We're here with our fourth week of the mech championships, finally looking at assault mechs. So far the trend has been that as mech weights increase we get more variety between each of our contributor's selections - the lights were close to identical, the mediums had a bit of range, and the heavies had quite a bit that didn't overlap. We've definitely got a good mix of IS and clan mechs here. One thing to note is that all our contributors mentioned that at this weight class they could easily fill out 15 or 20 similarly good mechs.

Turkina Keshik Jade Phoenix Prime. Credit: Valk

Valk

Viking IIC. This thing is bullshit. How are you even supposed to deal with this on a ‘Mech-to-’Mech basis? Artemis V, flippy arms, 248 points of hardened armor, standard engine and gyro, under 2800 BV? Even the Jade Phoenix A (praise be upon him) will have a hard time putting this stupid thing down, and that’s with the assumption that you’re double-tapping the UAC/20 at it every time your feet touch the ground. This thing is a case study in why battle armor is almost mandatory past a certain point in the timeline, because if you don’t have some dudes jamming satchel charges in his leg joints or double-fisting heavy machineguns at his cockpit glass, you’re just not putting this down without considerable effort.
Jade Phoenix A. About the only thing it can’t do on its own is crit-seek, and if that’s your bag, then go grab the Jade Phoenix E instead, which is basically the same price but prefers to run 8 instead of jumping 7. Either way, the Jade Phoenix is the problem solver, unless the problem is a Viking IIC, in which case it may not be enough. Load up your Clan battle armor of choice and go hunting.
Mastodon. All of them. That “second phase” bit everyone else is doing is no joke. If you held a gun to my head and asked me to pick a variant, I’d probably say the A, but you could probably just pick one blind and do well with it.
Tomahawk C. This ‘Mech should not exist. It is a testament to Clan Wolf’s arrogance. It’s an upscaled Rifleman IIC with ATM12s because it needed MORE gun for some reason, and that, combined with its Wolf heritage, is enough to make me curse its name until the end of time. Woe, HMG Salamander Battle Armor upon ye.
Turkina B/Iron Cheetah B. This one’s a toss-up, because they’re very close. I won’t retread what makes the Iron Cheetah B good. The Turkina B is half-and-half with ER lasers instead of being “oops, all Clan pulse!”, but it too has a targeting computer to offset it and can flip its arms to throw 40 points of damage behind itself on a whim. People sleep on Clan ER lasers whenever Clan pulses are involved, but if you play on sufficiently large maps, it can absolutely be the x-factor needed to turn the tide. However, the Turkina B is slower than the Iron Cheetah, so it’s ultimately going to boil down to personal preference between poking people at range or running up to carve them up.
Regent Prime. All of the Regents are good, but this one’s obscene to me. Its existence is proof that someone, at some point, looked at the Awesome -8Q and went “I don’t want to fix her, I want to make her worse.” Three Clan ER larges is a lot, but strapping an LB-20X and medium pulses to it elevates it to ridiculous. Oh, and it’s still got the standard engine and gyro so it just refuses to die.
Banshee BNC-8S. This is a TSM monster, Assault-style. While not quite perfect due to the inclusion of a ballistic weapon (which is an LB-10X, so it’s at least a good one), this thing will run downfield far faster than most people expect it to and then promptly blow some poor bastard’s leg out with a 38-point kick, assuming you don’t want to instead do your best Halo 3 gravity hammer impression with an equivalent hatchet attack. It also has a C3 Slave stuffed into the hatchet arm, so while your opponents are screaming in terror at the 95-ton monstrosity barreling down the field at them, you can pay to have his friends carving up whatever is desperately trying to stay away from it. I adore this machine, even if my hatred of Floating Crits has meant that I’ve taken a TAC to the gyro and fallen over forever on turn 2 more times than I care to admit.
Charger C. Everyone laughed at the Charger -1A1 back in the day, so he hit the gym, made some rich friends, and then came back to make his newfound confidence everyone else’s problem. The Charger C moves a staggering 5/8/[13] by virtue of having both MASC and a supercharger installed, and his Clan-spec Glock, like all of his other guns, is now an improved heavy medium laser tied to a targeting computer. Oh, and he’s wearing ferro-lamellor now, because he hates you.
Awesome AWS-11H/AWS-8Q. I was really torn on this, because at the end of the day, I will always love the classic AWS-8Q, but for about 400 BV more, you get the -11H, which solves all of the (minor) flaws the -8Q does while upgrading to heavy PPCs and stuffing Clan-spec DHS into every possible crit slot to keep those guns intact as long as humanly possible. Times change, but a good idea is forever, and the Awesome is a damn good idea.
Banshee BNC-3Q. I briefly considered putting the Charger -1A1 here because it does the same thing - be a damn cheap Assault ‘Mech that moves reasonably fast and has reasonable armor - but the Banshee -3Q has a much bigger gun, much more armor, only moves a little slower, and doesn’t cost that much more. At about 1400 BV, it’s by far the cheapest Assault ‘Mech on my list, probably the cheapest Assault on all of our lists, and it’s worth every damn C-bill. The Banshee -3Q is built around the AC/20, and it has enough ammo bins that you can fill ‘em all with AP and precision party favors while still having ammo to spare by the end of a typical game. In addition, you’ve got the Periphery’s greatest weapon: two 10-point fists, and those bad boys are rated E for Everyone. Be sure to practice your favorite Kazuma Kiryu lines before deployment and scope out any ‘Mech-scale bike racks that might wind up in arm’s reach.

