Commanders!
As announced in the Force Recon preview article, the Battle Path’s top vehicle prize, the AMPV 30 Tier 10 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle, will be tied to a Legendary Vehicle and today we’d like to tell you more about it. Meet the AMPV-based Reaper Fire Support Vehicle!
In the world of Armored Warfare, the Reaper is a heavily modified AMPV. The complete design plans were one of the items in the data cache obtained by Emily Arakawa during Operation Dawnbreak, but were at the time deemed theoretical and unfinished. Only two years later would a prototype be captured during a raid on a Clayburn Industries facility hidden deep within the ruins of Beersheba along with a major cache of Sarpanite.
Upon initial examination by Black Company technicians in Istanbul, it had become clear that the vehicle had been designed for maximum survivability on the battlefield. Multiple redundancies to all major systems had been installed along with additional armor complementing the already formidable Sarpanite-coated hull. The weapon system had also undergone a major overhaul with a turret of previously unknown construction installed instead of the standard armament. As with the previous Sarpanite vehicle upgrades, the origins of the design are currently unknown.
In Armored Warfare, the Reaper will be a Legendary Armored Fighting Vehicle.
As we already mentioned, assembling it requires the ownership of AMPV 30 (much like the M10 Longstreet requires the XM1302).
The Reaper expands upon the concept of the AMPV in the sense that at the core of it is the word “durability”. The Reaper is perhaps the most durable vehicle to ever make it to the game thanks to its combination of relatively thick armor (further enhanced by the presence of cage armor and NERA), extremely high amount of hitpoints (we’re currently looking at 6000 hitpoints) and reduced module damage the vehicle will be taking.
This alone will make it into quite a forgiving vehicle despite the lack of hard-kill APS. It will, however, have Supercharged Soft-Kill APS or the Jammer ability (depending on gameplay settings).
Firepower-wise, there will be three weapon systems at your disposal:
- “Cyclone” rotary cannon
- “Whirlwind” missile launcher
- Mechanized Infantry (of the classic three types, although with increased troop size like on other larger vehicles)
The 20mm “Cyclone” rotary cannon is the primary weapon of the Reaper. It is modeled after recently unveiled South Korean rotary cannon. It fires Sarpanite-coated shells. It’ll function as a “damage hose”, providing a steady stream of low-damage hits even against thick armor.
It won’t overheat easily either, but it’s not a weapon capable of destroying targets in seconds and at long distances – to use it effectively, one has to stay exposed and keep the enemy in their sights.
The “Whirlwind” missile launcher consists of two tubes capable of firing either standard missiles (with tandem-HEAT warheads) or special limited Whirlwind missiles. This is a secondary weapon – it gives the Reaper some reach, but likely will not be the main source of damage dealt due to its longer reload times. The missiles aren’t launched both at once and the vehicle cannot fire another one while the first one is still in the air – it’s simply a classic two-tube missile launcher.
The main purpose of this launcher is to fire the new Whirlwind missiles, which represent the main new feature of the new vehicle. Very simply put, the Whirlwind missiles are the ultimate evolution of FPV missiles – they can spot enemy targets by themselves AND can deal damage. If it’s there, you can spot it and you can kill it.
There are, of course, limitations to their use:
- You only have several of them, so spend them wisely
- They are not as good at spotting as the classical recon missiles (LRA) so you need to stay a bit closer to the ground to actually spot enemy targets
- They are vulnerable to hard-kill APS and Jammer
- They lose control when passing through smoke
In short, these will require careful gameplay but if you’re skilled enough, you will be able to pull off some amazing tricks.
Mobility-wise, the Reaper will not be very fast, but that’s expected with such a large vehicle. It will be, however, sufficiently agile to make it pleasant to drive and maneuver.
And that’s about it, commanders. The Reaper will be a relatively versatile vehicle, especially with various infantry options. Discovering the best way to play it will be, of course, up to you. We hope that you will enjoy it and, as always:
See you on the battlefield!
