If I had to pick only one vehicle to represent the Crossroadian arms industry, it would be the Groundhog.
Courtesy of Taneli Industries, the Groundhog's main claim to fame is being the most obnoxious thorn our counter-insurgencies have to deal with. The thing looks like an engineer saw a Scorpion tank and thought "I could do better". And, well, they did.
Unfortunately for TI, even the Crossroad Republic has a finite appetite for tankettes. So, instead of shutting down their production line, they decided the best thing to do for their shareholders would be to ramp it up sell them to everyone else. In only a few years, the pests have gotten into every single faction on single planet in the Inner Sphere. Garrisons, Periphery states, Independent Worlds, Pirates; if you don't have at least one Groundhog in your shifty organizations, you're a nobody.
Now, the combination of a medium laser variant and a secondary weapon may not sound like much. Indeed, even for high-tech Roadie weapons, it isn't. But it's more than enough to fry PBI peacekeepers, vaporize IS Standard Battle Suits, or core some of the lighter AFVs, so every time the little buggers show up we've got to throw actual tanks and Battlemechs at 'em to keep control of the situation. It's a waste of material and a big headache all around.
Our neighbours, the Suns, have even resorted to buying Groundhog tankettes to deal with the pirate Groundhog tankettes!
And by the time we got a grip on the Groundhog situations, the executives over at Taneli pull out the Hedgehog out of their ass. It's even worse!
Well, okay, it's not scarier if you meet it in the cockpit of your Atlas. See, there's two advantages that the Hedgehog has over the Groundhog.
The first is that it's even cheaper. Dirt cheap. And low-tech enough that anybody can maintain it, even without Taneli's generous customer support policies. If the Groundhog spread like feral hogs, the Hedgehogs spread like rabbits.
The second is, it's a mortar truck. It's not a powerful mortar by any means, but consider this. You could be in the mess hall, just chowing down on your MRE, and suddenly there's an airburst shell crashing through the ceiling, perfectly tenderizing you, your three mates, and your rock-solid bread loaf. These random mortar raids happen all the time now, and they're just a drain on morale.
I lost a colleague back in my Battlemech-piloting days from one of those raids. Some rebels had snuck a Hedgehog near the FOB and let loose. My colleague nearly made it to his Panther's cockpit before his head blew up by an Airburst shell with his name on it. I started stomping down on Hedgehogs extra hard with my Atlas after that.
The only good thing about this whole situation is that the Hogs don't actually breed, thank god.
~J.C.
GROUNDHOG
Groundhog Mk.I
Clan advanced
10 tons
BV: 384
Cost: 324,500 C-bills
Movement: 6/9 (Tracked)
Engine: 60
Internal: 5
Armor: 75 (Ferro-Fibrous)
Internal Armor
Front 1 20
Right 1 15
Left 1 15
Rear 1 10
Turret 1 15
Weapons Loc Heat
Flamer TU 3
Improved Heavy Medium Laser TU 7
Quirks:
Modular Weapons
Low Profile
Variants:
The main gun is often swapped for one of the following: An ER Medium Laser, a Medium Laser, 2 ER Small Lasers, or a Small Pulse Laser.
The secondary gun is often swapped for a Micro Pulse Laser or Small Laser.
Mk.I LITE: Swaps the Ferro-Fibrous armor for standard armor, with 15/15/12/10 front/turret/side/rear armor profile.
Mk.I SWIFT: Swaps out half-ton of Ferro-Fibrous armor for a 70 SFE, resulting in 7/11 movement and 15/12/15/10 front/turret/side/rear armor profile.
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Groundhog Mk.II
Clan advanced
10 tons
BV: 460
Cost: 639,833 C-bills
Movement: 10/15 (Tracked)
Engine: 100 XL
Internal: 5
Armor: 56 (Ferro-Lamellor)
Internal Armor
Front 1 12
Right 1 12
Left 1 12
Rear 1 8
Turret 1 12
Weapons Loc Heat
Flamer TU 3
Improved Heavy Medium Laser TU 7
Quirks:
Modular Weapons
Low Profile
Variants:
The main gun is often swapped for one of the following: An ER Medium Laser, a Medium Laser, 2 ER Small Lasers, or a Small Pulse Laser.
The secondary gun is often swapped for a Micro Pulse Laser or Small Laser.
HEDGEHOG
Hedgehog Mk.I
Clan advanced
10 tons
BV: 195
Cost: 104,500 C-bills
Movement: 6/9 (Tracked)
Engine: 60 ICE
Internal: 4
Armor: 56
Internal Armor
Front 1 16
Right 1 15
Left 1 15
Rear 1 10
Weapons Loc Heat
'Mech Mortar 1 FR 1
Ammo Loc Shots
Airburst Mortar 1 Ammo BD 24
Quirks:
Easy to Maintain
Modular Weapons
Low Profile
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Hedgehog Mk.II
Clan advanced
10 tons
BV: 234
Cost: 154,183 C-bills
Movement: 7/11 (Tracked)
Engine: 70 Fuel Cell
Internal: 4
Armor: 56
Internal Armor
Front 1 16
Right 1 15
Left 1 15
Rear 1 10
Weapons Loc Heat
'Mech Mortar 1 FR 1
Micro Pulse Laser FR 1
Ammo Loc Shots
Airburst Mortar 1 Ammo BD 24
Quirks:
Easy to Maintain
Modular Weapons
Low Profile
OVERVIEW
The Groundhog is an ultra-light tankette developed by the Crossroad Republic. The default version is well armored for its size and a close-quarters brawler with an anti-mech Heavy Medium laser and a flamer for anti-infantry support, but its modular weapon design allows the Groundhog to also easily accept substitutes. An ER Medium laser and a Micro Pulse Laser are common substitutes for Crossroad Republic operated hedgehogs, while Periphery buyers frequently swap the laser with lower-tech models.
The Hedgehog is a Groundhog modified by removing the turret assembly for a 'Mech Mortar, and uses an ICE engine and a simpler armor type. The Hedgehog is built for export only.
DEVELOPMENT
The Groundhog has its origin in the Crossroad Republic's 3040 Tankette Program, to investigate ways to use lighter, less logistically intensive, and hopefully cheaper alternative to use in low-intensity conflicts and in garrisons. The finalists were Taneli Industry's Groundhog and a competitor's 15 tonner, but the 15 ton design lost due to being a bit too similar to existing armored cars to warrant production.
The ten-ton design featured a unique sort of modular weapon package, although it's not fully omni-technology. The weapon had two weapon slots which could easily accept a similar weapon as a substitute. For instance, the Heavy Laser could easily accept an ER Medium Laser, and the Flamer could accept a significantly less collateral damage causing Micro Pulse Laser, both of which were very common modification for Crossroad Republic Groundhogs. The modularity, in addition to its low profile, weight, and cost, would later give the Groundhog a competitive edge in the export market.
The design was very easy and fast to produce, and soon Groundhog variants had filled all the required position in the Crossroad Republic's garrisons. However, the Crossroad Republic was somewhat isolationistic in 3040 and did not allow for the export of high-tech military equipment. Now that the Republic already had its order for tankettes completely filled, Taneli Industries was a victim of its own success, sitting on a perfectly functional, idle Groundhog production line. With a much of Taneli Industry's resources put into a now-redundant production line, the company began to starve for funds.
Taneli Industries would get their relief during the Clan Invasion. When the Crossroad Republic decided to clandestinely assist the Inner Sphere with volunteers, they also permitted the selling of military hardware, albeit only low-tech versions. Taneli Industries rapidly prototyped and produced the Groundhog Mk.I Lite, replacing the ferro-fibrous armor with standard armor. Taneli Industries sold the new variant, equipped with medium lasers and flamers, to various Inner Sphere states, who rapidly bought them up, desperate for any hardware at all to fight back the invading Clans, providing the company with a lucrative cash flow.
After the Clan Invasion died down and the Inner Shere re-developed healthy, strong industries of their own, purchases of Groundhogs once again slowed down to a crawl. Taneli Industries set their sights on the Periphery. The various periphery states were initially apprehensive about buying such a high-tech vehicle, despite its low cost. To help sweeten the deal, TI began offering customer support options, such as providing Techs training on repairing and maintaining the fusion engine, replacement components, and an insurance policy. This helped somewhat, but the sales of Groundhogs were still not close as during the height of the Clan invasion.
Hungry for money and searching for a similar success with what they had in the Groundhog, TI engineers took the basic Groundhog frame back to the drawing board. This time, instead of beginning with a Crossroad Republic design and adapting it to other customers, the design team began with Periphery customers in mind from the outset. After a short two-year development cycle, the first pre-production "Hedgehogs" were rolling off the assembly lines.
The new "Hedgehogs" were based off the Groundhog tankette chassis, with the turret removed for a mortar. The vehicle was designed to fill an artillery roll as cheap as possible, and the marketing campaign was centered around this fact. One flyer on Taneli Industries Military Solutions boldly boasted that their Hedgehogs were "the downright cheapest self propelled artillery vehicle you'll ever find, anywhere!", including a comparative infographic with 20 Hedgehogs on one side and 1 Thumper artillery vehicle on the other. Indeed, the most common Hedgehog variant sans ammo is cheaper than a Savannah Master and only a bit more expensive than a tracked APC of the same weight.
In addition, the Hedgehog inherited some of the modularity of the earlier Groundhog. The mortar could be substituted for a LRM-5, a SRM-4, a recoilless rifle, or other weapons of similar weight.
The Hedgehog became a great commercial success, eclipsing even the Groundhog. Periphery units and some IS Garrisons that couldn't afford traditional artillery gobbled up the sleek mortar boat. While up-armoring packages (such as Ferro-Fibrous or Reactive Armor replacements) were offered by Taneli Industries for the Hedgehog, the "Classic" Hedgehog Mk.I configuration with standard armor and a mortar quickly became the most common export variant by far.
The Crossroad Republic's "100 XLE Standard" engine was developed in 3070. A new production run of the groundhog, the Groundhog Mk.II, was created to integrate the chassis with the new engine and ferro-lamellor armor to protect against low-level threats. Enough was made to replace the Crossroad Republic's Groundhog Mk.Is with a few spares, but the Mk.II is not available on the export market
DESCRIPTION
The Groundhog is a petite tankette, vaguely resembling a Scorpion tank that has been scaled down, and closely resembling the real-life M22 Locust. The medium laser is the main gun of the classic "barrel" arrangement, and the flamer (or micro pulse laser) is coaxial to it. The vehicle is abnormally small, such that the conditions are uncomfortable for an average sized person.
CAPABILITIES
The Groundhog is able to take on infantry, battle-armor, and even some light vehicles with its medium laser and coaxial flamer. Although the Heavy medium laser is considered the standard armament due to its effectiveness against battle armor and light vehicles, the substantial effective range improvement of the ER Medium Laser is a popular swap for Roadie garrisons, and Periphery buyers usually pick a regular medium laser due to cost concerns. The Flamer is often swapped out for the Micro Pulse Laser by Roadie garrisons to reduce unnecessary collateral damage, though this also has a tiny benefit in armor penetration. Performance against heavier vehicles and Battlemechs, especially ones that can out-run the Groundhog, is poor, primarily due to a limited engagement range.
The Hedgehog is able to provide limited fire support via mortar. Airburst is the typical ammunition loaded, which is effective against conventional infantry. The ammunition type can also wear down groups of battle armor troops with enough time or enough Hedgehogs dedicated to the task. Performance against Battlemechs and hardened vehicles is poor, although alternative armament options for the Hedgehog which improves this do exist, such as a SRM-4 option and a LRM-5 option.
DEPLOYMENT
Although originating in the Crossroad Republic, most of their Groundhogs are used in garrisons, and have seldom fired in anger.
Inner Sphere Groundhogs are usually sent to garrisons and don't frequently see action. During the Clan Invasion, however, low-tech versions of Groundhogs with a regular Medium Laser and Flamer were deployed against the invading Clans. The Groundhogs, generally, performed poorly against the Clan Battlemechs, but suprisingly adequately against "Toads", being capable of quickly putting Elemental points on the retreat if 2-3 Groundhogs were on hand to fight back.
Periphery Groundhogs and Hedgehogs see combat frequently, with mixed results depending on their opponents. Against Inner Sphere houses or Clans, the Hogs tend to find themselves wiped off the map. Against other Periphery opponents, poorly equipped rebels and pirates, the Hogs shine as effective and inexpensive combatants. However, they've become so common that less upstanding organizations can easily acquire and field the tankettes, much to the chagrin of the Inner Sphere houses and the various Periphery states.
The Hedgehog, in particular, is notorious for use in pirate, rebel, and terrorist organizations for its use in "hit and run" tactics, where a Hedgehog or four sneaks in close to either a military installation or other regions of importance where most of the targets are outside of their armor, quickly unloading several mortar shells onto the unaware personnel or populace, and bugging out before there's a chance to respond. Far more mechwarriors and vehicle crews have been lost to Hedgehogs in hit-and-run attacks than in direct combat with either Groundhogs or Hedgehogs.
