Eisenfaust

The Eisenfaust was originally designed shortly after the Lyran Commonwealth began building 'Mechs. Based on their experience with the Commando and Ymir, the LCAF tried to build a medium class "siege engine" 'Mech. Though the trials looked promising, the battlefield performance of the early Eisenfaust was poor and the design was cancelled.

After the recovery of lostech and advanced SLDF technologies, Defiance Industries looked at the early Eisenfaust design again. The updated Eisenfaust entered production after simulations showed it could be an effective battlefield unit if equipped with updated technologies. In fact the Eisenfaust was one of the first designs to enter production after the start of the Jihad.

The updated Eisenfaust uses an XL Engine to provide power. The small weight of the engine allows the 'Mech to carry more armor and weaponry than the prototype models, as well as increasing the top speed. More importantly, the use of fifteen double heat sinks allows the Eisenfaust to dissipate the heat from all its weapons.

Weapons and Equipment
The Eisenfaust uses a single Plasma Rifle as its main weapon. Equipped with two tons of ammunition the rifle can inflict serious damage on any battlefield unit and can obliterate conventional infantry platoons. The Eisenfaust's slow top speed makes it difficult for the 'Mech to break contact and reload its Plasma Rifle magazine. Therefore Defiance engineers installed a suite of lasers to provide the backup weapons the 'Mech needs to deal with determined opponents. The lasers obviously don't require ammunition, and the Medium Pulse Lasers are effective at targeting battle armor and other "small" threats. The ER Large Laser supports the Plasma Rifle at range, allowing the pilot to save the Plasma Rifle for a knock-out punch.

Variants

 * EFT-2 : The result of a Introduction Year::2471 working group, this Eisenfaust model was intended to carry the Autocannon/10 into a siege or defensive engagement. This simple design mandate was quickly warped into an entirely different machine. For close work the machine carried two Medium Lasers while a Large Laser provided long range and ammunition free firepower. The Coventry Defense Conglomerate was unable to overcome the inherent limitations of Primitive Technology however, resulting in a thinly armored and clumsy 'Mech that could only reach a top speed of 32km/h. The single ton of ammunition provided to the Eisenfaust's main weapon didn't help. The CDC only produced one prototype unit for the LCAF. BV (2.0) = 775


 * EFT-4J : This Eisenfaust model was the original prototype developed in Introduction Year::2515 . Though several were produced, Defiance Industries only used them to test weapons and equipment configurations for the EFT-7X. These models remain on Hesperus II to serve as test vehicles. BV (2.0) = 977


 * EFT-8X : This variant is a test-bed for some experimental weapons in Introduction Year::3080 . Removing the standard weapons load of the Eisenfaust allows engineers to install a Binary Laser Cannon and some Medium Variable Speed Pulse Lasers. As this is an experimental model, no other details are known . BV (2.0) = 1,039

Design Quirks
The Eisenfaust has the following Design Quirks:
 * Battlefists
 * Easy to Maintain
 * Protected Actuators

The EFT-2 Eisenfaust variant is subject to the following Design Quirks:
 * Bad Reputation
 * Improved Cooling Jacket (Large Laser)
 * Poor Performance
 * Prototype
 * Obsolete/2472