Aeon T1 Light Tank

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Tech 1 Light/Medium Tank
Tech 2 Heavy Tank
Tech 2 Amphibious Tank
Tech 3 Siege Tank
Tech 3 Shield Disruptor

Aeon T1 Light Tank:  Aurora
Amphibious light tank. Armed with a single cannon.[ e ]
Build costs	-260  -52 260
Max health	140
Speed	3 (Hover)
Veterancy	3  (+1/s)
Intel (radius)	Vision: 20
Weapon: Disruptor Cannon Direct Fire - Projectile
Damage per second	26
Projectile damage	40
Reload time	1.5 seconds
Range	26

The Aeon T1 Light Tank, nicknamed the Aurora, is an Aeon unit. This is a direct fire unit.

The Aurora is classified as a light tank due to its low HP, but is employed very similarly to a medium tank. It is equipped with a Disruptor Cannon and has a long range and high damage; in fact it outranges the T2 Heavy Tanks. Although its initial shot damage of 40 is high compared to other tech 1 direct fire units, it is relatively unimportant, unless multiple Auroras are used, because most enemy units that an Aurora is likely to face will have much higher hit points than this. The Aurora possesses the ability to hover, enabling it to travel over the surface of water.

Strategy

“The Aurora has extremely light armor, though it has excellent range and damage. Luckily for the other factions, the Aurora Disruptor Cannon has a very slow rate of fire.”
—Vanilla SupCom description

The Aurora is an extremely capable unit capable of out-shooting other T1 units with its especially effective weapon and ability to transverse water. However, the Aurora is less effective against naval units, particularly Frigates, and is exceptionally weak to air attacks and Point Defenses when enemy radar is present (although if enemy radar is not present, the Aurora's range is greater than the Line of Sight of a Point Defence, making it ideal at taking out such installations, because of this, most players will give point defences radar support to neutralise this advantage. Also note that the Aurora's lower line of sight means that it would need radar support to do such a thing).

The Aeon are considered to be superior to other factions on water maps in part because of the Aurora. It's the only tech 1 offensive amphibious unit in the game (aside from the Seraphim T1 Mobile Light Artillery, nicknamed the 'Fobo,' or 'Floating Lobo'). It hovers, so it is immune to torpedo units. On such maps, an effective strategy is to use this superior mobility to attack an enemy's base from all directions with Auroras.

Facing enemy Aurorae

Anything with long range such as T1 attack bombers, T1 mobile light artillery, or the ACU gun upgrade (both 30 range) will be effective at outranging the fragile Auroras and stripping away their key positioning advantage. T1 point defenses with radar can also match their range.

Countering Auroras on water maps can be difficult for other factions. Point defenses can be effective shore defenses, but they cannot be built on water; obviously torpedo defenses cannot hit amphibious hover units like the Aurora. T1 attack submarines can only fire on Auroras when surfaced, making them vulnerable, although the subs have the range advantage at a whopping 32 units. A skilled Aeon commander will want to escort an amphibious force with anti-air, such as the Ascendant Tech 2 mobile anti-air which also hovers, protecting them from bomber or gunship attack. Therefore usually the most cost effective counter unit is frigates, which are not particularly expensive to build, and which can kill an Aurora with a single shot. Remember when using this strategy that, as with all naval units, frigates can take quite a while to build.

Factional Differences

The Aurora has some obvious differences when compared to the other factions T1 Tanks, but it also has some less obvious ones as well. For instance, it has much less health, a longer range and a higher DPS, making it in between a light artillery piece and a regular tank. This does mean that using it is often different to the other factions at tech 1 - keeping it at as long a range as possible, minimising the number of enemy units that can fire. Often, being on water can allow you to easily out-range the enemy when they are not using light artillery. This often means that Aeon players use less light artillery than other races, and conversely, other races often use more light artillery to counter the Aeon range advantage. Please note that an Aeon player should rarely forego light artillery completely, as it leaves their forces completely open to point defence fire. Also, another important differences to note is that, unlike the other factions T1 tanks, it has a longer range than its line of sight, almost necessitating the use of scouts or other radar nearby.

An Aeon Aurora light tank hovers idle.

Physical Description

The Aurora's main body consists of a black chassis with lights lining its edges. on either side of it are two "arms" holding armour plates. On top is its Disruptor Cannon, covered by another sheet of armour. It has a green glow emanating from its bottom, a common Aeon indication that it hovers.