Howdy and welcome back to Mech Overview! This week we are taking a look at the Cougar, a cool looking little fighter jet of a mech that was the very first one I ever used in any piece of BattleTech media. The Cougar was the face of MechAssault, a BattleTech tie-in shooter that came with the original Xbox, and a game I played the living hell out of as a child. Ever since then it has been the default Clan light mech in my brain, displacing all the other invasion era lights.
Shame about the stats.
The Cougar is a deeply weird light mech, one of the Clanniest Clan mechs to ever Clan. None of that takes away from the fact that it looks sick as shit though. The Cougar is functionally an exaggerated Puma, leaning even harder into firepower at the cost of even more speed. This leads to some horrifyingly potent configurations when it comes to offensive power, but Cougars are brittle and slow and, as an Omni-Mech, variants can’t fix those problems. Well, mostly. The Cougar has a few variants that are rebuilds, not Omni-Configs, which is very unusual, and those rebuilds do some weird things to change up or refit the Cougar.
Chassis
As for the base Chassis, the Cougar is a 5/8/0 35 tonner with deeply mediocre armor, only 14 points at most on the CT and only barely able to take a PPC hit on the rest of the body. This combination of slow movement speed and poor armor on a mech that has 19 tons of pod space is going to create some insanely expensive and unpleasantly fragile variants. It reminds me of the Panther in a lot of ways, having similar stock armor and a firepower focus but being an Omni-Mech means that, unlike the Panther, there is only so much it can do to fix its issues.
The Cougar really is built for fire support and hanging back at a distance, but smart opponents will probably stage dive the shit out of it once they realize how much damage it is capable of putting out.
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).
Prime
The Cougar Prime is a very basic and very scary config. For 1485 BV you get two large pulse lasers and two LRM-10s. This is simple, it builds movement heat shooting the lasers, and it is one of the variants that makes at least a bit of an argument for itself. 1500 is a lot of BV, but not really by Clan standards, and the massive range and hit bonus of the LPLs lets this Cougar stay 10+ hexes away from the fight and plink away with a reasonable level of accuracy, and any flanking lights that try to dive it can usually be outfought with said pulse lasers. The main issue here is the fragility, the Cougar is one successful Gauss shot away from internal damage at literally all times and it will often end up trading fire with mechs equipped with big, high damage long range guns like that. 1500 BV is way too much for something this vulnerable, even if the damage output and weapon load are pretty good. It comes up just this side of usable, but only barely.
Peri’s Rating: C-
A
Oof Oof owie my BV. The A comes in at 1697 BV and carries two ER medium lasers, a small pulse laser, and a pair of LRM-20s with Artemis IV. While this is a hilarious amount of LRM tubes for such a tiny mech, and it is insanely funny to have what is functionally a better Archer at 35 tons, this is so much to spend. If you can keep it out of line of sight and plink away from the back it can be somewhat competent, but an LRM carrier does that better for half the price. The big advantage of Clan LRMs over IS ones is the ability to use them in a brawl, but the Cougar doesn’t want anything to do with a brawl and needs to stay as far back as it can in order to continue existing. It’s a shame this one isn’t very good, the equivalent LRM Puma config is probably my personal favorite on that chassis.
Peri’s Rating: D+
B
Okay so hear me out. The B comes in at 1774 for a pair of ER PPCs and an ER medium laser, but this is functionally an improvement to the Puma Prime. You get the same PPCs, but trade the targeting computer out for enough heat sinks to shoot both of them without overheating, and get a random backup laser. On rate 1800 is about what you expect to pay for a pair of headchopping main guns, and this is in general way less bad than you would expect. It is still insanely fragile and needs to hang way the hell back, but if you can manage this this isn’t a bad little gun platform. It’s not great or fantastic, but it is functional.
Peri’s Rating: C+
C
Wow this is a wild one. At 1785 BV, a frankly unacceptable amount for a mech this light, you get a gauss rifle and 5 ER medium lasers. That is a lot of fucking damage output on a very light mech. The problem is that it doesn’t have the heat sinks to fire everything, and the BV, good god the BV. Clan ER medium lasers are very expensive in BV terms, and more than offset the gauss rifle being a comparatively cheap headchopper. This is far too expensive, avoid in favor of better headchopper mechs.
