M12G1 Gauss Warthog

M12G1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle The M12G1 Light Anti-Armor Vehicle (M12G1 LAAV), commonly known as the Gauss Warthog is a specially designed variant of the UNSC Warthog. It features a mounted M68 Gauss Cannon that is designed to attack light enemy armor.

Overview
The Gauss Warthog is mainly used as a light anti-armor vehicle, designed to quickly and efficiently defeat lightly armored vehicles such as the Brute Chopper and Ghost. It is almost exactly the same in every detail to the standard M12 Warthog LRV, except that the anti-infantry chaingun turret has been replaced with a M68 Gauss Cannon which fires 25mm hypersonic speed projectiles by asynchronous magnetic acceleration in the base of the cannon. It takes about a half a second to recharge between cannon shots. Although it appears more rarely than the standard Warthog, its capabilities make it a fearsome, agile and powerful vehicle to use.

Campaign
The Gauss Warthog can be used in Halo: 2, Halo: 3, Halo: 3 ODST, Halo: Reach and Halo Wars. It is a devastating vehicle when driven or used by skilled players. In Halo 2 and 3, its cannon can destroy almost any enemy within a small amount of time, excluding well armored vehicles like the Scorpion and Wraith to which the Gauss Warthog is much less effective. It can be used to destroy incoming Banshees as well as ground vehicles. Its armor is NOT stronger than the standard Warthog's so it must be driven well in order for it to withstand heavy attacks. In Halo Wars, it is not a separate vehicle from the Warthog but rather the highest upgrade for the Warthog. A full population of Gauss Warthogs can plow through enemy defenses with massive ease on most difficulties but they can be rather weak on Legendary as they wont endure much firepower before falling. A selection of Gauss Warthogs amongst a player's army can provide excellent support in many situations. The upgrade is well worth the resources.

Multiplayer Strategy

 * The Gauss Warthog is effective against light to moderately armored vehicles and even infantry, but tends to be ineffective against tanks as it takes multiple direct hits to kill the driver and even more hits to destroy the tank itself. In general, it is advisable to circle the tank to be destroyed, so as to both avoid fire from the tank and hit it more accurately in the cockpit and driver's seat. Beware of the tank's anti-infantry gunner, who will likely be more able to target the fast-moving Gauss Warthog than the driver.
 * Be especially careful of Ghosts, as they can strafe quickly enough to avoid the Gauss cannon and do fatal damage in just seconds.


 * Despite it being a light anti-armor vehicle meant for taking out Ghosts, Brute Choppers, even Banshees, it is very effective against infantry due to its sheer power and rate of fire.
 * Even though it doesn't have a zoom feature, the reticule is accurate enough that you can pick off infantry with it at medium to long range, with satisfying effect.

Halo Wars
The Gauss Warthog appears in Halo Wars as the final upgrade to the Warthog unit, replacing its previous chaingun turret at a cost of 800 resources and a minimum tech level of three. The result is a dramatic increase in combat effectiveness against vehicles and also to a lesser extent, infantry.

Trivia

 * The beam from the Gauss Warthog in Halo 2 is green. In Halo 3, the beam is blue.
 * During the Halo 2 demo trailer, the Gauss was shooting at a fairly decent speed. In an early beta multiplayer phase, however, the Gauss seemed to be slowed down and also seemed to have lost all of its hype. It was later revamped to its original rate of fire during the game's final stages.
 * In the E3 2000 Halo: Combat Evolved trailer, a Warthog had a turret similar to the Halo 2 Gauss turret, due to the fact it was originally part of Halo: Combat Evolved. However, it was cut and dropped, but then reappeared in Halo 2.
 * Ferrex said in a thread, "While the Warthog Gauss rifle is modeled as a magnetic acceleration cannon, the sound and effects are actually those of a railgun, which operates on a different principle. However, the sound and effects were so cool that we couldn't not use them."
 * In Halo Wars Campaign, Sergeant Forge's warthog will always be a Gauss Warthog, regardless of whether the player has upgraded to Gauss Cannon yet.