Howdy everyone and welcome to a big one. The Warhammer is an incredibly iconic mech, appearing on the cover for the very first Battletech box set ever made, back when the game was still called Battledroids. Since then it has appeared in a huge number of storylines and basically every setting update book has a Warhammer variant in it. It does suffer from having had a period where it’s likeness could not be used in any official art due to dumb-fuck legal confusion, so it has less variants than you would think given its incredibly iconic status. It has an iconic silhouette with those huge water-pipe arms and a very aggressive appearance, and it is a lot of people’s favorite mech of all time.

The Warhammer is not an omni-mech, I have been freed from the omni-mines for a week. This means that each variant can change more or less anything about the mech other than it’s tonnage. That said, there are a few general trends to go over before we get started. Warhammers tend to have a very hard focus on energy weapons, with few carrying missiles or ballistics bigger than a backup weapon. Warhammers also tend to use PPCs and have a bit of a battleline identity, designed as a line holder or main combat unit. Warhammers are good mechs to use to bulk out a force and give it a bit of firepower, but there are a number of issues with several of the variants, so lets talk about them.

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 the other ‘mech reviews).

6R

The stock, base, vanilla variation of the Warhammer, the 6R costs 1299 BV and I kind of hate it. Setting the baseline for all Warhammers, the 6R carries middling armor for a heavy mech, moves a mediocre 4/6/0, carries 2 PPCs, 2 medium lasers, 2 small lasers, 2 machine guns, and an SRM6. It only has 18 heat sinks though, so heat can easily creep up on you. In general the 6R has far too many guns, not enough armor, bad mobility, mediocre heat management, and weirdly intense short ranged firepower for something as slow as it is. I have a strong distaste for the 6R, I find it underwhelming and heavily boring, one of the most 3025 mechs in the entire game. It is strongly outdated both in and out of universe, but it can still put a couple of 10 damage holes in someone if it has to.

RATING: D

4L

So the Warhammer is a confusing mech where some of the advanced tech upgrades have lower model numbers than the base variant. We will be going in order for the sake of tradition in this article, but it is weird. The 4L comes in at 1743 BV and carries better armor than the 6R, an XL engine, 2 ER PPCs, 4 medium pulse lasers, a streak SRM-6, and stealth armor. Stealth armor is cool as hell, you basically trade 10 heat a turn to become significantly harder to hit at medium and long range. It is a little low on heat sinks in my opinion, and doesn’t make the best use of stealth armor, but on something around this price with a decent weapon load it isn’t as disappointing as it could be. Not great, just fine.

RATING: C

5L

Coming in at a rather high 1896 BV, the 5L is pretty cool. It carries better armor than the 6R, though thinner than the 4L. It also moves 3/5/5 with the use of improved jump jets, so it jumps 5 hexes. As I have stated a few times before, jumping 5 hexes is a good break point because it marks the point where the penalty you get to hit the enemy from jumping is the same as your TMM, so it is the first jump distance where you can really get a ton of value from constantly jumping. For weapons it carries 2 plasma rifles (the good one that is just an upgraded PPC), 2 ER medium lasers, and an SRM 4. This is a light weapon load for a heavy mech of this price, but they are all pretty good weapons and the mech is mostly heat sink by volume and doesn’t have a ton of trouble keeping heat under control. I like it quite a bit but it is probably still not exactly incredible. Not great, not terrible.

RATING: C+

6D

The first of the 3025/Succession Wars variants, the 6D is magnificent in comparison to the 6R. Coming in at a slightly more expensive 1471 BV, the 6D trades all of the ammo using weapons, the SRMs and machine guns, for much thicker armor and enough heat sinks to be heat neutral firing the PPCs at a stand still. I really like this mech, it is pretty rugged for the price and carries some of the best 3025 weapons which it makes decent enough use of. The 6D is the definition of list filler though, its a mech that you can easily use to round out any given force. Most forces in Battletech are pretty happy to get a tough, rugged pair of PPCs on legs for around this price, and it just slots in nicely in a lot of different situations. One of my favorites personally, but there are better mechs that do the same thing. Like a Thunderbolt C.

