The Thug, as its name implies, is a remarkably straightforward bruiser. Designed to be an upgraded Warhammer, the Thug operates on the exact same principle: point guns at enemy, walk forward, hit hard. Visually, the Thug aligns with that battle plan, with big shoulders and a sunken head that can clearly take and deal a lot of damage. It’s one of the simplest succession wars era mechs to use, without many of the glaring flaws you often see in either weapon loadouts, heat, or armor layouts.

Chassis

At 80 tons the Thug is generally nearly completely armored, with only a handful of variants having even a little bit less – and the lightest armored variant is still at 94% coverage, primarily a loss of a few points of rear center torso armor and a pip off the limbs. Every variant has a 4/6 movement profile using either a regular fusion engine or XL engine, and a handful have jump jets. All in all, they’re very similar variants without a whole lot of differentiation.

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).

THG-10E

The basic 10E variant has a pair of PPCs, pair of SRM 4s, and 19 heat sinks. That’s it – incredibly simple weapon loadout with just enough heat sinks to constantly fire one PPC and alternate the other (at a run you’ll go to +3 then back down to 0, if you’re walking you can fire both twice before turning one off for a turn). As you reach short range, and hopefully have poked some holes in someone elses armor, one PPC turns off and both SRMs start firing. They’re fed from a single ammo bin, which is exactly the right amount of ammo for most games. This only costs 1,501 BV – about 200 more than a Warhammer to do similar things (shoot two PPCs), but it has almost 50% more armor and the same mobility.

My rating: A

THG-11E

A simple lostech upgrade of the 10E, the 11E packs on double heat sinks, maximizes the armor, swaps to SRM 6s, and adds CASE to the ammo bins. It retains standard PPCs rather than ER PPCs, which is a little disappointing as this does have enough heat sinking to handle the ER PPCs and their lack of minimum range, but in exchange it will happily shoot everything all day long. It’s up to 1,640 BV, which maybe not quite as efficiently priced as the 10E but is still very very good.

My rating: A

THG-11Eb

If you read the 11E review and said, “But Jack, I really do want the ER PPCs!” then this is the variant for you. That’s the only change here, and it costs another 120 BV, bringing the total price up to 1,759 BV. It generates 40 heat at a run and sinks 36, which means when you’re firing the SRMs you’ll want to alternate firing one of the PPCs, so effective damage is going to be slightly lower than the 11E, though the lack of minimum range and increased total range gives a bit more flexibility.

My rating: B+

THG-12E

This has traded a heat sink (dropping to 34 sinking) and a ton of SRM-6 ammo (not a big deal) for an improved C3 computer. It’s 1,751 BV – take it over the 11Eb if you’re running a c3i lance, and otherwise skip it.

My rating: B

THG-12K

As above, but with a c3 slave and ECM instead of the c3i. Bumps BV up to 1,824 for a mech that continues to be less effective in combat than the 11Eb due to slightly worse heat sinking. If you’re either running c3 or know you need ECM, it makes sense to take this, but otherwise leave it behind.

My rating: B

THG-13K

Finally something different, unfortunately something worse. Three heavy PPCs and two medium pulse lasers are coupled with c3i and the ability to sink 32 heat. For those doing math in their head, the three heavy PPCs generate 45 heat. They’re also expensive, pushing this up to 2,086 BV, and require an XL engine, making this (marginally) the most fragile Thug.

My rating: D

THG-13U

Again different from the standard PPC/SRM combination, this is………..snub PPCs and MMLs. So basically the same thing. In this instance we’re also packing on ballistic reinforced armor, a supercharger, and triple strength myomer. The TSM is going to be very hard to use effectively, as when running this generates +6 heat and there’s no way to tweak heat generation by 1. The ballistic reinforced armor makes this a good play into someone who you know is running a lot of autocannons or missiles, particularly if you’re good at sticking at your 9 hex snub PPC short range, but if you aren’t certain to face a lot of ballistic weapons then you’re effectively paying 2,545 BV for two snub PPCs and four MML 3s (roughly equivalent to a pair of SRM 6s). That’s not a damage improvement over just an 11E or 11Eb.

My rating: D

THG-11E (Reich)

This is an 11E that upgrades everything to clantech (including switching the SRMs to streak SRMs), and tacks on four jump jets. 32 heat sinking is enough to fire the ER PPCs at a run constantly, though you’ll need to heat up a fair bit or turn a PPC off to fire the SRMs and PPCs at the same time. It’s even still using a standard engine, so it’s remarkably durable, though unfortunately having two tons of SSRM ammo is more than you’ll likely ever need. 2,612 BV makes it the most expensive Thug – but that’s in line with other heavily armored mechs with a pair of clan ER PPCs.

My rating: A

THG-11ECX (Jose)

By far the weirdest Thug, this has ER large lasers in each arm, five SRM 6s across the torso, and a null signature system. The NSS will help this thug close – giving +1 to hit at medium and +2 at long range, but with most damage coming from the SRM 6s it’s going to close into just about everyone’s short range before it’s doing effective damage. It doesn’t have enough heat sinking to fire the ER larges while keeping NSS turned on- 10 from NSS and 24 from the guns massively overwhelms the 28 sinking, so it’s not a particularly effective use of NSS as you can’t use it to give you advantageous hit modifiers. At 1,720 BV it’s on the cheaper end of Thugs, but a 4/6/4 mech is on the slower end to use SRMs as by far your primary weapon.

My rating: C

Conclusion

Much like a Warhammer, the Thug doesn’t change much with variants. Two PPCs and some missiles make up nearly every variant, and every time it does that it makes for an effective mech. When it tries to do different things, the Thug stumbles, with poor heat management and ineffective use of weapon mixes. If you’re playing a succession wars game, you will never go wrong taking a 10E, and it’ll remain effective in later eras, even if the 11E or 11Eb (depending on your preferences) are marginally better.

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