Characters / Battletech Specific Mechs Periphery

Battletech Main Character Index
Inner Sphere | Clans | Periphery | NGOs and Others | BattleMechs: Inner Sphere Light and Medium | Inner Sphere Heavy and Assault | Clan | Periphery

Tropes associated with specific BattleMechs used by the factions of the Periphery in the BattleTech Universe.

Light Mechs

Arbiter

Paper Tiger in battlemech form

Production Year: 3074
Weight Class: Light
Mass: 35 tons

The Arbiter is a BattleMech built by Meridian Manufacturing. Despite looking like a large and fearsome heavy battlemech, the Arbiter is actually just a light 'Mech fitted with cosmetic baffles designed to make it look far more imposing than it really is. Fitted with industrial-grade armour, a cost-efficient fuel cell engine and wielding an obsolete Heavy Rifle, this 'Mech poses little threat to even other light 'Mechs.

Nevertheless, the Arbiter does excel at the one task its designers intended it to do: to deter pirate raids. Being a cowardly lot, most pirates will take one look at the Arbiter's imposing chassis and flee in search of easier targets. The success of this tactic is reflected in the Arbiter's sales, with Meridian selling the 'Mech in battalion-sized lots with a six month back order.

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• Closest Thing We Got: The Arbiter is essentially an armed IndustrialMech, with obsolete or inferior-grade weaponry and equipment. While this makes it exceptionally cheap (only marginally more expensive than the Urbanmech) and thus far more appealing to cash-strapped units or companies that can't afford proper 'Mechs for their security forces, if it comes against a real combat unit it'll find itself in desperate straits quickly.
• The Dreaded: To pirates, at least. To anyone who knows its real specifications, it's no threat at all.
• Fake Ultimate Mook: Invoked. The Arbiter's sole purpose is to be a cheap light mech that looks like a powerful heavy mech. Its Heavy Rifle armament has only six shots and struggles to penetrate even basic battlemech armour, but its housing can be mocked up to look like a powerful AC/20 or Gauss Rifle.
• Fragile Speedster: The Arbiter's decent speed of 86 km/h is its only real asset in a proper fight.
• Not Completely Useless: The Arbiter does actually have some utility beyond being a mere deterrent. Several enterprising mercenary companies have discovered that replacing the Heavy Rifle with an AC/5 results in a perfectly serviceable security mech.
• Paper Tiger: It may look intimidating and tough, but its really low tech. Its sole weapon is a 'Mech sized revolver, with only six shots, it does a lot of damage, but will run out real quick.
• Situational Sword: Against poorly armed pirates, the Arbiter performs brilliantly. Against anyone else, it quickly falls apart.
• Weapon for Intimidation: The purpose of the design. Just hope it never fights anything actually meant to combat 'Mechs.

Brigand LDT-1

Yarr!

Production Year: 3065
Weight Class: Light
Mass: 25 tons

The Brigand is the first battlemech produced by a Bandit Kingdom. It is produced by Vengeance Incorporated, which is owned by Paula "Lady Death" Trevaline. It has less than half a ton of armor on the back, which Trevalaine specifically requested to prevent her pirates from retreating. Most variants favor energy weapons, making them less logistics-dependent.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: Armor in the back is deliberately weak to make its pilots less likely to retreat.
• Fragile Speedster: Its capable of running to 97.2 km/h, and six jump jets allow it to jump across the battlefield. But it only has 4 tons of armor, making it slightly more durable to the 'Stinger', but it will still easily go down from return fire.
• Space Pirate: Its main users.

Cadaver CVR-A1

Very fast, not quite furious.

Production Year: 3094
Weight Class: Light
Mass: 30 tons

The Cadaver is the fruit of a collaboration between periphery newcomers Clan Snow Raven and the region's old timers in the Taurian Concordat. Boasting an incredible top speed of over 120 KM/H, along with ECM capabilities, it was an ideal battlemech for light cavalry duties^note meaning ambushing lighter units, raiding and attacking enemy support structures. However, it requires a hefty amount of advanced technology and lacks a long-range attack option.