RATING: C+

6K

The 6K is another 3025 variant, this time the Kuritan one. It costs 1305 BV and is a strictly better upgrade to the stock Warhammer, in my opinion. It trades both machine guns and their ammo for 2 extra heat sinks, making it heat neutral while standing still and firing the PPCs. This is a big deal, never take the 6R, this mech is just better. If you really need the anti-infantry from the 2 machine guns on the 6R, just take a dedicated anti-infantry unit, or some elementals or something. Love me a 6K, but there are other mechs that do the same thing for around the same price that I like more.

RATING: C

6L

The 6L is technically a variant. It costs 1311 BV and the only difference between it and the 6R is that the 6L has flamers instead of machine guns. It is basically the same as the 6R and sucks for the same reasons, but it is actually more expensive, even if only by like 10 BV. I guess you can inflict some heat damage with it, that is cool.

RATING: D

6Rb

The 6Rb is an SLDF Royal mech, and comes with some juiced up stats to reflect it’s status and canonical rarity. Costing 1431, it is one of the cheapest and least ambitious SLDF Royal mechs. It slightly improves the armor, changes the heat sinks to doubles so the mech will never overheat ever, and adds Artemis IV to the SRM rack. All of these are nice things to have, but it is still at its core a 6R. It’s like spending tens of thousands of dollars making the world’s nicest Honda Civic. Its still a mid grade mech, but damn if it isn’t a really nice mid grade mech.

RATING: C+

6Rk

The 6Rk is another SLDF era Warhammer, but it has a lot more going on. It carries the same weapons as a 6R, so we are still in souped up 6R territory, but it upgrades the armor significantly and uses an XL engine to bump it’s movement up to 5/8/0. 8 hexes is a pretty good amount of ground speed for a mech this heavy and with this weapon load. It also carries enough double heat sinks to shoot whatever it feels like, so that particular Warhammer problem is solved. I quite like this, the XL engine is rough and will make it a lot less durable, but the extra movement speed should more than make up for it. It is a fair bit more expensive at 1621 BV, and that is the biggest problem with this mech. In a vacuum it is probably the best of the 6Rs, but I don’t know if it is 200 BV better than the 6Rb. It isn’t bad though, and it’ll do ok work for you. I don’t think XL engines are as bad of a death knell as some people make them out to be, so I would gladly use this mech. Even if it is still kind of middling at a lot of things.

RATING: C+

7A

Finally, this isn’t just a 6R. The 7A comes in at 1679 and has the same nice, thick armor as the 6D. For weapons it carries 2 ER PPCs, 4 medium lasers, 2 small pulse lasers, and an SRM-6 with Artemis IV. It also has CASE to keep the SRM ammo from killing the entire mech if you get unlucky. It has enough heat sinks and the same meh speed of 4/6/0 as most Warhammers. This is a pretty solid upgrade and a nice do everything mech, with decent firepower at long range and a pretty cheap and efficient set of backup weapons. I like it quite a bit, it is getting up there in price but this is a nice, solidly armored heavy mech that happens to have some expensive gear in it. It makes a nice upgrade for any of your various 6R derivatives if you have BV left over at the end of making a force. Very fond of this one.

RATING: C+

7CS

The 7 Creep Score is another ER PPC Warhammer like the 7A. It carries the same ER PPCs and medium lasers as the 7A, but trades all other weapons for 3 streak SRM-2s, which is kinda bad but was just the way they built mech stat blocks when this thing came out. It also uses an XL engine to upgrade the movement to 4/6/4, adding jump jets which is a huge help. Jumping 4 is kind of awkward as you take a bigger penalty on your attacks than your enemy takes when they shoot you, but the mobility that jumping provides cannot be overstated. It is rather expensive at 1751 BV, but there really isn’t anything offensively bad here. XL engines are vaguely bad (but not that bad) and the jump could be a bit better, but it’s really not a bad mech. Just vaguely overpriced.

Jack: Sorry Peri, going to have to significantly disagree with you on the 3 pack of SSRM-2s. In many ways they’re better than a SSRM-6, as it gives you a chance to get partial hits while still not expending heat/ammo on misses.

