BattleTech Mech Overview: Mongoose

Hey there, MechWarriors! Today we're taking a look at another ComStar classic, the Mongoose!

Mongoose. Credit: porble

I've been fond of the Mongoose (or at least its close kin) since I pulled Rosin Douglas's Mongoose II as one of my first Unique mechs for WizKids' collectible MechWarrior: Dark Age game. The OG Mongoose is a 25-ton scout mech designed for self-sufficiency, generally carrying just about as much armor as its frame can mount and as many lasers as will fit. Let's see how that works out for it!

Variants

These mechs have all been reviewed based on a standard F through S scale, which you can find described on our landing page here (along with all of our other ‘Mech reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).

MON-66

Setting the stage for what's to come, the original Mongoose maxes out on ferro-fibrous armor, laid out such that either leg or any front-facing torso location can tank an AC/10 shell, while still moving at a respectable 8/12 speed. Endo-Steel buys it enough space to carry three medium lasers and a small laser, just enough gun to build movement heat on an alpha strike with its bog-standard ten single heat sinks. It also packs in a Beagle Active Probe, a piece of equipment which has historically been one of 1.) useless, 2.) situationally useful, or 3.) crucial depending on which raft of optional rules and/or mission objectives you're using. Fortunately, the humble Active Probe's fortunes are looking up at present, with the playtest missions packet offering multiple uses for a probe, and actually letting this scout mech function as a scout! Its right torso is completely empty, which is unfortunate, but that's also mostly relevant on through-armor crits: With 6 inner structure on that side torso, it's not going to suffer much in the way of critical hits before simply ceasing to exist. Honestly, this is a good package: a little slower and more expensive than, say, a Mercury 99, but with an actually-significant durability upgrade, a small bump in firepower, and the probe, while still keeping under 800 BV. It's no Javelin 12N, but it's no slouch, either.

Lynn's Rating: C+, potentially B- with the playtest Active Probe changes

MON-66b

So, you might ask, what can a Royal upgrade do for a mech which already equips Endo-Steel, Ferro-Fibrous, and doesn't really need Double Heat Sinks? Well, how about swapping the engine for an XL, swapping the CT medium laser for an ER Large, and padding the side torsos' crit charts with a double heat sink each? The Royal Mongoose only goes up +1 heat on a running alpha strike, and now threatens a PSR with that alpha (though it needs everything to hit). It also unlocks a new play pattern, with the ability to poke at foes as an annoying long-range skirmisher, paralleling something like a Wolfhound 3M. Unfortunately, all those added capabilities bump the price of the 66b up to 934 BV, which starts to feel a bit pricey for a mech which now, with the XL engine, entirely ceases to exist after taking 16 damage to either side torso.

Lynn's Rating: C-

MON-67

The IntroTech downgrade of the 66, the "Gen Alpha funny number" Mongoose actually gives up a lot less than you'd expect. At 25 tons, your internal structure and your full armor load honestly aren't very heavy to begin with, so swapping them from endo-steel and ferro-fibrous to standard only costs you one pip of armor (taken off the rear CT for minimum impact) and one-and-a-half tons of space... which just so happens to be precisely the tonnage of one Beagle Active Probe. You only save 17 BV in losing the probe, but if your group isn't playing with rules that make probes useful, all you've really given up is that single armor pip and your left-torso crit padding.

Lynn's Rating: C

MON-68

A War-of-3039 DCMS special, the 68 starts with the 67's armor and internals, downgrades its speed to 7/11, and swaps every gun for a single standard large laser (heat neutral at a run). Honestly? I like this pretty well as an IntroTech Little Bastard. Side torsos are still empty, and your damage potential is less than half that of a typical Mongoose, but you're also only paying 676 BV, which rates decently well on the Wolfhound 3M Scale Of Cheap Nuisances even with the large laser's somewhat-short range.

Lynn's Rating: C+

MON-69

Okay, I see what Liberty and Peri are saying now about the tediousness of reviewing mechs where most variants are the almost the exact same thing. The "Nice" Mongoose here, along with the MON-70, are retroactively-added-in Early Succession Wars variants which keep the Endo-Steel and Ferro-Fibrous but lose the more-quickly-LosTech Active Probe. 69 chooses the Mongoose-sacrilegious path of dropping a half ton of armor, buying it space for an SRM-2 with a single ton of ammo. While this means it can inflict a PSR, even if only one SRM hits, and it's the second-cheapest Mongoose at 737 BV, the side torsos aren't PPC-proof anymore, the LT is 50% explosive crits, and the RT is still empty. Bad trade.