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• Arm Cannon: Carries a pair of ER medium lasers, one in each arm, as its secondary weapons.
• Chest Blaster: An MRM-10 in its chest provides the bulk of its firepower.
• Lightning Bruiser: By Inner Sphere Light 'Mech standards, at least. Very few other designs can match it for speed without using MASC and risking damage to their leg actuators, and it carries maximum armor for its weight. The damage output falls a bit short by comparison, but it still carries a respectable close-range punch.
• Kill It with Fire: Brings a flamer for possible encounters with infantry.
• No Export for You: Allegedly the case In-Universe, as only the Taurian Concordat and the Raven Alliance are supposed to have access to the 'Mech. In truth, Clan Sea Fox has purchased them from the Raven Alliance and re-sold them.
• Off with His Head!: Comes with a Full-Head Ejection System to help protect the pilot.
• Skull for a Head: The top of its head is designed to look like a skull, because spooky skulls are good for hurting enemy morale.

Cazador

Because militiamen in the space boonies can have nice gear too... As long as a Clan rules them.

Production Year: 3086
Weight Class: Light
Mass: 35 tons

One of the first native creations of the Escorpión Imperio's Quixote Industries, the Cazador is a redesign of the rather well regarded Reptar, a converted IndustrialMech used by the local militias. Using bits of Clan technology introduced to the region by the exiled Clan Goliath Scorpion^note The main founding party of the Escorpión Imperio the Cazador is a modestly priced and rather simple light battlemech that is, nonetheless, very fast and heavily armed for its size.

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• Arm Cannon: Carries a flechette firing LB-10X autocannon in one of its arms, because Shotguns Are Just Better.
• Fragile Speedster: Equipped with a supercharger that can make it run at 108 KM/H in short bursts, but its mediocre 6 tons of armour mean that it'll fall apart rather quickly should it get into a protracted fight.
• Glass Cannon: Carries a large autocannon and pulse lasers, but, as already stated, doesn't last very long under fire.
• Superior Successor: Based off of a converted industrialmech that gave the invading Goliath Scorpions a hard time in their initial invasion, the Cazador took the original design and ran with it. It pretty much just replaces the weaponry with lighter and harder-hitting Clan variants and the industrial-grade armor with military-grade armor.

Toro TR-A-6

The Taurian Concordat's pride and joy.

Production Year: 2548
Weight Class: Light
Mass: 35 tons

During the early days of the Age of the BattleMech, the Taurian Concordat would find itself in constant war with its Capellan neighbors. Due to their technological and industrial superiority over their Periphery counterparts, the Confederation was able to field a wide variety of 'mechs of their own production rather than the licenced or bought models the Taurians would use. This was remedied in 2481, when a joint project between the Concordat's top weapons manufacturers unveiled the Toro^note "bull" in Spanish, a light and cheap BattleMech packing relatively thick armour and enough firepower to punch well above its weight. It became a fixture in the Taurian army during the Reunification Wars, where it would acquire a reputation as a hated terror among the SLDF invaders, and as a symbol of defiance among the Taurians.

