Howdy Dispossessed Mechwarriors and welcome to another Mech Overview. There are some mechs in Battletech that are simply more common than others, due to ease of production, low cost, or sheer durability leading to more examples surviving the constant hell wars. The Phoenix Hawk is an example of the first reason, being a cheap to produce overgrown Bug Mech that is canonically probably the most common medium mech and it’s DNA is all over the place in later medium mechs, with a huge variety of mechs either directly being inspired by it/descended for it or simply having the same speed and role. It is one of the protoplasmic ooze mechs of Battletech, THE archetypical fast moving medium skirmisher in the same way that the Locust is THE ultra speedy light and the Thunderbolt is THE heavy trooper.

It also looks pretty cool. Got a fun “dude in a robot suit” vibe that I really like. Huge fan of this boy, his power ranger looking ass, and his cool jetpack. Also, as the Phoenix Hawk has high heels on it’s design and there is a mention in one of the source books of one “walking with a signature Davion swagger” I am using my authority as gay to declare the Phoenix Hawk a queer icon. Slay.

 

Anyway, the Phoenix Hawk is a 45 ton jumped up light mech. It generally has an identity as a fast, medium range skirmisher, heavy on the energy weapons and light on the heat sinks. Phoenix Hawks have mediocre armor and somewhat close range guns, but they tend to move nearly as fast as a contemporary light mech, so they seem to be generally intended to outrange a light mech and tonnage it to death, using their superior stats and similar speed to bully them away from slower, more vulnerable mechs. Light mech hunters are an important thing to include in a given list, with something like a TR-1 Wraith or a Gunsmith acting as fantastic insurance against getting cheesed out by something like a Fire Moth P. Light mechs can and will happen to you, so investing in protection is a great idea. Enough stalling, let’s talk about them variants.

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).

1

The OG Phoenix Hawk suffers badly from being a mech from the 1980s. Coming in at 1041 BV, it moves 6/9/6 and carries middling armor which has an appallingly bad layout, only having 6 points of head armor which means the PXH-1 can be head chopped by any weapon that does 9 or more damage. It also carries a large laser, 2 medium lasers, and 2 machine guns. This is a cool spread of weapons until you realize it only has 10 single heat sinks, meaning that it can’t really jump and shoot at the same time and is just shockingly bad at managing it’s heat. The PXH-1 is a terrible medium mech, it costs too much, is easy to one hit kill, and can’t actually fight because it is an oven that converts alive pilots into beef jerky if it so much as dares to jump and shoot at the same time. Avoid this mech, it is one of the single worse base variants of a 3025 mech in the entire game. It can be ok for campaign play if you can drop some weapons and try to get the mech in line but it is a worse version of the Clint and that is a really bad thing to be.

RATING: F

1b “Special”

Yeah the “Special” is just part of the name apparently. The 1b is the “Royal” variant of the Phoenix Hawk, an upgraded version with advanced technology from the Star League era, and most Royal mechs are pretty good. This is not one of them. Costing a pretty high for a 45 ton mech 1512 BV, the 1b upgrades to 10 double heat sinks, and uses an XL engine and endo-steel to cram a huge amount of random bullshit inside of itself. It carries an ER PPC, an ER large laser, 2 medium lasers, 2 machine guns, and an ECM suite. There are 2 main problems with the 1b. It has the exact same piss poor armor layout as the PXH-1, which is particularly upsetting because the Phoenix Hawk actually has a pretty fantastic amount of armor, just not on the head. It also still overheats like a motherfucker even though it has double heat sinks. It has 2 long range weapons, the ER PPC and the ER large laser, and it can’t fire both at the same time without starting to badly overheat. It would be ok if it had, say, an ER PPC and 5-6 medium lasers, as that would mean that you could simply drop the PPC at close range to use the more efficient weapons, but having 2 weapons with the same long range role that you cannot fire at the same time due to heat is just wasted BV. This is not as bad as the PXH-1 because it can actually jump and still shoot at least one of it’s big guns, but it still is not a great use of BV.

