Anyone who’s played the Battletech video game will remember the Cyclops, a more than somewhat underarmored assault mech still made incredibly powerful by providing an initiative bonus to your whole lance. On tabletop, that initiative bonus doesn’t exist outside of quirks. Without that bonus it’s not bringing anywhere near as much to the table, mostly just being another generic assault ‘mech with above average looks.

Peri: I think that “above average looks” is underselling the Cyclops a bit. This is a damn good looking mech and really sells the fantasy of the admittedly confusing BattleTech doctrine of really heavy command units. It looks like it can see everything. There is something that is just potently cool about the Cyclops that a lot of other assault mechs fail to capture; it looks like it should be in charge in a way that is hard to describe.

Chassis

At 90 tons with most variants moving 4/6, the cyclops puts quite a bit of weight into the engine – 33 tons with a standard engine. It could carry the exact same movement profile, weapon load, and armor amount down to 75 tons (actually, freeing up 1.5t that could go into more armor). Now, tonnage is a mostly fake balancing criteria – you’re only paying marginal BV for the increased structure, but this is mostly just to serve as a point of comparison – the peer of a cyclops isn’t a highlander, it’s an orion.

Peri: That Orion comparison is really a good one because the Orion and Cyclops tend to carry very similar weapon loads, with a wide range of different weapons for different ranges. The one advantage that the pre-lostech Cyclops has over contemporary Orions/Warhammers/whatever is that you get some more internal structure than a comparable heavy mech, which isn’t nothing. I mean, it isn’t much either, but it isn’t nothing.

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).

CP-10-Z

The original cyclops is armed like a mini-atlas, with two medium lasers, an AC/20, SRM-4, and LRM-10. Unfortunately, cramming all those guns into a chassis that moves 4/6 leaves you with only 160 points of armor (57% of max) and 6 tons of ammo spread across all three torso locations. If you try to treat it as an assault mech it’s going to die very quickly. Instead, treat it as a hunchback with a few secondary weapons (mainly the srm-4 for crit seeking) and enough ac/20 ammo to carry precision. At 1,317 BV it’s not as cheap as the hunchback, but it’s not staggeringly more expensive.

My rating: C-

Peri: The base model Cyclops is a very brittle mech, the comparison to a Hunchback is very fair, and honestly in a lot of cases I would rather save the BV and just grab a Hunchback instead. It is just too short ranged and too brittle to really be worth the BV, you can get a far better Orion variant for only about 100 BV more with half again as much armor and a pretty similar weapon load. The Orion is a very good point of comparison to the Cyclops because they are both commander type mechs with similar roles and, for the most part, similar stats.

CP-10-HQ

Trading out the AC/20 for a literal tent that can be deployed from the mech does cheapen it, dropping to 1,113 BV, but also makes it roughly useless in most gameplay. The tent, I believe, takes 15 minutes to deploy – or 90 turns.

My rating: F

Peri: I mean yeah it is an F grade mech that does basically literally nothing but A: It is fucking hilarious in a campaign to have a slightly mobile mech-mounted command post when the ubiquitous Mobile HQ is right there and B: there is no greater way to assert your dominance than bringing a shit-bot that has 12 tons of gear that does literally nothing.

CP-10-Q

Sort of a missile boat, but not really; weapon loadout consists of a pair of LRM-10s, three medium lasers, and an SRM-4 launcher. While it’s now fully armored, that’s not enough LRMs to be an actual missile boat (for less than the 1,584 BV this costs you could get a Catapult or Archer with a lot more missiles), and the short range weapons also aren’t enough to make a meaningful contribution to a fight. By trying to do a bit of everything, this isn’t able to actually do anything.

My rating: D

Peri: Hear me out this is great. The 10-Q is a fat Whitworth, and the LRM damage isn’t particularly impressive. The 10-Q also carries way too many missiles; two tons per launcher is too many and you should dump half of the ammo at the start of every game. But this Cyclops has a secret.

It is a Banshee in disguise.

Much like the Banshee, the 10-Q is an undergunned mess of a mech with too much engine, but the 10-Q has a lot of very significant and sneaky upgrades to the Banshee that actually make this in a lot of ways better at doing the things that the Banshee is good at. Comparing the 10-Q to the BNC-3E, the 3E is about 160 BV cheaper, cannot inflict a PSR with shooting for any reason, carries noticeably less armor, and has literally no close range firepower. The 10-Q can inflict a PSR both at long range (with some luck) and at point blank range (decently consistently), moves the same speed at 4/6/0, and is tougher. It is a far better mech when it comes to contributing to a force, and it has a nice 18 damage kick for anything that feels like getting near it.

I want to restate something for people who don’t use this sort of Intro-Tech cheap-o-tronic assault mech. Standard fusion engine assault mechs basically only die to ammo explosions. Once this mech fires all of the LRM ammo out, it is never going to die. 75 points of CT health between structure and armor is just a lot to deal with, compared to the 59 on a comparable Orion or even the 70 from the BNC-3E Banshee. If you don’t take an ammo crit, you will not die.