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• Arm Cannon: A PPC in its arm provides the main source of firepower.
• Boring, but Practical: Designed for mass production, the Toro stuffs the firepower of a Griffin into the chassis of a Firebee for massive amounts of firepower on a budget. To accomplish this, its design is incredibly simple, using widely available tech, even for periphery standards.
• Lightning Gun: The model's main gun.
• Long-Range Fighter: All of the weapons it carries, a PPC and a pair of Long Range Missile racks, are best used at long ranges, making it a terrifyingly effective fighter at extreme distances.
• Lost Technology: A strange example, as its loss was not due to the usual problem^note being too complex to manufacture due to the loss of knowledge and infrastructure in the Succession Wars. The Toro was just such an iconic piece of the Taurian national image that the SLDF did their damnedest to stomp it out of existence to pacify occupied areas of the Concordat, leading to the destruction of all blueprints and factories producing it. It was returned to service only when its manufacturing processes were rediscovered within the Hegemony Memory Core during the Jihad, some 500 years after it was first made.
• Meaningful Name: When open, the doors covering the long-range missile launchers resemble a bull's horns.
• National Weapon: Besides the name and being designed by a who's who of the Concordat's finest armament manufacturers, the Toro is an excellent reflection of Taurian strategic planning scaled down to tactical doctrine. The Taurians fight by slowly giving ground, and making their foes bleed grievously for every inch yielded. Thus, the Toro is deployed in staggered defensive lines many ranks deep, using their long range to force opponents to close with them and draw into the guns of ever more Toros.
• Overheating: Its main bane is the lack of non-engine heat sinks, meaning the Toro cannot move and fire, or Alpha Strike, without dumping more heat than it can sink.
• Shoulders of Doom: Not unlike the much heavier Archer, the Toro mounts the missile launchers in the shoulders with flip-up doors.
• Superior Successor: The Toro was based on the Capellan Firebee, with upgraded and more long-ranged weaponry, and lacks the predecessor's long list of negative Quirks.
• Zerg Rush: A rare long-range version, the Toro was designed to be quick to produce and inexpensive to replace^note For context, the cost of the Toro isn't even one and a half times the cost of the dirt-cheap Urbanmech, a 'mech it significantly outperforms in just about every conceivable way, allowing them to take the field in huge numbers and drown their foes in fire before they can close.

Medium Mechs

Agrotera AGT-1A

For when the Magistracy really wants someone dead

Production Year: 3108
Weight Class: Medium
Mass: 50 tons

The Agrotera is the result of lessons learned by the Canopian company Majesty Metals and Manufacturing from an un-named number of upgrades from the Word of Blake's Phoenix Hawk models, and used them to make a hard upgrade on the Hawk that could serve the Canopian military as well as the Capellans. While it has some of the similar downsides of its predecessor (namely its hellacious heatload), it can find itself as a Phoenix Hawk replacement in many lances, and if given the right pilot, it can go toe-to-toe with larger 'Mechs as a multi-purpose and ammo-efficient design.

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• Ace Custom: Canopus-Affiliated Team Triton sports one that is built for underwater ops in Solaris VII's Pool arena rather than for flight, and its armor has been set with Harjel and reflective armor and Clan weaponry, making it both tougher and scarier.
• Arm Cannon: If you thought the Phoenix Hawk's gun was huge, the Agrotera's PPC is under-slung mounted to the left arm, and is nearly as long as the Mechs entire arm.
• Curbstomp Battle: The Agrotera proved it could punch above its weight in its debut year by having a pair of them face an entire pirate lance of Heavy 'Mechs. None of the 'Mechs could match up to their maneuverability and the pirates eventually just surrendered when their reinforcements arrived. The model built its reputation on this.
• Death from Above: Besides the direct route availed by its jump jets, it comes with a TAG laser.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: The Agrotera is best used in many of the same ways as a Phoenix Hawk, though it can stay in engagements slightly longer than a Phoenix Hawk.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: While it has generally normal targeting computers, its PPC gets to benefit from the Actuator Enhancement system set into the arm itself, allowing it to shoot its biggest gun with the same accuracy as if it had one.
• Jump Jet Pack: The Agrotera carries a series of Jump Jets, but also improves its flight range and control with a pair of airfoil wings.
• Lightning Bruiser: With six movement points as a walking speed, the Agrotera has speed comparable to designs twenty tons lighter, and its balance of precision, agility, firepower and durability means it can significantly outdo most 'mechs in one department or another.
• Lightning Gun: An Extended-Range PPC is the centerpiece gun of the 'mech.
• Meaningful Name: "Agrotera" is a name for the Greek goddess Artemis, known for their hunting prowess.
• Mercury's Wings: Like a few other Canopian designed 'Mechs, the Agrotera's most notable design feature is its cockpit having a pair of cosmetic wings.
• Off with His Head!: Like many modern designs, it has a Full-Head Ejection System to help protect the pilot.
• Superior Successor: Unless you need the more close-combat variations of the Phoenix Hawk, the Agrotera has just a little more in every direction than the original: it has longer range and more powerful weapons, can go farther using its more modern jump jets and Partial Wing system, has better cooling features as standard, and critically has much better armor than the original Phoenix Hawk.