RATING: D-

1bC

Please god FASA can you put more than 6 points of head armor on one of these Phoenix Hawks I am begging you. The 1bC comes in at 1174 BV and is probably the most functional Phoenix Hawk so far, but I still kind of hate it. It carries 12 double heat sinks, finally giving it enough heat sinking capacity to fight, but it also dropped several weapons compared to the 1b. The 1bC carries an ER large laser, 2 medium lasers, a flamer, a NARC beacon, and an ECM. With a running alpha strike it builds only 21 heat, so there is a lot of leftover heat sinking in this mech, particularly as you would normally be content to drop the ER large laser as you got close for better close ranged weapons. The mech would be better with 2 less heat sinks and 2 more medium lasers. The NARC beacon is very fun though, allowing you to mark a target for missiles and, assuming you have NARC compatible missiles loaded in your launchers, it gives you +2 on the cluster hits table. This means that it doesn’t make your missile weapons more accurate, but it increases the damage when you do hit, which is very nice and on larger launchers like the LRM-20, SRM-6, and MML-9, this can be a very significant increase in damage.

But the mech still has 6 points of head armor and that is just deeply unfortunate. 10 damage weapons are incredibly common in Battletech lists, and are cheap and spammable. A mech being vulnerable to dying instantly from a headshot from one 100% of the time is a serious and legitimate downside. It won’t happen every game, but it will happen and it is going to be a huge bummer when it does.

RATING: D

1c “Special”

Another very special mech, the 1c finally upgrades the head armor! Only to 8 points, but to my knowledge the only weapon that can headchop this mech that won’t headchop a normal mech is a large variable speed pulse, so it is probably fine! Costing 1443, the 1c has the same heat sinks and internal components as a 1b, with the only major change being swapping the ER PPC for a snub nosed PPC. Snub PPCs are only 10 heat, so the mech only slightly overheats with a running alpha strike. Added on to that, snub PPCs are incredibly powerful weapons, dealing 10 damage with a 9 hex long short range, making them one of the only weapons that can equal a clan LPL in accuracy, being equal at 7, 8, and 9 hexes away. This is a big deal, because clan LPLs will nearly always have a better, more accurate shot than you, but the snub PPC gives you a bracket where your weapon is just as good while being 100 BV cheaper and in the inner sphere tech base. This is the first variant that is actually broadly usable, even though it only existed as a late Star League prototype. Your mercs could have easily found it in some random cache though, and this is a deeply fun little mech. Love a snub PPC, simple as. There are better uses of BV but there are also much worse uses of BV.

RATING: C

1-EC

Ok so EC stands for “Early Clan” and it means that the 1-EC is going to have some incredibly funky, weird equipment. Costing 1206 BV, it carries the same, signature 6 points of head armor, but the weapons are weird. It has an improved large laser, 2 prototype ER medium lasers, and an anti-missile system. In practice, the only difference between the normal inner sphere versions of these weapons and the Clan ones is weight, something which doesn’t factor in to BV. The prototype ER medium lasers are heavier than normal, and the improved large laser is lighter than normal, so it is basically just a wash. It does have 10 double heat sinks, and firing a large laser and 2 ER medium lasers while running is exactly heat neutral, which pleases me. You can also easily just drop the large laser if you want to use the jump jets, so this is probably the most pain free and easy to use Phoenix Hawk we have looked at so far. Early Clan mechs are supremely awesome and I wish we had more record sheets for them. They can make good additions to any random second-line clan forces and just are neat little mechs. The 1-EC is still held back by the head armor issue though, but it can definitely still do some work, just be ready to lose one to a headshot every couple of games.

RATING: C

1D

After several advanced tech and special variants, we are back to the 3025 goon gang. Costing 1083 BV, the only difference between the 1 and the 1D is that the 1D trades both machine guns and their ammo for 2 extra heat sinks. This is a good trade. A very good trade. The 1D can jump and fire both medium lasers without overheating, and it can run and fire everything while only overheating by 4 points, which is a manageable heat load for a mech this cheap and this early in the time line. It cannot be overstated how big of a difference those two extra heat sinks make for the Phoenix Hawk. This takes the mech from dysfunctional and bad to merely mediocre. The signature move of only having 6 points of head armor still really badly sucks but at least the mech can fight without turning the pilot into chicken Kyiv in the cockpit.

