BattleTech Mech Overview: Trebuchet

Fancy seeing you here, MechWarriors! This is Lynn, stepping beyond the tournament beat and throwing my two C-bills into another ‘Mech Overview! And it’s my lucky day, because today we’re looking at one of the Free Worlds League’s prides and joys, the Trebuchet!

Trebuchet. Credit: porble

The Trebuchet, affectionately(?) nicknamed the “Trenchbucket,” is a 50-ton mech with a fairly strong identity as a decently quick, moderately-armored fire-support mech with a primarily missile-based armament backed up by medium lasers for close-range work (though as we’ll see, some of its variants are… outliers). While it often gets overshadowed in the 50-ton bracket by the memetic value of the Hunchback and Crab, and has a (usually) undeserved reputation for being under-sinked, it can be a great workhorse to provide backup as part of a balanced lance.

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).

Trebuchet, Big Kev's Brigade

TBT-5N

The stock variant, though not actually the first Trebuchet to roll of the production lines, the 5N is a shockingly close approximation of the base Catapult C1 on a chassis 15 tons lighter. Its 5/8 movement is a side-grade from the Catapult’s 4/6/4 profile, faster on open ground but a bit slower in rough terrain. It offers the same eight salvos from the same pair of LRM-15s found on the Catapult, an ammo load that’s a liability in the lore but perfectly serviceable in the average tabletop game, and it brings three medium lasers for close-in work, compared to the Catapult’s four. Its armor is lighter than the Cat’s, particularly on the side torsos, and with the base 10 single heat sinks it builds movement heat when firing its LRMs, but it’s a fine mech to bring in your backline, and offers a 200 BV discount over the Catapult at 1191. Unfortunately, I still can’t rate it as highly as the CPLT-C1 for one glaring reason: Unlike its larger sibling, the only critical slot occupied in its left torso is a ton of LRMs, giving it a lethal ammo bomb. You can drain that bin in four turns of fire, but the nimbler and deadlier backstabbers that dwell beyond the realms of IntroTech may not give you those four turns.

Lynn’s Rating: C+

TBT-3C

In-lore this was the original SLDF Trebuchet, later downgraded to the 5N standard after, uh, most of its equipment became LosTech. At 1342 BV, the 3C is practically as expensive as our C1 Catapult comparison point, but it packs a hell of a lot to like into that last 151 BV. The 3C is faster than the 5N at 6/9, tacks Artemis IV on the LRMs to improve cluster table consistency, and manages to fit in the fourth medium laser to achieve parity with the Catapult’s short-range arsenal. With an Inner Sphere XL engine, its CASE won’t save it from an ammunition explosion, and it’s technically got more explosive crits, since it has double the 5N’s ammo, but the XL also provides something crucial: crit padding. A left torso crit on the 3C is more likely to hit engine than to hit ammo, and with double heat sinks, the 3C can choke down the first engine crit without really flinching. That said, the 3C also comes with a crucial downside: it somehow has less armor than its lower-tech compatriot, thinner across all three front torso locations and both legs. For armor and availability reasons, I might rather have the Catapult, but the 3C is a solid Treb (and it did get revived during the Jihad!).

Lynn’s Rating: B-

Liberty: I need to call the Force Marshal, we should start buying the fuck out of these things. It's not quite a Catapult but it is a good enough substitute for when you don't have one sitting around. I dig it.

Liberty's Rating: B-. Good little support piece for a good price, if you want a Cat but faster here's your man.

TBT-5J

In an odd quirk of the BV system, the 5J variant is exactly the same BV as the 5N, 1191. What does it do differently to get to the same price? Well, it halves the long-range firepower, for one, dropping the left arm LRM and its accompanying ammo entirely. It reinvests that tonnage in a full set of five jump jets, five heat sinks, and a half ton of armor (all of it invested in the side torsos, bringing them up to 15, which is a relevant breakpoint against common ranged headchoppers). The 5J genuinely is a significant durability upgrade over the 5N, particularly since all five added heat sinks are poured into the otherwise-empty left torso, and it certainly doesn’t have heat problems (neutral on a walking alpha strike, -1 firing all the medium lasers on a jump), but for my money the 5J trades away too much striking power in the process, particularly since its weapons categorically cannot all be at good ranges on an alpha strike (the best you can get is firing the LRM at +1 TN and the lasers at +2 TN at exactly 6 hexes). I’d rather have the 5N, even with its ammo bomb.

Lynn’s Rating: D+

Liberty: This is the machine you give to your new pilot who you don't quite trust but need to have do something. Alternatively the guy you do not care about in the slightest because there is a non-zero chance that there won't be enough left of the poor bastard to scoop up with a dust-tray.