Jade Falcon Mastodon. Credit: Jack Hunter

Peri

Iron Cheetah B. Sorry, this thing sucks so much to play against but it carries the same pulse laser load as the Night Gyr E with the same mobility but it has a targeting computer and the full, unrepentant bulk of a 100 ton max armor clan assault mech. This will not be the last Iron Cheetah on this list. I have brought this to an actual tournament and it fucking whips, it doesn’t miss and it will do anything you need it to.
Mastodon(just fucking pick one TBH). All of the Mastodons are good, though the Prime and A are probably the best. The Mastodon is the only mech in BattleTech with a second phase, as you puncture its armor and it starts taking half damage and slowly bleeding components to crits while completely and totally refusing to fucking die. The Prime has a fun heat thing where it only builds heat if it does at least 40 damage, and the A is just a big LPL bastard. Nasty nasty chassis.
Viking IIC. This is a nasty mech if it is allowed to exist and do what it wants to. This mech has 634 total health. That is basically as much as 2 Atlas’s, and that’s not ok. With the high damage output, high accuracy, and good range of its metric fuckload of ArtV’d LRMs, the insane durability of hardened armor, and CASE II keeping ammo explosions down, the honest to god only thing about this record sheet that approaches a problem is its ¾ movement profile. In every game I have seen it in, the pilot dies before the mech does. This is almost too much durability and it is one of the few things in the game that can outfight a Kodiak in a fair fight, and it is 300 BV less. Much like the Fire Moth P it needs to be played a bit carefully to get it into a good position, but fuck me it is never leaving that position.
Kodiak. This was my number 3 but the Viking IIC kills it insanely hard while having better long range firepower and more armor. The Kodiak is a lot faster and that means a lot, and in a lot of games it’ll feel better to use, and the list of mechs that can survive a close encounter of the bear kind and trade even sorta evenly is single digit. It looks like it should be bad, its expensive, and it has some heat weirdness and bad bracketing, but I cannot overstate that the Kodiak simply does not care about how mechs are supposed to be good, it just brute forces so many decisions that would normally make it terrible and somehow all these bad decisions become a singularity that makes an insane, incredibly high quality mech.
Tomahawk C. This is an obscure one so real quick do me a favor and look at the record sheet real quick. Ok, now that you have done this, Mary on a cross why is this thing allowed to exist? Packing 4 Clan LPLs and a pair of ATM-12s, you get to eat your cake and keep it too (I swear to god I am not the unabomber). It does upsetting long range damage and within 5-ish hexes it can switch on the ATMs and just hurt people, like, in the real world, not in the game. Also the LPLs are on flippable arms because it needed it, just an absurd record sheet.
Tenshi OA. This thing is a tournament menace for the low price of 1800 BV. As this is a deeply obscure Dark Ages mech, any given Tenshi OA you run into in the wild is likely directly because of my Richmond Open 2025 article. Uh, sorry. This thing is just a trio of LVSPs and a vestigial MRM for not nearly enough BV. It is a big dumb assault mech and is easily outranged, but if allowed to get into a position it likes it is going to kill you dead.
Kingfisher C. This is just a big dumb idiot of an assault mech that will never fail you and that your opponent has to kill the CT out of and it will scream, bite and kick the whole way down. Kingfishers are dumb bastard sacks of durability and firepower and this is the dumbest and the bastardest sack of them all. The fact that it does good enough damage that your opponent is going to desperately want it dead is just icing on the cake.
Iron Cheetah C. This is just a big dumb bastard of an assault mech with great firepower, good speed, good armor, and a complete and total lack of actual significant problems. Expensive but very worth it. Probably the Iron Cheetah to take if you feel bad for your opponent compared to the B.
Jade Phoenix A. Jump 7 assault mechs are not acceptable and this is probably the best jump 7 assault mech. It tends to just kill things because chewing through that much armor with 4 TMM is borderline impossible on a human timescale. I am only putting it this low because it is just not fun to use and it doesn’t vomit damage or value people to death the same as some other assault mechs, but it is easily the least fun assault mech in the game to play against, in my opinion.
Regent B. Lotta good B configs. I have a small preference for the Prime personally over the B just on price, but the B is measurably better and really isn’t that expensive. Just a dumb brick of an assault mech that it is hard to use incorrectly. I have so many more assault mechs to talk about, and this one could easily be a top 50. Assault mechs in modern BattleTech are just pure gas, with insanely high quality record sheet after insanely high quality record sheet. The only reason to take heavy mechs is, honestly, for flavor, you can almost always find an assault mech that will do the job better while being a hell of a lot bigger and tougher and meaner.

