A Clan Jade Falcon Elemental

Elemental	1 ton
Class	Battle Armor

Elemental is the name for the battlesuits used by the Clans. It also refers to the genetic stock of Warriors who pilot Elemental battle suits. Elementals are the elite, battle-suited infantry of the Clans. These men and women are giants, bred specifically to handle Clan-developed battle armor. Overview: It was in 2842 that Clan Goliath Scorpion created a simple fully incased armored exoskeleton. These suits dubbed water elementals by there civilian class pilots, were originally designed as an efficient way to dig out the vast underwater ore deposits on the planet Dagda. Clan wolf immediately noticed the amazing military potential of this armor. Rather than give away their plans to Clan Goliath Scorpion by acquiring the suits in a Trial of Possession, Clan Wolf instructed their merchant caste to purchase some of the suits for a moderate price. The secret development of several mission specific suits ensued. After years of development Wolf scientists created a single multi-purpose suit dubbed the Elemental. In 2868 the Elemental was introduced to the Clans in a Trial of Possession against Clan Nova Cat. Two stars of this new armor made a humiliating defeat against the one star of light mechs the Nova Cats offered. The Nova Cats Beta Galaxy, now Delta Galaxy, to this day continue to practice exhaustively with anti-infantry tactics, refuse to use elementals, and still bear their crest of a timberwolf crushing an Elemental beneath its foot. The suit immediately became the new standard in Clan infantry. In 2870, Clan Hell's Horses made an exchange for Clan Wolf's new battle armor in exchange for their solution to their inability to acquire the suit through trials. This was a genetically altered infantry trooper with superior strength and size. Later that year the Clan began fielding the new Elemental pilots. It is with these two advances that made the Elemental as effective a weapon as it is. In fact, the Elemental was considered such an important advancement that future Omnimechs were built with the Elemental in mind. It was, however, this superiority that would be the Elemental's eventual downfall. It was certainly known that the Elemental would be among the first technology to be cloned by the Inner Sphere. With the Inner Sphere now fielding so many new types of armor, all built with the intention of killing Elementals, the Clans have found that they have to go back to the roots of the Elemental in the specific task suits to counter this new threat. Tactics: Ever since the beginning of the Clan invasion of the Inner Sphere, Elementals have been in the thick of the fighting. Used by all of the Clans, they struck fear into the enemy as a type of soldier never before seen. Infantry, once thought of as mere insects compared to the giant BattleMechs used by the Successor States, had now become a deadly force to contend with. No longer unarmored and lightly armed as past infantry units had been, these types of ground pounders are able to take on a BattleMech and win, with as few as 5 troopers. Armed with deadly lasers, metal tearing claws, missiles, machine guns, jump jets and heavy armor, these warriors are a major factor in determining the course of a battle. To get a true understanding of how the Clans employ their Elemental units, the way they structure and organise combat units must be understood. The basic unit structures can be analyzed here. Unlike the military units of the Inner Sphere, which use a 4 based system of structure, the Clans use a system based on 5. Although the Elemental point is agreeably more lethal than a standard platoon of 25 or more warriors, they do have less numerous ranks. As a matter of course, different tactics must be employed to maximize the abilities of Battle Armored Elementals. One major "element" of Battle Armored Elementals is their ability to move. They are fast, capable of moving three times as fast as regular foot infantry through a combination of running and use of the jump jets built into their armor. This leads to a leapfrogging style of movement, and a result, Elemental units were quickly labeled "Toads" by the warriors of the Inner Sphere.  (Victor Ian Steiner-Davion coined the term) However, this leapfrogging is not the only way for Elementals to get around on the battlefield. Most Clan OmniMechs are designed with special footholds and ladder type rungs for use by Elementals so that they may ride the 'Mech if the situation requires faster or prolonged movement. Generally up to a single Point may ride a 'Mech, depending upon the size and type of the 'Mech in question. The most common tactic used by Elementals is the swarm attack, in which a Point jumps onto an enemy 'Mech, and then proceeds to rip off armor plates and vital components, firing their weapons at vulnerable spots, and also attempting to get at the pilot of the 'Mech. Unless the enemy 'Mech has a good pilot, or certain anti-personnel equipment, swarming attacks will typically succeed. Another more sophisticated (and dangerous) strategy performed by Elementals is the Headhunter. Headhunters are Elemental stars that slip through enemy lines to hunt down and destroy the enemy's headquarters. This requires considerable skill and courage on the part of the Elementals because their suits have to be modified to carry the extra fuel required for their mission, at the expense of armor and armament. The payoff is well worth the risk, because a successful headhunter mission can take an Inner Sphere unit out of action, particularly if the unit was green and inexperienced. The chaos created by Headhunter attacks often results in the collapse of entire defensive lines, particularly when combined with a concerted push by the rest of the Clan unit.

A Clan Wolf Elemental Warrior

Battletech

Machine Gun(Ammo)      LT
SRM2                   RT
SRM2(Ammo)(100)        RT
Machine Gun            LA
Machine Gun            RA
ER Small Laser         RA
Jump Jet               LL
Jump Jet               RL