Created as part of Wolf's Dragoons 3030 rearmament program, the Plainsman is a solid tank design from Pinard Protectorates Limited. The Plainsman's high speed and striking power make up for its lack of armor, though some crews complain about the vehicle's vulnerability.

         Reliability is the hallmark of the Plainsman. The designers purposely avoided cutting-edge weapons and components in favor of proven field-tested technologies. The Earthwerks turbine is a bit bulky and rattles a bit while spooling up to speed, but it can work for more than 5,000 hours without failure and seems to need no more than a prayer of thanks as its daily preventive-maintenance routine. The Star Slab armor is the same type that went to war with Kerensky, but it is not susceptible to micro-cracks, as were the newer ferro-fibrous armors when they were first deployed. The Plainsman's Harvester SRMs can cleanly fire salvos even when the tubes are full of mud and dirt. The Plainsman's robust build and utter dependability has made it beloved by its crews, who tend to forgive the thinness of its armor for a hovertank of its class.
         During the War of 3039, a Federated Commonwealth home guard militia company on Sadalbaria was ordered to exchange their unserviceable Pegasus hovertanks for Plainsmen. Having delivered their vehicles to a salvage yard, the skeleton crew of drivers and commanders were walking across the spaceport tarmac toward their dozen brand-new Plainsmen when the alert sirens went off-the Second Shin Legion was making a combat drop onto the field. The militiamen ran to the Plainsmen and started them up. With only half the normal crew and no familiarity with the new vehicles, the militia company went into battle against the elite troops of the Draconis Combine. It took two full companies of DCMS 'Mechs 30 minutes to drive off the militia. All of the Plainsmen suffered significant damage-missile launchers sheared off, skirts riddled with holes, engines smoking and shaking, and armor holed-but all twelve Plainsmen left the spaceport with all twenty-four crewmen still alive. Even under the most adverse circumstances, the Plainsman acquitted itself well.

         The Plainsman is currently used by second-echelon troops in the Lyran Alliance, Free Worlds League and Draconis Combine. A recon company attached to the Second Shin Legion also deploys the vehicle.