Supernova. Credit: Rockfish

Scotty

Jade Phoenix A. It's not the only jump 7 Assault ‘Mech out there but it's pretty convincingly the most dangerous of the few we have. For jump mobility, 85 tons is the sweet spot and it piles damage and accuracy and durability on top. It's the whole package, the actual true ‘Mech that can factually outgun anything it can't outrun. And a lot of things it can. At 2739 BV it does it cheaper than most of the giants it kills, too. This isn’t even actually my favorite Jade Phoenix config, but it’s the one I think is best at killing men and ‘Mechs.
Mastodon Prime. No matter how durable you think this ‘Mech is, you’re wrong. It’s tougher than that. It’s 5 tons lighter than it could be but it’s way tougher than a 100 tonner thanks to Reinforced structure. The heat balance is excellent, the damage it can put out is excellent, it’s good at all ranges. Really just a huge asshole of a ‘Mech. 10/10.
Iron Cheetah B. This ‘Mech should be 4000 BV. The fact that it isn’t means it’s really good. A huge amount of pulse lasers tied to a Targeting Computer on a 100 tonner that moves 4/6 is rude.
Supernova 5. Six Clan ER Large Lasers and the Coolant Pods to use them for four turns in a row generating only movement heat. On a standard engine 95 tonner. This thing is nasty, and puts out some of the most accurate long range firepower you can get without turning your face away from God’s light with either pulse lasers or a targeting computer or both. There are only three ‘Mechs on this list over 3000 BV, and this is one of them.
Jade Phoenix C. Returning for the fourth time in four lists, it’s The Same OmniMech With a Different Config. This is actually my favorite Jade Phoenix and I think it’s the most effective when you have more than one unit on the table, but it loses the duel straight up to the A so they ended up in this order. Talons are gross, ATMs are gross, jump 5 max armor 85 tonners are gross. There’s so much damage here. So much.
Banshee BNC-12S. Have you heard the good word about 4/6 Assault ‘Mechs? No? Well stick around because there are more of them coming. Having a Clan XL on this thing feels wrong. It’s 95 tons of brick shithouse and it’s coming for your side of the map and when it gets there it’s going to do its best 3/4ths of a Kodiak impression but you paid like 500 less for it so it’s fine.
Zeus ZEU-11S. Budget goes places. This isn’t the most capable ‘Mech on the list, but it’s the (second) cheapest at 2280. That’s just a damn good cost. You can take it and get all the cool stuff about having a Clan Assault in the XL engine and the armor and honestly even the guns of a low end Clan Assault while paying less overall.
Awesome AWS-11H. Have you noticed the pattern yet? All eight of the first eight spots on this list (including this one) are from the Recognition Guides series. I’m not sure exactly what the inciting reason was, but the Recognition Guides are full of the best Assault ‘Mechs ever printed. All of them. It’s frankly insane how many hits there are in those pages. Anyway here’s an Awesome with Heavy PPCs and Clan Doubles, have fun.
Kodiak. Like halfway down this list I stopped trying to put things in order because good god all of these things are incredibly rude and good and the slight variation in which combination of rude and good they are blurs together. This absolutely deserves to be further up the list but I had a bit to run and this was the first slot where it didn’t get in the way. It’s good.
Gargoyle Prime. Yes, seriously. Sometimes cost is a quality and this thing is the cheapest Clan Assault. Period, that’s the end of the qualifiers. It’s 80 tons of armored nasty moving 5/8 and it turns out that’s value especially when it’s not even 1550 BV. I’m just getting to the end of this list and I’m annoyed that this is all ten spots. I’ve got like six more Assaults that could go on this list and it’s honestly kind of nuts that there’s that kind of depth in Assault ‘Mech sheets that there just isn’t in the other weight classes. I didn’t even mention the Kingfisher here, which feels like a personal betrayal of one or more people above me in this list, but I can’t bear to swap anything else out. Or the Tenshi. Or the Regent. Which I hate and am actually very happy to leave off this list, now that I think about it. The point is that Assault ‘Mechs are cracked in this Golden Age of BattleTech and it’s almost harder to pick a bad one than it is to pick a good one it feels like sometimes. I don’t agree entirely with the take from Peri above that Heavies sort of fall into the useless zone but I do absolutely agree that the Heavies that aren’t digging deeply into the pool of being extremely efficient health pools are playing against a stacked deck, and that’s partly on the back of how absolutely bugnuts good modern Assaults can be.

