http://jalopnik.com/#!5720776/why-do-a...an-armored-tank

The version in the video doesn't have a turret, but they talk about versions that do in the article. This is essentially the modern ancestor of the Ares Citymaster, and it's close enough to make me wonder if the creators have read shadowrun books for ideas

I'm sorry, but that entire commercial just seemed like the Police Forces of the USA whipping out their ***** and yelling "LOOK HOW BIG IT IS!" to an Australian Band. Maybe that's just a Canucks perspective.

That said, an Outlaw Biker Gang (Possibly the Hells Angels) came very damned close to buying the Diefenbunker... So I can see times when a rig like this is needed for a SWAT team.

I always imagined Citymaster to be more like Lavina-Uragan (links-rechts-links).
Or any of these babies.

Sorry for the Russian text on the linked sites, can't find anything representative in English, and the pictures are what it's about anyway.

Also works

I will take one of each, please.

I have always thought of the Citymaster as being like this old school Ares Citymaster, but think either of those would work.

"nations defenders"? Silly me, i thought that was the military not the police...

Its shit like this that makes me wonder if someone high in the system somewhere is using 1984 and the various cyberpunk writings as holy books for the future.

Seems the only thing separating police and military these days is the kinds of off site "assets" they can call on when things get crazy.

At least it wasn't "DEFENDERS OF THE WESTERN WORLD!".

It's a commercial. Self-serving hyperbole is kinda what they do.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure they'd sell a whole lot less if the background music was soft rock hits from the early 80's and they just showed the urban assault vehicle rolling up to a donut shop or something.

Manly truck commercials sell manly trucks to manly men, hip and upbeat coupe commercials sell to hip and upbeat people, practical minivan commercials sell to practical minivan buyers...and this sort of commercial, apparently, sells this sort of vehicle.

Hey, that was the first album I ever bought! ahahahahahaha thun-der

So, cops, especially SWAT, walk around with assault rifles dangling from their wangs?

With apologies to Zero Punctuation's "Yahtzee".

So it's an armored SUV.

What exactly makes this a Citymaster?

When I think of Citymaster I tend to think of stuff like the Vodnik series of APCs by GAZ.




-k

I'll be honest, the Vodnik's look more like citymasters. I guess what makes it a modern citymaster is the target purchasers, namely police forces.

The BearCat does have most of the citymaster's specs though. Gunports, turret option and a chemseal option as well. Fully tricked out the only thing it would be missing is the truly massive armor that the citymaster has.

The Vodnik actually probably matches the citymaster stat for stat, but it's targeted to the military. Over time it will probably make it's way to police use if crime rates continue to climb, but for the moment it's really a full fledged military apc.

I guess what I'm saying is that the evolution to the citymaster would probably be something along the lines of BearCat -> Police version of the Vodnik -> the actual Citymaster

Sony Music Entertainment does not allow me to watch that video.

As for cops using stuff like that, I think they lost the battle if they need tanks to do their work. Dozens per year for all of America is not that much however. SWAT units might find the armor and transport capacity handy.

OK, yes, an armoured car like the Citymaster is designed for security forces and such. But it's "Little Brother" (Which is the same chassis), the Roadmaster, is just a glorified delivery van.

A really big delivery van with almost as much armor and durability as the Citymaster, but without the weapons or engine package.

Federated-United Postal Deliveries (Fed-UP) certainly is a tough group when it comes down to it.

I love this thread. Nothing quite as sexy as old school Soviet hardware. When I've made it big in the freelancing business, I'm going to buy me one of those old militia trucks I used to see all over Moscow. Rowr...

(Then my wife is going to use it to drive to weddings for her photography business. Don't mess with this photog!)



Actually, the township about twenty miles from where I live does own an armored APC (for police, not SWAT). I hate to say it, but the future is now.

I still kick myself today for not trying to get my hands on the Sextant Self-Propelled Gun that I saw on sale all those years ago...

When I use miniatures, I use a 25mm scale model of the APC from Aliens as a Citymaster.

The cool hereabouts is having access to an SMG by law. Getting RL on this stuff, I´d say that "the future is now" in SR terms is admitting that the battle is lost. The police car that turns me over for speeding does not need armor. My fists will do more damage to me than to a common car.

This is just crazy. I can understand SWAT having one of these, but ordinary cops shouldn't have these unless there's no SWAT team or equivalent in rapid response range AND there's a history of the police getting outgunned. I don't trust cops as it is - give them tanks and I'm tempted to move to Canada. Maybe in Israel these would make sense - where ordinary citizens can legally carry an Uzi. The US, not so much.

I've heard that Police Cruisers are starting to get armored doors for at least some protection.

And my home town has a SWAT team. I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one. (The funny part is that they have to ask for their weapons from the local Military Armory.). Bomb Squad, sure, I can understand, but SWAT?

huh?

Makes sense in that it may end up being used as cover (and one would be surprised as to how thin they are).

I could be misremembering. I'm in the United States (obviously), and modern Europe isn't really my area of expertise. Fixed just in case.


That's one of those "duh" things which should have been done decades ago :-/

Oh, you mean like putting armor on Hummers so they didn't have to make Hillbilly Armor in The Sandbox?

iirc it was armored for small arms fire, not artillery shells.

Tho not armoring the bottom of the Huey back in the day was a real duh moment...

"Why are you sitting on your helmets?"
"So we don't get our balls shot off." - Apocalypse Now

Isn't it just one of those "we bough some assault rifles, black suits and helmets, and 12 of our cops did the 3-day SWAT course in the big city" deals?

South of the border it would be "need to use those DHS funds on something". North of it however...

To be fair, in both RL and Shadowrun, they ARE mostly used for SWAT style units.

Regular cops just get patrol cruisers. The SR ones just tend to be slightly better armored.



-k

Black Suits, Check. Helmets, Check. Assault Rifles, Downchecked, too Militaristic. SMGs, we can beg to the Irish Regiment of Canada to use the ones they have, check. Training, somewhere in the budget, maybe, possibly, we'll get back to you.

SWAT style, sure. SWAT-level training, not always

You get this.