Eyleuka EYK-45A

The last 'mech you'll never see

Production Year: 3069
Weight Class: Medium
Mass: 55 tons

Born out of a collaboration between Canopian technical know-how and Capellan design during the powerhouse that was the Trinity Alliance, the Eyleuka provides a versatile package of weaponry, combined with advanced stealth and jumping capabilities. Its stealthy approach and capacity to call in indirect fire support makes it a capable ambusher and skirmish 'mech, able to signal artillery strikes onto enemy formations before engaging them directly and fading away while everyone tries to figure out what is going on.

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• Death from Above: Not in the traditional BattleTech sense, but it carries a TAG laser by default, which lets it spot for artillery strikes. Paired with the Stealth Armor, the first anyone may know of its presence is when things start exploding.
• Glass Cannon: Not exactly glass, since nine and a half tons of armour aren't bad by any means for a medium 'Mech, but its XL engine renders it vulnerable to a side-torso loss. Oddly enough, this is paired up with a compact gyro, which is less vulnerable to hits to the center torso than a standard gyro would be.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: Adept at these, since its stealth armor severely hampers heat dissipation when active, as long as it remains unseen, the Eyleuka must either avoid direct combat or employ ambushes and fast strikes before fading away to avoid overheating.
• Jump Jet Pack: Carries a set of Improved Jump Jets to give it excellent mobility for scouting and ambushing duties.
• Stealthy Colossus: Yes, this giant robot can be quite sneaky, due to a combination of an ECM suite, thermal camouflaging, as well as, one assumes, a sensible paintjob and standing very still.

Tolva/Araña

Spider mech, spider mech, does whatever a spider can

Production Year: 3087
Weight Class: Medium
Mass: 40 tons

An Escorpión Imperio BattleMech which is an improved version of the Araña MilitiaMech.

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• Beware My Stinger Tail: Its weapons are located on a turret in a tail like position.
• Boring, but Practical: As befits a machine descending from a modified industrialmech, the Tolva is just a turret on four legs for enhanced stability.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The whole 'Mech is built around the concept that its laser turret has to be as accurate as possible. As such, it was given an advanced fire control system that makes hitting targets at extreme distances a breeze.
• Meaningful Name:
  • "Tolva" is Spanish for "hopper", a type of freight car. It's appropriate considering it's an improved MilitiaMech, which is itself an improved IndustrialMech.
  • Araña is Spanish for "spider."
• Short Range Guy, Long Range Guy: Meant to provide protection for the sniper-like Cazador or its MilitiaMech variant, the Reptar.
• Soldiers at the Rear: After conquering Nueva Castile and the Umayyad Caliphate, Clan Goliath Scorpion created the Garrison Caste to allow their militaries to supplement their own without giving them access to the proper Warrior Caste. The Araña MilitiaMech was a common part of their equipment.
• Spider Tank: It's a Quad Mech, a sensible choice given its role requires a stable platform to shoot its weapons from.

Marshal MHL-X1

What country gives its police guided missiles?

Production Year: 3059
Weight Class: Medium
Mass: 55 tons

During the formation of the New Colonies region of the periphery, both the Canopian and Taurian governments found themselves short of equipment to deliver to the newly formed policing and pirate hunting Colonial Marshals force. This forced them to supply their shared forces with older, obsolete 'mechs, an issue the Taurian Concordat sought to remedy by creating the Marshal. Knowing the 'mech's duty would entail spending several days or weeks long deployments in pirate hunting assignments, the designers gave it a varied loadout specialized in taking out ground vehicles and infantry at both long and short ranges, along with very thick armour and several redundant heat sinks to ensure nigh-unparalelled endurance. As such, the Marshal quickly became a terror to pirates and bandits that had the misfortune of running afoul of it.

