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Lets face it, we all do it, or have 40K Fans for friends who are curious about it.  here are a few of mine.

Crocodile tank

Overview
News of the Mackies Deployment in 2443 sent ripples across the inner sphere.  the Free Wolrds league knew that the technology would soon spread and began a series of crash programs to develop an effective counter to the new war machine, while building designs of their own.  the Crocodile tank was the product of 5 year of think tank effort to create an effective counter, and when first deployed by the FWLM was a complete disaster, with nearly an entire regiment of the tanks eviscerated by a mere Reinforced Company of Mackie and Crossbows deployed by the LCAF.  the Crocodile was subsequently buried until just prior to the Reunifacationw ar, where it competed with  TechniCorp's Manticore tank for a SLDF contract.

Capabilites
The MK I was a product of old school thinking, being outfited with a combat Fission engine and a 210 mm Heavy Rifled Cannon.  while impressive for the Age of War, athe era of the battlemech showed that a Fission engine was plain unsafe for crews and environments, and the Cannon lacked capacity and firepower to breach newer mech armor.

by the dawn of the Reunifacation war the more modern Crocodile sported significant improvements.  a more modern 120mm heavy autocannon in the turret doubled the effective firepower against battlemechs.  twelve and a half tons of plate armor provided enough coverage to resist the most powerful weapons at the time.  Finally twin Sponsoon mounted machine guns provided excellent coverage against infantry forces.  the 265 rated Fusion engine was well built, but relatively esoteric, and only Irtech could build the parts needed to maintain it.

Deployment
The Crocodile was fast on it's way to replacing the Kestral and Agustus tanks as the FWL main battle vehicle, but it's first outing sealed it's fate.  any Crocodiles remaining had their Fission engines stripped and they were used for target practice as purchased Merkava's from the Terran Hegemony and T-12 Clones replaced them.  During the Reunification war roughly a Division's worth of Crocodile Mk IIIs were deployed among the Marik Auxiliary Corps.  While they performed admirably, the Manticore was more attractive to SLDF purchasers

Variants
during the succesion wars, mothballed Crocodiles became testbeds for Irtech's Binary Laser Cannon. Results from the weapons proved inconclusive and the vehicles were relegated to Factory Security where time wore them down.  it is believed the last Crocodile was defeated in 2941 when a Battlemaster felled by tank number 42 of the Irtech defense force suffered a cockpit destruction, and fell on top of the very vehicle that defeated it.

Crocodile

Mass: 66 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Motive Type: Tracked
Rules Level: Experimental Tech
Era: Age of War/Star League
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/C-E-D
Production Year: 2750
Cost: 2,690,910 C-Bills
Battle Value: 817

Power Plant:  265 Fusion Engine
Cruise Speed: 43.2 km/h
Flanking Speed: 64.8 km/h
Armor:  Standard Armor
Armament:
    1  Autocannon/10
    2  Machine Guns
Manufacturer:
    Primary Factory:
Communications System:
Targeting and Tracking System:

================================================================================
Equipment           Type                         Rating                   Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard                      35 points                7.00
Engine:             Fusion Engine                265                      21.00
    Cruise MP:  4
    Flank MP:   6
Heat Sinks:         Single Heat Sink             10                        0.00
Control Equipment:                                                         3.50
Lift Equipment:                                                            0.00
Turret:                                                                    1.50
Armor:              Standard Armor               AV - 200                 12.50

                                                      Armor     
                                                      Factor     
                                               Front     40       
                                          Left/Right   40/40       
                                              Turret     40       
                                                Rear     40       

================================================================================
Equipment                                 Location    Heat     Spaces     Mass 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machine Gun                                  LS        0         1         0.50
Machine Gun                                  RS        0         1         0.50
Autocannon/10                                T         3         1        12.00
@AC/10 (20)                                  BD        -         0         2.00
@MG (1/2) (100)                              BD        -         0         0.50

BattleForce Statistics
MV      S (+0)  M (+2)  L (+4)  E (+6)   Wt.   Ov   Armor:      7    Points: 8
4          1       0       0       0      3     0   Structure:  3
Special Abilities: AC 1/1/0