RATING: C-

1K

Once again the glorious and resplendent Draconis Combine has given us a good variant of a 3025 mech. Coming in at 1073 BV, the 1K drops all jump jets from the mech, as well as the machine guns. In exchange it adds 1 small laser and significantly increases the armor on the limbs and head. I am neutral on the limb armor, I find that most mechs honestly have too much armor on their legs and arms, but the increase in head armor is incredibly nice. It is the same 8 head armor as the 1c, so not ideal but perfectly functional. The 1K also adds 3 additional heat sinks, so running and firing the large laser and both mediums only builds 3 heat, and you are heat neutral with the large and one medium. This is very, very nice. The loss of jump jets does hurt this mech in its role as light mech hunter, but the increased armor and better heat sinking make it a decent mid weight battleline/trooper mech, with it fitting in nicely with Centurions and Shadow Hawks as list filler, moving fast enough to get some ok TMMs while brawling with other mechs in this role which tend to be significantly slower. Once you get out of 3025 this mech starts to suffer though, and there are better options by IlClan. Out of the 3025 Phoenix Hawks though, I probably like this one best just due to the increased head armor.

RATING: C

1Kk

I am mad as hell. This mech is awesome, its a 1K with DHS, an ER large laser, and 2 medium pulse lasers. It is finally an actually, legitimately good Phoenix Hawk statblock with no caveats. But it has no canonical BV value, so we can’t use it outside of narrative games.

CGL I am begging you to give us canonical BV for the 1Kk. I don’t care if it is in some random PDF, I want to use this mech so bad. Also make more MilitiaMechs. I love MilitiaMechs.

RATING: GIVE ME BV CGL PLEASE

2

The 2 is a weird one. Costing 1145 BV, the 2 trades the machine guns out for 8 head armor and an ECM. It still has the same crippling heat issues and is more expensive than the 1, but 8 head armor is nice and the ECM is situationally cool. Still not good though, its about the same as a PXH-1 in practice, just with less random headchops.

RATING: F+?

2K

Everything is coming up Kurita today. Costing 1271 BV, the 2K is very similar to the 1K, with the same lack of jump jets and increased armor. What makes the 2K kind of rock is that it has 12 double heat sinks, and a pretty great spread of weapons. It has an ER large laser, 4 medium lasers, and a small laser. At a full run it only builds 2 heat from firing everything but the small laser, so you can very easily manage your heat and it will do a shocking amount of damage with all those lasers. This mech is a steal for 1271 BV, kicking the shit out of the majority of other, equivalently costed medium trooper type designs, like the Wolverine and Shadow Hawk. I love this mech.

A quick note about my usual complaining about fast snipers, I don’t consider a mech with one long ranged weapon and most of it’s damage in short ranged weapons to be a sniper. This is a brawling mech that wants to get point blank and shoot you with medium lasers, the ER large is just to let it defend itself on the way in. I love me a versatile mech like this, and the low cost of Inner Sphere long range weapons compared to Clan ones goes a long way towards reducing the pain that the BV multiplier from speed can inflict on you.

RATING: B-

3D

Costing 1315 BV, the 3D is a less good upgrade than the 2K for a slightly higher price. It has the same signature 6 head armor, and preserves the jump jets by upgrading to an XL engine. 6/9/6 is a perfectly decent movement profile, and the 3D has alright weapons, mounting 2 ER large lasers, 2 medium pulse lasers, and an anti-missile system, just to put the fear of ammo explosions in you. 12 double heat sinks gives you more or less enough of them, though the 3D has more heat issues than the 2K, it does have much better long range damage and only marginally worse close range DPS due to the pulse laser accuracy bonus making up for having less lasers. The Jump Jets are also nice, but on balance I do like this variant less than the 2K.

RATING: C+

3K

So the 3K is a strictly better 3D. It is almost exactly the same, but you pay 1359 instead of 1315 and instead of a situational anti-missile system you get the always useful extra armor, with this being the first Phoenix Hawk we have looked at that has 9 points of head armor. It has the same jump jets, same XL engine, same 2 ER large lasers and 2 medium pulse lasers. This is better than the 3D for a negligible increase in cost.