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• Beam Spam: 3 of its weapon systems, including the main gun, are lasers.
• Boring, but Practical: The main production model has very little in the way of advanced technology, making it cheap to produce and easy to maintain and source parts for. The only "advanced" equipment - that is, things not available during the Succession Wars era - are the ferro-fibrous armor and a single medium pulse laser. It didn't even have double heat sinks initially. However, the laser-heavy loadout also means pilots don't have to worry about running out of ammo on long deployments, and later models did introduce fancier equipment to the design.
• Jack of All Stats: By design, its not specialized, to the point of it almost being a Master of None. But given it is designed to hunt down pirates in some of the booniest of space boonies, the armaments it carries are damn near overkill for anything it might realistically run into.
• Jump Jet Pack: It carries four jump jets, which help alleviate the mobility issues.
• Kill It with Fire: Carries a flamer for burning down vegetation blocking its path and the occasional outlaw that gets too close for comfort.
• Lightning Gun: Unlike the usual BattleTech PPC, a later variant introduced the TSEMP Cannon, which is essentially a BattleMech-sized taser.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The 2L model switched to double heat sinks, which freed up enough room to upgrade the LRM-5 to an LRM-15, tripling the long-range missile firepower.
• Made of Iron: Despite being a medium 'mech, the Marshal's lighter weapon loadout allows it to carry as much armor as your average heavy.
• Meaningful Name: The Marshal was meant to be used by the Colonial Marshals.
• Mighty Glacier: By medium 'mech standards, at least. As mentioned, it carries heavy armor, but it has speed comparable to heavy mechs.
• Space Pirates: What it's meant to spend most of its time shooting at; given said pirates are of the Ruthless Modern Pirates variety, the size, toughness and firepower are completely justified.

Heavy Mechs

Dragoon AEM-01

Amaris's Finest

Production Year: 2771
Weight Class: Heavy
Mass: 70 tons

When Stefan Amaris launched his coup and seized power in the Terran Hegemony, he ordered the creation of a family of modular mechs that could be outfitted for any combat role. The result was the Dragoon, a Heavy 'Mech that would quickly prove its worth in the Star League Civil War. True to Amaris's request, the Dragoon was a fully modular unit, whose weapons, armor and even engines could be quickly swapped out depending on the mission objectives. This also significantly eased maintenance and repair burdens, since damaged parts could be easily removed and replaced without having to take the entire chassis apart.

The Dragoon was piloted almost exclusively by Amaris's most trusted and experienced troops and quickly proved to be a terror on the battlefield. Aleksandr Kerensky considered the design to be so dangerous that he personally ordered that all surviving units and production lines be destroyed after the liberation of Terra. In a twist of fate, however, the memory of the Dragoon's modular nature would become one of the foundations for the Clan Omnimech design.

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• Back from the Dead: The design was extinct (no remaining functioning models, plans lost, factories destroyed) by the start of the Third Succession War, roughly around 2866. For some reason, a secret faction of ComStar would resurrect the design in the Dark Age, refitting it with experimental and salvaged Clan technology.
• BFG: The AEM-002 variant carries a mighty AC20, while the AEM-004 mounts a Gauss Rifle.
• Boring, but Practical: The main benefit of the Dragoon's modular nature? Lessened maintenance costs and quicker repairs, both of which are a huge limiting factor in the Battletech universe.
• The Dreaded: To both the SLDF as a whole and Kerensky personally. Not only was it a deadly mech in its own right, if a Dragoon was on the field, it meant they were fighting one of Amaris's elite units.
• Irony: After spending years being tormented by the design, Aleksandr Kerensky understandably loathed the Dragoon, which he acted upon by erasing the 'mech from existense by destroying all factories, models and blueprints. A few generations later, his descendants, now living in clan space and still knowing of the stories about how it scared the pants off of the SLDF, decided to try their hand at emulating it and, in the process, created the OmniMech, which would eventually generate several national weapons for the clans.
• Lightning Bruiser: The AEM-002 variant was a close-range unit with an upgraded engine capable of reaching speeds of up to 86 km/h, with an arsenal of PPCs and Autocannons capable of destroying Light and even Medium units in a single salvo.
• Lost Technology: As mentioned previously, after the civil war Kerensky made damn sure that the Dragoon's design wouldn't fall into the Successor States' hands.
• Macross Missile Massacre: The AEM-003 variant was equipped with three LRM-15 missile launchers slaved to advanced Artemis fire control systems, allowing it to bombard targets from a safe distance.
• Master of All: The Dragoon's modular design meant that it could assume whichever role was necessary for a given mission. Variants exist for brawler, cavalry and fire support roles, and the chassis had enough space to mount powerful weapons such as Gauss Rifles, AC20s and PPCs. Even if the unit suffered damage, it could simply return to base, quickly switch out its damaged weapons and armour and return to the fray in record time. It was by far the most dangerous mech in Amaris's arsenal, so much so that Kerensky ordered the design be destroyed after the civil war was over.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The standard variant carries two LB-10X Autocannons capable of firing solid slug and cluster munitions.

