History Main / TacticalSuperweaponUnit

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'': TheJuggernaut known as '''LIBERTY PRIME''' was designed as the United States' ultimate weapon for destroying the communist army of China during the Alaskan invasion. It's capable of shooting EyeBeams, throws nuclear football bombs, and shrugs off conventional and energy weapons. The US ultimately couldn't solve its short power supply problem due to all of its weapons, so it didn't see use until the Lone Wanderer helps the Brotherhood of Steel reclaim the Jefferson Memorial from the Enclave. In the Broken Steel DLC, the Lone Wanderer learns that Liberty Prime was crucial for absolutely curb-stomping the remaining Enclave bases, and it was only finally taken down because of a KillSat.

!!!'''Video game examples:'''

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfMythology'' introduces the [[OurTitansAreDifferent Titan]] unit in ''The Titans'' ExpansionPack. The Titan is a [[{{Kaiju}} massive mythological monster]] with [[MightyGlacier enormous health, damage resistance, and damage output against buildings, at the expense of low speed]] and an expensive, time-consuming SummoningRitual. When backed up by a proper army, a Titan can level virtually anything in its path. The only foolproof defense against a Titan is [[ChaseStopsAtWater water]], as Titans can't swim and are too big to fit in transport ships.

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'':
** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert'': The ''Counterstrike'' and ''Aftermath'' expansions feature the {{cyborg}} {{supersoldier}} Volkov. Nominally the Soviet Union's HeroUnit, he has at minimum over 3-4 times the hit points[[note]]2500[[/note]] of Mammoth Tanks and Cruisers[[note]]600 and 700 respectively[[/note]] (the toughest producible[[note]]One ''Aftermath'' mission features a number of enemy Soviet Super Tanks that boast a whopping 10,000 HP, but they're just mission-exclusive palette swaps of the Mammoth Tank[[/note]] units in the Soviet and Allied arsenals, respectively) [[note]]in ''Deus Ex Machina'' Volkov's HP is boost further to a monstrous 6000[[/note]], is armed with a HandCannon that mows down infantry with ease and can make short work of tanks and even the aforementioned Cruisers in just a handful of shots, and can blow up structures with C4 charges, making him far more of a threat than even the nukes that serve as the game's superweapon of choice. He's so overpowered, in fact, that he only makes a single appearance in ''Counterstrike'', and all but one of his ''Aftermath'' appearances nerf him severely into just a slightly more durable version of the Allied HeroUnit Tanya.

*** In the ''Firestorm'' expansion pack, [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue AI]] C.A.B.A.L. has the Core Defender, a heavily armed giant robot with a laser capable of piercing the emponymous Firestorm's DeflectorShields. While powerful against armies, it can't look up, leaving it vulnerable to airstrikes.
** The ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars: Kane's Wrath'' expansion pack gives each faction a super unit, armed with a devastating weapon out-of-the-box and the option to garrison a number of infantry squads in their "hardpoints" for various effects, as well as a unique gimmick (usually some method of generating income).

** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'': The ''Uprising'' expansion gives such units with ridiculously high price tags but still suitable for mass production ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard especially by the AI]]):
*** The Futuretank is a combat robot for the Allies that lifted directly from ''Film/TheTerminator's'' [[https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/HK-Tank Hunter-Killer Tanks]] that fires area-of-effect spheres of destruction. It can also use a Riot Beam, a pair of crossing lasers that will zorch anything in front of them.
*** The Harbinger is a self-repairing gunship for the Allies (think AC-130 on steroids) that fires miniature nuclear explosions / a chaingun and circles around its target without needing to reload but has no AntiAir capability. They have a bad reputation in-universe, called "vultures" by other Allied pilots for their flight patterns and sociopathic enjoyment of their jobs.

** The Dark Eldar have the Dais of Destruction, a combination party boat/ giant HoverTank which sports huge dark energy blasters, {{Disintegrator Ray}}s, and some sexy ladies (not a euphamism for anything). It's piloted by Asdrubael Vect (leader of the entire Dark Eldar race, not just the faction present in the game) himself.