RATING: C

7K

Yet another ER PPC variant costing 1651 BV, the 7K carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 medium lasers, 2 small pulse lasers, 2 streak SRM-2s, and a TAG. It really isn’t fast enough to be a good spotter, but the TAG is nice random upside I guess. The armor is ok, the heat sinks are ok, its basically just a side grade to the other 7 series Warhammers. It is fine.

RATING: C

7M

Another ER PPC variant, the 7M is a good bit cheaper at 1487. It is cheaper because it has the same crappy thin armor as the basic 6R. It carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 medium lasers, an SRM-6, a machine gun, and an AMS. These are all fine, its a perfectly fine Warhammer and a perfectly fine heavy mech, it is just unexciting and kinda fragile.

RATING: C-

7M-DC

The DC variant is the same as the 7M with less guns and a Command Console. If you are using a ruleset where the Command Console actually does something this is a pretty good side grade, but otherwise it is strictly worse.

RATING: C-

7S

Another ERPPC mech, the 7S also has the same crappy thin armor as the 6R. It costs basically the same amount as the 7M at 1477. It has enough double heat sinks and 2 ER PPCs, 2 medium pulse lasers, 2 small lasers, and 2 streak SRM-2s. It’s fine. It is pretty damn cheap for the two ER PPCs but that armor is going to disappoint you if it has to fight other heavy mechs.

RATING: C-

8D

The 8D comes in at a pretty pricey 1744 BV, and is another ER PPC mech. It carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 ER medium lasers, 2 ER small lasers, a Streak SRM-6, and a C3 slave unit. It doesn’t make incredible use of the C3 slave as it is still 4/6/0, but it does have thicker than normal armor, nearly the same as the 6D, and it is sort of just a mid grade lance filler in a C3 force if you can’t think of anything better. Much like basically all Warhammers, it is kinda just fine.

RATING: C

8D2

This is the same as the 8D, it just is slightly cheaper and drops the C3 slave and streak SRM-6 to trade them for a Boosted C3 slave and a Thunderbolt 5. Thunderbolts are fun but 5s are easily the least exciting version of them.

RATING: C

8K

I like the sound of this one. The 8K comes in at a mighty 1748 BV and carries nice, thick armor, a C3 slave, a streak SRM-4, and a pair of Heavy PPCs. Unlike normal PPCs or inner sphere grade ER PPCs, Heavy PPCs do 15 points of damage and are headchoppers. A headchopper is any weapon that can kill any mech instantly with a single hit to the head. This is a big jump in power level, and having a pair of headchoppers on a mech with a C3 slave that can easily always count as being at close range is incredibly powerful. C3 is a ton of fun and I recommend giving it a shot, you can really force modify the hell out of some mediocre seeming mechs. I honestly would run the 8K even if it wasn’t in a C3 list, 2 headchoppers for 1748 BV is doing pretty good on the Thunderhawk-Hellstar index of headchopper efficiency. I am going to be putting more of these in my forces going forwards.

RATING: A-

8M

The 8M is bad. It comes in at 1631 BV, a pretty premium rate, and gives 2 ER PPCs, a light gauss rifle, and two ER medium lasers. Light gauss rifles are miserably bad weapons that I hate, and to squeeze that LGR in, the 8M doesn’t have anywhere near enough heat sinks to even fire just its ER PPCs in a turn. It isn’t good and it is probably the single worse ER PPC variant so far, simply because it can’t fire both ER PPCs without starting to cook the pilot.

RATING: F+

8R

The 8R is the battlemech for people who will try to convince you that the 1911 is still the best pistol ever made. It is just a modernized 6R, with a 1697 BV price tag, 2 ER PPCs, 2 ER medium lasers, 2 ER small lasers, a streak SRM-6, and 2 machine guns. The armor is much better than a 6R, and the heat sinks are ok, but this is probably the single laziest modernization of a mech in the entire fucking game. All it is is all of the advanced tech versions of the basic weapons crammed into the thing without thinking of how they would fit together and if it was even a good mech in the first place. I feel nothing about the 8R, it is such a nothing upgrade. It is sort of fine but unexciting and the fucking same as every other ER PPC Warhammer, because whoever was in charge of mech design kept presenting the same Warhammer that costed between 1600 and 1700 BV with 2 ER PPCs and some lasers to the class every fucking week like Sheen in Jimmy Neutron. I am going nuts because all of these variants look the fucking same, just having minor variations in armor covering and secondary weapons. Creativity is dead and the mech that killed it has 2 ER PPCs and some medium lasers.