Hound HD-2F

Cry havoc, and let loose the dogs of war

Production Year: 3098
Weight Class: Heavy
Mass: 70 tons

The Hound is a Heavy Mech designed and produced by the Filtvelt Coalition, a collection of worlds that seceded from the Federated Suns after the Jihad. It is a versatile and dependable brawler that uses mostly Succession-Wars era technology, making it easy to supply and maintain.

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• Boring, but Practical: There’s nothing flashy about the Hound. It uses no advanced technology, and even mounts old single heat sinks instead of double versions. However, those facts make it easy to repair and manufacture in large numbers.
• Effective Knockoff: The Hound clearly takes a lot of inspiration from the Shadow Hawk, particularly the SHD-2Hb ‘Royal’ variant. The Hound is fifteen tons heavier and slightly slower, but is more heavily armed and armoured.
• Jack of All Stats: Like most Periphery Heavy Mechs, the Hound is a well-rounded generalist.
• Lightning Gun: The Hound mounts a pair of Light PPCs in its right arm, giving it long-range firepower.
• National Weapon: The Hound is produced by Coalition Armoury Incorporated, the main weapons manufacturer of the Filtvelt Coalition. As a result, the mech is a common sight in the Filtvelt Citizen’s Militia.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Hound’s main weapon is an LB 10-X Autocannon that can fire both solid slug and cluster munitions.
• Shoulder Cannon: The Hound’s main weapon is a shoulder-mounted LB 10-X Autocannon that has been modified to be more accurate than usual.

Merlin MLN-1A

Awaiting the once and future king

Production Year: 3010
Weight Class: Heavy
Mass: 60 tons

While most sources describe the Hatchetman as being the first original battlemech produced following the fall of the Star League, that distinction actually belongs to the Merlin. Built in 3010 by the Outworlds Alliance, the Merlin predates the Hatchetman by thirteen years and was hailed as a technical marvel at the time of its release. Conceived as a dependable and cost-effective Heavy Mech, the Merlin was built using off-the-shelf components and proven technology, resulting in a unit that is cheap, durable and easy to repair, qualities that are prized in the tech and resource-strapped Periphery.

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• Boring, but Practical: The primary draw of the Merlin is how easy it is to maintain. It’s not flashy, but it gets the job done and any damage can be quickly repaired with off-the-shelf parts. In short, it’s a cheap and cheerful Heavy Mech that most Periphery states can easily afford.
• Cephalo Thorax: The Merlin's head is mostly sunken into its torso, although this is entirely cosmetic; the unit does not have a Torso-Mounted Cockpit.
• Dawn of an Era: The production of the Merlin proved that new battlemech designs could be produced even with the decimated technological base of the post-Succession Wars Inner Sphere. The Hatchetman was conceived barely a decade later, and in less than twenty years the discovery of the Helm Memory Core would kickstart a technical renaissance that saw new designs proliferate exponentially.
• Effective Knockoff: The Merlin is essentially an up-gunned, up-armoured Vindicator in a heavier weight category. The added toughness works in its favour, giving it far more endurance than its smaller cousin.
• Jack of All Stats: The Merlin has standard speed for a Heavy Mech, mounts a respectable amount of armour and fields weapons that make it dangerous at almost any range. It has enough heat sinks to fire its entire arsenal with only a small amount of overheat and can clear most obstacles using its jump jets.
• Lightning Gun: The Merlin's main weapon is a PPC.