* ''VideoGame/MentalOmega'', a GameMod of ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'', features a few of these units, called Epic Units. They are specific to certain subfactions, boast massive firepower, are heavily armored, and can self-repair, requiring heavy focus-fire to destroy. They also have ContractualBossImmunity to most effects.
** China has the Centurion Siege Crawler, a massive walking artillery that outranges all static defenses but one. It chews apart buildings and defenses, and can attack enemy aircraft. It can carry up to three passengers who can shoot at enemies from inside.
** Epsilon HQ has the Aerial Fortress Irkalla, a gigantic UFO. It does poorly against buildings, but takes out groups of units quickly and can target both ground and air forces. It is excellent at establishing territorial control, but moves slowly.
** Haihead has the M.A.D.M.A.N., a bomb truck on steroids. While it cannot attack units directly, its self-destruct process hits ''harder than a superweapon''.
** Wings of Coronia has the Harbinger. It bombs an area and takes out a chunk of a base in a few hits. While its bombing run lasts a long time, it cannot be controlled by the player.
** There's also the Perun Flagship for Russia. Its a large bulking helicopter constantly boosting other Tesla weaponry near it, while its own Tesla cannon tears enemy units apart. While cut from the game and unbuildable in skirmish, [[spoiler:it is used by the Epsilon in the final Soviet campaign mission.]]
** The Allies are the only faction that lacks an Epic Unit. As Campaign-only units, however, Pacific Front has the Shin Tsurugi Decimator in only one mission, [[spoiler:while the Paradox Engine is one of the major elements in Act Two, being the only true threat for the Epsilon even after being rendered nearly-inoperable.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Paraworld}}'' : Each of the playable factions have the following Titans (note that while you can build more than one, they start at Tier 4 and there's an ArbitraryHeadcountLimit of 3 Tier 4 units and 1 Tier 5 - a tier that can only be reached by promotion):

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheReds'' has two examples:
** The [[UnitedEurope European Continental Alliance]]'s Manticore superheavy tank. Locked behind the Manticore Protocol 5-star Generals' Promotion and built at the Research Facility instead of the Vehicle Assembly Depot (where most ECA vehicles are produced), its impressive compliment of weaponry comprise twin 150mm cannons, a brace of autocannons, and a missile pod, giving it ''almost'' "enough dakka", and this is backed up by a powerful chassis and a bevy of repair drones that keep it and its allies in tip-top shape, plus a Nano Shield that for 8 seconds makes it invulnerable to any incoming attack and gives an extreme boost to its self-repair rate, although it cannot attack while the shield is active.
** The [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain Russian Federation]]'s Blackbear is a souped up version of its already potent Sentinel superheavy tank. Boasting even more HP than the Manticore (2500 vs 1800), a single 220mm main gun that deals over twice as much damage as the Manticore's dual guns '''combined''', and a pair of AA missile pods, it can win a 1-on-1 engagement against any enemy unit that isn't another Blackbear, and that's without activating either of its defensive secondary abilities (Shtora system that makes it briefly untargetable, and Smoke Screen that forces enemies to blindly fire through it). That said, it has a hideously high price tag ($5000), and an additional structure (the Industrial Plant) and a 5-star General's Promotion (Ursa Division) to become buildable from the War Factory.
** And in both of the above units' cases, it takes 60 seconds after one is destroyed to even ''consider'' building another one (presumably, it takes everyone that long to change their drawers), ensuring that you're without it in the worst possible situation: the enemy is the one with enough dakka now.

* The ''VideoGame/TiberiumEssence'' GameMod for ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer3TiberiumWars'' has one for each faction once they tech up enough, and one only available once they capture a Tacitus Archive:
** GDI has the Mammoth mk. II walker, taken out of mothballs and upgraded from it's appearance in ''Firestorm.'' Four railguns, two autocannons, and a set of missile launchers, as well as a modular spinal mount. It can also earn the Mammoth II's little brother, the Colossus walker, which has miniguns and a pair of battleship grade cannons.
** The Brotherhood of Nod has the Montauk, a DrillTank bristling with laser gun batteries. It also acts as a BaseOnWheels due to the fact that it cannonically ''is'' Nod's main base of operations, and can summon several groups of units from the tunnel network. They can also earn the Decimator Cyborg, a SpiderTank with a hardwired pilot (as the name suggests) armed with dual {{Plasma Cannon}}s and an anti-air laser gun.
** The Scrin get the Conqueror walker, which is more support oriented, seeding Tiberium fields on-demand to provide power-ups to its allies, and can assimilate the weapons of each of the other faction's GiantRobot units.

* ''VideoGame/EndlessLegend'' has the Guardians which are beings so gigantic that it takes a city block dedicated towards building one of them and there's 5, each representing one element of the planet Auriga. They're so big that they can't be attached to a party, but each is powerful enough to handle a small army on their own.

