BattleTech Mech Overview: Thunder Hawk

Welcome back, MechWarriors! Today I'm here to talk to you about one half of the Thunder-Hawk-Hellstar scale of headchopper efficiency, the original hundred-ton tower of gauss (get outta here, Annihilator C2!), the Thunder Hawk!

Hastati Sentinels Thunderhawk. Credit: Jack Hunter

The Thunder Hawk is a legendary mech, not because it has an iconic silhouette (like the Atlas), not because it's been used as a poster boy for decades (like the Mad Cat), not because it's a common protagonist ride (like the Marauder or Archer), but simply because of what weapons it carries. The gauss rifle is an imposing weapon with impressive range, capable of killing any mech that's doesn't mount ballistic-reinforced or hardened armor in a single headshot (it's strong enough to blast through Ferro-Lamellor!). It's the one weapon even the Clans couldn't improve on (much). Like any big gun (at least without Precision Ammunition), gauss is something of a gambler's weapon, but any probability curve can be smoothed by simply rolling more dice, and almost all Thunder Hawks give you not one but three shots at living the dream of putting a high-velocity slug right through the other gal's cockpit. Other mechs have mounted 3 headchoppers at a lower BV cost (Awesome 11H), other mechs have mounted more headchoppers (up to the Annihilator C2's five), but the Star-League-era Thunder Hawk did it first (in 2771!). Did the Thunder Hawk also do it best? Read on, and let's take a look!

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).

As a note, I'm breaking from our usual pattern and reviewing these variants in production order, as they all share the same ordinal number, and doing them alphabetically would be unnecessarily confusing.

Mercenary Thunder Hawk. Credit: Jack Hunter

TDK-7X

The original Thunder Hawk starts as it intends to carry on. All but one variant carry the same exact armor load, clad in every one of the 307 points of standard armor a 100-tonner can possibly carry (at a slight loss of tonnage efficiency, but the Thunder Hawk doesn't exactly sweat over half-ton increments), with the 32 points of armor on the side torsos being the weakest (non-head) spot in its front arc, plus a generous 10/12/10 shell across the rear torso locations. This protection is sorely needed, since (Inner Sphere) gauss rifles each fill seven critical slots with explosive potential, and a design flaw in the Thunder Hawk chassis has prevented every single variant so far from mounting CASE to protect against the resultant big booms. Though the Thunder Hawk only moves 3/5, it still needs an XL engine to mount its equipment load, so either of its torso rifles going off also means death for the entire mech under current rules. Playtest explosion rules would (will?) be much kinder to it, but for now its great strength is also a great liability, particularly in the face of floating through-armor crits.

16 shots per gauss rifle on the base variant Thunder Hawk is honestly excessive for the average game, but makes sense from an in-universe procurement standpoint, or if you ever get to use the T-Hawk as a dedicated backline direct-fire-support mech in a large-scale battle. I also won't complain at all about the six non-volatile crit slots added by all those slugs.

Unlike some of its peers in the headchopper-maxxing club, every Thunder Hawk mounts at least some secondary weapons, and the 7X boasts a decent bite in a knife fight with four medium lasers (one each in the head and the right arm and two in the left arm), enough to inflict a PSR on their own if you can land them all. The lasers do a decent amount to push the Thunder Hawk to 2,577 BV, but that's still cheaper than bringing three Hollanders, and I'd say the T-Hawk is more capable than the little guys in almost every regard.

Perhaps the biggest fly in the 7X's proverbial ointment, at least on a modern battlefield, is that it mounts only the baseline 10 single heat sinks. In terms of the heat it itself generates, ten sinking is fine... you gain 2 + movement if you hit the "LAZORS" button, and 5 + movement if you get the perfect alpha strike opportunity, but that's manageable. The problem with the heat sinks is the heat that can get inflicted without your say-so. Even if your opponent hasn't brought any heat-generating weapons, any crits to your XL engine start to make your heat scale a bit uncomfortable, and if your opponent does have heat-generating weapons, well, you literally can never sink away the 15 heat that can be inflicted on you by an opponent each turn, even if your Thunder Hawk completely stops contributing to the battle, so enjoy finding out how long it takes until you hit shutdown checks.