Penthesilea PEN-2H

Queen of the Amazons

Production Year: 3083
Weight Class: Heavy
Mass: 75 tons

The Penthesilea is the heaviest battlemech produced by the Magistracy of Canopus. A rugged and dependable design, the Penthesilea is something of a Jack of All Trades. It is neither the fastest heavy mech, nor the most well armed, nor the most heavily armoured. On the other hand, it is surprisingly maneuverable thanks to its Jump Jets, fields a balanced array of weapons that make it dangerous at all ranges, and carries a special CASE system to protect its pilot from ammunition explosions. It also contains no overly expensive or experimental components, saving on production and maintenance costs.

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• Beam Spam: Three ER Medium Lasers mounted in the torso act as backup weapons.
• Jack of All Trades: The standard Penthesilea is a good all-rounder, whilst its two other variants are a bit more experimental.
• Lightning Gun: The standard variant carries both a Light PPC and ER PPC.
• Meaningful Name: 'Penthesilea' is the name of an Amazon Queen from Greek Mythology. Fitting, since the Magistracy of Canopus is a matriarchy where women commonly serve as mechwarriors.
• Overheating: The Penthesilea's main flaw is that its energy-heavy loadout builds heat extremely quickly, despite mounting an impressive fourteen Double Heat Sinks.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The standard variant mounts an LB-10X Autocannon in its right arm. The PEN-2MAF takes this up to eleven by mounting a monstrous LB-20X version.

Reconquista

Iron sword of the reconquest

Production Year: 2835
Weight Class: Heavy
Mass: 75 tons

The Reconquista is the first battlemech produced by the Deep Periphery nation of Nueva Castille. Having existed in a state of peaceful isolation for many centuries, the Castillans had neither the technology nor the will to build their own battlemechs. All this changed in 2830, when Nueva Castille was invaded by the technologically superior Umayyad Caliphate. Forced into a corner, the Castillans used a combination of reverse-engineering, stolen blueprints and their own primitive technology to produce the Reconquista.

As one might expect, the Reconquista's haphazard design left it with a number of serious faults. Its internal combustion engine leaves it slow and prone to stalling, while its command and fire control software were full of bugs and glitches. On the other hand, the unit was armed with a powerful AC10 autocannon and could be built and assembled very quickly. Despite its flaws the Reconquista successfully turned the tide and allowed the Castillans to recapture all of their conquered worlds.

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• Back from the Brink: The Castillans were on the brink of total defeat when the Reconquista was first deployed.
• Closest Thing We Got: The Castillans had no prior experience of developing battlemechs, so the Reconquista is a far cry from mainline Inner Sphere designs. The closest real world equivalent would be the Bob Semple Tank, except the Reconquista saw active combat and was actually instrumental in driving the invading Umayyads off.
• Mighty Glacier: Unlike most 'mechs, which mount some kind of advanced fusion engine, the Reconquista uses a cheaper but bulkier and less efficient internal combustion engine. This limits its speed to 32 km/h. However, it is heavily armoured, and its armaments of an AC10, LRM10 and machinegun made it dangerous to engage.
• Shoddy Knock Off Product: It was clearly based on the Orion ON1-V, having the same chassis shape, main weapon, shoulder-box LRM and a left arm intended to carry an SRM launcher. Sadly, all the primitive technology in it means it has less than half of the Orions armaments, to say nothing of walking speed, armouring and heat sinking.
• What a Piece of Junk: The Reconquista manages to be both this and The Alleged Car at the same time. While it is undoubtedly a clanking bucket of bolts by Inner Sphere standards, the Reconquista was extremely effective at its primary task of kicking the Umayyads out of Castillan space.
• Zerg Rush: The Reconquista was easy to produce and was deployed in huge numbers, eventually overwhelming the technological superior Umayyads, who had a far harder time replacing their losses.

