Howdy everyone and welcome back to Mech Overview! This week we are taking a look at the Panther, one of the two iconic Kuritan light mechs and one of my personal favorites. The Panther is a boxy little brawler, a mech designed to either slot in to a battle line full of heavier mechs and fill space or to provide fire support for lighter formations. It is one of my personal top 5 light mechs, knife fighting for first with the Horned Owl and Javelin. Also, being Kuritan, every one of these painted in appropriate colors is piloted by a brave and honorable samurai, which amuses me greatly for some reason because I think the Panther is kind of adorable looking. The mental image of some self-serious honor obsessed samurai climbing into their angry cat mech just kills me for some reason.

Chassis

The Panther is a 35 ton light mech with a fairly strong identity. Most Panthers are fire support units, most Panthers have decent enough armor for the weight, most Panthers are slow, and most Panthers are very, very cheap. In a lot of cases a Panther will be literally the cheapest mech you can get to carry a specific weapon, and that low price is the primary reason that I use mine so often. It is just easier to fit a Panther into a force than it is to fit basically anything else that mounts a big gun. The most expensive Panther in the entire game is only 1300 BV, and only 2 total variants are over 1000 BV. When you are under 1000 BV, it is actually hard to be a bad mech as long as you are providing something useful.

Another great thing about the Panther is that it is almost beneath notice. I have had many games where a Panther has been allowed to sit and plink away with its big gun the whole game because my opponent is distracted with the heavier and closer-ranged units in my force. It is small, cute, and surprisingly tough for the cost. A Panther will usually survive a single round of fire from most mechs, so unlike a lot of light mechs the enemy can’t just blow it up and move on if they get a good shot. Panthers also nearly always carry long ranged weapons, so they can be pretty far back from where the knife fight is happening, in a woodline, and just be exactly hard enough to hit that the enemy will prefer to shoot at closer and theoretically scarier targets. My Panthers are usually the last mechs left on a table when I get rolled, because the enemy hasn’t bothered to shoot them yet in favor of taking out the Victor or Hunchback making a mess of their front line. The whole time they are being ignored, the Panthers are just chipping away with their long range guns, getting what hits they can and helping other mechs win fights that they might not have without the fire support.

Calling the mech “Mr. Panther” can also help disarm the enemy by personifying it a bit and making it cute. A suitably non-threatening paint scheme, frequent references to it being just a little guy, any nicknames you can think of, and bringing some big scary bastard like a Banshee or Marauder can also help to keep heat off of Mr. Panther. Panthers are rugged for the cost, but that “for the cost” is the key. If a Panther gets focus fired by multiple enemy units it will often die, so you need to make sure that it isn’t the best or most important target at any point. Most Panthers do not have the mobility to build high TMMs, so try to keep them 10 hexes or so away from the enemy, in the woods, just to make the shots as hard as possible for the enemy. It is fundamentally a support piece and really needs to have buddies nearby to draw fire away from it. Fortunately, due to the low price, the Panther is a great way to fill the last bit of BV in a force and it will rarely be without friends.

The best overall friend for a Panther is probably an intro-tech Highlander, like a 733p or something. The Highlander is a scary mech, draws a lot of fire, and is fucking indestructible on most variants. Hilariously though, the primary weapon on the 733p and on a Panther 9R are the exact same. While no one would ever consider a 9R the same kind of threat as a 733p, both mechs landing PPC hits adds up fast and every turn they choose to try and put down the Highlander is a turn that the Panther gets to keep firing for free.

Another weird bit of tech with the Panther is that, due to basically all variants being insanely cheap, this is a really affordable mech to upgrade the Gunnery on. Being centered around long range fire support, going up to 3/5 on most of these is affordable and a really good decision. You don’t really need the piloting skill because if a PSR hits you you are already dead, but that single point of gunnery skill works wonders for your hit rate.

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).

8Z

The 8Z is not actually the very first Panther out of universe, but is the earliest model in universe. For 741 BV, basically nothing, you get good armor for a light mech, 4/6/4 movement, a large laser, and an SRM-4. It has more than enough heat sinks, and is overall actually a really functional variant. The fluff mentions that there were issues with it that the gameplay doesn’t account for, but as a game piece using core rules this is quite good. I do think it is not quite as good as some of the other low-tech Panthers we have coming up, but this is more than functional, if perhaps having shorter range than is comfortable.

