Vehicle of the Week: Glaive Medium TankThe Glaive Medium Tank is a product of Robert Kelswa-Steiner's attempt to rebuild Skye's defenses after the FedCom Civil War, preferably using locally-built hardware. The overall electronics are derived from the Drillson, for instance. Designed and produced in eleven months and using largely Skye-built parts, the first two production runs of Glaives to come out of the Cyclops, Inc., plant on Skye were bought for the Skye Rangers. As of 3067, Kelswa-Steiner was planning to do the same for the 3068 and 3069 runs, but he was beginning to see calls from the LAAF to open it up for wider deployment. Exactly how that's going to work out given the Jihad and the fact that he's responsible for starting a war with the Free Worlds League is currently unknown. It seems likely that at least some Glaives will wind up as part of the Republic Armed Forces and, notably, it appears on the Republic's RAT in Field Manual 2085 as well as the LCAF's.
The Glaive is a wheeled chassis, something that's not going to amuse some of my regular readers, and at 45 tons it's in the middle of the medium size bracket. A 205-rated Shipil standard fusion engine, derived from fighter power plants, drives the vehicle up to 86 kph in clear terrain. The ArcShield Heavy armor... isn't. At only 5.5 tons, you simply don't have all that much armor, and the way it's arranged emphasizes that the nose is what's supposed to be facing the enemy: 27/17/12/15. The armament is unquestionably designed to act as a skirmisher and sniper, reminding me heavily of the GRM-01B
Garm's package with a Cyclops XII Extended-Range Large Laser and two Kicker Machine Guns in the turret, plus a Coventry Superfire LRM 15 mated to an Artemis IV fire control system. Overall, the mixture reminds me a bit of one of the Hunter variants, but it's faster.
The vehicle's name (which I strongly suspect is referring to a type of polearm in this case, not a fancy French word for swords) is a subtle suggestion on how you should be using it: at arm's length. Use the speed to keep away from larger foes, peppering them with fire from medium to long range while something more important holds their attention. In urban areas (not really your forte but inevitable on the defense), use the LRMs to harass someone, while the ERLLs and MGs provide direct fire options. Whatever you do, keep your nose pointed in the enemy's direction as much as possible and
definitely don't show them your tail until you're prepared to book it at long range.
Countering Glaives isn't difficult. Their firepower isn't great, although it's respectable enough, and the armor is significantly less so. Get in close, under the LRM range, and pound it down. Try to get around onto the side or (especially) rear armor, too - this increases your chances of motive hits (which are a bigger risk with wheeled vehicles) and gives you thinner armor to shoot at. Given the weapons mix, a lot of the medium trooper suits can tangle with a Glaive and come off quite well if they can get in close without getting too torn up by LRM and laser fire. (Longinus operators, take note - your SRMs are going to make Glaive drivers hate your guts.)
References: The
Master Unit List has everything there is to see here, which isn't much - no variants, not a lot of use. CamoSpecs has a single Glaive in the colors of the
2nd Donegal Guards.