Liberty's Rating: D. Hey guys my name's Trebuche- *Leaves a fuckin' crater in the ground*

TBT-5S

Now this is more like it. The Trebuchet 5S is one of my favorite “here for a good time, not for a long time” mechs, especially in IntroTech. It’s exactly a 5N chassis, but with both LRM-15s replaced with SRM-6s and every bit of the weight saved sunk into eight additional heat sinks. Comparisons with the Hunchback 4SP are inevitable, but I feel the 5S makes a case for itself. It’s faster than the Hunchback at the baseline Trebuchet 5/8 profile, it only goes to +1 heat on a running alpha, and it has a pretty good crit layout, with two heat sinks in both of the ammo-bearing side torsos and another two heat sinks in each leg to eat would-be mobility crits. It’s going to start TAKING crits a lot more quickly than the Hunchback with two-and-a-half less tons of armor, but its better speed helps get its weapons into range more quickly, and I think it’s a steal for its budget 984 BV price point. Just fun stuff.

Lynn’s Rating: C+ on the Goonhammer rubric, a solid B in my heart

Liberty: Ok, so this thing is awesome and apparently shows up on the Fronc Avail at some point so I'm gonna have to start using it. I am always a sucker for any cheap, relatively quick, SRM caddies just because of how much utility a machine like this can really put out! With acceptable armor and heat management its honestly a great little tub that can get in close, soak an... amount of fire and then explode while being a little shithead to anything it can get near. For this cost I am very pleased with this thing, any 'Mech that can function for under 1K BV is a friend indeed.

Liberty's Rating: B-. Cheap and useful!

TBT-7K

What’s that letter there? A K? Dammit, the Combine’s been here! Ostensibly an experiment in converting the Trebuchet to direct fire support rather than indirect bombardment, the 7K takes a 5N chassis and rips out every weapon so that it can make, ah, bold choices. In place of the normal missiles and lasers, the 7K Treb mounts an AC/5 in the left torso, a PPC in the right torso, an SRM 2 in the right arm, and one additional heat sink in the CT. It builds the same +movement heat as the 5N when firing its long-range guns, and it does have the exciting distinction of being the first Trebuchet capable of doing damage in a grouping larger than five, but this is so bad, y’all. I actually like the PPC on this chassis, and you could hypothetically load Precision in the AC/5 to make it semi-valuable, but both those guns have a minimum range of 3, and up close this thing is defending itself with a single SRM 2 and a ten-damage kick.

Oh, also, the AC/5 ammo is in the torso with the PPC instead of in the torso with the autocannon, for some reason, so if the 7K loses its right torso it loses every single ranged weapon it has. Lovely. 996 BV isn’t enough of a savings to justify this. If you want a mech to do the job this variant is trying to do, maybe look at a Vindicator or Panther.

Lynn’s Rating: F

Liberty: Usually I'm a bit hard on little shitbuckets like this but like I said, anything even vaguely useful at sub 1K is probably fine. I've been annoyed by one of these in Peri's hands enough times that I've a begrudging respect, and standing hatred, of the 7K so I know what it can actually get for that low-low price.

Liberty's Rating: D. Craves death and dismemberment but it's a 5/8 weirdo PPC for 996... it's useful enough.

Peri: I will go up to bat to defend the 7K. It is in a lot of ways extremely similar to the Panther 9ALAG, increasing in price about 200 BV for more armor, 50% more long range firepower, 50% less point defense, significantly more internal structure, and the ability to load precision ammo in some of that long range damage. It is a better fire support dork, it is adequately survivable, and 996 is still very cheap for a single medium mech. Sub-1000 BV medium mechs are a ton of fun and slot in to forces very easily, and this will chip in a noticeable amount of damage out to a good range with a nice 10 damage hit. I use these quite a lot, and while it is far from optimal on its own, it does a good job at fading in to the background radiation of a list and chipping in. Plus, most opponents won't shoot at it, because it feels like a waste to kill most of the time.

Peri's Rating: C

Kell Hounds Trebuchet. Credit: Jack Hunter

TBT-7M

The Helm Renaissance has been here, and New Toy Syndrome is in effect. The engine is an XL now, but at the “normal” Trebuchet 250-rating rather than the 3C’s larger engine, and the inner frame is endo-steel. What has the 7M done with the saved tonnage? Well, it certainly hasn’t touched the main weapons or the armor; those are the exact same as the 5N’s. Instead, it’s picked up a full set of five jump jets, a Narc launcher with a frankly excessive two tons of Narc ammo, and CASE that doesn’t do anything for it outside campaign play until/unless the playtest ammo explosion rules go through. Oh, and it’s got double heat sinks so it can alpha strike without consequences, only going to +4 even on a full-length jumping alpha.