RATING: B

3M

All of the 3 series Phoenix Hawks are the same damn mech. Also Sarna needs to get it’s act together because the Phoenix Hawk variants are full of straight up lies, like claiming this mech has 2 tons of machine gun ammo for its one machine gun, which is not true. Costing 1307 BV the 3M actually has LESS armor than the basic Phoenix Hawk 1, and acts as a weirdo hybrid with 12 double heat sinks, 2 ER large lasers, 2 medium pulse lasers, a single machine gun with 200 fucking shots worth of ammo, and an anti-missile system. This is a sort of mediocre Phoenix Hawk and it doesn’t do anything special and has the thinnest armor we have seen so far.

RATING: D+

3PL

The 3PL is very specialized and very good. Costing 1244 BV, the 3PL is built to kill and eat light mechs. Carrying a weird mix of armor, 9 on the head and heavier on the limbs than normal, with a slightly weaker center torso compared to most Phoenix Hawks, it is 100% committed to killing fast movers. For weaponry it carries a large pulse laser, 2 medium pulse lasers, and 2 ER small lasers. This would already be a decent amount of light mech murdering gun on a 6/9/6 mech, but the 3PL adds a targeting computer to boost the pulse lasers to a -3 to hit bonus, which is very, very high. That is enough to strip the TMM entirely off of any mech that moved less than 10 hexes, or jumped less than 7. For 1244 BV the 3PL compares nicely to the TR1 Wraith, having the same main guns in the form of 1 LPL and 2 MPL, but the 3PL trades speed for accuracy. I could go either way on which one is better.

RATING: A-

3S

Wow this mech is slightly infuriating. Costing 1237 BV, the 3S is a very confused mech. It upgrades to double heat sinks and has increased armor, which sounds good, but it only increases the head armor to 7, not to 8, so 10 damage weapons will still headchop it. The only weapons that won’t kill a 3S in one shot to the head that would kill a 1 are Inner Sphere large pulse lasers and medium variable speed pulse lasers. The change is more placebo than anything else. Much like the 3PL, it shifts a ton of armor away from the torso and towards the limbs, which is in my experience never a good idea. For weapons it carries a large pulse laser, 2 standard medium lasers, 2 machine guns, and an anti-missile system. This is sort of ok, the LPL and medium lasers have the same range bands, but it just feels underwhelming compared to what you can get from other upgraded Phoenix Hawks, damage wise. There is a silver lining though, the 3S has MASC, so it can move 6/9(12)/6, and being able to run 12 hexes on occasion is actually really nice. I would really prefer it had more MPLs to go with that speed, but it is still a sort of decent fast skirmisher. I am super underwhelmed by the guns and the head armor is annoying as hell, but MASC does give this mech a niche and a genuine reason to take it. Even if I personally am not a huge fan.

RATING: C+

4L

The Phoenix Hawk 4L is interesting. Costing 1282 BV, the 4L carries an ER large laser, 2 ER medium lasers, and 2 machine guns. This is the same sort of weapon spread we see on a lot of Phoenix Hawks, the 4L stands out because of it’s armor. It has the same armor layout as a basic Phoenix Hawk 1, but that armor has been upgraded to stealth armor. Stealth armor makes it more difficult to hit the 4L at medium and long range, and with DHS the 4L actually can still fire it’s guns while using it, either the ER large or both ER mediums fitting in without cooking the mech. I love stealth armor but the overwhelming majority of stealth armored mechs are just completely terrible. This isn’t terrible, it just also isn’t really exciting.

RATING: C

4M

The 4M is very interesting. It costs 1327 BV and carries the same armor layout as a 3PL, heavy on the limbs and lighter on the torso. It has a light engine, so it is a bit more rugged than the various XL engine Phoenix Hawks. Where it stands out most though is in it’s weapons, with 2 light PPCs, 2 medium X-Pulse lasers, and 2 small X-Pulse lasers. X-Pulse lasers are awesome, being an Inner Sphere pulse laser with the same range as an Inner Sphere standard laser. Worse than a Clan pulse laser but they come in substantially cheaper in BV. 2 light PPCs give it similar performance at long range to the ER large lasers that are more common on Phoenix Hawks, and those X-Pulse lasers make it a menace up close. It isn’t exceptional, but it is a pretty solid light mech hunter and light battleline unit. I quite like it, I need to use more X-Pulse lasers so I might dust this mech off.