RATING: C+

9R

The base model, the OG, and for years the only one I ever used, the 9R is a very strong mech in 3025 and an adequate cheap dork in all future eras. It costs 769 BV, moves 4/6/4, has less armor than the 8Z by quite a bit, barely having enough to stop a PPC or LPL to each torso location and unable to stop a gauss rifle from going internal no matter where it hits. For guns it swaps the large laser for a PPC, which is an incredible trade. The 9R has exactly enough range to hang at most mechs medium or long range bands, and those 10 damage hits from the PPC add up. Not an all-star mech or an attention grabber, but filling your last 800-ish BV with a 9R is a good decision and no one is going to feel good about wasting a turn shooting an intro-tech light mech and failing to kill it, so a lot of the time people will just not bother to kill 9Rs. The biggest issue with this mech is fundamentally that the 10KA exists and is the same thing but marginally better for nearly the same price.

RATING: C

9ALAG

Bit of a mouthful of a variant name there. The 9ALAG, or Alan, is a variation on the 9R. It costs 804 BV and is identical save for trading the jump jets for extra engine, moving 5/8/0 instead of 4/6/4. Whether this is better or worse really depends on the map you are playing on. Panthers love using their jump jets to get into position on a wooded hill or in a piece of good partial cover, but on more open maps the ability to build a +3 TMM from running is really nice. I think it is a bit of a toss up, in some games the 9R is better and in others the 9ALAG is better, genuinely just a matter of preference.

RATING: C

10K

The first advanced “upgrade”, the 10K is a great example of the New Toy Syndrome that infested a lot of the early Star League tech upgrade models. It costs 838 BV, keeps the same armor and movement as the 9R, and upgrades the SRM-4 with Artemis IV and the PPC to an ER PPC. Without increasing the heat sinks or using doubles. The 10K can only sink 13 heat, and builds 2 heat when standing still and firing its main weapon. This is a very bad mech, you lose the consistent chip damage that the Panther is really good at in exchange for a bit more range and it really is not worth it. DHS would have made this a fantastic mech, but this very first advanced tech outing of the mech decided against it. Not unusable but so far from good. It does CASE the SRM ammo, which is nice. Love to see that.

RATING: D-

10K2

Ok there we go, the good one. The 10K2 costs 913 BV, upgrades the heat sinks to doubles, and carries an ER PPC with 2 SRM-4s. This is a pretty fantastic set of weapons for something this cheap, and it has absolutely 0 heat problems. The armor is a hair thinner than I would like due to it maintaining the 9R’s armor profile, but the improved weaponry can be worth it if you have 150 extra BV to play with after taking a 9R.

RATING: B

10KA

The 10KA costs 797 BV and splits the difference between a 9R and a 10K. It carries a standard PPC, an SRM-4 with Artemis IV, and continues to have the CASE’d ammo bin for the SRMs. This is a strict upgrade over the 9R and is the reason I barely ever take the 9R anymore, the 10KA is a marginally better version of it for only 30-ish BV more. It isn’t really that much better because taking side torso crits usually means the mech is being shot at, which will probably result in its death shortly, but it’ll save you a mech in some games and that is worth the price.

RATING: B

12A

The 12A is a very good little mech. For 982 BV it upgrades the armor from 9R levels to 8Z levels, and fully swaps the equipment out. We are still 4/6/4, but now carry an ER large laser, a Streak SRM-4, and a medium pulse laser. This is a significant increase in firepower up close, and the 12A mounts a targeting computer to help that ER laser hit easier. It has enough double heat sinks to fire a full alpha strike without overheating too, only building 1 heat at a run or 3 at a jump. This is a very good upgrade, losing 2 points of main gun damage output to gain significantly better durability, longer range, and a much higher hit rate due to the T-Comp. I have absolutely no clue why I do not use this mech more often, it is probably the most reliable Panther at actually getting damage in on targets, and easily the best at fighting off light mechs that try to dive on it up close.

