Arch enemies of the Green Nation and enemies of everyone else
Offsprings of the Yellow Nation, after being created by them and treated as second-rate troops, they became the fiercest warriors of the Great Gray War. The “Tanic” (for Titanic) became a majority that took power and completely exterminated the Yellow Nation by allying itself with the Grays, under the command of the treacherous Plastro, who of course then betrayed the Grays, which is why they later lost the war.
As Green Nation put it in their recruitment campaigns:
“Want to defeat the Tan? First you must know the Tan. The Tan are a wily, nefarious foe, not to be trusted. Each time you blast a Tan, you are blasting pure evil. The Tan are always trying new tricks to defeat the Green Nation. New soldiers and vehicles types are put into combat regularly. Your vigilance and steady nerves will determine the fate of Greentown”
This perception changed over time and the Tan Nation proved to be mostly normal plastic soldiers and not the extremists they were always thought to be. They went from being embellished with conquering and triumphalist nationalism, to Plastro giving up in 2004 and saying that he no longer wanted to destroy the Greens and conquer the world. This caused a significant percentage of the Tan Army to defect and form Malice’s Roughnecks, a faction of followers of Lord Malice, who did not agree with the Tan’s surrender.
High manufacturing rate, low quality soldiers
The Tan tactic of manufacturing large numbers of troops quickly brought the Plastic World under Tan rule during several years, even closer to the end of the war, upon discovering the Real World.
Despite having a higher manufacturing rate compared to other armies, the quality of Tan troops was always inferior, depending on the time and the different contexts where they needed more troops quickly, especially in the era of Heroes. During the era of Heroes, the more specialized Green soldiers were superior to most Tan troops, even their special soldiers. Which is why the few Green Commandos and Super Soldiers who were molded in 1999 tipped the balance of the conflict in favor of their nation, giving them enough time to recover and manufacture superiority, winning the Tannic-Greeno war.
But this particular Tan tactic was very lucrative for many years, leaving analysts in an endless debate. The only thing that stopped the Tans was resilience and Green engineering, which was technically a stroke of luck, a miracle after years of barely resisting. But the Tan Soldiers’ lack of training, lack of aim and the low resistance of their plastic was no match for soldiers like Sarge Hawk and his commandos.
Plastro’s Army from the beginning
Plastro in his beginnings was a young Yellow military leader molded directly to be one, coming out of special molds for it. But he was thrown into the toughest battles of the latter part of the Great Gray War, which caused him to become discolored from staying on the front lines for so long.
The yellow color of his body became pale, whitish… like a half-baked plastic soldier, similar to all those soldiers molded from recycled plastic, commonly assigned to lower ranks and thrown to the front like cannon fodder. Among the officers, everyone laughed at him, calling him “a sad and different color”, which generated an idea in his head: Make all that Yellow workforce, exploited by their nation, independent, under a single flag: The Tan color.
The color of these second-class soldiers was due to the recycling process, which with each recycling the yellow saturation was lost.
There came a time when the war spread so much that it became somewhat strenuous for the Yellows, and without realizing it there came a time when these “second-rate yellow soldiers” were more than the pure saturation Yellows, and the bad treatment never change.
Plastro moved his cards and conspired against the Yellow Army, wanting to take control of it to overthrow the Yellow government, organizing a coup d’état… which ultimately was unsuccessful.
Plastro’s rise to power
Plastro was imprisoned since the crowds that followed him at that time, who were already derogatorily called “Tannic” instead of Yellow, would have caused more problems to the already war-hit Yellow Nation. But unfortunately for the Yellows, Plastro did nothing more than be the flame that started a fire in an ammunition depot soaked in fuel.
Little time passed, and as Plastro wrote in his memoirs: “A few months later, isolated from all information outside my cell, I began to hear all kinds of sounds of confrontations inside the base, and then some Tannic soldiers arrived to take me out of there, calling me ‘Leader.’”
By the time Plastro was freed, he left the prison facility being greeted by a thousand Tannic soldiers raising their weapons and celebrating, with fire, debris and dead Yellow soldiers everywhere, shouting “Plastro, Plastro, Plastro”.
The Genocide
Having taken advantage of his time in prison to plan his new intention to take power, adapting to the new circumstances, Plastro made the yellow government and the armed forces believe that despite considering him dangerous, he actually had the power to appease the insurgency to end the civil war.
Given the situation of the war against the Grays, the Yellow government had no choice but to accept it and thanks to this Plastro gained the trust of the Yellow Army, and over time he climbed through the high ranks, achieving an important position despite his “Tannic” condition. This even began to change society’s opinion about these second-class citizens, becoming more respected. At the same time, the Tannic of the Yellow Army became one of the most experienced and hardened divisions in the army, being sent to the toughest battles not out of contempt, but because they were the most capable.
Being led and strategically commanded by Plastro, these forces became unstoppable, and after patiently waiting a few years, Plastro achieved the perfect context for his final blow on the Yellow.
On a date around 1954, the “Tannic”, now respectfully called “Tan”, deceived the Yellow higher-ups into believing that they would win the war against the Grays by cornering them in the Thermopiles, making them fall into deception due to the fact that having managed to make the Grays move there. But it was all a trap…
In reality, the Tans had been secretly allied with the Grays for some time. In exchange for destroying the Yellows, the Grays promised power and glory to the Tan. Plastro accepted… and between them they made the Yellows fall.
But Plastro did not trust the Grays, and distracted, worn out and trusting, the Grays near the end of the war were betrayed by Plastro, who kept almost all of his production power, leading to the end of the War. The Reds and the Greens, along with the Blue remnants decided to leave things as they were. The chances of losing a new war were high.
The surviving Gray remnants retreated and managed to survive. Although neither they nor the Blues were ever able to fully recover. The offpring of the Red, the Oranges, took the opportunity to become independent without much resistance from the Reds, who were quite plasticophobic themselves, they allowed it. Lo Tan remained the greatest power almost forever, until they were worn down by Plastro’s conquering greed. The Greens, although very inferior, remained the second most powerful nation. The Reds closed themselves in and nothing more was ever heard of them, except that they still exist.
Tan Air Force (TAF)
These are your toughest Tan enemies. They know your reputation, and any one of them would like to lay claim to being the pilot who brought you down. See that they don’t.
Just like your own ‘copters, they come in several models. Don’t underestimate their strength.
As always on the ground, the Tans have also displayed some of the most picturesque weapons in the air.