I think that the 10-Q has significant value to a force in several roles. For one, if you are playing with Quirks it will give you that very nice Battle Computer Quirk. It also can fill in as a big beefy bastard in an LRM force that has enough close range damage to deter the lightest enemies and enough physical damage from its big kickies to deter anything it can catch. 1584 BV is not a lot to pay for a mech with this kind of durability with some close range guns. It can also serve the same distraction carnifex role that the Banshee tends to fill, being a huge, obnoxiously durable mass of armor that sure looks big and intimidating, but unlike the Badshee pattern Banshees, it actually has some real teeth up close. It will draw fire and it will just sit there and eat anything short of a TAC to the SRM bin and keep going.

I adore this mech and the only reason I don’t use it constantly is that I split the last Support Lance I bought and kept the Spider and Dragon. I need to get another one of those, both for those mechs and to get another Cyclops. If used competently, this is just a better BNC-3E.

My rating: B

CP-11-A-DC

The command console cockpit this variant carries is another way to pick up an initiative bonus, though only if you’re playing with rules out of tacops. Without it, you’re left with another lightly armored cyclops, this time mounting a gauss rifle instead of the AC/20. While that does mean it doesn’t need to close in like the 10-Z, it’s still a 1,507 BV slow medium mech that doesn’t survive focused fire very well.

My rating: D

Peri: If you want a cheap command console, grab the Grand Dragon that mounts one, it’ll do the job better.

CP-11-A

For 1,547 BV this drops the command console from the 11-A-DC and trades it for two additional tons of ammo – one of LRM, one of gauss. While the extra gauss ammo is vaguely useful, taking you from 8 to 16 shots, the extra LRM isn’t, so you’re just spending more BV to have an additional location that can get crit and kill you.

My rating: D-

CP-11-B

By dropping down to 3/5 movement this is now carrying not one but two gauss rifles along with solid armor (86% coverage) and a standard engine. Weapons wise, it’s comparable to a nightstar or pillager, and while it does have a bit less armor than either of those it’s also cheaper and can survive either gauss rifle blowing up. At 2,145 BV it’s actually an assault mech, and one of the cheaper ways to bring a pair of gauss rifles.

My rating: B

Peri: This an aggressively okay assault mech. It doesn’t do anything particularly fun and is a bit less interesting than its gauss boating contemporaries. If you want to use the model as a traditional gauss assault this is certainly one of the gauss assaults of all time.

CP-11-C

Back to the 4/6 movement profile, this drops the LRM-10 on the 11-A in exchange for some armor and a c3 master computer. It’s got a nice amount of armor at 69% coverage, but mostly will be hanging back and plinking things with the gauss. At 1,553 BV it’s a relatively inexpensive gauss boat, but I wouldn’t use it if you aren’t running c3.

My rating: C

CP-11-C2

This is one of six ‘mechs in the game to run a pair of c3 masters. That’s a lot of waste if you aren’t running a full c3 company, as two ER medium lasers, two medium lasers, an ER PPC, and a streak SRM-4 launcher isn’t well armed for 1,534 BV on a 4/6 chassis, but this is the cheapest way to bring two master computers if you need them. That said, a Sunder OB is only slightly more expensive with much better armor and better weapons for standing at range.

My rating: ??? I’m not honestly sure I can give a rating to something that exists to run a c3 company.

Peri: Having done some advanced c3 fuckery in the last few months, having two masters is nice but you need a comically huge c3 network to make it matter. Taking a c3 net beyond four mechs, or six for c3i, is prohibitively expensive. I don’t know how you could even make a full 12 mech c3 company for less than 15000 BV without using a lot of the crappy helicopters and tanks that mount c3.

You will rarely need this, but when you do need it, it sure is one of your only options.

CP-11-C3

This is a 11-C running a c3 boosted master to cut through ECM, while also picking up significantly better armor coverage. It’s a more durable c3 master, but it hasn’t increased its firepower at all and is now up to 1,752 BV. 200 BV is valuing the durability about right, but I’d still lean towards only taking this in a c3 lance.

My rating: C

CP-11-G

Dropping any pretense of being a command mech puts this at a near-max armor with a standard engine. It has roughly the same weapon loadout as most cyclopes, a gauss rifle, pair of ER medium lasers, LRM-10, and streak SRM-4. At 1,981 BV this is adequate – a highlander gains 10 missile tubes and moves 3/5/3 instead of 4/6 for an extra 250 BV. The problem here, and the single thing keeping me from giving this the same B grade as the HGN-732, is that 9/11 slots in the right torso are explosive. A crit to that location is an 82% chance of rendering the mech combat ineffective, left with only a single medium laser in the opposite arm.

