Changelog

• Update (Latest): 2025-10-19 Updated to include three new variants from Shrapnel 22.
• Published: 2024-12-25

Released in the new McCarron’s Armored Cavalry Assault Lance, the Tian-Zong is one of the first plastic minis to have been introduced later than Clan Invasion, as a Jihad era mech. It was first introduced in the Mechwarrior: Dark Age clix game in 2003, then added to Classic Battletech in 2013 with Technical Readout: 3145 Capellan Confederation. It’s designed as a heavy sniper, and does that job fairly effectively – in part because it escaped the common clix era issue of mechs being covered in excessive small weapons.

Chassis

At 75 tons with a 4/6 movement profile, the base characteristics are unsurprising. All variants use an XL engine, but the Tian-Zong is about avoiding fire rather than just weathering it. Defense mostly comes from the stealth armor that all variants carry, with nearly full coverage. With the ranged hit penalty the Tian-Zong very much wants to try to maintain range superiority over its target, though the 4/6 movement speed can make that hard against similarly sized or smaller.

Peri: There is literally nothing special about the Tian-Zong other than the stealth armor. The mech is, broadly, just an XL engine 4/6 75 tonner with no real surprises. That is a perfectly ok thing to be, but there is nothing particularly shocking here.

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).

TNZ-N1

A very simple loadout consisting of a pair of gauss rifles and pair of ER medium makes this remarkably straightforward. It’s got plenty of ammo for them, can’t generate enough heat even with the ECM running to have an issue with the stealth armor, and just wants to sit around at range and shoot things. Against most opponents that’s going to be at 15 hexes, where you’re at the outside edge of your gauss medium range, but most of their weapons are likely into long range, combining nicely with your stealth armor. 2,167 BV is a lot, particularly given that any through armor crit to a side torso is a serious problem with nothing but engine and gauss rifle there. That said, if you want a pair of gauss rifles this is still one of the cheaper options – it’s #19 out of 63 possibilities when sorting for BV, and almost everything cheaper is also much less survivable.

Jack’s Rating: B

Peri: The N1 is probably the best of the Tian-Zong’s in isolation. Stealth Gauss is really powerful and, as a result, also very rare. You can easily just sit 8-14 hexes from things and fade into the background with a TZ, and this mech is genuinely not terrible on rate. As Jack mentioned, any of the cheaper double gauss mechs are way less durable than this is. It isn’t a particularly funny or out there mech, but it is pretty good.

TNZ-N2

Similar in theme, but swapping weapon sizes, this variant runs a pair of light gauss rifles and pair of ER large lasers.I like this – by losing the gauss rifles it drops down to 1,726 BV and the light gauss have even more range, so you can bully other gauss or PPC mechs by staying just outside their medium range, though the ER larges give you a significant heat problem. With the stealth armor on you’re generating 36 heat before movement and sinking 24, so you need to avoid shooting one of the ER larges (and even then will build movement heat). That said, it’s not as bad as it seems – because the ER larges push you up so high on heat, you’re getting a significant BV discount on the light gauss, which cost almost as much as the ER large lasers. Effectively, the second laser that you can only use with the stealth armor off only costs you 4 BV. You’re never doing a ton of damage or knocking entire components off like something with full size gauss, but this is going to do a good job staying in the fight and being annoying.

Jack’s Rating: B+

Peri: Personally I think that the base TZ is a hair better than this purely because of the above mentioned heat problems. This is, however, easily the variant I have seen being used the most often in person, and one of them even snuck in to a Capellan-themed tournament list that won an event locally a while ago, so it is deeply unfair to call this a bad mech. It does ok damage in ok amounts with ok durability.

TNZ-N3

Back to the full size gauss of the N1, the ER medium lasers are swapped for light PPCs by dropping down to a small cockpit and losing a few heat sinks. The small cockpit here is mostly a non-issue, as you shouldn’t be getting shot much, but losing the heat sinks does mean you build heat standing still and firing everything, even before movement heat. At 2,072 BV I think it works out at a wash compared to the N1 – I lean towards the N1 if you have the BV, but if you need to save about 100 BV to fit some other mech in then this variant will work fine.

Jack’s Rating: B-

Peri: The N1 is probably the better mech, but this is a wash. If you really like light PPCs the heat problems are manageable and this does let you chip in more damage at long range, which the base N1 can’t. Unlike a lot of light PPC variants, the N3 actually has a distinct role to play compared to the base model and isn’t kind of a waste.

