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Prepare for a rolling blackout!
—A Tesla Cruiser closing in on enemies

The Tesla Cruiser is the monster tank of Russia.

Official description[]

The Tesla Cruiser is a fully tracked vehicle mounted with two small, turret-mounted tesla coils. Although they have shorter range and less lethality than their stationary counterpart, the Tesla Cruiser can easily make short work of enemy vehicles and infantry. The Tesla Cruiser's coils can short-circuit tanks as well, temporarily disabling them. This makes the vehicle an ideal tank destroyer, but defenses and buildings will prove too tough for lone Tesla Cruisers to assault directly. The tank's maximum potential is reached through the increase of power by Overcharge activated from their Palaces.[1]

Overview[]

For a detailed list of changes from the original game, click here.

Tesla Cruisers are powerful tanks that emphasize the Russian attack doctrine: they're relatively fast, durable and hit hard when striking armor and infantry alike. Not only does their twin Tesla coils deal a strong amount of damage, but enemy vehicles hit will be stunned for a brief second. Because the range on the Cruiser is fairly good, it usually gets the first strike in against many of its enemies, where its micro-stun can help its comrades get in closer or pile additional shots on the enemy. Another advantage of its stunning power is its ability to sink certain vehicles over water, like transports or the Kappa Tank. For a monster tank, it has a somewhat reasonable cost, which means that it can be massed quicker than its more expensive counterparts like the Charon Tank or the Megalodon.

As part of the Russian arsenal, the Tesla Cruiser can benefit from the Overcharge support power, giving it a powerful boost its damage output for a brief period of time. When used properly, this can give Cruisers an edge in combat when outgunned or outmanned, and pairs well with Tesla Troopers, Shock Troopers and Volkov in the area-of-effect.

While they are fairly strong contenders against many threats, they are poor building killers, and they lack any anti-air weapons. Base defenses in particular give them trouble as they can take significant damage from them without making a dent. For this reason, it's often best to make sure that they are complemented with Rhinos and Borillos when assaulting enemy bases.

AI behavior[]

Tesla Cruisers controlled by the AI have the following attack patterns:

All difficulties[]

  • 2x guarding Iron Guard, accompanied by 2 Rhino Tanks and 2 Terror Drones
  • 4x targeting anything
    • If available, Chronoboost and Shadow Ring may be applied on this task force

Medium/Hard[]

  • 2x targeting ore miners
  • 2x targeting structures, accompanied by 3 Rhino Tanks
  • 2x guarding Flak Cannons or Tesla Coils
  • 4x targeting vehicles

Hard[]

  • 2x targeting anything, accompanied by 2 Wolfhounds
    • If available, Chronoboost and Shadow Ring may be applied on this task force
  • 2x targeting anything, accompanied by 2 Rhino Tanks and 2 Wolfhounds
    • If available, Chronoboost and Shadow Ring may be applied on this task force
  • 4x targeting anything
    • The AI will use Invulnerability, Irradiation Beta/Gamma and Overcharge on this task force
    • If available, Rage and Shadow Ring may also be applied

Appearances[]

Our new Tesla Cruiser outclasses the old Mammoth and Apocalypse in efficiency.
—Soviet intel during Operation: Road to Nowhere

Cooperative[]

  • Chronologically, Tesla Cruiser first appears in Ravages of War as buildable unit.

Act One[]

  • A group of Tesla Cruisers are sent as reinforcements in Road to Nowhere, marking their first controllable appearance in the Soviet campaign.
  • The Tesla Cruiser becomes buildable in Dragonstorm.

Special Ops[]

  • In Brothers in Arms, after Krukov and Reznov are evacuated and the first task forces arrive, the player can use a support power which costs $3000 and calls in two Tesla Cruisers via paradrop. This support power takes 2:12 to recharge. This is disabled when the MCVs arrive.

Assessment[]

Pros Cons
  • Highly lethal against infantry and tanks.
  • Weapon temporarily disable vehicles, applying a short EMP effect to them.
  • Can fire over walls and obstacles.
  • Heavily armored.
  • Can crush infantry and fire on the move. 
  • Can self-repair. 
  • Using Overcharge on Tesla Cruiser can temporarily increase its firepower by 50%. 
  • Hard counter for hover units, Mastermind and Mastodon since its EMP serverly hinder their ability (Mastermind will release its controlled units, Mastodon has to restart the charging process, while hover units will have to go through their "wake up" animation). 
  • Cannot attack air units.
  • Not very effective against base defenses.
  • Susceptible to mind control, hijacking and confusion rays.
  • Vulnerable against aircraft and heavy anti-armor threats.

Trivia[]

  • The Tesla Cruiser resembles the Tesla Tank in Red Alert 3.
  • The Tesla Cruiser's ability of a short-lived EMP is a reference to the original version from Red Alert 2, where it is mentioned it could "short-circuit enemy vehicles" in the skirmish loading screen of the Russia subfaction, however, the ability was not implemented in the vanilla game.[2]

See also[]

External links[]

References[]

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