In the real WW1, traversing the no man's land between trenches was near suicide. strategists tried desperately to increase survivability of their troops and eventually came up with a (rather inefficient) solution: Mobile cover.
motorized cover that doubled as a weapon. The inventors of this mobile cover dubbed them "Tanks". they'd be used throughout the war to escort soldiers across the no mans land to the enemy trenches.
personally, i was slightly disappointed to learn that tanks don't offer any kind of defensive bonus to soldiers in an army that has a tank. think about it: in ww1, soldiers would march behind the tanks as they moved up, advancing on their enemies. it wasn't a perfect solution, but it worked. i feel that feature of tanks in game should be utilized.
every tank in a squad would provide a very small defensive bonus to troops in the squad. it wouldn't even need to be that high, just a small advantage that shows "your tanks are protecting your troops the way they were historically designed to do."