Lynn's Rating: D

MON-70

Instead of dropping armor, 70 drops the small laser along with the Active Probe and uses the resultant two tons of space to put a flamer in each arm. It also makes the baffling decision to swap one point of armor from the front side torsos to the rear side torsos (raising the rear side torsos to a princely three armor and dropping the front side torsos to 9). The added heat burden of the flamers means that it can't alpha strike without running into heat penalties anymore, even at a standstill, and the side torsos are, you guessed it, empty. This isn't exactly a useless variant; it's Infantry Guy's favorite Mongoose, it is technically one of the best Mongooses at dealing with something in its rear arc, and I hear setting fires is very good in the playtest packet, but I'm still not a fan.

Lynn's Rating: D+

Mongoose. Credit: Rockfish

MON-76

Oh, thank Blake, this one is functionally different. We've got the armor, internals, 200 XL engine, and the ten double heat sinks of the Royal Mongoose, but the freed weight is used very differently, tacking on MASC for an 8/12(16) movement profile, upgrading all three medium lasers to medium pulse lasers, and swapping the Beagle for a Guardian ECM suite. This shifts the use cases of the Spirit of '76 to emphasize light-hunting, backstabbing, and disruption of enemy electronics, and it's a pretty good budget piece for those roles at 894 BV. Just remember that it's only durable by a 25-tonner's standards, and will still evaporate if it draws serious attention.

Lynn's Rating: B-

MON-86

Okay that is... a set of choices. This Jihad-era Mongoose combines the standard Mongoose armor and structure with a 225 XL engine, bumping its speed up to an impressive 9/14. It keeps the active probe, arm MLs, and head SL, and shoves a new ERSL into the Mongoose's oft-neglected right torso, while swapping the CT medium laser for a Light PPC. It also, uh, sticks to 10 single heat sinks. In fairness, its heat problems aren't that bad considering that the LPPC will always want to drop out in favor of the small lasers once it's within minimum range, but the 4-6 hex range is a touch uncomfortable with the LPPC + MLs going to +3 heat on the run. With the increased speed and single heat sinks, I would've rather seen this Mongoose focus on its close-range arsenal and pack in some more sinking rather than investing in the LPPC. At 887 BV, you can do better.

Lynn's Rating: D

MON-96

A RecGuide variant hailing from the Draconis Combine, the Atlanta Summer Olympics Mongoose walks a very interesting path in comprehensively upgrading the 66. The armor swaps to Heavy FF, the engine swaps to a 200 XL with a Supercharger for an 8/12(16) profile, all four lasers get upgraded to ER versions, the Beagle gets upgraded to a longer-ranged, Guardian-ECM-penetrating Bloodhound Active Probe, and the structure swaps to Reinforced, which means that every location has roughly 33% more HP than a normal Mongoose. With double heat sinks, it's heat-negative on a running alpha. You do pay for all this, breaking the 1k BV mark at 1,011, but in an "active probes matter" environment I think the MON-96 would be well worth it.

Lynn's Rating: B-, or a solid B with the playtest Active Probe applications

Mongoose C

Courtesy of Clan Mongoose (RIP), this was a straight Clan upgrade of the Royal Mongoose: Clan XL engine, Clan-grade Active Probe, Clan-grade ER lasers all 'round, two extra heat sinks to get back to building movement heat on an alpha strike. You gain a lot of offense here, but very little defense, and the price skyrockets to 1,386 BV; I'm not keen on paying that for what you get here.

Lynn's Rating: D+

Mongoose C 2

This extremely-short-lived variant dares ask the question "What if we added a targeting computer to the Mongoose C instead of those last two heat sinks?" What you get is an admittedly-nice accuracy boost, but the return of heat issues (needing to go up at least +4 heat to reach PSR-inflicting damage on a run) and an eye-watering 1,620 BV price point. Oof.

Lynn's Rating: D-

MON-66GX

This is technically not a "character" variant, but the Gunslinger Mongoose was a one-off Star League prototype that never entered production, so I'm including it in the custom-mechs portion of the program. Part of the "What if the Royal Mongoose spent the weight saved from the XL engine differently?" family, the Yu-Gi-Oh! sequel Mongoose swaps to standard armor to free up enough critical slots for Chameleon Light Polarization and Null Signature System, both of the Star League vintage stealth systems, then drops the Active Probe, loads up two medium lasers in each arm, and shoves an SRM 6 into the right torso, kind of transforming into a weird stealth Jenner. It has more than enough heat sinks to handle either the stealth systems or the weapons, but not enough to really mix them easily. Faster and actually more damaging up close than the Exterminator 4C, while still much cheaper at 887 BV, this looks like a decent little assassin if 1.) your opponent has any soft targets it can eat and 2.) you're playing a game in which you can actually use this thing.