The fluff for this one is one of those fun bits of military-procurement lore from the world of BattleTech: Building 7Ms with Narc beacons and loading 5Ns with Narc-compatible ammo was significantly cheaper than upgrading all the FWLM’s Trebuchets to add Artemis, but could offer similar benefits when deployed en masse. It’s a neat just-so story… and starts falling apart the moment you examine the reality of the situation more closely. The 7M is still a fire-support mech in practicality, with thin armor and weapons that would rather be at range. Running it in to tag things with NARC is wasteful… and it didn’t have to be that way. With its endo-steel and XL engine, the 7M is no refit of the 5N; it could’ve been built from the ground up as something closer to an up-armored, jumping 5S and would’ve been FAR more effective in getting to Narc range and doing useful things at that range. At 1348 BV, the actual 7M is as disappointing as any other mech trying to have its Narc and its LRMs, too.

Lynn’s Rating: D

Liberty: I fuckin' HATE LRM 'Mechs that pack a Narc. I'm sure there's some grand scheme locked behind the 'I'm actually bad at Battletech and that's a good thing' third eye I refuse to develop but good god it annoys the piss out of me to stuff yet more ammo into a 'Mech which it cannot even effectively use.

Liberty's Rating: D-. Fuckin' stop puttin' Narcs on things that aren't light spotters you weirdos.

TBT-8B

B is for “Blake,” and the WoBies have made quite a set of choices on this chassis. We’ve got the larger XL engine and endo steel of the 3C back, but everything else has been overhauled. The 8B fits a full four MML-5s on the chassis, giving it ten fewer LRM tubes compared to old-fashioned Trebuchets, but one hell of a short range volley when firing SRMs. Its short range arsenal is further enhanced by four ER Medium Lasers, all in the right arm so they can back-scratch if the 8B gets outflanked. It also packs 5 jump jets, short of its maximum capacity, but enough to get its full TMM on a jump. This sounds like the makings of a strong mech, able to plink with LRMs while it’s closing the distance and then turn on the gas once it hits short range, but it’s got… problems. It’s back down to the thinner armor coverage of the 3C, which is pretty terrible for a mech whose damage ramps up at the range the 8B’s does, and with just 13 doubles for heat sinks and the ER tax on its lasers it goes to +8 on a running alpha strike. 1314 BV is too much to spend on a mech that wants to be at short range this badly and will die this quickly when it gets there.

Lynn’s Rating: D-

TBT-9K

The Kuritans are back again, with a less-radical yet still transformative overhaul of the Trebuchet. We’ve got a 5/8/5 movement profile and the heaviest armor we’ve seen on the Treb yet at 85% coverage (distributed pretty well, if a bit light on the rear). Both missile racks are replaced with MRM-20s, two out of the three medium lasers are now pulses (the third remains a bog-standard ML), and there’s a C3 slave. 1329 BV is comparable to the other Trebuchets in this tech band, 20 heat sinking is just a touch light for an alpha strike but sufficient, and I… don’t hate this? I could see it giving pretty good value in a C3 network, and even out-of-network it’s more threatening than the 5S at three hexes or closer. That said, C3 gets pricey, and MRMs are really hurt by that accuracy penalty. I’ll say…

Lynn’s Rating: D+, probably a C in a C3 Network

Liberty: MRMs are funny, MRMs in a C3 net are also funny. This is cheap enough that it could be used, perhaps in doubles, to build the base of fire of your C3 network... Granted a normal Treb with A C3 would probably be better because LRMs love being in C3 networks but yea sure let the Kuritans have their funny beebox. I guess.

Liberty's Rating: D+. That's about right, it's cheap and useful enough to get bumped up a bit to C-/C if in a C3 network.

TBT-9N

From here forward we’re looking at Republic-to-Dark-Age variants, which start using higher tech in interesting ways. The 9N itself is in the family of fantastic RecGuide variants, an effective experiment in applying modern tech to optimize a mech with the same WYSIWYG appearance as the base TBT-5N. It moves 6/9 with its XL engine, mounts lighter Clan-grade (but Regulan-built!) LRM-15s, protects all three tons of ammo in its chassis with CASE II, carries 95% of full armor coverage in light ferro-fibrous, and upgrades all three Medium Lasers to Medium Variable-Speed Pulse Lasers. The 9N doesn’t have Artemis, doesn’t have the heat sinks to alpha strike, and picks up an XL gyro along the way, but it’s still a fantastic value for 1550 BV, able to maneuver effectively, throw a significant amount of damage around at any range, and leverage the ludicrous accuracy of VSP lasers up close. I haven’t actually gotten this one to table yet, as my local meta usually doesn’t play in the appropriate eras, but I’m extremely eager to give it a spin.

