Vehicle of the Week
GALLANT URBAN ASSAULT TANK
Close, but not quite.
That's the one.
Deputing in 2550 as the Free Worlds League sought to modernize their armored forces to keep up with the growing BattleMech corps, the Gallant Urban Assault Tank is an odd contradiction on the surface, being designed for a mode of warfare declared illegal only 88 years prior with the widespread adoption of the Ares Conventions, which among other things banned combat within cities. However, historians, generals(armchair and real), and Lords alike will quickly remind you the rules get broken all the time either by accident or by design, and that it makes sense to be prepared for such eventualities(and also to be prepared to break them yourself when you think you can get away with it). They'll also point out quite rightly that vehicles suited for urban combat are also by extension suited for combat in and around sprawling military bases and industrial complexes, both of which are valid areas of battle even when both sides strictly adhere to the conventions. While solely manufactured within Marik space, the founding of the Star League, creation of the SLDF, and general arms buildup heading into the Reunification War saw the tank spread to every major power in the Inner Sphere, and the prosecution of said war saw it proliferate even further to all involved combatants. The end of the war and the years of the Star League itself essentially saw the Gallant achieve universal distribution, as far as human militaries were concerned. Unfortunately the Gallant would not survive the early Succession Wars despite this widespread deployment, with the Factory on Helm going the way of, well, everything on Helm, and the one on Loyalty likely either shutting down or retooling when they could no longer manufacture the few advanced components found in this vehicle. Shame really, the Free Worlds League could have really used these during the dark days when their only large vehicle production consisted of Ontoses.
So, what was the tank everyone was grabbing? A 70-ton chassis places the Gallant solidly in the heavy tank category while wheeled locomotion and a somewhat undersized ICE engine keep costs down, a major consideration for militaries who probably don't have vast reserves of spare cash after splurging on their newfangled BattleMechs. The resulting 3/5 movement curve is unimpressive, though we should remember the road bonuses ground vehicles receive that brings the Gallant back up to a more conventional 4/6 speed in its chosen environment. The motive systems may not be impressive, but the armor protecting the Gallant certainly is, with an astounding 17.5 tons of armor(more even than the legendary Highlander or Battlemaster mechs) laid out 60/55/60/50. Bringing a Gallant to a halt may be fairly easy, but actually killing one is another matter entirely unless you came equipped with Infernos or other methods of scoring easy critical hits. and even if you can break through and light up the magazines, CASE(a product of a refit just prior to the Reunification War) means the crew will likely survive to drive a new Gallant against you the next day.
All that mass devoted to armor does limit the Gallant's offensive warload, though the mass it does have is spent fairly intelligently. The main firepower is a turreted AC/10 with a 20-shot bin, providing a solid slug of damage at medium and close ranges. Riding in the turret alongside the cannon is a single SRM-2 and four Machine Guns, with 50 rounds of ammo for each weapon. These can exploit holes opened up by the autocannon, though you might consider loading the SRM rack with smoke rounds when fighting in more open terrain, and in cities Inferno or tear gas missiles can flush infantry out of buildings the machine guns would barely scratch. Targets beyond the reach of these weapons can be engaged by a 12-shot LRM-10 launcher in the forward hull, also providing the Gallant with invaluable indirect fire capability.
How do you use the Gallant? It's a rolling brick, roll it at the enemy until it can't roll no more, then make use of your newly built pillbox. The wheeled chassis and heavy armor add up to something that is far more likely to end up immobilized than actually dead, so get as much out of the movement as possible while you still can. In cities, this means dashing from street intersection to intersection, with the idea being that when you do lose a wheel you can fire down multiple streets and provide a strong point for your other forces(particularly your infantry) to rally around. It won't always be possible but try to keep the front of your Gallants pointed towards the thick of the fighting(or where you think the thick will be in the future) so that even if a pillboxed tank can't engage anything directly, it can still support your other troops with indirect LRM fire.
How do you kill a Gallant? If the rest of this article hasn't made things abundantly clear yet, the wheels are the main weak point. Park the thing, then walk away to a place where it can't hurt you anymore. If you absolutely must kill one of these, the armor is weakest on the sides(but still plenty thick), and there's always the option of dropping off some infantry right on top of it to either shoot it from inside the reach of the Gallant's own guns or swarming it. Swarm attacks with conventional troops are always tricky, but vehicles are much easier to swarm than 'mechs, parked ones triply so.