RATING: B+

12K and 12K2

Yes we are doing 2 at the same time here. Both the 12K and the 12K2 cost 930 BV, have the thicker 8Z pattern armor load, carry an ER PPC and MRM-10, and are oversinked and basically impossible to overheat. The difference is, near as I can tell, literally just that the 12K carries the MRM-10 in the left torso and the 12K2 has it in the center torso. The 12K2 placement is better in my opinion, just because it makes it slightly less likely that a crit to the CT instantly kills you. MRMs are a lot of fun and I love the 12K2 even though MRMs are quite bad, I am weak for them. Not the best Panthers, but ones I have used quite a bit.

RATING: C+

12KC

An interesting machine and one of 2 Panthers above 1000 BV, the 12KC costs 1039 and has some fun equipment. The armor load is up to 8Z standards, and has been upgraded to Ballistic-Reinforced. This halves damage from enemy autocannons, which the Combine’s canonical arch-enemies, the Federated Suns, are very fond of using. The 12KC can, as a result, take a hit from a gauss rifle or AC/20 anywhere on the body and not take internal damage. That resistance to gauss rifles in particular is very valuable. When Panthers take fire, it tends to be from long-ranged weapons, and the single biggest cause of total Panther death in my games is a random gauss rifle slug from a Nightstar with nothing better to do, or something of that sort. This goes a long way towards fixing that problem. While a Clan ERPPC is usually still very threatening, that gun costs like half as much as this entire mech and literally nothing likes to be shot with CERPPCs

For weapons and equipment we have an ER PPC, a medium laser, and a C3 Boosted Slave. This is an improved version of the basic C3 slave, and the 12KC makes a nice addition to a C3 force if you are running low on BV.

Also the heat sinks here are Clan grade, which isn’t important but is funny.

RATING: B

13K

The 13K is god’s favorite princess, the ruler of the free world, and the reincarnation of Tokugawa Ieyasu. It has a lover in every single Davion noble family and a basket ball dunking technique that is considered unnatural and unseemly to perform. It is probably my favorite Panther.

For 996 BV you get a 5/8/8 Panther with an XL engine, XL gyro, and thinner armor than any other Panther we have covered so far. It is still barely able to take a 10 damage hit to every location without taking internal damage, which is great. 8 hexes of jump gives it a +4 TMM, making the 13K very annoying to kill. For weaponry the 13K carries a Plasma Rifle and an SRM-4. This is a decent weapon load, and the 13K is one of the most annoying jumpy bastards of a mech that you will ever deal with. Anything that can jump 8 hexes can just choose not to pick a fight if it doesn’t want to, so the 13K, when played well, basically never gets shot by anything without your consent. The value of having a 10 damage hit from the Plasma Rifle, followed by a crit-seeking SRM-4 and possibly a punch cannot be overstated. The 13K generates a lot of crit attempts compared to other backstabbers due to having its own hole puncher it can use rather than having to rely on other friendlies to open up locations for it.

The best way to use the 13K is probably as part of a wolfpack with a pair of Spider 9Ms and a Javelin 12N. The Spiders will keep enemy light mech hunters away because all jumpy bastards fear the VSP, while the 13K punches holes that the 12N exploits with all those SRMs. In that wolfpack I would actually load Infernos into the 13K so that you can force up as much heat as possible on the enemy, relying on your Javelin buddy to actually crit seek. When the 9Ms don’t need to shoot enemy light mech hunters, they can also chip in with some pretty good rear arc damage. I cannot be held responsible for what that wolfpack will psychologically do to everyone else in your local group, but at the very least it’ll start forcing people to take light mech hunters, which is always a good thing for a local meta in my opinion.

RATING: A-

14R

The 14R is one of the simpler Rec-Guide variants out there. For 1291 BV, far and away the most out of any Panther, the 14R makes some decent upgrades but is honestly not worth it. It moves 4/6(8)/4, getting that extra movement speed from a Supercharger, and carries an Inner Sphere ER PPC and a Clan Streak SRM-4. It also keeps the Ballistic-Reinforced armor that the 12KC carried, which is a nice addition but doesn’t really make up for the fact that this is far and away the most expensive Panther while not being meaningfully better than a 12KC. It can build a +3 TMM instead of a +2, but Superchargers can only be safely used every other turn or so and it can’t consistently get +3 TMM as a result. Just take a 12KC, you will be happier.