Assault Mechs

HawkWolf HWK-4F

Don't laugh! It's an assault Mech from the Periphery!

Production Year: 3100
Weight Class: Assault
Mass: 80 tons

Produced by Hope Industrial Works on Randis IV (an independent planet that broke away from the Taurian Concordat after the Jihad), this Mech is a modernized version of the Primitive HWK-3F.

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• Arm Cannon: The arms are essentially just mounts for the long-range missile launchers.
• Boring, but Practical: Even the modernized version is primitive by contemporary Inner Sphere standards. But its simplicity makes it easy to maintain and repair, which is important for a small Periphery nation. It also is surprisingly cheap for an Assault 'Mech, with the "primitive" technology version coming in at 6.6 million C-bills (cheaper than virtually any Assault design that isn't a variant of the Awesome) and even the more advanced version being cheaper than most Assault designs and quite a few Heavy designs.
• Break Out the Museum Piece: Toyed with. The design itself was introduced in the thirty-second century, but it uses primitive technology, or RetroTech, which was considered obsolete centuries beforehand. The primitive 3F version is used in a fire-support role for younger Brotherhood members, allowing them to gain battle experience while keeping them out of the way.
• Church Militant: They were created by the Brotherhood of Randis.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Its only weapons are missile launchers. It's in trouble if it runs out of ammo or has to deal with a short-range opponent. The 4F variant has a pair of MML-5's that allows it the flexibility to use short-range missiles in case something gets close, but the 3F version lacks that equipment.
• Lightning Bruiser: Quite fast for an assault 'mech, while packing more than respectable firepower. This comes in handy for getting away from opponents that survive its barrages, given its weaponry is pretty crap at fighting at knife fighting range.
• Macross Missile Massacre: It has two LRM-15's and two MML-5's.
• National Weapon: It originates on the Fiefdom of Randis and is named for a predator found on Randis IV. It might not be fancy by Inner Sphere standards but an assault Mech produced by a one-system Periphery state is still a major achievement.
• Overshadowed by Awesome: The HawkWolf isn't very impressive on its own. It carries the weaponry and durability of an above average Heavy 'mech in an Assault-sized package, but it falls short when compared to the vast majority of designs in its weight class. However, when one considers that it was designed and built by a single independent world in an area of little industrial development, it becomes a lot more impressive.
• Shoddy Knock Off Product: You may notice a similarity in appearance and mission between the HawkWolf and the earlier Longbow. Suffice to say the HawkWolf is worse than the original in pretty much every way, but is still an impressive piece of engineering for an independent planet.

Rampage RMP-5G

RAMPAGE SMASH PUNY MECH!!

Production Year: 2767
Weight Class: Assault
Mass: 85 tons

The Rampage was originally designed and produced by the Rim Worlds Republic. Originally meant as a simple line unit, the design underwent significant redesigns following Stephan Amaris's coup, with many units being upgraded with advanced SLDF components. An upgraded engine and specialised myomer accelerators significantly improved the design's speed, while enhanced weapons systems enabled it to match Star League assault 'Mechs shot for shot.

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• Beam Spam: The Rampage is armed with both a Large Pulse Laser and two Medium Lasers, making it deadly at close quarters.
• Jack of All Stats: The Rampage has a well-rounded suite of weapons, with both long and short range missiles, lasers, a large caliber autocannon and even a flamethrower for driving off infantry.
• Lightning Bruiser: With a top speed of 64 km/h, and able to reach 86 km/h in short bursts thanks to its MASC, the Rampage is extremely fast for an assault 'Mech.
• Mighty Glacier: The original RMP-2G version of the Rampage moved at the standard assault mech speed of 54 km/s, but still packed a punch with its old but reliable weaponry.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: The Rampage's primary weapon is an LB10-X autocannon, capable of firing both solid slug and cluster munitions.