RATING: C+

4W

Costing 1395 BV, the 4W is another weird one. It has the same armor as a 4M, and the same 2 light PPCs, but only carries 2 ER medium lasers as backup weapons. In addition, it has a smaller engine and can only run 8 hexes. What makes this mech pretty good is that it uses improved jump jets to give it a movement profile of 5/8/8. As we have mentioned many times here, jumping 7 or more hexes in a single turn is a huge boost to a mech, and can make them frustratingly slippery and hard to hit. Damage output is a bit low and I wish it had pulse lasers instead of light PPCs, as pulse laser mechs that jump at least 7 hexes are supremely fucking annoying and I love them. Overall it is ok, not the best 7 hex jumper but still annoying to deal with.

RATING: C-

5L

The 5L is interesting. Costing a rather expensive for a Phoenix Hawk 1589 BV, it has the same stealth armor and armor layout as the 4L. However, it only moves 6/9/5, sacrificing a jump jet and some heat sinks to mount a plasma rifle and 2 ER medium lasers as weapons. I love me a plasma rifle, but this is is a lot to pay for just one of them. It also has the issue of the plasma rifle having medium range, not as long as the ER large laser on the 4L. It will have trouble effectively using its stealth armor, as it is going to be a lot harder to manage to get within short range of your guns while keeping the enemy at medium range with their guns. Overall, despite it mounting a plasma rifle and stealth armor, 2 things I really like, I don’t really like this mech.

RATING: D+

6D

Coming in at 1665 BV, the 6D is dangerously approaching “Fast Sniper” territory, but is still more of a mid range skirmisher and gets a pass. It carries decent armor and 6/9/6 movement, and has an ER PPC with 4 ER medium lasers. All of these weapons have a targeting computer, which is always nice to have. It is a bit expensive and you are paying a lot of extra BV for that t-comp, but it isn’t offensively bad and it will maul a light mech pretty bad.

RATING: C

7CS

Rather cheap at 1281 BV, the 7CS is a deceptively strong mech if used correctly. It has thinner armor than some of the other advanced Phoenix Hawks, but it does have 9 head armor. It also has the weird 6/9/5 movement profile, same as the 5L, which isn’t really that bad but is weird. For weapons it carries an ER large laser, 2 ER medium lasers, and an iNARC. The iNARC is a better version of the normal NARC launcher, and can do some horrible things to the enemy if you have NARC equipped missiles in your list. The iNARC homing pod gives a -1 to hit bonus to any missiles that shoot something that has been tagged with one, as well as the standard +2 to the cluster table that the normal NARC gives. The 7CS also carries a C3i system, so in a C3i force it can tag an enemy with a homing pod and then provide that awesome C3 range bonus, and LRMs coming in with -1 to hit and +2 to cluster while counting as being within short range is disgusting. The 7CS is underwhelming as a standalone mech as it can’t use it’s own NARCs, but if it is enabling a couple of LRM boats it will do horrible things to the enemy if they don’t kill it.

RATING: D+ alone, B if built around

7K

The 7K has one job to do and it is very good at it. Costing 1241 BV, the 7K is another C3 mech, like the 7CS. It does have a standard C3 slave unit though, not a C3i system like the 7CS, so they are compatible with a different set of mechs. For weapons the 7K is pretty lightly armed, only carrying a snub nosed PPC and an ER medium laser. This is unacceptably light for the price, even if the snub PPC is an incredibly good weapon. Where the 7K shines though is in it’s movement. Moving a mighty 6/9/9, the 7K is almost unacceptably maneuverable with that huge jump range. Combined with the decent short ranged gun and the C3 unit, the 7K is designed to jump next to an enemy mech and get the rest of your C3 force within short range of them, and hopefully rely on it’s TMM and acceptable armor to get it out of there. The weapons on the 7K are nice to have but this is a support piece, not a stand alone mech. With a force loaded up with Gauss, LRMs, and ER PPCs in a C3 network, the 7K could easily make it’s BV back in the boosted accuracy that it’s lancemates will get every turn that it is allowed to continue to live. It is worse than the 7CS in my opinion, on balance, but if you are running a non-C3i C3 force, you can’t use a 7CS and the 7K will do some pretty good work for you.