Peri’s Rating: D-
D
At 1309 BV, the D is the cheapest of the Cougars, and it is easy to see why. For weaponry we have an Ultra AC/10, an ER large laser, and a pair of SRM-4s. UAC/10s are fantastic and efficient and the other guns here are nice to have too. On price alone this is one of the better Cougars, it manages heat well and has enough range to hang back and do what it wants to. It is still insanely brittle, but that feels less bad when you are spending 1300 than it does when you are spending 1800.
Peri’s Rating: C+/B-, not sure which exactly to give it. Slightly leaning more towards B-
E
The E comes in at 1442 BV, and has a pretty good weapon load. It carries two ATM-6s and three ER medium lasers, a very simple loadout. ATMs are fantastic as we have said many times here, one of the best weapon types in the game, and the E has a full ammo load for each gun so you can shoot for functionally ever. ATMs are at their best when they can fire HE though, and the Cougar really doesn’t want to get anywhere close to people and probably won’t get a chance to use that HE damage without putting itself at risk of instant death.
Its not a horrible variant but slow speed and poor armor really takes the wind out of its sails. It also is weird to me that none of the Cougar’s so far have jumped, JJs would really help with some of the fragility issues.
Peri’s Rating: C-
F
The Infantry Guy made this one, and it is bad for Cougar reasons. With a weapon load of three medium pulse lasers, a streak SRM-4, and eight heavy machine guns, the F really wants to get close to people. It even has B-Pods to kill battle armor that try to sully its glorious legs with an actuator attack. It also jumps 5/8/5, but the fundamental issue here is that this is a short range striker variant of a mech that has no business getting anywhere fucking close to anything. A light mech hunter will eat this thing alive, and even most line heavies will rip it apart with zero issues.
5/8/5 on a skirmishing long range boy with no armor is a very different equation to 5/8/5 on a short range brawler with no armor. It can’t get away from decent light mech hunters, it can’t kill them, and it is going to be forced to get right up next to them to do damage. Miserably bad config not because of BV alone, but because it is a Cougar. One of the only Omni-Configs I can think of that is bad specifically because it is on this mech.
Okay, every Loki is bad because it’s a Loki, but that is an outlier and should not be counted.
Peri’s Rating: D-/F+(unsure), vaguely functional at killing BA and bad at everything else.
G
Gregory over here costs 1453 and has a funny loadout that uses the Cougar’s chassis about as well as you can. You get an ER large laser, a pair of LRM-5s, and a HAG/20. HAGs and ERLLs have more or less the same range brackets and have that extremely nice and extremely important eight hexes of short range, letting Gregory hang out in its short range while the enemy is at medium or even long. The HAG/20 plus ERLL combo also can consistently generate a PSR on any enemy, and nothing on this mech is encouraging it to get close to the enemy, which is very nice.
If you have a way to keep light mech hunters, like the Wraith or Gunsmith, off of it Gregory should be able to put some good work in as a fire support piece for a comparatively low price, as far as Clan mechs go. This is a lot better within the context of a pure Clan force than it is in the wider mixed-tech context that these articles are written in.
Peri’s Rating: C+/B-. I feel uneasy giving a B- to any Cougars simply on the back of how brittle they are for cost, but this probably does the best job of getting there.
H
The H is the bad heavy laser one. There is always a bad heavy laser one. At 1323, admittedly a cheap price, the H carries an ECM, three heavy medium lasers, and an Ultra AC/5. It pairs these guns up to a targeting computer to offset the accuracy penalty, and even has enough heat sinks to shoot everything!
The issue is that this is a Cougar, and it makes some extremely funny choices on top of that. It moves 5/8/4, a profoundly upsetting movement speed that keeps it from building full TMM and jumping. It also is loaded up with guns that only have three hexes of short range on a mech that, as established, should never ever be at short range. It has theoretically nice damage output, but getting within three hexes of the enemy is going to get the Cougar put in the fucking ground in one turn, maybe two if you are lucky.
The Cougar is a threat, it carries meaningful guns, so your opponent will usually actually shoot it. It is also fragile enough that getting shot with real guns up close usually kills it. It costs enough BV that a 2000+ BV assault mech doesn’t feel like it is wasting its turn shooting it, and it has a cool looking model with a ton of guns on it that will prevent you from playing the “Little Guy” card against most opponents. Short Range Cougars are basically all bad.
Peri’s Rating: F, don’t do this with this chassis.
