Lynx Tank

The Lynx Tank, known as Type 54 Xiezhi in Eastasia, is the MBT of the Asian Alliance in Red Alert 2: New World Order. It is almost a direct copy of Yuri's Lasher Tank in unmodded Yuri's Revenge. Of all sides' basic tanks, it is the lightest, and kaizen has been carefully applied to engineer it mainly along two dimensions - ease of production, and reliability in the terrain conditions of the Asian continent. The streamlining of the production process however came at the price of great simplification of the design. From a crude copy of soviet Red Alert 2-era tanks, the Lynx developed into a sophisticated marvel of engineering with surprisingly high technology under its beltbuckle. The tank uses a unique tricycle wheel set and can automatically transform to ford bodies of water. It can be upgraded with Transform. Unlike other Eastasian vehicles, it does not have any other methods of transformation.

Different graphical models exist for this tank, one of which looks like the Winterwolf Tank, although both vehicles are vastly different in weight, size and combat role. Although its size, speed and armor would make it a great infantry hunter, the Lynx is actually armed to combat enemy armor, and its technology upgrade reflects this. The basic Lynx is armed with a 75mm gun. After researching "Anti-Tank Warfare", the Lynx comes with a turret-mounted anti-tank gun of higher penetrative power. This weapon gets upgraded when the tank is promoted to Elite level. A second upgrade can be purchased to increase the tank's gun to 90mm. Again, this weapon is subject to another upgrade upon promotion.

Other than that, the Lynx is in no way special. Using it head-on against an equal amount of enemy armor, even when upgraded, will propably lead to high casualties and it is equally unrecommended to use it against enemy infantry or buildings, where it will inflict only negligible damage.

Stats

 * Type: Vehicle
 * Class: Tankette
 * Cost: 700$

Tracked Gears
Rapid tracked movement on ground; tricycle track set.

Amphibious
Crosses water by means of magnetic propulsion. Only used while transformed on water. ast upon entering water; transforms into amphibious mode, changing its movement type.

30mm Electronic Trigger Gun
Light tank gun; fires an AP shell.

Stacked Ammo
Because of the Lynx' ETG system, it can load a "stack" of cartridges into its gun and fire them in a burst, without the need for a magazine and a rapid autoloader. This allows the Lynx to fire up to 3 shots upon initiating an attack, provided it had a brief reload period since the last firefight. In battle, the Lynx will fire as soon as a cartridge is loaded instead of reloading to maximum capacity, taking shorter to reload than three cartridges, but consequently also only firing one shell per reload.

Strategy
In a head-on battle, the Lynx is one of the weakest vehicles fielded by any faction of the war. Fortunately, it also has more tricks up its sleeve than any other basic combat vehicle, and also comes at the cheapest of any true military unit (discounting the improvised salvaged vehicles of the Brotherhood).

While its weapon has a high rate of fire and is effective against infantry and light vehicles, it lacks the penetration and sheer firepower to take on enemy heavies (a recurring drawback of Eastasian units). The Lynx should thus always be kept in reserve when facing enemy armor, and heavier units, such as the Jin Ren, should take the first line.