TNZ-N4 – New

A pretty straightforward tweak to the N1, the main adjustment here is using chameleon LPS instead of stealth armor. Chameleon LPS is very similar to stealth armor in effect, with +1 to-hit at medium range and +2 to-hit at long range. It’s only 6 heat when active and doesn’t require ECM, but also doesn’t prohibit you from being a secondary target.

The ER medium lasers get swapped out for light PPCs, which aligns them better with the range bracket on the gauss, and chameleon means you don’t have the heat concerns of the N3. The other big change (probably the biggest one, which is why I’m putting it last) is that one gauss rifle is traded out for a silver bullet gauss. This does shift the role of the mech a little bit, as it’s not punching holes quite as solidly anymore, but the silver bullet gauss (aka LBX/15) gives it great crit seeking potential at long range.

It’s now using composite structure, which does make it more fragile (especially with those big explosive gauss rifles), but engaging at range reduces that weakness. Even with regular structure you have an XL engine and aren’t surviving a gauss rifle explosion – this just means that if one explodes your mech probably isn’t salvageable in a campaign. At 2,038 BV it’s a side-grade to the N1 – about equally effective, but slightly different. If you have other hole punchers in your list I’d use this, if you have other crit seeking (generally SRMs or LBX) then stick with having a pair of 15 damage hits.

Jack’s Rating: B

TNZ-N5 – New

Another variant with chameleon instead of stealth armor, this time one gauss rifle is swapped for a clan ER PPC and four jump jets get added. Damage output drops a little compared to the N1, as you’re no longer completely heat neutral when firing (the gauss, ER PPC, and ER Medium lasers put you at +6 with chameleon active standing still), so the main change is just to mobility. Is 4 jump and a swap to a light engine worth going up to 2,545 BV? I don’t think so.

Jack’s Rating: C

TNZ-N6 – New

This variant is remarkably unique compared to every other Tian-Zong, as it’s no longer a gauss sniper. It’s now carrying a pair of clan ultra AC/10s along with a pair of light PPCs, which coordinates all its guns at 6/12/18 range brackets. It’s exactly heat neutral at a run double tapping the autocannons and firing the light PPCs. It has a very singular mission – find a brawler with less than a 6 hex short range, stay at 6 hexes, and tear them apart. Downsides: small cockpit and composite structure, but used right you’re hopefully not taking a ton of damage – it is still a well armored 75 tonner. 1,888 is also fairly inexpensive. I don’t think it’s quite as good as the Loki Mk II T that it imitates, it’s certainly a contender.

Jack’s Rating: B+

TNZ-N3 ‘Jasminda’

This feels like it should be a custom N2 variant instead, as it’s back to using the light gauss, this time backed up by two ER medium lasers and an ER PPC. With 26 heat sinking you can fire the ER PPC and both light gauss without building significant heat, and you have a little more long range and touch more damage than the ER larges on the N2, but they play pretty similarly. At 1,826 BV I don’t think this is worth the extra 100 BV over the N2, especially given that the small cockpit effectively reduces your ability to outlast opponents, as you’re much more likely to end up on your ass if you do get hit.

Jack’s Rating: C+

Peri: My only add-on to this is that this is from XTRO: Royal Fantasy or whatever it was called, and is explictly themed around Princess Jasmine from Aladdin, which is fucking hilarious. I like this a bit more than the N2 because the ER PPC is much better than the paired ERLLs on this mech, and it doesn’t cause the same annoying heat problems.

EDIT: This is a lie, the Aladdin themed one is not, in fact, a Tian-Zong and I was was just misremembering, because it has been a while since I read that XTRO. Oops!

Peri’s Rating: B

Conclusion

This has to be one of the shortest mech overview’s we’ve seen in a while, and the one with the most similar ratings. The mech does one thing and your variant choice is pretty much just whether you want to bring a relatively expensive hammer or a slightly cheaper sniping harasser. It’s fun though – I really like that we’re getting some much newer mechs in plastic now, and I like that this is doing something that isn’t particularly well replicated on anything else (even if it can lead to boring turret-tech playstyles).

Peri: There really isn’t a ton to say about the Tian-Zong. Its a good mech with good stats and nothing wrong with it. I am thrilled we are starting to get some of the Jihad era stuff in plastic. A bit of Peri Lore here, I actually started out in BattleTech by playing Mechassault on my Xbox and then getting some of the clix game minis, so I have a pretty potent level of nostalgia for a lot of these designs and am thrilled that they are coming out in plastic now. I really specifically want a Crimson Hawk and a Tiburon but I am sure we will get those eventually. Lots of really cool mechs from that game and CGL’s updates to them have all looked fucking fantastic so I am thrilled about it.

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