Lynn’s Rating: A

Liberty: I know this 'Mech and I know Fear. Peri likes to use it to beat me upside the head with LRMs and VSPs. I have gotten very good at picking 'He dies first' 'Mechs and the 9N is among the cream of that crop. If there is a 9N on the table it very rapidly becomes a target of import for me to kill.

Liberty's Rating: A+. God I hate dealing with this thing, it's so good.

Peri: This is honest to god one of the nastiest medium mechs around in IlClan. It is a brutal little thing that does a pretty good amount of damage for its 1550 BV price, moves quick, pairs like a fine wine with something like a Centurion 9D, Ninja-To, Stormcrow, or Men Shen, and generally just obliterates. It cannot be ignored or it is going to do some very, very horrible things to you. This is in my top 5 medium mech variants, and it genuinely ranks as one of the best mechs in the game.

Peri's Rating: S-

TBT-9R

I just want to say up front, the 9R has the highest BV out of all Trebuchet variants at 2165, and it’s got a huge price tag in-universe, too. Why? Well, it's built around a massive XXL engine that propels it 7/11, plus a supercharger to take its max run up to a blistering 14 (at the risk of adding engine crits on top of the normal XXL engine heat, of course). The Regulans then shoved three of those Clan-grade LRM-15s into this speedy boy, with a cursory pair of Medium X-Pulses serving as its laser complement. The 9R sports the same improved armor as the 9N, which is nice, and the speed could be useful if you want to play range-efficiency games with the CLRMs, but the XXL is a Problem here. Running and firing the LRMs alone builds +1 heat; if you drop two LRMs to bring in the two MXPLs you’re looking at +3 running. If you want to alpha strike, you’re going up +9 even at a standstill. Oh, also, the left torso contains nothing but six crits worth of engine, five tons of ammunition, and CASE that would barely help even with the playtest rules. In a vacuum this mech is usable, but you can do so, so, so much better for 2165 BV, even just looking at other Trebuchets.

Lynn’s Rating: D-

Liberty: God this thing is fucking funny. Bad, and dumb, but funny.

Liberty's Rating: F+. Crave death and die about it, then be sure to pay god's own BV tax for your incompetence/unabashed love.

Marik Militia Trebuchet. Credit: Lynn C.

TBT-XK7

God bless the Periphery. I’m going to break alphabetical order here, just a touch, to lay the groundwork here. The XK7 is a one-off Taurian prototype from the dawn of the Republic era which does utterly batshit things with the Trebuchet chassis. This is the slowest Trebuchet at 4/6/4… sometimes. I say sometimes because the reason why it moves 4/6/4 is because it has modular armor on every torso location (with that armor destroyed or jettisoned it moves a more Trebuchet-normal 5/8/5) AND because it’s equipped with Triple-Strength Myomer, so heat can take it to 5/8/4… or 6/9/5 if the modular armor is off and the TSM is on. Love a mech with, uh, four different movement profiles. The XK7 still carries missiles and lasers… after a fashion. It’s packing two Streak SRM 6s, an MPL, an ERML, and an ER Flamer. A small shield is strapped onto the left arm alongside one of the Streaks and the ERML just to make sure those guns can't fire at full accuracy until the shield is destroyed, and the right arm, the laser arm on most Trebuchets, is instead equipped with a chain whip, one of the most peculiar melee weapons in BattleTech. It's... sort of like a sword with no TSM damage bonus, except that if it hits a mech’s legs it can immediately attempt to trip its target and if it hits a mech’s arms it can immediately initiate a grapple.

Without turning heat sinks off, this thing maxes out at only +5 heat on a jumping alpha in which both streaks lock on, and it can never have fine control of its TSM heat in any turn it attempts to fire the streaks. At least it’s silly durable with one-point-shy-of-full armor coverage with the modular armor and shield welded on top? And it only costs 1549 BV?

The Trebuchet XK7 would make some kind of sense as the custom ride of a Solaris gladiator who somehow got stuck trying to build a brand off the frame of a Trebuchet 7M/9K chassis, but this came out of Vandenberg Mechanized Industries somehow. Amazing.

Lynn’s Rating: D for effectiveness, S for insanity

Liberty: Why... I don't... Look this kind of shit is why the Fronc Reaches and the Calderon Protectorate left you, Taurians. Be better.