I
The I is another heavy laser one and it is so fucking bad. At 1738 BV it is supposed to mimic the Prime in appearance, and carries two large improved heavy lasers, two LRM-10s, and a micro pulse laser in the face for emotional support. Its guns built 44 heat a turn, not counting the micro pulse, and it can only sink 26. It has no coolant pods or tricks to avoid this. It also has a supercharger, so it moves 5/8(10)/0, one of the single worst movement brackets in the entire game from a BV perspective.
Genuinely a dogshit mech, avoid at all costs.
Peri’s Rating: F, Stop doing this with this chassis.
T
Another one that is supposed to mimic the Prime, at 1748 BV you can already tell this is going to be bad. It also moves 5/8(10)/0, and it carries a Watchdog CEWS so that you can force your opponent to look up what that does. For guns, we have two ER medium pulse lasers, a mediocre but not terrible weapon, and a pair of Streak LRM-10s. It also has a T-Comp to buff those ER MPLs to have the same hit bonus as regular MPLs, which is cool from a gameplay perspective but sucks from a BV one. Streak LRMs are insanely good but the supercharger and other crap on this makes it cost way too much. At least it isn’t trying to fistfight people with its glass bones and paper skin this time.
Peri’s Rating: D
Non-Omni Variants
Here we have the X series, the weirdo Cougars that make structural changes. Kerensky have mercy on our souls.
X
The X is a piece of shit. At 1516 BV it costs a ton, and makes the truly galaxy brained decision to reduce the armor to 8 on the CT and bad everywhere else, joining the club of mechs that get instantly critted by an LPL to any part of their body. It moves 5/8/7 with the use of IJJs, which would be great if it had armor. For weapons we get 2 ERMLs and 2 Streak LRM-10s, a cool loadout on a dogshit mech. A lot of Cougars seem to be obsessed with matching the appearance of the Prime variant for some reason. On top of all of that, the X series has Composite internal structure, doubling internal damage. That is really bad.
Peri’s Rating: F, please stop abusing my jet fighter son he is very sickly.
X2
Much better. At 1335 the X2 is fairly cheap, and it returns the armor to regular Cougar levels. It moves a mighty 5/8/8, enough to actually get some serious light mech-ing done, and carries an ER medium pulse laser and a Streak LRM-15. If I am not mistaken this is only a single machine gun away from being exactly the Cougar that is actually in MechAssault, so this is automatically my favorite child. It having enough jumping MP to actually function as a conventional light mech similar to a Spider is great, it has some real armor compared to something like a Spider and won’t instantly die to a single LPL, and Streak LRMs are incredibly strong. The only thing holding this back from being a B grade is the composite structure. It isn’t as horrible here because of the extra movement, but it does sting and is a blemish on an otherwise very good mech.
Peri’s Rating: C, expensive for a jump 8 striker but very usable.
X3
Well they fucked it right back up. At 1410 BV we go back to 5/8/0 and regular Cougar armor, gain a heavy duty gyro which is cool I guess, and trade the guns for an ER LPL (one of the most disappointing weapons in the game IMO), an ER MPL, and a Streak LRM-10. It also uses a T-Comp to make its lasers a bit better. This is just not super worth it. It can do skirmishy things and it isn’t a ton worse than a re-wait a second, I forgot the Composite structure. What a piece of shit.
Peri’s Rating: D- ish. Slow and will mega-explode because of the stupid composite structure.
XR
Not content to simply look like a fighter jet, the XR wants to be a fighter jet. At 1783 it is very expensive, and it has some weird shit going on. It has a partial wing that bumps it up to 5/8/7, which is great, and the weaponry is ok with an ER MPL and a pair of LRM-15s with Artemis V, giving them -1 to hit on top of the regular bonuses from Artemis. The funniest thing is the Reflective armor on the outside of it, as well as it using Endo-Steel instead of Composite for its internal structure. Reflective armor is very strong and makes the XR very resistant to conventional light mech hunters, nearly all of whom rely on pulse lasers to blow up little dorks. This is a decent light mech but good lord the price tag is not worth it. You could maybe get some decent work out of it if you really tried, but it’d be a lot easier and a lot cheaper to get the same sort of output elsewhere.
Peri’s Rating: D+/C- depending on how many pulse lasers you are expecting.
Conclusion
The Cougar is a somewhat middle of the pack mech in practice, with a lot of confused variants that don’t understand what it wants to be doing, or variants that have no concept of price and its consequences. I like it, the X2 is probably my favorite, but the Cougar is never the best choice. You can get okay results out of it, but there are just better options out there in the wider world of BattleTech. Model looks great though.
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