Around EWII's beginning, the Empire began developing a new type of medium tank, incorporating electric-welding rather than rivets to increase its defense. Their most notable feature is their sloped plating, which redirects the force of enemy rounds. Through this, they realized new defensive designs that didn't rely on armour thickness. They nicknamed the tank "Kafer," after the hard carapace of a beetle. This revolutionary development shocked engineers the world over, and influenced tank design for years to come.
The Assault tank shares a similar design to the Soviet T-34 medium tank, particularly the early 1942 T-34/76 model with another machine gun where the driver escape hatch should be.
In addition, the first appearance of these tanks during the Battle of Siegval is a historical reference to the Germans encounter of the T-34 during the early months of Operation Barbarossa.
The suspension is based off of the M41 Bulldog's with one less road wheel.
On the concept art, the Assault Tank is referred to as a "main battle tank." In real life, this was a postwar concept of combining the two roles of medium and heavy tank, using new lightweight armour schemes to make a tank that was as maneuverable as a medium tank but had the protection and firepower of a heavy tank. The "universal tank" design for the British Centurion is generally held to be the forerunner of the concept.
Assault Tank with the alternate AP turret
This does not appear in Valkyria Chronicles 1 or 3 meaning these were only adopted by the main Imperial forces (primarily Ausbruch), not Maximilian's forces. One distinct possibility regarding this is that Ausbruch used to use Imperial Tank Destroyers, and Maximilian's forces received these when Ausbruch got the new Assault Tank as a replacement, rather than having them all scrapped.
Like Imperial Medium Tanks, Imperial Assault Tanks may be encountered equipped with a machinegun turret or a flamethrower rather than their usual cannon. In addition they may also be encountered with a mortar cannon. Notably they have a tank cannon or a mortar, but not both.
There are two cosmetic variants of the AP cannon turret, one with a slightly different shape with an extended turret bustle (resembling the turret of the late-war American M36 Tank Destroyer), a longer, thinner main gun, and a searchlight. This does not necessarily correspond to a difference in the statistics of the tank's weapon: Lucky Seitz has the normal turret and Tank Officer Arker the variant, while both have the standard level 1 weapon fit. However, this turret is seen mostly on postgame tanks equipped with the KrN334 Pg12 and above.
While the sloped plating of the Assault Tank is said to be revolutionary and influential, the Edelweiss predated the Assault Tank for having sloped plating. Most likely this is because the Edelweiss is not particularly well-known outside of Gallia at the time the game is set.
All but one of the Tank Commander Aces in VC4 drive an Assault Tank.
Despite the Assault Tank, Medium Tank, and the Vulcan using the same Ur pMG 9x model, these all have different stats.