RATING: D- alone, B- if built around

7S

Costing 1496 BV, the 7S is a very simple, very honest Phoenix Hawk. Moving 6/9(12)/6 with a MASC system, the 7S just wants to shoot people to death at very close range. It carries a large pulse laser, 4 medium lasers, a small laser, and enough heat sinks that it manages heat just fine. That is it. It is a very simple boy and I appreciate it, it’ll maul a light mech or stab a bigger boy in the back just fine. Range is a bit short for a general purpose mech but it is pretty fast for something with this kind of firepower. I like it just fine but it isn’t incredible or anything.

RATING: C

8CS

Costing 1442 BV, I am reasonably certain that the designer of the 8CS hates me personally and I hate him right back. The 8CS moves a deeply frustrating 7/11/6, being one jump jet short of jumping 7 and being fully capable of mounting that extra jump jet, the designers just decided to make it a shittier mech. For equipment it carries 2 snub PPCs, an ECM, and a C3 slave. C3 is cool and all but the ECM could easily have been dropped from the mech for that extra jump jet. In addition, the 8CS is oversinked, with a max heat capacity of 28 but the mech is only capable of building 26 heat, meaning it has 2 extra heat sinks, one of which could have been a fucking jump jet and then it would be perfectly heat neutral while jumping 7 hexes. Now, there is a reason that it doesn’t have that extra jump jet, because the 8CS uses an XXL engine. XXL engines take 6 slots in each side torso, as well as the 2 free slots in the center torso. The designer more than likely didn’t want to have asymmetrical jump jets, so just put 3 in each side torso. This is fair from an aesthetic perspective, but also fuck that, this mech would be so much better if it was willing to break the rules. Give it some lore about stabilizer jets and give me my jump 7 you bastards. The mech is perfectly fine but it is very close to being a phenomenal C3 spotter.

EDIT: I forgot that XXLs build extra heat, so it is actually under-sinked, not over-sinked. The rating has been adjusted accordingly but the above text will stay.

RATING: C- but it pisses me off really badly

9

The Phoenix Hawk 9 is one of those Rec Guide variants that looks as close to the 3025 version as possible, and it is fine. Costing 1244, it has ok armor, a 6/9/8 movement profile, and some reasonable weapons, with a large X-Pulse laser, 2 medium lasers, and 2 LMGs. It’s fine. I have very little to say about it, but it is fine.

RATING: C

99

Ok so the Phoenix Hawk 99 is going to be a long one, and is possibly the stupidest variant of any mech in the entire game. The Phoenix Hawk tends to be a fast, medium skirmisher that likes to spar with light mechs. The problem is that it lacks armor to stand up to return fire from enemy battleline mechs, like Mad Cats and Orions. So mech designer Biff McStrongjaw (actual in-universe canonical name) decided to make a Phoenix Hawk that had armor. Every part of this mech hurts my soul, so let’s start with the armor. The 99 has Hardened armor, which means that it takes half as much damage as normal from all incoming attacks, giving it very nearly the same practical armor as a 100 ton mech. On top of that, both side torsos and both legs have Modular Armor, which is another 10 points of standard armor bolted onto each of those locations. Hilariously, the center torso does not have modular armor, making it merely equal in protection to the side torsos rather than thicker. Now, hardened armor and modular armor slow a mech down, so how does the 99 move?

To quote the book it is from, “[like] a barefoot rheumatic nonagenarian with hip-trauma and PTSD walking on glass.”. It moves a mighty 0/1/2. That is right, it literally can’t walk, this thing can only move with running MP. To my knowledge, this makes the Phoenix Hawk 99 literally the single slowest mech in the entire game. In addition, both hardened armor and modular armor add +1 to PSRs, and those penalties stack to give the poor 99 a +2 penalty to all PSRs forever for the sin of being alive. For weapons, the 99 carries a large X-Pulse laser, 2 ER medium lasers, and 2 ER small lasers. Not that it matters, because an Urbanmech can run away from this thing and it will never be allowed to shoot at anything unless the enemy takes pity and decides to run up to it. Having shortish mid ranged weapons on something this slow is just insult to injury, and it costs 1444 BV, which is just a hilarious amount to waste on a mech that is outmaneuvered by assault class battle armor and some actual turrets.

Save him. He is in a great deal of pain and needs to be rescued from the terrible design decisions that produced him. For just pennies a day you can adopt a Phoenix Hawk 99 and rehabilitate him until he can be re-introduced to the wild, to thrive and frolic with the other Phoenix Hawks, liberated and free.