Spartan. Credit: porble

Lynn

As a special note… I’m very conscious that I’m probably the writer with the fewest games of BattleTech under my belt out of all of us. I had trepidations about even contributing to this series, and each one of the Top Tens I’ve written so far has included at least one mech that was there based on theorycrafting or secondhand recommendations. I love my big boys, though, so I’ve decided to write my Assault list purely off mechs I have personally either used or fought against. This means that a couple big names will be absent, perhaps most notably the Mastodon. I’m sure it’s spectacular, but I’ve never been in a position to see it in action, and others’ lists have covered it well enough, I think.

Kodiak Standard. Liberty may have lost faith in his baby as #1 on account of Viking IIC trauma, but I’m picking up the fallen banner. There are mechs that are more unkillable than the Kodiak, and there are mechs that are more killy than the Kodiak, and there’s plenty of mechs that are faster than the Kodiak, but I’ve yet to face anything that felt like as comprehensive a triple-threat on the speed-gun-armor trifecta as Big Bear does. I have had tremendous respect for this mech’s capacity for violence beaten into me. Honorable mention to the 6 for basically being a side-grade of the same thing; honestly it suits my personal tastes better, but the availability of the Standard works better for my factions.
Tomahawk C. I’m convinced that the Tomahawk II exists because someone at CGL realized that this configuration was too dangerous to keep existing in-universe. This is the mech that makes me pull out the “Do you think God stays in heaven because he, too, lives in fear of what he’s created here on Earth?” line which is somehow from Spy Kids 2 and not Paradise Lost. Just a big, well-armored pile of the best weapons in the Clan tech base, sure.
Jade Phoenix A. As with everything with good armor that can jump 7, the third eye that unlocks this mech’s potential is realizing that you don’t have to jump all the time, but having light mech TMM and mobility on tap whenever you do actually need it is just obscene for something that contains this much violence.
Kingfisher Prime. I keep trying to quit the Prime and try a different Kingfisher, but the OG always calls me back. Sure, ammo explosions can make it a sad panda, especially if forced withdrawal is in play, but the sheer cost effectiveness of the Prime makes me happy, and it’s still durable as all heck. Honorable mentions to the A and X, though; I’m definitely going to field them… eventually!
Spartan C. What if the Iron Cheetah B was less Iron, more Cheetah, and much cheaper? There are slow assaults I grudgingly respect, but it’s fast assault mechs that own the keys to my heart, and this is a very fine specimen indeed. This mech rates in the Top Ten Reasons To Play Scorpion Empire.
Gargoyle Prime. If y’all have paid any attention to my tournament reports you’d know to expect this in my top ten. The sheer utility of this mech for its budget price is just insane, especially if your opponent brings tasty, tasty combined arms for it to nom on. If playtest fire/smoke gets normalized, this friendly fella has only gained more tools for its toolbox. I love himb.
Awesome AWS-11H. We’ve given the Clans enough flowers on this list, haven’t we? I love my budget assaults, and this is one of the best in the business for cost-effectiveness. Sure, its existence depends on the availability of (domestically reverse-engineered!) Clan-grade Double Heat Sinks, but the secret sauce is pairing those with good ol’ BV-budget-friendly Inner Sphere Heavy PPCs. Magnifique!
Thug THG-11E. It’s not as punchy as most other mechs on this list or quite as cheap as the Garg Prime, but this guy is a fantastic budget brick. While the BV cost differential between the 11E and the Royal is quite small, I prefer the basic 11E as an Inferno SRM caddy due to its inability to overheat as long as it hasn’t taken engine crits.
Gargoyle C. It can be very valuable to have a mech in your list which exists to make your opponent make mistakes, and the Gargoyle C is phenomenal in that role. No one likes seeing an assault mech carrying an Ultra/20 and half a Nova’s lasers running at them at 5/8 speed, and the rest of your list can get away with an awful lot while your opponent is trying to kill this guy.
BattleMaster BLR-1Gc. The mech on this list I’ve most recently become acquainted with, the 1Gc isn’t flashy in the slightest bit, but I’ve quickly fallen in love with it simply from a value-for-BV perspective. While its punches sadly don’t go internal on a fully-armored mech’s head like a Banshee’s do, this friend is otherwise a Badshee-adjacent package of speed and armor and fist-having at a Badshee-adjacent price, but with the upside of a very decent set of guns and the sinks to fire all of them all the time. I’d love it better with CASE rather than the Command Console, as the SRM ammo is a genuine flashing weak spot, but if you’re looking to add just a bit of extra backbone to your force and you’re strapped for BV, you could do a lot worse than this guy. For bonus points, while a single SRM 6 isn’t the best delivery vehicle for Infernos, this fella would be perfectly happy laying down some smoke on its approach from its second ton of ammunition!