RATING: C

9D

Ok so the 9D does have 2 ER PPCs and 2 ER medium lasers but there is actually more going on. Possessing the truly bizarre movement profile of 5/8/3, it is decently fast and jumps not really enough to matter much. The unique twist here is that it carries a targeting computer, so those 2 ER PPC shots are going to be pretty accurate. What kills this mech though is the price. Coming in at 2152 BV, the 9D is the most expensive non-Clan Warhammer variant in the game, and it just isn’t worth it for that price. To replicate the targeting computer, you can just upgrade the gunnery on a 7K to 3, giving the same -1 to hit bonus as a targeting computer, and it will only cost you 1981 BV. That said, the 7K is slower, but 5/8/3 isn’t really that fast and the 7K has more weapons and the same 2 ER PPCs. Just skip this one, it isn’t good.

RATING: D-

9K

I lied earlier about taking more 8Ks in my force by the way. The 9K costs 1744 BV and has that nice thicker armor layout, with 2 heavy PPCs and an MML-9. I adore MMLs, and this is a cheaper pair of heavy PPCs than an 8K. That said, the 8K will obviously be much better if you are set up for C3. I personally prefer the 9K, but in objective terms it really is up to you, they cost about the same amount for the same primary guns, so it just depends on what your preference is for backup guns.

RATING: A-

9S

The Warhammer 9S is super unique. It carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 ER medium lasers, and a streak SRM-6. To go with these unique and varied weapons, the 9S has slightly upgrade armor compared to a 6R, about the same as a 6D. It also carries extra heat sinks and upgraded to double heat sinks, so it manages it’s heat just fine. It is a perfectly adequate mech and it costs 1653.

RATING: C

10K

The Warhammer 10K is super unique. It carries 2 ER PPCs, 2 ER medium lasers, 2 ER small lasers, 2 machine guns, and a streak SRM-6. To go with these unique and varied weapons, the 10K has slightly upgrade armor compared to a 6R, about the same as a 6D. It also carries extra heat sinks and upgraded to double heat sinks, so it manages it’s heat just fine. It does have a couple of actual unique traits though. First, it uses an Endo-Composite internal structure, which is a pretty rare component. Secondly and much more important, it uses Ballistic Reinforced armor, so it takes half damage from ballistic weapons. This is pretty cool and can be a great tech piece if you have a local meta full of big autocannons and gauss rifles, as it can kinda just walk through gauss fire and laugh at whatever is shooting it while returning fire. At 2033 BV the price is incredibly steep, but in the right local meta this could really be worth it. As an all rounder unit though, I am not super fond of it just because of that price tag.

RATING: D normally, B+ in a local meta full of gauss.

10T

The 10T is buck wild and weird. It has nice, thick armor, 2 basic PPCs, 2 ER medium lasers, and the weird and wonderful movement profile of 5/8/7 due to improved jump jets. As we have mentioned a few times in this column, jumping 7 hexes is a really fantastic thing to do, as it gives you a +4 TMM while only making you take a +3 AMM. So they have a harder time hitting you than you have hitting them, and this is the first jump speed where jumping is literally always worth it. It doesn’t have the best weapons I have seen on a jump 7 mech, but it is pretty ok and at 1891 BV it is actually kinda affordable by the standards of jump 7 heavy and assault mechs. I like this, it is super weird and funky and has an odd mix of very old and very new tech. More people should use this mech, I think it has some genuine play as a bizarrely mobile pair of basic PPCs jumping around annoying people.

RATING: B+

11T

Another weird Periphery variant with improved jump jets, the 11T is an odd duck. Coming in at 1698 BV, the 11T moves 4/6/5 and carries 2 snub nosed PPCs, 2 light PPCs, 2 ER medium lasers, and an MML-5. It is a hair light on heat sinks for what it wants to be doing, but it is basically the little brother of the 10T. A little jumpy weirdo that will do pretty good damage while being annoyingly hard to hit in return. It’s fun, use more improved jump jet heavy mechs, they are just a joy to play with.