Lynn's Rating: *deep breath* C+. I can sense this is going to be controversial, but I've heard too many stories about Liberty taking Peri's Thunder Hawk out of the game with two Howler 6s (who together cost less than half the 7X's BV) to rate this mech higher, no matter how effective it is when it works. And C+ is still a passing grade, y'all!

TDK-7Y

The first tweak made to the Thunder Hawk when Norse-Storm resumed production of the mech during the Clan Invasion, the 7Y drops all four medium lasers in exchange for two medium pulse lasers (one in each arm). As much as I typically love pulse lasers, this doesn't feel like all that much of an upgrade... sure, you're only 1 + movement heat on an alpha strike, and you're dealing more accurate damage against opponents who get under your guns, but you're trading 20 damage potential for 12 on your lasers (or 10 for 6 against a backstabber, since the Thunder Hawk can't flip its arms), not the best deterrent. At least you shave a handful of BV in the trade, going to 2,489.

Lynn's Rating: C+. 7X sidegrade gets 7X rating.

TDK-7KMA

Oh, wait, now that's interesting! So, the 7KMA is a 7X with two changes. One, it swaps to double heat sinks. Two, it drops the left torso gauss and its accompanying ammo for an Arrow IV missile launcher and two tons of ammo (with the ammo unfortunately stuffed down its left leg due to crit space limitations).

This mech... seems a bit at odds with itself. Most of its payload and much of its BV is still focused on doing traditional Thunder Hawk Things, which is overkill if you just want to shoot your ballistic missiles at something map-sheets away, and if you're on the same map you're either going to be in the Long Range bracket for your gausses and taking a +4 penalty to their shots or you'll be direct-firing the Arrow IV and taking a +4 penalty to its shots (still ignoring TMM, though). It is funny, though!

Lynn's Rating: C-??? I'll be honest with you I've not yet met an opponent who wanted to play with on-map artillery so I'm not entirely sure how to assess this??

Thunder Hawk. Credit: Rockfish

TDK-7S

This Civil-War-era variant drops two of the 7X's medium lasers (both of the left arm guns, I suppose in case you want to punch?), two tons of gauss ammo (still leaving it with more than ten shots per gun, which is plenty), and a half ton of armor (most notably going to 9 pips on the rear side torsos). What does it swap all that tonnage for? Simple.

The 7S has a light engine instead of an XL.

While this technically means it can survive losing one of its side torsos, the 7S still has single heat sinks, so if it's down a side torso it's going to be building movement heat every turn even without firing a single weapon. You can possibly limp it off the battlefield at that point, but at 3/5 movement and with thinner rear armor... well, good luck. It's another slight bump downwards in BV cost, though, to 2,440. Yay?

Lynn's Rating: C. Look, I don't know what you expect from me at this point, this is still functionally a 7X with fewer lasers.

TDK-7XEM

Double heat sinks! Glorious double heat sinks!

Okay, okay, that's not the only thing that's going on here. The 7XEM drops one ton of gauss ammo, drops the right arm laser and shifts the fifth ton of ammo from the CT to the right arm, upgrades the remaining lasers to ERMLs, makes the heat sink swap, and uses the freed two tons to jam in the piece of equipment that the "EM" stands for: An "Emergency" C3 Master.

Okay, so the thing with Emergency Masters is... *hauls out TacOps*... they work as a C3S until/unless the C3M in their network goes down, in which event they can temporarily take over as Master, burning out after 6 consecutive turns of non-ECM-blocked operation.

Honestly, that's not a bad piece of equipment to put in a durable backline piece like the Thunder Hawk. While this thing would get very pricey in a network, headchoppers love shooting with C3 benefits, and the T-Hawk is likely to still be in good condition to take over if a more frontline C3M mech goes down. You also don't pay any BV for the EM if you're not in a network, so you can pretty much just treat this as a 7X with three ERMLs and DHS if you feel like it. The extra range on the lasers does raise the BV to 2,577, but you're neutral on a running alpha and all the heat-generation in the game can't silence your gauss rifles; I call that a good trade.