Kodiak. Credit: porble

Liberty

Viking IIC. I hate this damned thing. We had a game where Peri ran two of them the other day and both of them died to pilot death. Note that I don’t say this because I think it’s funny, I say this because that’s the only way to put them down. The first one took a Kodiak’s worth of damage, note that I don’t mean that it took the output of a Kodiak, or an amount of damage that would kill a Kodiak. I mean it took an entire Kodiak’s fucking health pool in damage, and it didn’t fucking die. It didn’t even blow in the armor. The only reason I killed it is because it finally failed a consciousness check after I shot it in the head three times over 6 turns and then it fell over, finally failing a head hit check and taking a nap that led to me aiming everything I had at its head. The other went out in about the same way but to ammo explosions. You might think that means it has no guns, but you’d be FUCKING WRONG. No, no it’s just got 2 cLRM 20s and 2 cLRM 15s… with Artemis V. It doesn’t miss, it just hits you. And hits you. And hits you. And hits you. An-
Kodiak Standard. My boy, my beautiful, loving baby boy. I adore this machine. It serves me with continued valor, honor, distinction, and hatred. I, more often than not, will drive a Kodiak into a line and watch with bated breath as it slaughters its way through 4-5K BV. God loves Kodiaks, and you should too. It looked at the triangle people like to prattle on about and decided that it, and they, were fucking stupid and that it, being a Bear, did not need to conform to their idea of how things should work. As such it doesn’t, and in that nonconformance it has evolved into one of the apex predators of Battletech. Bear, He’s Iron Tough.
Mastodon. Dude I don’t even know what config, just pick one. The Mastodon just doesn’t die, it is one of BT’s few ‘Mechs with a second phase. Rip the armor off of it, it really doesn’t care because the joke’s on you, that’s the easy part. Sure you’ll get the occasional crit, taking guns or actuators offline as it slowly turns into a shambling wreck, but as you do it will just keep going. It will keep shooting at you until you make it stop.
Jade Phoenix A. God this thing is hateful, it just kills things. It doesn’t stop killing things even when the bin for the UAC is empty. It’s here solely to beat you to death and the crazy bastard inside of it with the green tattoos is going to have a ball of a time as they pick you apart into really big chunks.
Hellstar. It’s 4 cERPPCs with a shit load of armor, good movement, spot on cooling, and a burning pool of malice where its heart should be. It has the capacity to, at any given point in time, just wipe whatever it looks at off the face of the earth be it through blowing something’s head smooth off or hammering out a torso. That thing will just kill shit and will keep on doing it until something makes it stop doing it.
Supernova 5. Look man, it’s 6 cERLLs that have 4 turns of only building movement heat with the use of the coolant pods. It will kill shit stone dead for four turns and then only kill them… I dunno, gravel dead? Either way, it has a job, a purpose, and a plan and it is damned good at doing that plan.
Nightstar NSR-9J. It’s boring. It’s standard. It’s built to do a job, and it does it without complaint, failure, or deviation. The only time a Nightstar has ever failed me has been either when its head gets ripped off or a TAC pops a gauss rifle out of the gate. That’s it. If I pay for a Nightstar I know I’m going to get my money’s worth out of it. It will dish damage and take damage until the cows come home and it will be as happy as can be the whole time it does.
Marauder IIC 3. The Standard could also sit in this spot but really I prefer the 3 for versatility. There are no heat problems in this machine, it fires everything at any point that there’s a possible shot and it keeps doing it until such a point as the bins are empty, the target is gone, or it's on the floor busted apart. I use this thing a lot and it's only ever let me down once… when it got shot in the head and failed the first consciousness check. Sometimes fate just says to get bent.
Star Adder C. This is a cheap, 4/6 platform meant to deliver a pair of UAC/10s, an ERLL, and an LB-20 to whatever problem it is you might find yourself having. There are plenty of other star adders but none of them reach this level of efficient ‘fuck around and find out’ for the price as the C. It’s not terribly flashy, unless you count muzzle flash, but it’s tough, quick enough, and quite pissed off you’d have the gall to step on it’s land… land which includes the Filtvelt Coallition for some fucking reason???
Marauder II MAD-6C. This is a full blooded 100 tonner built to take as many hits as it can with all the bells and whistles that comes with that job. A 3/5/3 movement profile, a standard engine, a compact gyro, a padded out CT to eat any inbound problems, no ammo, and a cool 2,346 BV price tag. I love this thing and get good use out of it as a centerpiece brick to take pain and dish acceptable supporting fire to anything it can get its grubbly little paws on.

