Is Mammoth worthwhile?

[frostdiamond]

#1 A Mammoth costs $1500, has a ground attack of 40. Meanwhile a medium tank costs $800, with ground attack of 30. Seems like two medium tank is far more worthwhile than a single Mammoth? Not to mention medium tanks move MUCH faster?

#2 Apparently Mammoth tanks are "Able to self-repair their health back up to 50%." Now is this a ONE-TIME repair, or continuous repair? Does the self-repair occur when the tank is not being attacked?

[Panic Fire]

#1 Mammoth has two cannons fireing twice per attack, and is also equipped with 2 anti air anti infantry missiles. Thats a lot more firepower than 2 medium tanks.


#2 A mammoth will always self heal up to 50%. No matter how many times.

[DarkFenix]

Mammoths are very worthwhile. If you get an $800 medium tank, you then need to buy another unit to counter infantry. The Mammoth is anti-everything. The Mammoth also has ~50% more health than a medium tank (don't know exact numbers, but I know two shots from an obelisk will destroy a medium, but it's at least three for a mammoth).

And that heal is continuous, if they get beaten down to 1% a thousand times, they'll heal right back up to 50% a thousand times. Can be a life saver when you're being constantly pressured and can't send one back for proper repairs, just rotate the damaged one to the second line and let the healthy ones take the fire while it repairs itself.

[Dan]

Mammoths have continuous self-repair up to 50%, which is part of the reason the price is justified.
On top of that, mammoths have a secondary weapon - rockets - which make them versatile against infantry (and to a lesser degree aircraft) so in that case they are superior to medium tanks. To trigger rockets firing instead of shells, the turret has to do a 90+ degree spin or something like that while about to fire - no idea why it's coded that way (probably the easiest way to allow the player to 'choose' the fire mode)?

[frostdiamond]

Thanks everyone for your input.

To counter infantry I could simply crush them with medium tanks; that said Mammoth has a much wider track thus wider crushing range? I don't know.

I read that for the Mammoth to fire missiles, the enemy must be on the SIDE of the Mammoth. If the enemy is at the front, the tank would simply fire its twin cannons.

[Noliving]

I would say yes when you use them in more of a support role. If you can micro manage you can defeat a mammoth tank one on one using a light tank. If you try to use them as your main tank you will find that they are too slow and they turn their turrets too slow for an opponent that knows to keep moving their tanks around your mammoth tank.

[startrekmike]

If it is fun to use, it is worthwhile. That is what Command and Conquer is all about.

[DarkFenix]

Well somebody hasn't played the game, turn their turrets too slowly? What is this, World of Tanks? All tanks in this game turn their turrets like lightning. Hell, one of the main ways to use the Mammoth is to deliberately have their turret point another way then order the attack so that they use missiles.

Originally posted by frostdiamond:

Thanks everyone for your input.

To counter infantry I could simply crush them with medium tanks; that said Mammoth has a much wider track thus wider crushing range? I don't know.

I read that for the Mammoth to fire missiles, the enemy must be on the SIDE of the Mammoth. If the enemy is at the front, the tank would simply fire its twin cannons.

All tanks occupy a single square, the size of the tank is irrelevant. So Mammoths are piss poor for running infantry over, but fortunately they don't need to. As for mediums, I found those too slow to be effective at running over infantry too, I always used APCs for that.

And yes, for the Mammoth to fire its missiles at ground targets, it must have its turret pointing in another direction and be ready to fire, then if it gets an attack order (or attacks automatically when it stops) it'll use missiles instead of guns. The missiles are equivalent to the MLRS ones, they absolutely annihilate infantry.

[frostdiamond]

Originally posted by DarkFenix:

Well somebody hasn't played the game, turn their turrets too slowly? What is this, World of Tanks? All tanks in this game turn their turrets like lightning. Hell, one of the main ways to use the Mammoth is to deliberately have their turret point another way then order the attack so that they use missiles.

Originally posted by frostdiamond:

Thanks everyone for your input.

To counter infantry I could simply crush them with medium tanks; that said Mammoth has a much wider track thus wider crushing range? I don't know.

I read that for the Mammoth to fire missiles, the enemy must be on the SIDE of the Mammoth. If the enemy is at the front, the tank would simply fire its twin cannons.

All tanks occupy a single square, the size of the tank is irrelevant. So Mammoths are piss poor for running infantry over, but fortunately they don't need to. As for mediums, I found those too slow to be effective at running over infantry too, I always used APCs for that.

And yes, for the Mammoth to fire its missiles at ground targets, it must have its turret pointing in another direction and be ready to fire, then if it gets an attack order (or attacks automatically when it stops) it'll use missiles instead of guns. The missiles are equivalent to the MLRS ones, they absolutely annihilate infantry.

Right, so how exactly does on purposely command the tank (and its cannons) to face away from the target infantry?

[Nyerguds]

Originally posted by frostdiamond:

I read that for the Mammoth to fire missiles, the enemy must be on the SIDE of the Mammoth. If the enemy is at the front, the tank would simply fire its twin cannons.

You can force it to fire missiles by angling it away from the infantry and continuously tapping the 's' button, which will make it face its turret forward every time and then notice there is infantry to attack, causing it to turn towards it and fire missiles, since the missiles can fire at angles that are not the turret's facing.

Of course this does not work 100% continuously; after all, the missiles, like the tank cannon, have their own limited rate of fire. And if you spam S too much it'll obviously just prevent the tank from firing completely.

[WarpLover]

Originally posted by Panic Fire:

#1 Mammoth has two cannons fireing twice per attack, and is also equipped with 2 anti air anti infantry missiles. Thats a lot more firepower than 2 medium tanks.


#2 A mammoth will always self heal up to 50%. No matter how many times.

minigunners take them out too easily

[Jimmi Stixx]

We would have to clone one to find out.

Does Mammoth meat taste better than beef cattle?

[Scary Barry]

You should also take into account pathfinding.

Having a dozen tanks finding their way around a cliff is just asking for frustration. Half a dozen Mammoths are much more predictable in their behavior and they will also come into firing range of the target more easily. A dozen tanks clogging up the road rarely causes a dozen barrels to fire at the target.

The AI usually focus their fire on the first target they see, so if there are a lot of enemy tanks/towers I prefer to use Light/Medium tanks since the first tank will get destroyed quite quickly anyway and for every tank destroyed the enemy also scores a couple of misses. It also takes away a single barrel firing at the enemy. If the enemy is less saturated I prefer Mammoths for above reasons.

[Cliff.uckingBooth]

Mammoth is awesome but my Nod rocket infantry (about 10) can kill it in about 5 seconds :) Just send one unit alone ahead so that the tank waste the missiles on it.

[Cat]

I usually never get the opportunity to build mammoths on official maps. On custom maps with loads of money, I usually get 2 mammy for every 5-7 medium tanks, if I could get a second factory (building them takes ages). Never build them without medium tank support.

[John]

I don't think so, with the time and money it takes to build a tech lab and 1 or 2 mammoth ranks, you could have build an additional war factory and pumped out 10+ medium tanks.