EDIT: I have been told that the PXH-99 actually moves 1/1/1 because of how all the different effects stack. Still very, very bad. The original text will stay and it is still terrible, just a different kind of terrible.

RATING: F-, probably the worst mech in the entire game, but an S+ in my heart and dreams

C

The Phoenix Hawk C exists to explain how we got from the 45 ton Phoenix Hawk to the 85 ton Phoenix Hawk IIC assault mech. Yeah the clan rebuild of the Phoenix Hawk is an assault mech, honor does weird things to your brain. Costing a pretty cheap for a Clan medium 1396 BV, the C carries Clan grade equipment and internals. For weapons, it has 2 medium pulse lasers, 2 UAC/2s, and 2 machine guns. UAC/2s are a weapons I make fun of a lot, but they cost such a small amount of BV that it really isn’t a huge deal, and it lets the C annoy people at pretty long ranges. The actual primary weapons are the medium pulse lasers, and yeah Clan MPLs are pretty good. Honestly for the price, the C is a decent little medium mech for a Clan force. It is cheap, which most Clan mechs are not, so it is a great use of the last little bit of BV left over in a Clan force.

RATING: C is for Clan

C2

Costing a dangerously high 2187 BV, the C2 is weird. It has Inner Sphere grade internals but Clan grade weapons. It moves 6/9(12)/6, which is a pretty good speed, and for weapons we have a Clan large pulse laser, 2 Clan medium pulse lasers, and 2 AP gauss rifles. AP gauss rifles are pretty great anti-infantry guns, and do ok damage against mechs. All of these weapons are mated to a targeting computer, which is where the majority of the BV cost of this mech comes from. It is a good mech, very similar to a Goshawk, which I love, but it is just too much to spend on a 45 tonner in my opinion.

RATING: C- is for Clan but worse

Masters/Roc

This mech goes by two names near as I can tell. Costing 1154 BV, the Roc is the same as a 3M, except in that it trades one of the ER large lasers for 2 SRM-4s. This is neat but it is still a pretty mediocre Phoenix Hawk. The price going down really does help it though, and I do consider this better than the base 3M variant.

RATING: C-

Jiemin

Costing 1322 BV according to Master Unit List, the Jiemin was a pain to track down. Moving 7/11/7, the Jiemin carries just a single large X-Pulse laser and a single medium X-Pulse laser. It is basically an overgrown and over-expensive Spider. Not terrible, not fantastic, use it if you like the sound of it. Jumping 7 is great but that is not a lot of gun for the price, even on a jump 7 boy.

RATING: C-

Sante

The Sante is automatically just the coolest because it is one of the mechs that the Bounty Hunter and Associates use. I really need to get around to painting up the Bounty Hunter and Associates. Costing 1442, the Sante is identical to a 4L save for upgrading the ER large laser to a Clan grade one, and adding a TAG. This is cool, but it isn’t 160 BV cool. If you have the extra BV knocking around it isn’t a bad upgrade, just not one that is really worth the points.

RATING: C-

Jasmine

The Jasmine is not really one mech, its a pair. The Jasmine itself is a fairly normal Phoenix Hawk, with a pair of ER medium lasers, a snub nosed PPC with a capacitor to let it do extra damage, a Rocket Launcher 10 to add a little extra damage once per game, and an angel ECM suite, the upgrade for the ECM that actually does stuff. The main draw of this mech though is the Drone Command Console, which allows it to control a little dork drone called the Rajah, which has a few melee spikes and some small lasers. This is not a competitive mech and it more suited to Solaris 7 arena fights and narrative funzies. Drone mechs are super cool for narrative but they don’t really behave differently in the main game, and the Jasmine is just generally a wacky mech. It is fun though.

RATING: N/A

Conclusion

6000 words about the Phoenix Hawk later we are done. The Phoenix Hawk is a pretty decent medium mech actually, with good speed and a good central identity as a laser armed mid-range skirmisher. It is a lot of fun and most lists can easily squeeze one in. I am pretty tired of looking at this thing now though. I am pretty sure this is the longest Mech Overview we have ever done, or at least damn near it. I want to do another mech with 5 variants total. That would be so nice.