RATING: B

C

Costing 1728 BV the Warhammer C is vaguely nuts. Carrying a sorta ok amount of heat sinks, it has 2 Clan large pulse lasers, my vote for best gun in the game. It also has 2 Clan ER medium lasers, 2 Clan ER small lasers, a streak SRM-6, 2 machine guns, and the same armor and movement as a basic 6R. This is a wildly overkill amount of expensive Clan lasers on such a fragile and cheap platform. It really reminds me of the Hellbringer, in that it is shaped like a Warhammer and also has too many guns. I actually really like this mech, it has 2 Clan LPLs and it manages the heat from them sort of ok, and that makes it a decent enough mech without even considering the backup weapons. I like this, but it is probably a hair to expensive for what it is.

RATING: C+

C2

Yeah we have more C variants and they only get more batshit. Costing an eye watering 2157 BV, the C2 has the same armor as a basic 6R. It carries 2 Clan ER PPCs, the other choice for best weapon in the game, 2 Clan medium pulse lasers, 2 Clan ER small lasers, 2 Clan small pulse lasers, and a Streak SRM-6. This is an incredibly high amount of gun for something with so little armor and for such a high price. It really, really reminds me of a Hellbringer, and I mean that as a slur. The Hellbringer is a deranged mech and this is just as deranged. Do not let it near you, do not listen to it’s ramblings. It will try to sell you honor enlargement pills but true Clan warriors say no. Don’t use the C2, it costs way too much for something this fragile. If you have extra BV left over it is a pretty awesome mech in a vacuum, but that price tag makes me balk.

RATING: D+

C3

We are not done and it just gets more insane from here. Costing a frankly disrespectful 2772 BV, the C3 is a full Clan rebuild of the Warhammer, rather than just being a variant of the Inner Sphere mech with some Clan guns bolted on. It has nice, thick armor like a 6D, and carries 2 Clan ER PPCs, 2 Clan ER medium lasers, 2 Clan medium pulse lasers, 2 streak SRM-6s, an A pod for swatting infantry off of your legs, and an ECM in case that comes up. All of these weapons are fed into a targeting computer, and that is where all of that price comes from. The targeting computer multiplier is incredibly unkind to this mech and it just costs so much more than it should. Like, it is cool, but it is priced like a Mad Cat and it only moves 4/6/0 and doesn’t have the same raw sex appeal that the Mad Cat does. Just take a Mad Cat if you want a Clan heavy mech in this weight range and role.

RATING: C is for Cat

Olesko

This a 6K with some communications equipment. It will only come up in a campaign.

RATING: N/A

The Lich

Yeah that is the name of a Warhammer. The Lich is a badass and comes in at 1807 BV. For weapons it carries 2 snub nosed PPCs, 4 ER medium lasers, and a streak SRM-6. The unique parts are all the internal components. It has an armored engine. That basically means that each time you crit a given slot that has an engine in it, the engine crit isn’t actually taken and you just mark off a hit on that location. This basically gives each engine slot on your crit chart an extra hit point, and means that in practice the Lich is more likely to die from running out of internal structure than it is to get engine critted to death. This is a deeply cool hero mech and if I am remembering right there is a generic version of this mech, so you can freely use it in whatever force you want. Also, the Lich is such a cool name for a mech. Big fan.

RATING: A- for cool factor alone, probably a B+ if it was less cool.

Conclusion

In conclusion most Warhammers are kinda mid. None of them are really that bad, even the light gauss one I gave an F to is fine enough, just not my thing. There are a few that are over priced but all in all aside from the basic 6R there really are not a lot of bad choices when it comes to Warhammer variants. This is because most variants are fundamentally just “2 ER PPCs and some lasers”, but turns out “2 ER PPCs and some lasers” is a pretty good recipe to make a functional mech. We are pretty deep into writing this article now and words are starting to not look like words anymore, I am going to sign off here. Have a nice rest of your night and use more jumping Warhammers. They are a lot of fun.