RATING: C-, massively overpriced. You can get actual headchoppers for less than this.

14S

Another really fun variant, the 14S is built on top of a 9R, carrying the same armor and heat sinks. The weapons and movement are different though, moving 4/6/6 with improved jump jets and carrying a snub-nosed PPC and 2 rocket launcher 15s. I love RL-15s a lot and the Snub PPC is my pick for overall best version of the PPC. The 14S only costs 825 BV, is heat neutral at a jump without the RLs, can get a +3 TMM literally every turn, and carries one of the game’s best primary weapons. There is nothing bad here. 9 hexes of short range is a lot of short range. The RLs are probably best used as a “get off me” tool to deter enemy mechs from standing next to you while you bounce between cover with your pretty good jump distance and slam 10 damage hits into people with really great consistency. I have been using this one a lot recently and it is a far better upgrade than the 14R that it shares a number with.

RATING: A-

16K

The 16K is a very simple mech. It is an upgrade of the 10K2, having nearly the same armor, the same movement profile, and a direct upgrade to all other systems. It carries an ER PPC, 2 Streak SRM-4s, and enough double heat sinks to not worry about heat too much. At 988 BV it is still affordable, and it actually has pretty great close range damage compared to most other Panthers. It can pretty consistently ward off crappy light mechs that might try to dive it, and if it manages to get behind something during a chaotic late-game fight it might actually do some decent crit-seeking. Not a bad mech but, not gonna lie, I have never used it in favor of other, more exciting advanced tech Panthers.

RATING: C+

C

The C is simple, it is a 10K that trades the Artemis IV for a C3 slave. Take a 12KC or CA.

RATING: D-

CA

The CA is a 10KA with a C3 slave instead of the Artemis. Take it if you want to use C3, take a 10KA if you don’t want to use C3.

RATING: B

CM, Tanaka, and Darwin

Near as I can tell none of these “Special Character” variants have canon record sheets. Would be neat if they did and I’ll update this if CGL releases them, but MUL lists no source for a record sheet and none of the third party sites have canon ones.

RATING: N/A

Conclusion

The Panther is the best at what it does. What it does is be cheap and carry a big gun. The Hollander fans can cope and seethe, the Panther did it first and did it better. It is the Sonic to their Shadow, which is a funny comparison because the Hollander is faster than most Panthers and I have “He’s faster than Sonic” burned into my fucking head. The Panther should never be the first mech you add, but if you need a little bit of extra firepower and don’t have a lot of BV to spend, take a Panther to fill that slot. You honestly should just buy the most expensive Panther you can get and scale down to less expensive ones if you don’t have quite enough BV. To give a bit more help, there are basically two paths of the Panther, either the regular ones or the iJJ ones. Uniquely for this series, I actually have strong recommendations of what to take and when to take them. So, lets go over each Path of the Panther.

For the regular path, start with a 12KC, then the 16K or 12A, then the 10K2, then the 10KA, finishing with the 9R or 9ALAG. Just buy the most expensive one you can afford in that order. You could also optionally buy a 3/5 version of one of the lower tier Panthers instead of one of the higher tier Panthers, it really is up to you. All of those are good choices, just get the one that fits your budget.

For the iJJ ones, honestly just take either of them. They are both really good and will serve you well. The 13K is more expensive but really functions best with other backstabbing friends, the 14S is much more self sufficient, so which one you take is a bit of a toss-up.

Anyway, I love the Panther and I want more people to use them. It is a criminally underrated little mech.

Have any questions or feedback? Drop us a note in the comments below or email us at contact@goonhammer.com. Want articles like this linked in your inbox every Monday morning? Sign up for our newsletter. And don’t forget that you can support us on Patreon for backer rewards like early video content, Administratum access, an ad-free experience on our website and more.