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Lords of War is a battlefield role reserved for exceptional {{Hero Unit}}s, super-heavy vehicles, walkers, aircraft and gargantuan creatures that are insanely durable and boast destructive weaponry far beyond normal units, but demand a significant cost in both points/power level and real money to field. Coupled with their sheer size, you can be sure that your opponent will be prioritizing its destruction with everything they have (which tends to make them AwesomeButImpractical). In 4th and 5th editions, you can only field them in Apocalypse games; from 6th to 9th Edition and in ''Horus Heresy'' (which also has the Primarch role for Primarchs and equivalent), they can be taken in normal games, with restrictions to ensure that they don't unbalance the game. In a normal 2000pts game, a single Lord of War will probably constitute a quarter of your armies' points value.

* An AprilFools joke made by Blizzard during the development of ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'' stated that Terran players would have the ability to merge their base structures into the [=TerraTron=], a giant robot armed with a laser drill-firing ArmCannon, and a [[ChainsawGood lightsaber buzzsaw]]. The model was actually made, and forms the final boss of the "The Lost Viking" minigame.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'', of the three HumongousMecha units available for use in the PlayerVersusPlayer mode Rival Wings (which is between teams of 24 players and some AI {{Mooks}}, and features some elements of TheSiege), Brute Justice stands head and shoulders above the rest. Its RocketPunch can heavily damage structures or stun players to open them to being demolished by its WaveMotionGun. It also possesses a flamethrower to melt waves of mammets and players unfortunate enough not to get out of the way in time. This power means that unlike the more specialized Cruise Chaser and Oppressor, Brute Justice can only by a team that has lost a tower, making it purely [[ComebackMechanic a comeback tool.]]

The purpose of such an Absolute Unit is to break stalemates. The armies of the various factions are, ideally, evenly matched, just [[CompetitiveBalance stronger and weaker in different areas]]. So, when two evenly-matched players meet, there needs to be a sort of "[[PurposefullyOverpowered wrecking ball]]" that allows the match to continue, in a similar fashion to {{Super Weapon}}s. In some cases, they may require another unit of the same calibur to fight effectively. %%(AN: I'll be potholing that to [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/discussion.php?id=d8wrgd2g8nud8yykbkzcdqrm Superweapon Duel]] once it launches.)

*** Downplayed for the Soviets. They get the very expensive Desolator Trooper who are terminally ill patients who are then remade into cyborgs and placed in a special PowerArmor. These measures are to protect them from their own weapon which is a toxic sprayer that [[OneHitKill instantly kills infantry]] in normal mode or it can be adjusted to shoot a slow-firing, long-ranged corrosive droplet that slows vehicles. Fantastic at killing infantry blobs but only moderately effective against vehicles.

* ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders3'': has super units for each of the different command types. These range from massive tanks bristling with guns, to [[EldritchAbomination Eldritch Abominations]] crackling with lighting to literal [[TheGrimReaper Grim Reapers]]. Notably it also shows why these units tend to be rare in most games: Most of these super units aren't particularly hard to acquire mid-to-late game, meaning eventually every battle devolves into clashes between these units and ''nothing else''.

** Upon release, it has the Tier 5 upgrades. In the game, each tower has three different upgrade paths, each path having five tiers. The fifth upgrades are very powerful, but to compensate they're usually very expensive, costing around 5 to 10 times the previous upgrades, and you can only have one of each at a time.
** Of particular note is the True Sun God, one of the Tier 5 upgrades of the Super Monkey tower. It's the single most expensive upgrade in the game at five hundred thousand. It also has a unique sacrifice mechanic, that when you buy this upgrade, the tower will destroy all other towers in its radius, gaining additional powers depending on the sacrifice. Furthermore, if you have the "There Can Only Be One" Monkey Knowledge, you can also sacrifice The Anti-Bloon and Legend of the Night, the other Tier 5 upgrades of the Super Money to the True Sun God, transforming the god into a darker, much more powerful version.

!!!'''Non-video game examples:'''