TBT-K7R

Okay, so. Kali Yama Weapon Industries was one of the FWL’s several Trebuchet manufacturers, building Treb 7Ms alongside their flagship Orions and Perseuses and such. Then Kalidasa, the planet on which Kali Yama was headquartered, got incorporated into the Republic. And then? Then some madlad at Kali Yama saw what the Taurians were doing to the Trebuchet chassis and decided that’s such a good idea, we should make one of those! They started producing a factory refit Trebuchet in the image of the XK7, and managed to sell the damn things to the Republic! Some concessions were made in the name of mass-production, of course. The modular armor and shield were both dropped, leaving the K7R with its base 5/8/5 movement profile and normal 50-tonner near-max armor. They dropped one of the Streak-6s (but kept the other), dropped the MPL, and doubled up on both the ERMLs and the ER Flamers. The chain whip stayed, of course. The engine shifted to a light engine rather than an XL, but the K7R still had enough space for one more weapon… a BattleMech Taser.

The BattleMech Taser is another weirdo TacOps weapon like the chain whip and shield. It’s… kind of a side-grade relative to TSEMP (Tight-Stream Electromagnetic Pulse) weapons, with significantly worse range and accuracy, a dependence on ammo, and a lower chance to shut down their target, but a much higher chance to inflict interference on the target, and no interference feedback on the firing unit.

There’s sort of a mad logic to the K7R, particularly from the violence-reduction mindset of the early Republic. Its TSM works somewhat better than the XK7’s, with a walking alpha taking it to TSM heat as long as the streaks fire, it can maintain neutral heat without needing the streaks, and the chain whip + taser + flamers enhance its ability to take down mechs non-lethally, but it’s just so goddamn weird. It’s not doing much actual damage, but 1415 is sort of cheap for this, I guess? At least compared to TSEMP prices? I’m not sure how to rate this thing.

Lynn’s Rating: D+? C-?? And an A for insanity???

(Sidebar: I don’t have either XTRO: Periphery, where the XK7’s fluff lives, or TRO: Prototypes, where the K7R originated, but if ANYONE can tell me in the comments how these two mechs came to be, what inspired the damn things in-universe, I’ll give you an internet cookie, I promise.)

TBT-7MM “Merida”

The only character variant Trebuchet with an official record sheet hails from the Disney-homage-on-Solaris “Royal Fantasy” XTRO, which started out as an April Fool’s joke before being folded into canon. The Brave homage here builds a coherent advanced-tech Trebuchet, but with a few… quirks. As the model number suggests, we’re building off the bones of a 7M here, with endo-steel, a 250 XL engine for a 5/8 movement profile, and ten double heat sinks, but everything else has been overhauled. The jump jets and the left arm laser have been dropped, and the right arm lasers have both been upgraded to ERMLs. Past that point, Merida firmly breaks with Trebuchet orthodoxy. A hand actuator is added to the right arm (this is the only Treb to have a right hand other than the chain whip variants!), the traditional left arm LRM is shifted into the left torso, and the left arm picks up a small vibroblade, barely more damaging than a normal sword would be at this tonnage, for movie-homage reasons. Both LRM-15s are upgraded to Streak LRMs, a nice upgrade, and pick up CASE II to protect their ammunition. Finally, Merida here picks up Reflective armor with coverage only slightly worse than the 9R/9N standard. We’ve got a mixed bag here. Merida can pretty much alpha strike at will, only building movement heat when both streaks fire (as long as the vibroblade is switched off, which it should be), and she deals a cool 40 damage on that alpha. She’s carrying too much ammo, though, with two full tons for each of her SLRMs, and with reflective armor she neeeeever wants to be in melee range to use that vibroblade. The reflective also means it's going to suck whenever she fails a PSR. She’s a capable mech, but 2024 BV feels high for what you’re getting here.

Lynn’s Rating: C+

Final Thoughts

Ah. I see how the tonal disconnect in these Mech Overviews happens. See, I love the Trebuchet, it's a great cheap chassis with a clear role to fill and an icon of my beloved Free Worlds League, but from a perspective of sheer battlefield effectiveness in the ilClan era its early variants are worryingly fragile and its later variants sometimes struggle with efficiency. That said, the 9N looks fantastic, the 3C should do great if you can keep it safe, the 5N is a true value piece in IntroTech, and you should absolutely run a 5S at some point; I guarantee something funny will happen if you do.

Also, CGL, if you ever want to publish more short-range variants in the mold of the 5S, call me, I’ve got plenty of ideas!

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don't forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.

Tags: battlemech | Mech Overview | Battle Mech | trebuchet | medium mech