Until that happens though it’s a pretty solid assault. I’d happily trade half a ton of armor to add CASE to the left torso and move the LRM/SRM ammo there.

My rating: C

Peri: You do still get the Battle Computer, if that matters. I would rather have a Highlander in basically all cases. The big issue here is just that you can do better for 1981 BV than a single gauss rifle and some random backup guns. A Flashman 9M is 100 BV cheaper and gets two headchoppers, four medium lasers, and four MPLs. There really isn’t much reason to pick this over a better headchopper.

CP-11-H

A short-range mech remover, the 11-H is absolutely covered in rocket launchers. Six RL-20s plus an AC/20 gives it an incredibly strong single punch, though it lacks range and only has middling armor. 1,525 BV is a little high for a mech that functions primarily as a distraction – as it can only do things once, and only at short range, it’s fairly likely to get picked apart while it tries to close.

My rating: D (but very funny)

Peri: I am pretty sure I have seen this on a table before and the sheer fucking (theoretical) power of massed RLs is difficult to overstate. In practice RLs are so inconsistent that you can’t count on them for anything, but they are extremely funny and satisfying when they work. There are better ways to do RL shenanigans though, with the RL Locust and RL Archer coming to mind, but this is still extremely funny. You will get to get this into close range exactly one time and then every time after that that you bring this out it is going to get shot to shit before it can manage anything, but hey, that is less gun going into actual assault mechs. I guess.

Its still probably better to not go all in on rocket launchers on something this slow though. Also, think of the poor mech-tech who has to unbox and reload 120 individual RPG rockets just for your pilot to shoot them all at once. Have mercy on him. He is very tired and he threw out his back last week.

CP-12-K

At 216 armor, this slots in perfectly as a 4/6 heavy mech (that just happens to kick extra hard). It’s still running a standard engine, so nice and durable. An ultra AC/10, MRM-20, streak SRM-4, and pair of ER medium lasers is a reasonable weapon mix. It’s nothing fancy, and MRMs aren’t great, but it’s an adequate amount of damage. 1,699 BV is again, not particularly low or high for what this does – it’s just a generic 4/6 trooper. If you walk it straight up the middle like an assault it’ll get chewed up, but treat it as a heavy mech and it’ll do fine.

My rating: B

C

A full clan-tech rebuild, this is armed identically to the 11-G, though upgrading the LRM-10 to a streak LRM-10. CASE II for the right torso ammo bomb is an improvement, as while a crit there is still bad the mech will usually retain some weapons, and it’s further mitigated by upgrading to hardened armor. It’s much less likely to get crit by a TAC, and with 160 points of hardened armor being equivalent to 320 points of armor, this carries more armor than most 100-tonners. The downside: this has a 4/5 movement profile, which means you’re taking more damage as you can’t turn and still build full TMM. At 2,252 BV it’s nothing particularly special – you can get the same damage out of a mech several hundred BV cheaper, but it’s remarkably durable while still doing enough damage that it can’t be ignored.

My rating: B

Peri: So this is a pretty inefficient use of hardened armor. Hardened armor is best used when you have already maxed out the protection on the mech and can’t mount any more if you wanted to, but the C still has plenty of armor pips it could have filled up. It could have had maxed Ferro-Lam for the exact same weight and only lost 8 points of effective armor if my math is correct, for the same tonnage. This would let it keep its 4/6/0 movement, which is substantially better than 4/5/0. This also would have, hilariously, made it immune to LBX pellets. It would have been more BV, but it would be very much worth it.

Looking at the sheet in front of us that actually exists, this is an overly slow and pretty mediocre Clan assault mech. It does nothing special other than being pretty durable, and there are better options in that role. I am super underwhelmed by this mech, it seems like such a massive letdown compared to other IlClan era assault mech rebuilds.

My rating: C-

Conclusion

Mostly, the cyclops is a 90 ton heavy (or even slow medium) mech. It’s simply armed and armored too lightly to occupy the same role as most assaults. That said, if you keep that in mind most variants will perform entirely adequately. The 10-Z is a sidegrade to a hunchback, the 11-B is an inexpensive double gauss caddy, and both the 12-K and C are solid if uninspiring mechs. If you are playing with quirks, the Battle Computer quirk that they all share is +2 initiative. While not as powerful as in the computer game, that’s still a substantial shift in how often you’ll be moving last, which is the best place to be.

Peri: The Cyclops looks great and has a few functioning variants, so that is cool. The 11-B is fine and the 10-Q has a really solid and really stupid role to play. If you are playing with Quirks the Cyclops becomes mandatory, because to my memory the initiative bonus from the quirk stacks with the bonus from a command console and you can get genuinely goofy levels of initiative bonuses with the right setup. There are functional variants to use for the Cyclops, which is a nice thing to be able to say about a mech that has such a great looking model.

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