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Marauder Battle Armor - Technical Readout 3145 Mercenaries page 7
Marauder is an evocative name within BattleTech, harkening back to the beginning of the game in the form of one of the most popular heavy ’Mech designs. The name also has a history among us battlesuit fans, being the ever so humble standard grunt suit in Starship Troopers. It was inevitable that fan designs named and modeled after the ’Mech would appear; I've posted one a couple of board iterations ago and the latest version is just a few months old.
At long last we finally have an official Marauder battle armor design, one that is somewhat unusual compared to the majority of fan designs that I recall. Typically seen as a custom assault suit, the canon version is instead a heavy, which automatically makes it a Good Thing in my eyes. I have a fondness for heavy suits, whether heavy trooper types or pocket assaults like the Marauder, with the latter type swapping armor for the possibility of Mechanized Battle Armor capability.
Appearing in Technical Reasdout 3145 Mercenaries, the Marauder is a product of the Periphery, being developed in the Marian Hegemony and then spreading to the Taurian Concordat. Visually, it's a suit that a few consider a little ugly, but most I know think it's a sleek and brutal-looking design. Personally, and I know I'm a little odd here, I think the torso looks somewhat like a T-Rex's head, with the arms, legs and torso-mounted gun then bolted onto the skull.
A slow moving suit, the Marauder does indeed exploit the possibility of Mechanized Battle Armor operations. Although lacking any manipulators, the installation of a Magnetic Clamps means that the Marauder can hitch a ride on any ’Mech or tank, not just Omni versions. Incapable of generating a Target Movement Modifier and lacking any form of stealth, you would think that the Marauder would be heavily armored, but in keeping with the original MAD-3R ’Mech, the battlesuit's protection is arguably a little sub-par. No better than an IS Standard of two-thirds the mass, the Marauder is going to suffer badly when it's in the enemy gunsights.
To compensate for these weaknesses, the Marauder is heavily loaded with weaponry. As would be expected, each arm mounts a Support PPC and AP Weapon Mount, mimicking the PPC and Medium Laser of the original ’Mech. The PPCs are decent weapons with reasonable range, plus in RPG and campaign play they can be recharged by a friendly ’Mech or fusion-powered vehicle. They aren't that hard-hitting, with less punch than a Medium Recoilless Rifle, while lacking the anti-personnel capability too; against that, the PPCs are slightly longer ranged. Although there are two AP mounts, it should be remembered that using the default Total War rules only one of the two can be used per turn, and in addition they're always counted as being loaded with an Autorifle. Optionally, different infantry weapons can be used, providing potentially better stats, although the mounts are restricted to Standard type weapons, with no Support weapons allowed.
Backing up the PPCs is a Light Recoilless Rifle perched on the right shoulder, representing the AC/5 of the MAD-3R. This gives the Marauder a solid anti-personnel weapon, at least capable of outranging some infantry platoons and inflicting a reasonably amount of damage against PBIs. On average, a squad will kill a typical infantry platoon in three salvos, even the larger five-man battle armor squads deployed by the Marians. Against ’Mechs, the average amount of damage only reaches the all-important twenty points required to inflict a piloting check can only be achieved by concentrating all three main weapons and the AP mount on the target.
Backing up the guns is a potentially far more dangerous piece of equipment. The Light TAG allows the Marauder to designate foes for all sorts of unpleasantness, and perhaps more importantly does so at a greater range than the suit's own weapons can reach. Overall, the firepower does feel a little light for the mass invested, but it should be remembered that the main guns all reach six or seven hexes, which is a respectable reach by battle armor standards.
For those that like to use optional rules, in particular those concerning quirks, the accuracy of the Light Recoilless Rifle is particularly nice if you're facing stealthy PBIs or jump infantry platoons. Being easy to maintain obviously only comes into play for those of us who enjoy campaigns which deal with such post-combat affairs, but for those who just want the "pew pew pew", that trait is sadly of little use.
When deploying the Marauder, you should fully exploit the Magnetic Clamps to enable you to rapidly redploy squads where you need them. When you get to the fight, get straight into good cover and stay there. You're not going to be able to generate a Target Movement Modifier, so with no stealth either, you've just got terrain to keep you alive. Heavier buildings that soak up a lot of damage are ideal, thus enabling you to stretch out the less than desirable armor; unless some evil foe decides that you really need a few high explosive area effect rounds coming your way. Heavy woods are also good, of course, but against an ultra-accurate opponent you're really going to only be delaying the inevitable.
Having spread throughout the Periphery and Inner Sphere thanks to mercenaries, you can expect to see the Marauder operating alongside a multitude of other battle armor types. Looking specifically at the Marians and Taurians, then the obvious potential partner that should spring to mind is the Ravager. Both are large, relatively slow suits, although the Ravager is faster and is much more heavily armored. Both can shoot the same distance with their main armament, with the lighter Marauder having more firepower. Ideally, you'd normally want a lighter unit to act as the hammer to the heavier unit's anvil, but in this case the anvil is quicker than the hammer, making that a little awkward. The use of Mechanized Battle Armor operations can assist with this in some circumstances, but you might instead be better off simply mixing your Marauders in among your Ravagers to help increase the overall firepower, and rely on other designs as the mobile strikers. The ubiquitous IS Standard would be available for that role, as would the Asterion and its variants, while the new Spectre being produced by the Protectorate and spreading through the Periphery makes an ideal scout.
Enemy vehicles have a lot to fear from the Marauder if they get in range. An average of nine two-point hits, plus the AP attack, represents a lot of potential crit chances. As noted above, enemy ’Mechs might have to worry about a piloting check if all attacks hit, but the total damage isn't going to be of concern for many ’Mechs. Some conventional infantry have to be cautious around the Maruader, particularly those with shorter ranged weapons or when out in the open, but some PBIs will just consider the suit a juicy target. It's entirely possible to build platoons with solid firepower and greater range that also equal or exceed the speed of the Marauder, and those circumstances are to be feared by any combatant. Against other battle armor, the Marauder can be really brutal. Outranging many designs, the suit can really hand out a smack down, but against others, such as the now venerable Infiltrator Mk II, it can only hope that nearby friendlies can save it. Most importantly, keep in mind that the Marauder isn't an alpha baby, its lack of missiles means that it's built for DPM instead.
As a flavor piece, the Marauder was a long time coming and I'm finally glad it's here, even if it does mean the retirement of the name from mine and others' custom designs. I'm equally happy to see the Hegemony continue developing and manufacturing homegrown battle armor, rather than merely tweaking a design originating in the Inner Sphere. On the battlefield, the suit has a useful role to play alongside its bigger and older brother, the Ravager. Just be careful not to expose it too much and over time the Marauder can punish the foe with its death by a thousand cuts.