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': Superheavy Battlemechs (which weigh between 105-200 tons) were created with the ''intention'' of being this. However, it's acknowledged in-universe that their limitations cause them to fall far short of the trope in practise. While they are quite powerful and heavily armored, they're still [[MightyGlacier extremely slow]] and are still vulnerable to being overwhelmed by more agile targets. They're also absurdly expensive and have to be carried as cargo because there are no dropship bays large enough for one. Which is why almost no one has bothered with them; Stefan Amaris built one FlawedPrototype that broke under its own weight the first time it was turned on, the Word of Blake built one mech that was very durable but simply not that overwhelming in power, and the Republic of the Sphere was the only faction to ever put Superheavy Battlemechs into production with the 125 ton Poseodon and the 135 ton Ares, neither of which ever quite managed to really be worth it.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Necromunda}}'': In the 3rd edition, the game introduces ''Brutes''. While each house has their own unique Brute such as House Goliath and their 'Zerkers, all houses can take an Ambot or Ogryn. Brutes are the linebreakers of the game and in Necromunda where the majority of gang members are barely scraping by and would consider owning a lasgun as a minor miracle, the brutes are more powerful than a [[SuperSoldier standard Space Marine]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ogre}}'' by Creator/SteveJacksonGames pits ''[[AsymmetricMultiplayer one]]'' [[AsymmetricMultiplayer Ogre unit against a small army defending a command post.]]
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** Lords of War is a battlefield role reserved for super-heavy vehicles, walkers, aircraft and gargantuan creatures that are insanely durable and boast destructive weaponry far beyond normal units, but represent a significant points/power level cost to field. Coupled with their sheer size, you can be sure that your opponent will be prioritizing its destruction with everything they have (which tends to make them AwesomeButImpractical). In 4th and 5th editions, you can only field them in Apocalypse games; in 6th edition and beyond, they can be taken in normal games but need their own special detachment, with further restrictions to ensure that they don't unbalance the game. In a normal 2000pts game, a single Lord of War will probably constitute a quarter of your armies' points value.
** Invoked by the "Distraction Carnifex!" tactic in tabletop wargames (despite the name, the "carnifex"[[note]]A GiantEnemyCrab with guns on fielded by Warhammer 40k's Tyranids[[/note]] can be any unit, as long as it's tough and intimidating). The hope is that the appearance of a [[PaperTiger big, scary, but ultimately disposable]] unit will distract the enemy from what you're actually doing, such as trying to [[StrategicAssetCaptureMechanic take an Objective Marker.]] Ultimately, the enemy must choose between stopping your sneaky unit running for the objective, or the big, scary monster that's eating 1d6 of their guys per round. It meshes very well with the "Death Star" strategy, which is also based around the use of a big tanky unit, or group of Awesome, yet Practical units but one (et al) that can actually fight back effectively, rather than just hold an opponent's attention.
[[/folder]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Paraworld}}'' : Each of the playable factions have the following Titans (note that while you can build more than one, they start at Tier 4 and thre's an ArbitraryHeadcountLimit of 3 Tier 4 units and 1 Tier 5 - a tier that can only be reached by promotion):

*** Downplayed for the Soviets. They get the very expensive Desolator Trooper who are terminally ill patients who are then remade into cyborgs and placed in a special PowerArmor. These measures are to protect them from their own weapon which is a toxic sprayer that instantly kills infantry in normal mode or it can be adjusted to fire a long-ranged corrosive droplet that slows vehicles.

*** The Futuretank is a combat robot that lifted directly from ''Film/TheTerminator's'' [[https://terminator.fandom.com/wiki/HK-Tank Hunter-Killer Tanks]] that fires area-of-effect spheres of destruction. It can also use a Riot Beam, a pair of crossing lasers that will zorch anything in front of them.
*** The Harbinger is a self-repairing gunship (think AC-130 on steroids) that fires miniature nuclear explosions / a chaingun and circles around its target without needing to reload but has no AntiAir capability. They have a bad reputation in-universe, called "vultures" by other Allied pilots for their flight patterns and sociopathic enjoyment of their jobs.

* ''[[VideoGame/Earth2150 Earth 2150: Moon Project]]'' had several specific to each faction in the campaign: Eurasian Dynasty had the Escorts which were grounded [=UFOs=] that could [[HealingFactor self-repair]] and had devastating alien energy weapons, United Civilized States had the Grizzly III which were MiniMecha that had a pair of heavy weapon placements, heavily armored and had the game's highest health for a vehicle. Finally the Lunar Corporation have the Prototypes, these were fast moving, heavily armored vehicles with significant health, rapid HealingFactor and had a potent cannon which could ionize enemies. The drawback to these vehicles was that while they weren't unique, they were in limited quantities and even their own faction couldn't produce them due to BlackboxTechnology. Additionally these units were only in the [=ED=] campaign where you could capture them, in the other campaigns these vehicles were renamed and became {{Hero Unit}}s. Finally all these vehicles start off unshielded so you need to find a [[DeflectorShield Shield Projector]] or have a repairer add one.

* ''[[VideoGame/Earth2150 Earth 2160]]'', while the factions of the Eurasian Dynasty and the United Civilized States continue to use "conventional" WeaponsOfMassDestruction such as a teleported time bomb and a ballistic missile launcher, the Lunar Corporation decided to show their NASA nerdiness. Their weapon is the Ripper (or the Ultimate Ripper if you pay for the R & D), which is a [[PlasmaCannon heavily armed UFO]] flying from a tower which has an ''Ultimate Battle Module'' built on top.

* ''VideoGame/{{Paraworld}}'' : Each of the playable factions have the following: