Enforcer

The Enforcer is a medium cavalry tank designed by Vanguard Motorworks shortly after the Reunification Wars. Armed primarily for long-range support with its signature Gauss Rifle, it was often used in sniper and ambusher roles by the Rim Worlds Republic, then later by various periphery states, before eventually coming to serve as a garrison tank for Clan Ashen Corsac.

## Technical Information

### Armament

* 1x Gauss Rifle
* 1x LRM-5

### BV

1'051

The Enforcer was developed immediately after the end of the Reunification Wars. Damage caused to the Tiegel IV tank factories of Vanguard's main competitor, Schwarzstein Metall, caused a drop in production capability after the war, which Vanguard executives saw as an opportunity to take away large chunks of Schwarzstein's market shares in the ensuing vacuum. With huge amounts of orders expected to rebuild the Rim Worlds Army after the war, the urge for a new, modern flagship battle tank was almost feverish.

In order to woo the market, Vanguard managed to acquire schematics for the Gauss Rifle recently developed by the Terran Hegemony itself through an ordeal of manipulation, bribes and good old-fashioned industrial espionage. Unfortunately, attempting to integrate this cutting edge, poorly understood weapon, alongside ambitious design specifications, caused considerable complications. The first few prototype Enforcers suffered serious flaws, most of which relating to the Gauss Rifle's barrel life, capacitor or ammunition feed and which had a tendency for catastrophically explosive result, making them totally unsafe for deployment.

By the time Vanguard successfully ironed out the various kinks of the Enforcer's design, Schwarzstein had finished repairing their main production line and were churning out Golems again. However, despite having lost their window of advantage, the Rim Worlds Army still needed large quantities of modern equipment, and the finalized Enforcer managed to deliver as a high performance built on a mostly affordable Proton Fuel Cell engine. The Enforcer was fast, well armed, and decently well protected, which made it a solid contender for Schwarstein's Golem lines.

The tank would go on to become a common sight among divisions of Amaris Dragoons posted around Grenze, with an even more advanced version being developed in the early 2700s for the Imperial Divisions, House Amaris' equivalent of the SLDF Royal Divisions. They fought during the Civil War as part of rapid response and harassment cavalry formations, but were never prominent in direct frontline roles.

The Enforcer would remain unchanged throughout the Succession Wars, as Grenze managed to avoid the ravages of the wars and preserve most of its technological base. With an official policy of no contact with the Inner Sphere after the dismemberment of the Rim Worlds Republic, the tank was never sold to the Successor States (though some were commandeered during the chaos of the civil war) and mostly remained an exclusive weapon of independent rimwards Periphery worlds that could afford it in lieu of the much more expensive Battlemechs.

This changed in 3065 when Grenze fell under the control of Clan Ashen Corsac, who recognized the tank's potential as a cheap (by Clan Standards) but effective garrison tank to equip their planetary defense forces. The Enforcer was then refitted with Clan-tech weapon systems, modestly enhanced, and sent back into mass-production for the Corsacs' Touman.

Throughout its history, the Enforcer was primarily known for two things: The accuracy of its main weapon - its Gauss Rifle - and the unintuitive nature of its control interface. Vanguard's excessive ambition with the design included an entire redesign of the controls layout and ergonomics to make it more modern. While the new layout is, in fact, more ergonomic and intuitive, it is significantly different from standard layouts everywhere else, which ironically makes it extremely confusing to adjust to for crew who originally trained on a different vehicle. The design also suffered from proprietary parts and compatibility issues created on purpose by Vanguard to make it difficult to repair using competitors' components and hardware.

## Weapons and Equipment

The Enforcer's main weapon is a single 'StarkReiter' serie Gauss Rifle mounted in a nimble, unmanned central turret. The shift of the commander and gunner to the hull allowed for a sleeker, lighter turret while helping protect the crew from battle damage. Two tons of ammunition ensures the Enforcer will be able to hound down its foes from afar without worry, while the inclusion of a 'Schutze-5' LRM launcher with one ton of Swarm ammunition allows it to engage infantry and light vehicles just as effectively as its main gun can engage other tanks and BattleMechs.

Cellular Ammunition Storage further protects the crew from either an ammunition or capacitor explosion, while 8 tons of 'PanzerLicht' Ferro-Fibrous armor provides adequate protection for a medium tank. With a flank speed of 86 kilometers per hour, its speed was also a good defense against its slower contemporaries.

## Variants

* **Imperial**

Originally created for the elite Imperial Divisions of the Rim Worlds Army in 2733, the Imperial variant is powered by an advanced 'Pulsar-255XA' XL fusion engine. The increased power output and saved weight allowed the designer to replace the LRM-5 with a 'Judgment' Particle Projector Cannon, set co-axially with the Gauss Rifle. This greatly increased the tank's firepower as a sniper and its staying power in protracted battles, at the cost of anti-infantry capability and increased price tag. A single ton of extra armor was also added, as well as a one-shot vehicular grenade launcher to eliminate any infantry that might manage to sneak up on the tank. *Cost: 5'887'000 C-Bills, BV: 1'313*

* **Clan**

Introduced by Clan Ashen Corsac in 3066, for use as a garrison tank, the Gauss Rifle is replaced by a lighter and more compact Clan version of the original, while the LRM-5 is replaced by a pair of ATM-3s, one on each side of the main gun. These are fed by a single ton of High-explosive ammunition and intend to give the tank more close-range punch in urban fighting and in its new patrol role. An Active Probe is also added in the front of the hull, allowing the Enforcer to scan for concealed units, while 2 additional tons of armor - itself also upgraded to Clan version - make it highly durable for its weight class, and more likely to survive the closer-range confrontations it now needs to perform. *Cost: 2'246'000 C-bills, BV: 1'309*

* **Clan (Air Defense)**

Introduced in 3069 as an air defense support tank, the Gauss Rifle was replaced by a pair of 'Fallbeil-5' Series LBX-5 Autocannons with four tons of Cluster ammunition as its only weapons. The tracking and targeting system was also enhanced to a 'TTS-Hawkeye' series Targeting Computer with optimized air-interdiction vectors making it insanely accurate against aerospace and conventional fighter. Often deployed in support of frontline Clusters, but not as part of their main formations, it is extremely lethal against not only flyers, but also infantry - armored or not - and light vehicles, making it a versatile support vehicle capable of engaging multiple threat types from extreme range. *Cost: 1'972'000 C-Bills, BV: 867*

## Design Quirks

The Standard and Imperial variants have the following Design Quirks:

* Accurate Weapon (Gauss Rifle)
* Hard to Pilot
* Non-Standard Parts

The Clan variant has the following Design Quirks:

* Accurate Weapon (Gauss Rifle)
* Non-Standard Parts

The Clan (Air Defense) variant has the following Design Quirks:

* Accurate Weapon (LBX AC-5s)
* Anti-Air Targeting
* Non-Standard Parts