Weasel Utility Tank

**Key Features** | »» Mounted 6 gauge automatic shotgun»» 6mm steel plating»» Mortar w/ chain bombs»» Turbocharged V6 engine»» Map and compass (usually lost)

*"I ain't no rat!"*

- Weasel driver

## Tactical Analysis

* **Scattergun**: A light utility vehicle with combat modifications, the Weasel helps to support friendlies and harass enemy assets. Its oversized shotgun can put down infantry or allow the Weasel to skirmish with light vehicles. Its weapon is useless against heavier targets like vehicles and tanks, but it's often the best weapon the rebels can field early on against infantry.

* **Annoyance From Above**: The Weasel's mortar can be used to blow apart light vehicles, but it will also impede the movement of larger vehicles, like tanks or ore collectors. This ability allows it to interfere with enemy supply lines by slowing ore collectors, or help tilt battles for the rebels by slowing the reactions of enemies or preventing them from turning to face targets.

* **Pop goes the Weasel**: For all its advantages, the Weasel was not meant to be a combat vehicle. Its armour is thin and dated, and while swift it will be outrun by real fast movers.

* **Burn Stuff**: Before the Allies placed laws against their use, flamethrowers and incendiary shells were common weapons on Weasels. Though they were supposed to be destroyed after the war, examples keep turning up, and are retrofitted onto vehicles. Flamethrowers can clear garrisons as well as being more effective against traditional targets while the incendiary shells would burn a vehicle or create a field to deny infantry movement. While additional repair equipment also turns the Weasel into a repair vehicle.

## History

A small British tankette and utility vehicles built by the Carden Loyd company in the late 1930s, the **Weasel** was designed to carry detachments of infantry, towed artillery guns, and anything else that needed carrying over broken ground and under fire. Unlike the Ranger or similar vehicles, the Weasel was protected by bullet-resistant armour, sealed compartments and a gun turret which could accept a wide variety of weapons. Initially not meant for the front lines, Weasels ended up seeing a lot more action than intended; they were cheap and simple enough to issue in large numbers, which greatly helped with the mechanisation of the Allied army. Nevertheless, as production of Rangers was stepped up, the Weasel was eventually phased out; while useful, it didn't have the Ranger's versatility. By the end of the war, thousands of Weasels had been consigned to the boneyards.

This proved to be a boon for the Continentals when they broke into the boneyards. Though the Ranger was arguably more useful, the Continentals needed all the vehicles they could get, and this included all the Weasels they could get their hands on. Though few believed that the rebels would be able to find any use for their Weasels; even if they did, the outdated tankettes would last seconds against modern vehicles

Reports from the Southeast later shattered such conceptions. Infantry patrols started turning up dead from massive shotgun wounds, none self-inflicted. The tracks sighted at each assault were too small to be even a light tank, and commanders started to send out ever increasing vehicles with patrols, only to have said vehicles covered in chains and unable to move in time to save their accompanying infantry from the raiding Continentals. Only a lucky burst from an entrenched heavy defender was able to shed light on the mystery. The vehicles had been the same Weasels stolen from the Boneyard, modified with a homemade mortar capable of firing chain projectiles that were able to stop an enemy vehicle almost instantly.

For the Continentals, the Weasel serves as combat support for their smaller operations, where a Mastiff is simply too much but infantry can't be left on their own. It is an excellent means of logistical harassment too, slowing Allied ore operations to a crawl with a few well placed chains in the wheels. A few are even armed with flamethrowers, prime weapons for urban focused militia who need a small vehicular punch to help them. In a testament to Continental ingenuity, a number of Weasels have been converted to combat engineering vehicles, and are used to repair tanks in the field.

 File:Flamethrower.jpg
For all its benefits, however, the Weasel has enough flaws to make up for them. Its armour is paper thin, to the point where a well-placed anti-tank weapon can destroy one with little effort. It cannot stand up to anything but the lightest of vehicles, and its shotgun is useless against anything not infantry (though the same cannot be said for the flamethrower equipped models).

Despite these flaws, smaller cells swear by the Weasel for its effectiveness in their operations. Though not exactly as feared as Continental marksmen or the M100, Allied peacekeepers are starting to double-take when they hear the word "weasel".

## Just the Stats

 **Armour Type** | Medium Armour

 **Kill Reward** | 4800

 **DPS** | 15

 **DPS** | 2

 **DPS** | 60