Armored personnel carrier

Ever since armoured warfare began, one of the important questions was: How to keep the infantry with the tanks. Tanks without infantry could quickly be slaughtered, even in the Tiberium age, by rocket infantry, which often necesitated an infantry screen. Furthermore, some infantry, such as commandos, needed a safe way to get in and out of difficult combat situations. The APC has had a prominant place in modern combat.

M113 APC
Given their reliance on infantry (at least more than the Soviets), the Allied Forces were the creators of the APC. The vehicle was small, heavily armoured and fast. Mounting a small machine gun, it was effective against infantry and it's speed and ability to crush infantry made it highly effective against soldiers of all types - with the exception of the shock trooper, whose armoured suit prevented him from being crushed. However, the machine gun was still effective against these targets. Although it could be used to transport engineers, the number of engineers required to capture most buildings meant that this was often not an effective tactic. The Allied phase transport was built around an M113 chassis.

During the First Tiberium War, GDI used the APC. It was essentially the same APC that the Allies had used, with very few differences. However, owing to the different nature of that conflict, the APC accordingly had a different role. Although powerful against infantry and able to crush all types, the ability of the Engineer to capture full strength buildings meant that the APC could be used to transport Engineers into fortified Nod bases and have him capture enemy buildings, putting them to good use for the GDI.

Armoured personnel carriers could also be used as scouts, owing to their speed and their ability to absorb more damage than could the fragile Humvees. One important feature that the APC provided was the ability for infantry to cross Tiberium fields without damage.

Nod APC


In the final stages of the First Tiberium War, Nod fielded its own wheeled APCs. The design evolved over the years and Nod's APC eventually evolved into the Subterranean APC and GDI's to the Amphibious APC.

Amphibious APC
In the Second Tiberium War, GDI's APCs had been completely redesigned. These new APCs were wheeled vehicles, and their machine guns were removed, to increase their speed, especially over water. Although no longer able to fire at enemy ground units, the APC still retained its speed, and could now travel through the water, allowing GDI to quickly move squads of infantry over bodies of water and assault island fortresses, as was the case with Vega.

Subterranean APC
Subterranean APCs were heavy assault personnel carriers used by the Brotherhood of Nod that would tunnel into the ground to reach far away locations. These APC's were usually used for sneak attacks into bases and to allow infantry to avoid tiberium during transport.

Subterannean APCs were equipped with heavy drills that allowed them to move beneath the surface of the earth. This allowed it to bypass enemy defenses and fortifications, ambush enemies and avoid tiberium that would pose a risk to the health of the solders inside. In keeping with Nod tactics, the vehicle could not be seen as it was underground. However, the Mobile Sensor Array was able to detect such vehicles as they traveled below ground.

In the years between the Second and Third Tiberium Wars, Subterranean APCs were decommissioned by Nod. New Reckoner APCs replaced the Subterranean APC in the role of a personnel carrier.

Guardian Advanced APC
After the Firestorm Crisis, GDI reevaluated the performance of their Amphibious APCs. While fast and well armoured, they weren't used widely due to their lack of any offensive weaponry, forbidding them from partaking in direct offensives, as without the means to defend themselves they needed to be closely protected. The engineers of GDI decided to completely redesign the vehicle from scratch.

The resulting design is an advanced, six wheeled version of the vehicle, with all terrain capability and a dual heavy chain guns capable of engaging both ground and aerial targets. Any squad of infantry garrisoned inside may fire from within the APC, granting it greater offensive capability than when empty; for example, an APC transporting a Missile Squad will gain improved fire power against armoured and airborne targets or Zone Troopers can tear through tanks. In addition to transporting a single squad of infantry, the new advanced APC is outfitted with mine laying equipment, allowing it to deploy a large minefield at any given place on the battlefield (although they still can be detected by specialized sensors or infantry). The Brotherhood choose to answer Guardian APCs with Reckoners.

Repair APC Variant
Recent intelligence has revealed a Guardian APC variant used by the Steel Talons. Instead of anti-infantry, this variant plays a support role. The personnel carrier has a crane-like repair arm that can fix damaged vehicles. To fulfill it's ant-infantry role, the Steel Talons rely on the Wolverine.

G10 Bull APC
Appearing in the latter stages of the Third Tiberium War, the Bull APC was a new unit tested out by the 22nd Infantry Division. It's most notable difference from the Guardian APC was the portholes were designed to allow infantry to operate the EW1 from within the unit. It saw limited use during the conflict, and was used only at the last battle of the war.