Lynn's Rating: B

Mongoose Conclusion

Jeeze that's a lot of little guys who are mostly the same little guy. Fortunately the little guy that most Mongooses are is a pretty decent little guy! In the likely event that active probes shift to being more useful in standard-rules games with the new core book, I'd expect to see an uptick in the number of Mongooses you encounter on the tabletop.

Bonus: Mongoose II

I'm sick with a cold as I write this, and we don't have many photos of painted Mongooses for an article of this length, so I strongly considered skipping my traditional bonus feature, but considering that the Mongoose II was my first Mongoose, well... I'm doing this for you, 21st Centauri Perigrine Lancers Captain Rosin Douglas, recently of the Almotacen Hiring Hall, I'm doing this for you.

Hastati Sentinels Mongoose. Credit: Jack Hunter

The Mongoose that ate its Wheaties growing up, the Mongoose II jumps to 40 tons without sacrificing any speed, which doesn't leave it too terribly much space for other equipment. The choices its three variants make are a bit odd, but at least they're not boring.

MON-266

Despite the model number, the 266 owes as much to the MON-68 as it does to the original 66. It packs on more armor than its little brother, but not as much as a 40-tonner could; a Clan ERPPC still goes internal anywhere but the legs on a fresh 266. It carries MASC for an 8/12(16) profile, but drops the weaponry back to the nuisance-level armament of a single Spheroid ER Large Laser. It pairs the Traditional Mongoose Beagle Probe with an ECM suite and a C3i unit for a potent electronics package. This is a good EWAR platform for a C3i force, but it pays for its range and the heft of its bigger body; at 1,085 BV this probably gets outcompeted as a dedicated C3i spotter by cheaper mechs.

Lynn's Rating: C-

MON-267

So the traditional post-Jihad fix to a C3i-dependent mech is swapping the C3i unit for a C3S and an ECM for the same tonnage. The 266 already had an ECM, though, so the 267 can't take that route! What did they do instead? Well, this Mongoose II swaps to a thinner-than-the-266-but-thicker-than-the-66 coat of Stealth armor and then augments the ER Large with a Targeting Computer. Heat goes up 2+Movement if you fire the ERLL while your stealth is active. This is the sort of upgrade that makes total sense in-universe (as long a you have money to burn on your scout mechs), but stings in a BV-balanced world. 1,237 BV is too much to pay for a mech that's still mostly a hype-man for the rest of your force.

Lynn's Rating: D

MON-268

Our last Mongoose II, the 268 dares to ask the question "What if it was your C3 Master who did the spotting?" We're back to Ferro-Fibrous armor, with the thickest coat of any Mongoose-family mech, still have the same speed profile every Mongoose II does, still have the Beagle, and still have the Targeting Computer (oh no!), but we've swapped the ERLL for three ERMLs and the C3S for a C3M.

I... I feel so conflicted about this mech, y'all. By the gods do I wish that TarComp was an ECM module instead. I think a spotting Master is interesting, and a much better opportunity to make use of the inbuilt TAG that comes with a C3M than most C3M mechs, but with no ability to deploy ECCM, the 268 collapses its entire network if it runs into any enemy ECM bubble. I think three ERMLs are a better choice of weapons than the ERLL, but we're still paying BV to increase the accuracy of a set of guns that can't even inflict a PSR. If you are specifically looking to play a Lyran/Kell Hounds/Mercenary C3 list this is the cheapest mech (not vehicle) with a C3M you have access to at 1,215 BV, but if you're not locking yourself into that specific niche there are definitely more BV-efficient options out there.

Lynn's Rating: C-

Mongoose II Conclusion

What a strange creature, the Mongoose II. It's very dedicated to its C3-spotting and EWAR functions, with good equipment for those roles, but then continuously insists on putting an unreasonable amount of BV into its guns. Another mech that makes more sense from an in-universe procurement standpoint than it does in a BV-balanced view.

Final Thoughts

The Mongoose is one of those mechs whose identity is so strong that many of its variants feel somewhat superfluous. That said, it's generally equipped to do its job well, and there's few Mongeese that are true duds, with BV cost as its only real consistent bugbear. Give this funny little quasi-digitigrade buddy a go sometime!

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Tags: Battletech | Mech Overview | Light Mech | medium mech | mongoose