Vehicle of the Week: M1* Marksman Assault TankAlthough the Winston Combat Vehicle was successful, Pandora 'Mech Works was informed that due to its limitations against designs like the Challenger or Alacorn, which go the same speed but pack in much heavier firepower, that it was not going to be the Republic Armed Forces' “light” MBT of choice. That distinction went to the Kinnol and, given the difference in speed, there's an argument to be made in favor of the decision. Pandora's response, instead of sulking, was to go back to the drawing board and try to win the next time out, getting the M-series tanks ready before the bid was even announced. Tested in the Australian Outback, a pair of M1A Marksmen (I refuse to use the bastard English 'Marksmans' unless forced to by an editor - even my pedantic adherence to the BattleTech style guide has its limits!) supported by two Giggins APCs carry jump infantry defeated a lance of medium 'Mechs and a reinforced lance of cavalry vehicles thanks at least partially to some lucky shots. I'm not sure how far I'm willing to rely on performance like that normally but it's certainly possible if the lance commander is creative about his deployments. Work is still going on to perfect the suspension but deployment should start in 3088. Each Republic world (I suspect the mention of 'Protectorate' is incorrect and have submitted errata to that effect) should have a lance by 3095 if the production schedule is kept. As a historical note, the position of the Department of Military Intelligence (and, most likely, Catalyst Game Labs) is that the name Marksman is not actually a reference to the older Marksman artillery piece used by the SLDF, but to the M-7 Gauss rifle, whatever at least one of the WizKids dossiers might say.
There are, by and large, two kinds of assault vehicles: the specialists who are armed to do one thing very, very well and everything else poorly and the generalists who have a way to address just about anything that tries to bother them excepting - possibly - infantry. The Marksman is one of the latter, armed with a mixture of weapons that makes it a threat to any unit on the battlefield but lacking the concentrated capability that makes a Demolisher or Alacorn such a problem to deal with in its own element. At 95 tons, the Marksman is the same size as the Challenger, and like that design, it has a tracked chassis. The 285-rated Edaish Motors light fusion engine is a little more compact than the Challenger Mk. XV's fuel cell but lacks its explosive tendencies and (probably) the poor acceleration quirk but shares that tank's flank speed of 52 kph. AmberStar Weave heavy ferro-fibrous sheathes the tank in a 15.5 ton carapace, enough to max out an
Atlas arranged 73/62/50/60. It's not Gurtie-level thickness but it's quite sufficient unto the needs of the day. Also like certain models of the Challenger, the main gun is a Gauss rifle, providing its usual superlative performance, and each side of the turret has a 9-tube multiple missile launcher. The Gauss rifle has two tons of ammunition while the launchers share a four ton magazine, a reasonable load that lets you specialize in one range, a ton of the other for support, and still carry special munitions if you want to. Supporting this weapons mix is a quartet of medium lasers - half an Ontos's primary battery - and four machine guns sharing a full ton of ammo. That's excessive in my opinion but considering the rest of the tank, the only other thing I can come up with to do with a half ton is either pile yet more armor on there or stick a rocket launcher somewhere. I didn't mention CASE because it has it already. CASE II isn't available to vehicles, so that's out. All the weapons are in the turret, which has its upsides - you can bring everything that's in range to bear on a target - but you do run the risk of the turret getting locked and someone simply staying out of your fire arc. In this game, you pay your money and you take your chances, so I'm going to let you guys decide how big a problem that is for yourselves.
The original M1 Marksman is a less impressive beast, although the standard fusion engine will bring the price tag down a bit. Going along with that reduction is the 11.5 ton of standard ferro-fibrous armor arranged 62/41/28/34, turning the turret and the rear into serious weak points. Although the Gauss rifle and machine guns are still in place, nothing else is, and I'm not really impressed by the justification for why in TRO3085 Supplemental. Half the MG ammo is gone but so's the CASE that kept the most dangerous explosive known to man under some sort of control. The missile load is now two MRM 10s, 2 SRM 6s, and two Streak SRM 4s, with one ton of ammo for each pair of launchers. (Yes, that's a grand total of 15 shots for the SRMs.) Personally, I would have gone for a long-range energy weapon and a load of standard SRMs generously supplied with ammo to support this mess, but it is what it is. Overall, I can see why the Republic isn't really bothered by the idea of selling this on the open market. It's also the version that is original to the MechWarrior: Dark Age game, meaning that the Republic's first assault-weight main battle tank is a rather nastier beast than some might have expected.
Operating a Marksman is simple. Get into a commanding position for the terrain early, then pound anything that gets into range into rubble. Although it's not absolutely guaranteed to happen, tanks this slow drop in maneuverability fast when they take mobility hits, so you want to be in your happy place early. If you aren't reduced in speed, use your speed the same way an
Atlas would - providing at least a minimal targeting modifier and clearing obstacles to bring your weapons to bare. The next part is to accessorize. I'm going to take a look at the Republic here. One obvious candidate is the Winston, a fairly cheap way to add a solid amount of supporting fire, and the armor is solid enough to go into the same firefights the Marksman is going to get sent into. For maneuver elements, look at Regulators (either the original or the Regulator II) to give you a fast-moving reconnaissance and strike asset or tanks like the Kinnol and the Joust for a tracked cavalry option, playing hammer to the Marksman and Winston anvil.
Stopping a Marksman falls back on the usual answer - immobilize, disable, and then smash it before it recovers - but the mix of weapons means that absent either tremendous range or a lucky strike to the turret mechanism, you're unlikely to be able to evade fire from a mix of weapons that is capable of dealing with a lot of different threats. Airborne units can take some solace in the lack of flak weapons, a fact that makes airstrikes a more viable response than you'd assume, but that doesn't mean you can get cocky. LRMs and Gauss rifles have plenty of range to work with, one of the more important parts of anti-air tactics. The M1 is a lesser problem, although the Gauss rifle demands a certain amount of respect and the forward armor is tough enough to deal with the attention that respect means it's going to get paid. Slip around it with some that moves fast and hammer the rear armor, preferably with a cluster generator of some kind that might pop the ammo bin and solve your problem the explosive way.
References: The
Master Unit List isn't being quite as helpful as usual - Dark Age availability is still not released yet, so as a unit first built in the Dark Age (or, rather, the Republic sub-era), we're not getting any information - but the BattleForce statistics are there if anyone's looking for them. The
Wiki has a copy of the dossier and the artwork. Although a miniature is apparently available from
Ironwind Metals, no picture is available there or from CamoSpecs.
