldog was simply not tough enough to be a front-line vehicle and was disappointing as a structure buster. The Frontier Corps balked at the very thought of having to maintain the fragile and finicky Vickers and wanted something substantially tougher and harder hitting anyway, but the Grizzly, however, intrigued Harkonnen. Initial orders, while promising, ran into the problem that with its sheer popularity of it around the world and India's big dreams for mechanization, even AdvanceArmour Inc. couldn't fulfill their needs and even a production license was not meeting demands.

So the Sultanate brass quickly set the designers to design them a reliable but affordable vehicle that could serve as both an assault gun and a tank destroyer, with a great deal of customizability to ensure upgradeability in the future as the Sultanate advanced technologically. After a furious process of proposal, revision, and reproposal, the Rama was presented to the brass and the world to much fanfare. Armed with a long 90mm cannon that could fire both a potent armor-piercing round to deal with vehicles as well as a fortification smashing high explosive munition, and protected by decently thick and well-angled armor, a low profile and a good engine, the Rama performed all tests admirably well.

Concerns that Elona's decision to go with a turret-less self-propelled gun instead of a tank to save on costs of purchase and repairs were not totally ignored however, and the designers installed an ingenious set of flank-mounted rockets that could give a decent punch to would-be attackers, while friend-or-foe identification systems acquired cheaply from the Syndicate would prevent friendly fire incidents.

In its service life, the Rama has faced many, very different sorts of enemies, and so far it has proven to be very reliable. Though far from the most advanced vehicle or exactly the most comfortable of rides, the Rama has always managed to hold its own when pitted against those of its weight class. Elonan Field Marshals do still remember the times the Rama cannon punched through Guardian medium tanks such as the Grizzly, saving their infantry columns a lot of time to deal with enemy armor. While of course, some Elonan leaders argue that they could've hired Talos AFVs from the Syndicate, the opponents counterargue that there is no use for the government to pay for such pricey and sophisticated systems (you cannot afford to replace your destroyed expensive Taloses all the time).

Though, Haqqislam, a member of Elona, prefers the Voshkod tanks, as this was the case with the Lion of Babylon, a homegrown upgrade of the T-72 tank.

Trivia

 * The design of the Rama is the Hammer tank from Red Resurrection.

Guardians of the Tacitus

 * Crusader (Aquila)
 * Coyote
 * Grizzly Tank (Alliance)
 * Cavalier Tank
 * Liberty Tank
 * M1 Predator (ADI)
 * Type 74 MBT (Protectorate)
 * Tsunami Tank
 * Leopard 3 (Andora)
 * Guardian Tank
 * Panther
 * Battlemaster Tank (Empire)
 * Bushmaster Tank (Community)

Destroyers of Balthazar

 * Kodiak Tank (Voshkod)
 * Tick Tank (Brotherhood)
 * Type 59 (Horde)
 * T-72 "Scarab" (MLA)
 * Lasher Tank (Collective)
 * T-55 (Encantadia)
 * AMX-13
 * M13/40
 * Devourer Tank (Scrin)

Neutrals

 * Predator Annihilator (Coalition)
 * Defiler (Heralds)
 * Cleric Track (Order)
 * M48 Patton "Mastiff" (Survivors)
 * Talos AFV (Syndicate)
 * BMPT Terminator (Conglomerate)
 * Lemia Russ Tank (Legion)

DLC

 * ... (Federation)
 * ... (Corona)
 * ... (Party)
 * ... (Skynet)
 * ... (Dominion)
 * ... (Elemental)
 * ... (Autocracy)
 * ... (League)
 * ... (Swarm)
 * Leopard 1 (Pirates)
 * Rama Tank (Elona)
 * Lion of Babylon
 * T-62 "Hammer" (Ascalia)
 * TAM MBT (Confederation)
 * Strv 103B (Kingdom)
 * ... (Goo)
 * M60 Sabra (Security)
 * Panzer IV (Imperium)
 * ... (Dynasty)
 * T-44 (Warlords)
 * ... (Cult)
 * ... (Raiders)
 * ... (Theocracy)
 * ... (ASA)
 * ... (Insurgents)
 * OF-40 (Bastion)
 * ... (Guardians)
 * ... (Hierarchy)
 * ... (Sundered)
 * ... (Ecumene)
 * Centurion (Concordat)
 * Cromwell
 * ... (Contingent)
 * ... (Rangers)
 * ... (Eden)
 * ... (InGen)
 * ... (Hallows)
 * ... (Commune)