Crusader tank

The Crusader tank was the American main battle tank during the War against the GLA.

Background
Relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain, the Crusader mounts a 120mm cannon, which is effective against tanks and other vehicles.

The Crusader's chief advantage over foreign competitors is its high tech armor protection that can be further upgraded as desired, as well as its 120mm cannon which offers a punch equal to the Battlemaster Tank (without uranium shells). Like most US vehicles, drones can be assigned to serve a particular vehicle.

Drones
Drones can be further upgraded with Drone Armor.

Game unit
The Crusader has an edge over most other tanks due to its superior armor. This tank retains its usefulness even in late-game matches, being able to go head-on with all other vehicles in its same class.

However it is easily countered by anti-tank infantry and aircraft, as well as long-range units such as the GLA's Rocket Buggy, against which it has little defense.

Trivia

 * None of the American generals utilize the Crusader. Therefore, it does not appear in the Generals Challenge outside of several cutscenes.
 * In the UK manual of Generals, the Crusader's icon is mistakenly replaced with that of the Leopard tank.
 * Interestingly, this tank combines the resemblance of a real life Leopard 2 & M1 Abrams main battle tanks (further reinforced by the fact that the model's name is 'AVLeopard').
 * The Crusader was originally going to be armed with a coaxial machine gun in addition to its main cannon. Coding of the machine gun is still present in the game codes, being merely commented out instead of removed. It was likely removed for balancing reasons.
 * Much like the Raptor's early design, the Crusader also used a gold skin and completely different tread design. In some ways, the early design's chassis slightly resembled the [starcraft.fandom.com/wiki/Siege_tank Siege tank] from the StarCraft series. Its model and its texture can still be accessed by browsing through the game's files.