Vehicle of the Week Update: Ajax Assault TankWhile it is often that the Lyran Commonwealth/Alliance Armed Forces and Clan Coyote are named the assault 'Mech kings, the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns maintains an active interest in assault tank designs, something that's likely to continue with the adoption of assault tank battalions in the new Light Combat Team framework, and in the 3060s, the AFFS was actively looking for new vehicle designs. General Motors, designers of the successful Challenger series of assault tanks, decided to try and capitalize on this with a follow-on design and opted to make an OmniVehicle after noting the success of the Manteuffel, in contrast to the way the Quartermaster Corps was, at the time, not terribly interested in OmniMechs. The first units off the line went into battle on New Syrtis in the ongoing Federated Commonwealth Civil War, and in the wake of that conflict, they were scattered to many of the participating units owing to high survivability.
The baseline chassis won't be setting any speed records but the armor and podspace are both attractive. One of GM's own 270-rated extralight fusion plants pushes the 90 ton Ajax at speeds up to 54 kph in open terrain and offers 10 free heat sinks for use by the tank's configurations, similar to the Challenger in many respects. 304 points of standard armor, the same amount found on most
Atlas variants, is layered on in a 76/60/40/68 spread that makes killing one of these tanks a frightfully difficult task, although they're no less vulnerable to movement criticals and are consequently likely to get turned into immobile bunkers sooner or later. A 3.5 ton turret allows up to 35 tons of the vehicle's impressive 42 tons of pod space to be turret mounted, allowing such things as dual class 20 autocannons to be managed with ease and still have room for some supporting weapons. Given the tendency of tanks to carry ammo-based weapons, CASE was fixed on the base chassis. General Motors was obviously looking to pull out the stops for a top-tier assault tank much like their previous work with the Challenger series.
The primary configuration is similar to the Challenger X overall but the devil is in the details. All the weapons are piled into the turret with a Gauss rifle and an Ultra/10 autocannon (fed by two and three tons of ammo, respectively) offering considerable ranged fire while two medium pulse lasers and a 4-tube Streak SRM rack supplement them at close range. A C3 slave was added to share targeting data. With a punishing ability to throw large clusters downrange, the Ajax Prime is powerful, but as with any rapid-fire autocannon, a certain amount of discretion is recommended in the use of Ultra mode.
The A configuration moves from a generalist to a mid-range beat stick with no less than three class 5 rotary autocannons fed by nine tons of ammo. An ECM module and C3 slave were added into the body and an extended-range small laser was attached to the turret, possibly as a mostly notional comfort if your ammo runs out. Again, don't just spray fire around randomly, but on good numbers, an Ajax A can sling an absolutely withering number of 5 point clusters at someone.
The Ajax B complements the other two configurations. With a PPC and a trio of Artemis-enhanced 15-tube LRM racks, fire support is about the only thing you can do with it. Six tons of ammo let the B configuration sustain fire for up to 16 turns. The real reason it complements the other two is the C3 master computer, though, allowing a complete lance network to be assembled out of Ajaxes. Whether that's desirable given their speed is another question but as a component of a C3 company, I can definitely see some uses.
A new variant surfaced during the Jihad and I use the word "variant" advisedly - this isn't an Omni configuration but rather a change to the basic model. Environmentally sealed, this variant of the Ajax mounts a C3 slave and ECM for electronics while the turret carries an extended-range large laser, two medium pulse lasers, an MML 9 fed by two tons of ammo, and a 6-tube short-range torpedo launcher. Clearly intended for assaults from below the waves, the Ajax (Sealed) is kind of an odd duck. It gives up the Omni capability for a mixture of weapons to allow it to strike from out of the water and still fight somewhat effectively in either environment. The number of these new Ajaxes is probably limited given the sacrifices involved and the limited niche they occupy but if you're looking for something to fill that role other than a BattleMech, this isn't a bad solution.
Generally, Ajaxes need to find good firing positions for their specific weapons load and get into them. Given the way tanks tend to accumulate movement hits and the Ajax's poor ability to absorb them, you don't have the kind of flexibility a 'Mech this speed would to keep moving and that has to be taken into account. Keep an A configuration out of positions where it's going to get immobilized from far away - if you're expecting a long-range fight, bring a prime or B. The new one is odd enough that it loses something in general effectiveness to its Omni predecessor but it's certainly going to have surprise on its side.
Countering an Ajax is more easily ordered than accomplished. Bring crit-seekers to cripple the tank (the choice depends on what variant you're throwing down with) and either ignore it until other objectives have been accomplished or circle around to the rear to hit the softest armor possible. That gets easier if you keep peppering it until the turret gets locked along with the treads, of course.
Image Reference: The Omni configurations have yet to enter the MUL at this point, lacking proper TW sheets (now watch Herb public RS3067 Unabridged tomorrow and make me eat my words), but the sealed variant is
in there now for your perusal. In addition, CamoSpecs has a few
colorful miniatures for your viewing pleasure.
