Bardiche

Description
Produced from 3101 onwards by Earthwerks-FWL, Incorporated from their factories on Calloway VI and Keystone, the Bardiche Heavy Strike Tank quickly earned an unfavourable reputation. That reputation, while somewhat inaccurate, was partly caused by a description of the Bardiche as "the most expensive coffin ever purchased by the Marik-Stewart Commonwealth" and stuck with the Bardiche.

The Bardiche was intended to be an infantry support vehicle, and while it is reasonably capable in providing that capability, it failed in most other roles simply because it wasn't well-armed enough to compete with main battle tanks of similar weight. To make matters worse, the Bardiche was both too heavy and too costly to be a popular choice for an infantry support vehicle. By offering discounted deals that included heavy incentives during the 3120s Earthwerks-FWL managed to sell enough Bardiches to make it a presence in many planetary militias and a number of line regiments, although despite five seperate upgrades intended to tackle a problem with poor hull sealing users continued to complain that the problem hadn't been addressed, leading to Earthwerks-FWL issuing a service bulletin in 3121 that limited the Bardiche to operations on worlds with a breathable atmosphere.

Despite the complaints about the Bardiche's cost and performance it was still a rugged wheeled vehicle, capable of moving at speeds of up to eighty-six kph both forward and in reverse thanks to the Alice Z-20 transmission used in the design and carrying a full ten tons of reactive armor.

Weapons and Equipment
Mounted in the Bardiche's turret were a pair of Fusigon Shorttooth Light Particle Projection Cannons and an Octagon Siren iNarc Missile Beacon fed by five tons of ammunition stored within the body of the vehicle. A Holly 7-Tube Multi-Missile Launcher was mounted on the front of the Bardiche, supplied by three tons of ammunition, while the left and right sponsons each mounted a pair of Corean Magshot Gauss Rifles. Lastly, a pair of Earthwerks Model 4 Mine Dispensers were mounted in the rear of the Bardiche and supplied with two tons of ammunition in total.

Variants

 * Minesweeper : lacking the iNarc Missile Beacon and Light PPCs of the original, the Minsweeper variant instead mounted a single Lords Light 3 Heavy PPC in the main turret and downgraded the Holly 7-Tube MML 7 to an MML 3, while doubling the number of installed Mine Dispensers and adding a Mine Sweeper to the front of the Bardiche. BV (2.0) = 1,198

Design Quirks
The Bardiche was subject to the following Design Quirks:
 * Poor Sealing
 * Power Reverse