Tank Commander

Tank Commander
Health	1000
Attack Damage	50 (rocket), 30 (blaster) 20 (bullet)
Found in	Quake 2 The Reckoning Ground Zero
[Source]

“	These Tanks are a special class, designed to secure the Inner City from infiltrators.	”
—Quake 2 Manual

In Quake 2, the Tank Commander has the most health of any regular enemy in the game (except for the upgraded version of the Gladiator, found in The Reckoning). Like the regular Tank, the Tank Commander has a Rocket Launcher, Machine Gun and a powerful Blaster.

Details

The Tank Commander is a heavily armed and armored behemoth of almost identical design to the Tank (Q2), with black and red armor and a golden Commander's insignia on its chest plate denoting its rank. Like the Tank, its movement speed is drastically cut by the weight of its armor and armaments. They only appear on active duty in the Palace area towards the end of the game.

Its black armor gives it a massive 1,000 hit points, which is only overshadowed by the bosses. Due to the Commander's high health, it is best to save up the ammo for the game's most powerful weapons. In the Palace, there are plenty of Icarus who drop Cell pick ups so your will always have the BFG ready to use when you confront a Tank Commander. See below for more details.

Tank Commanders only appear in Unit 9 of the game (The City/Palace). Here they are a common enemy in the Outer Courts and Lower Palace and Rare in the Upper Palace.

Weapons

Machinegun

The Tank's right arm is a Machinegun, which is even less of a threat than the Enforcer or Gunners. It shoots in a wide arc in the players direction, with barely 1 or 2 bullets actually hitting. If the player has high health, then it is rather safe continue his/her attack on the Tank until it changes to one of its other, more deadly attacks. You can also crouch to avoid this attack completely.

Light Blaster

The Tank's left arm is a Light Blaster that fires three blasts in a row, dealing high damage. While it is possible and easy to dodge this attack, the damage it deals is not worth the risk so it is much safer to take cover, wait for the attack to finish and then continue with your own attack.

Rocket Launcher

The Tank's most powerful attack is a shoulder mounted Rocket Launcher. The Tank's Rocket Launcher is among the deadliest attacks in the game and makes fighting the Tank in open ground something to avoid at all costs. The Tank can launch a seemingly unlimited stream of rockets which it can aim where the player is about to move to whilst dodging the one before it. For this reason, it is important to face the Tank where there is cover available. If the player takes cover when the Tank launches this attack, it will only fire three rockets before moving to the next attack.

Strategies

• Alone, treat the Tank Commander like you would a regular Tank; circle strafe it and use powerful weapons. A BFG10k blast will take off quite a bit of its health in one shot, so you should use it as soon as you see a Commander. After the BFG blast, a few Railgun shots will finish it off.
• With other enemies, it should be the first enemy you kill. Like the Tank, it can do major damage to you if you ignore it, it can kill you real quick on higher difficulties. A BFG blast will do major damage to it and inflict some damage to nearby enemies, so you really should use it.
• Keep a distance from it, you will have a better chance to avoid its rockets, which will do a large amount of damage to you, especially if you are playing on higher difficulties.

Trivia

• A heavily wounded Commander on an operating table appears in the Hangar hub, which tries to sit up and face you when you steal his detached head, but you can't fight them until you get to the Palace hub.

Quake II Manual photo