Lynn's Rating: B+? I could be easily talked into A-. I really like this one. If it dropped one more ton of ammo and kept the fourth laser I'd be even higher on it. Too bad the Emergency Master is in TacOps and thus it's basically illegal in tournament play. ^_^;

TDK-7Z

Oh, hell yes! The poster child of the three Thunder Hawk variants which debuted in Shrapnel #18 (a trio which also included the 7XEM and the 7ZEM), the 7Z wins my heart by trading efficiency for comedy.

Okay, so, start with a 7X like every variant does. Swap all four lasers to ERMLs. Swap the heat sinks for 11 doubles. Go to composite structure. What do you have the tonnage for, now? Well, how about swapping your three gauss rifles and six tons of ammo (48 shots) for three Thunderbolt 20s and ten tons of ammo (30 shots)?? Genius.

So... Thunderbolt Missiles. They answer the question "What if LRMs were one BIG missile instead of a bunch of little missiles?" They're not cluster weapons. Each of those Thunderbolt 20s hits like an AC/20! With longer range! So what's the catch?

Well, first off, you're only getting three shots per ton of ammunition, making them tonnage-inefficient weapons (thus the vulnerable composite structure here on the 7Z) and helping spread the "explosive crits" love around (though the 7Z still has fewer than its gauss-toting forebears!). Second, if you come up against an anti-missile system, any AMS has a 50/50 chance of just shooting a Thunderbolt missile down completely. That's less of a concern for a 7Z than for a mech mounting one or two Thunderbolts, and AMS isn't the most common equipment, but it's going to hurt like hell when it does come up (and playtest AMS rules would make this sting even more). Most importantly, though? When Thunderbolts are within minimum range (5 hexes rather than the standard IS LRM's 6, but you also don't enter Short range until 6, so you still only have a one-hex sweet spot) you don't only take TN penalties like regular LRMs do, you also deal half damage.

I knew a guy once on Discord who insisted that you could hot-load Thunderbolts to eliminate the half damage penalty, but I've scoured the books and as far as I can tell that was a houserule, not an actual optional rule. Thunderbolts require finicky positioning and just the right sightlines to get the most out of them, and 3/5 movement speed doesn't help you much with that goal.

Look, I cannot be objective about the Thunder Hawk 7Z. It builds heat firing its main weapons (2 + movement for the T-bolts). It's a mediocre laser boat against anything that gets under its missiles. It has fragile hollow bones and plenty of explosives to splinter them with. Still no CASE. But. But! Pasting someone for 60 damage in 20-damage chunks at 6-12 hexes? Man, that sounds fun. And at 2,419 BV, it's cheaper than the gauss Thunder Hawks!

I really gotta get this thing to table.

Lynn's Rating: C.......... but an S+ for fun!

TDK-7ZEM

As you may have guessed from the alphanumeric code, this is simply a 7Z with another Emergency Master. It drops two tons of ammo to get there, keeping all its lasers.

You drop from ten to eight shots per Thunderbolt 20 launcher, but you lose two explosive crits in the process and drop to 2,379 BV; one might actually argue this is a net positive. One might actually call this a viable mech. One might actually give this...

Lynn's Rating: C+

Thunder Hawk. Credit: Valk

Final Thoughts

Okay, I need to clarify, I like the Thunder Hawk a lot more than my ratings might suggest? It's shockingly mortal for one of the Legendary Mechs of Lore, with a lot more downsides than the Hellstar it inevitably gets compared with, but I think that's genuinely interesting and positive for the game. It's a good mech with clear counterplay, not game-warping or unbeatable, just a noteworthy tool for its specific purpose.

">Go forth and take heads, Thunder Hawks!

(P.S.: The Alacorn Mk. VI, the Star League's other, cheaper triple-gauss carrier, has all the vulnerability to immobilization that comes with being a vehicle, plus it climbs terrain more clumsily and its firing lines are more easily interrupted; I do not rate it more highly.)

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Tags: Battletech | Mech Overview | Assault Mech | thunder hawk