Welcome to our first Battletech Vehicle Overview. With the release of the Battletech: Mercenaries kickstarter, vehicles have finally come to Battletech in plastic, so we’re dropping them into our rotation. Much like a Mech Overview, we’re taking a look at all the different variants and whether they’re worth spending BV on.

The Galleon is a tracked light tank, which means it can go into light woods (though not water). Wheeled and hover vehicles have their own limitations, which we’ll talk about as we review them. The Galleon was introduced back in TRO: 3025, where it had surprisingly decent art. Many Battletech vehicles look very very weird, and this isn’t one of them. That said, the new art is still an incredible glow-up.

Chassis

At 30 tons, most Galleons move at 6/9 and have comparable total armor to similar light mechs. That said, because they have fewer total locations to have armor, each of those locations is likely to have more armor. In exchange, they have fuck all structure and die as soon as structure is eliminated in one location.

Variants

These vehicles 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 reviews, the name of the box you can buy to get any of the mechs we have covered, and our general methodology).

GAL-100

The base model, this dinky little 309 BV tank has a medium laser and two small lasers. It’s got just enough armor to get hit once, with 10 or 11 points all around, and slightly more in the turret. It’s not very survivable, but compare it to a Wasp 1A – for about 75 BV less you’re moving just as fast, have more armor in any single location, and have more firepower – when you can actually use it. Vehicle weapon arcs aren’t the same as mechs, and so with the two small lasers being mounted in the sides they’re unable to shoot into the front arc. A cheap little force filler, but most of the time you’re only shooting the medium laser.

My rating: C

GAL-102

This jumps up to 651 BV – it also jumps up to a 7/11 movement profile, and very nearly doubles the armor protection. Weapon loadout is similarly improved, with two medium lasers and a medium pulse laser, but the medium lasers are still mounted in the right/left sides. You won’t be able to get more than one of the weapons into any given target, and there’s no BV discount for being on the side.

My rating: D+

GAL-103

All the way up at 872 BV, this has a lot of armor (45 points on the front face), the same 7/11 movement profile, and one ER medium laser alongside a pair of medium lasers. It also brings all the electronics – active probe, guardian ECM, and improved c3 (c3i). I’m not really sure what you’d use this for, as c3i doesn’t need a master unit like regular c3, and this is eating up a lot of BV – in a full six-unit level 2 this would be at 1134 BV.

My rating: D

GAL-104

Back down to 779 BV (1013 in a full level 2) this is armed exclusively with an ER large laser, a targeting computer, and c3i. It exists to sit way in the back of a c3i formation shooting with the large laser as if it’s short range, but dedicating an entire c3i slot and 1000 BV to all of 8 damage is not a good plan.

My rating: D

GAL-105

It’s slowed back down to 6/9 and picked up some artillery? Ok then. The Thumper cannon is the lightest artillery cannon you can get, doing only 5 damage. It’s got range out to 18 hexes, and is useful specifically against light mechs – because you target a hex and not a unit directly, it doesn’t care about TMM. For 564 BV this isn’t the worst possible option, but it’s not good unless you really really need some cheap indirect fire.

My rating: D

GAL-106

The armor on the 106 is back down to relatively few points like in the GAL-100, but has been upgraded to hardened armor, effectively doubling total protection. The turret has a light PPC, and each side has a medium laser – this time mounted in sponson turrets, which mean each one can fire from the front hex side 180 degrees around to the back hex side. You can get your full firepower into either the hex directly in front of or directly behind you. It also carries TAG and some additional speed (up to 8/12), making this a decent recon vehicle at 762 BV for semi-guided LRMs.

My rating: C

GAL-106M

This turns into a transport suitable for a single squad of Inner Sphere battle armor, and downgrades the weapons to a single ER medium laser and pair of machine guns. While not significant firepower, 601 BV is pretty cheap to get an infantry squad moving 12 hexes.

My rating: C

Galleon Maxwell

Another troop carrier, this has slowed down to 6/9 and lost the hardened armor. While it increases the number of pips of armor protection, it’s still lower than the effective protection of hardened, so this will die fairly quickly. It won’t get slowed down as easily, as it’s a tracked vehicle (already hardest to do motive damage to) and carries an armored motive system for additional protection. Weapon loadout is an ER medium laser in the turret and each side having a small pulse laser and machine gun, still in sponson turrets, so it’ll tear up enemy infantry. At 483 BV this is good if you know you’ll be facing enemy infantry, but it’s not really fast enough as a pure transport, and the weapons won’t do much to enemy mechs.

My rating: C-

GAL-200

A GAL-100 that upgrades the armor a tiny bit and drops from small lasers to machine guns. 345 BV is still super cheap, but it’s not enough additional armor for any extra survivability, and you’re paying more for it.

My rating: D

GAL-200 (RL)

The front and turret of this are covered in prototype rocket launchers, with 40 missiles in each. While this is potentially very high alpha for a 422 BV vehicle, being prototypes means these rocket launchers roll at -1 on the cluster table, so you’re going to be doing less damage than expected.

My rating: D

GAL-200R

As above, but no longer prototypes (and costing 455 BV). Unambiguously better, still not good.

My rating: D+

GAL-201

Switching entirely away from energy weapons this mounts a light AC/5 in the turret and magshots in the sides (once again with sponson turrets). All these weapons are………….fine. Nothing exciting, though this does mount stealth armor, making it somewhat harder to hit while it sits around plinking for 5 damage at a time. 504 BV puts it expensive enough that it’s not going to be good in a small game, but in a larger game where it’s likely to get ignored it can eventually get a lucky hit. I’d rather have something more active for the BV

My rating: D

GAL-300

At 648 BV, this is the most usefully armed Galleon we’ve looked at yet. The front mounts a MML 7 launcher, the turret an ER medium laser, and each side an ER small laser. Against something directly in front of it at short range, that’s pretty decent damage. It’s fairly well armored for a 6/9 vehicle, and also carries a pair of M-pods, which are extremely cheap single shot lb-x autocannons. Only use them directly adjacent to a target, but if you can get them up against a mech with some open internals it delivers a lot of crits.

My rating: C+

Galleon C

Rather than going for big upgrades to clan pulses or anything, the lasers have been swapped for a large chemical laser and pair of mediums. Chem lasers are effectively Inner Sphere standard lasers with ammo, though in this case you’ve got enough to get through nearly any game. While less potential damage than the GAL-300, this is otherwise the highest damage galleon, as long as you can line up directly in the front hex. At 633 BV it’s a reasonable alternative to the GAL-300, though I prefer the ability to crit fish than just shooting some lasers.

My rating: C

Conclusion

It’s definitely a tank-like vehicle. Tankette? Whatever, it runs on treads and has a turret. It’s not a very good one, but it is mostly cheap. Where it shines is when used with vedettes and scorpions as simple mooks in a campaign – a 5 damage hit from a medium laser isn’t so much that players will be running scared, but they can’t ignore it. With how little armor they carry, the players are easily able to kill them, so a bunch of cheap units is a great way to let the players feel powerful.

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