Mass Effect: Tanks?

[Inquisition]

In Mass Effect, the Mako, the Hammerhead, and the Grizzly are referred to in casual conversation as "tanks," while the codex refers to them more correctly as IFVs. We've also never seen any vehicles, aside from the Krogan tomkah, manufactured by alien nations.

My question is this: would the Alliance or the other Citadel races field actual main battle tanks? Would they need to or want to, given the mobility constraints? If so, what would they be like?

 

[Finn]

I believe the Turian Hierarchy has some sort of hover-tank mentioned in Cerberus daily news.

I think it's just that ground fighting vehicles have been eclipsed by basically all other military tech. The emphasis in the Mass Effect universe seems to be on speed; i.e. get the hell out of the way of all the kinetic projectiles getting fired at you by ludicrous speeds by mass accelerators before your shields run out of energy and can no longer deflect them away.

 

[Drunkrobot]

At least in the Alliance, the basic concept of an army (a large, land-based military force) has been restructured into a junior branch of the space force. From orbit, one side is able to drop its land-based strength on any and all desired spots (the Codex Astartes calls this maneuver stele rehn), and bombard any target on the surface. In a conventional slugfest, the guy in charge of the planet is going to be the one in charge of that planets orbit.

Most conquests in Mass Effects setting is not on large, industrialised worlds, it instead happens on frontier planets with one or a few outposts spread across, that in an invasion is either obliterated or captured by land troops dropped nearby by the fleet after taking orbital superiority. That would be a scale of fighting for inline with well-trained special forces maybe backed by IFVs, not the scale warranted for tanks, artillery and grunts (and not that kind of grunt).

 

[Some Bloke]

They did mention artillery units in the fluff somewhere. Emphasis seems to be on speed, so my guess is that they might have an SPG rather than a true tank.

 

[RamscoopRaider]

I imagine they'd tend to be lighter but still exist. The tank fufills the job of demolishing strongpoints for infantry at range, given that emplaced machine guns are still a viable weapon in Mass Effect infantry is going to want to make them go away. Now orbital bombardment can do this but a tank can do it with less collateral and is more responive, integrated at the company or platoon level rather than having to go through higher.

Of course the situation in Mass Effect is such that building too large of a tank is silly because at a certain point it can be replaced with orbital bombardment

Thus I would think that Mass Effect Tanks are a variant of the IFV chassis, losing the carrying capacity for more ammo storage and tougher barriers and armor, possibly a heavier mass accelerator. It would be able to go anywhere you could bring in an IFV, and be more capable once the Infantry are unloaded

You would also get heavily armored monsters for supporting infantry in COIN situations in Urban terrain (IE Merkava type vehicles), where manueverability is limited and you have to sit up and take it, and again want to minimize collateral damage

So I would say there are no MBTs in Mass Effect and that the universe has seen a return to the Infantry/Cavalry tank divide of the 1930's

 

[wellis]

I apologize for bumping this but in regards to the turians and their IFV, there is mention of this on Cerberus Daily News:

06/10/2010 - Ground Campaign Underway on Taetrus

“After days of round-the-clock bombardment, the ground campaign in Taetrus' Diluvian Wildlands is underway. The swampy terrain has colonialist forces depending heavily on the Jiris infantry fighting vehicle, a hovercraft capable of navigating swamps with ease. At this hour, fierce fighting is underway on the shores of the Talae River, where separatists have taken cover in the undergrowth and are firing armor-piercing missiles at both the ground forces and the air support that aims to clear them out. Earlier, a cabal of biotics took a stand but were quickly wiped out by vehicles that flanked them and saturated the area with antipersonnel frags. Asked if he expected the ground campaign to result in less collateral damage than the air maneuvers, General Partinax responded, simply: "No."”

06/12/2010 - Colonialists and Diluvians Battle in Taetrian Marshlands

“The ground campaign on Taetrus is proceeding with brutal speed as both sides jockey for a strategic advantage. The Diluvians' advantage lies in their fixed positions, hardened pillboxes two-and-a-half meters thick that are stationed outside area cities. Colonialist armored forces are avoiding these emplacements by sweeping through the marshlands and cutting off the Diluvians' supplies, hoping to starve them out. The colonialists' Jiris fighting vehicles have a decisive range advantage in open terrain, as their missiles can hit a target twenty kilometers away before the enemy even sees them. Knowing this, the separatists are taking cover in jungles and city streets, using the terrain to draw their enemy in. As one separatist tank commander put it, "This will not be easy for them. We are not on Garvug".”