Wolf's Dragoons Juliano. Credit: Jack Hunter

Jack

Mastodon Prime. This thing is unkillable, doesn’t care about range, and does massive damage. Sure, it can overheat on an alpha - but because the LRMs are streaks, the only time it’s overheating is if it did at least 40 damage. Oh no.
Jade Phoenix A. Way too much mobility for an assault mech with great damage. It’s not the highest raw damage out there, but it’s still more than enough to outfight anything given how much TMM this thing can build.
Viking IIC. Another incredibly hard to kill mech, this piles damage downrange from the Artemis V LRMs. Its only weakness is to getting kicked or getting stuck behind a hill.
Iron Cheetah B. Tons of clan pulses on a 4/6/4 100 tonner. Boring as hell, but undeniably effective.
Juliano JLN-5C. A somewhat obscure dark ages FWL mech, the Juliano packs a full clan weapon load of three ER larges, three medium pulses, and four streak 6s. It’s got a few issues with heat, and does have an inner sphere XL, but that many SRMs on a well armored, averagely mobile (4/6) chassis that can also contribute effectively at range is a big threat.
Templar III TLR2-OA. Coming in at 1,677 BV, this is one of the cheapest mechs in this article, down with the Gargoyle prime. For that you get a light engine, heavy duty gyro, and a good mix of IS pulses and MMLs. It doesn’t shine in damage output like a lot of mechs here, nor is it at the top of the durability lists, but it’s priced like an inexpensive heavy, moves like a heavy, is more durable than most heavies, and does enough damage that it can’t be ignored.
Kodiak. It’s got all the damage and durability you could ever want. It shouldn’t work, it should be an expensive clan boondoggle that overheats all the time, but instead it will walk straight into your enemies, point at a mech, remove it from existence, and survive to do it again.
Awesome AWS-11H. There are a decent number of ways to do three or more 15-damage hits. Of them, the only one cheaper is the Rifleman III, which can only do it for four turns and can barely move. Everything else either doesn’t have the heat sinks or is more expensive, usually significantly so.
Shogun C 2. Another extremely durable assault (though let down slightly by ammo), this is one of very few assault mechs to mount ferro-lamellar armor. Damage output isn’t amazing, but is solid as all the missile launchers are streak, and it contributes well at long or short range.
Malice MAL-XV. We’re looking at a 4/6 full armor 100 tonner here, which is a great place to start. The weapon load on this isn’t amazing at range - the longest ranged weapons are the light AC/5s at 5/10/15, but it’s carrying so much ammo that it can be completely filled with AP and precision giving terrific utility. When it gets close the set of four improved heavy mediums is a ton of damage, and it still squeaks in under 2,000 BV. It doesn’t particularly shine, but it's a great trooper that can anchor any sort of force, particularly in games involving objectives.

This wraps up all weight classes of our top mechs. We've actually had a bit of a change in the variety trend - nearly all of us have a few of the same exact mechs near the top, but then the rest of our lists fill out quite differently. Next week I'm going to be doing a bit of analysis of these picks, looking at what our commonalities are and how they show what features make mechs good.

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Tags: Battletech | mechwarrior | Top 10 | Mech Championship