The Goonhammer crew looks at lots of mechs. An unbelievable number of mechs. Someone could not stop designing Marauders and we’re all worse off for it. We all have slightly different opinions on what makes a mech good. In this series we’re taking a look at the four different weight classes (ignoring superheavies because all of our top 10 superheavy lists say the same thing: none of them) and picking out the 10 variants we think are the best. We’re looking at this from mechs that can be played out of the Battlemech Manual, Total Warfare, and a small handful of other common equipment that hasn’t made it into BMM – some of these are likely going to be banned from events because they make for a miserable play experience (looking at you Fireball XF), but the vast majority are fine (at least until some event points to this specific article as a list of banned mechs).

Liberty: I personally do not think we’re worse off for the number of Marauders but do recognize that others do not have nearly as refined a palette as I do and as such shall let this transgression against General Motors’ honor slide.

We’re not being quite as strict on our grading scale here as we are for individual mech overviews – some of these are being picked because they’re particularly good for a specific era or use case, rather than as a generic ilClan era rating. We’ve also brought in Scotty as a guest here – he’s another expert BattleTech player that’s written a number of mech reviews focusing on the rec guides.

Scotty

1. Fireball ALM-XF. This is the best ‘Mech in the game and second place is further in the rearview mirror than anything this thing is racing against. At a certain speed, charging just completely breaks the game over its knee. You cannot stop it, you cannot run from it, you cannot avoid it, it will crash into your back at a meaningful fraction of the speed of sound and it will do it cheaper than you. And then it will do it a couple more times after that for good measure. If you value fun in your games, ban this sick filth before it’s too late.
2. Fire Moth P. The first time I looked at this I gave it a B+. Since then it has ripped up basically every map I’ve seen it used on. You can use it poorly, like almost anything else, but used well a Fire Moth P is point for point one of the best ‘Mech sheets ever printed.
3. Fire Falcon C. Liberty and Peri and I all agree that the Fire Falcon is good, but disagree on exactly which one is better.  Expect the E to show up later on this list, but the C holds a place on my podium for being dirt cheap compared to how many guns it has. It’s an 8/12 buzzsaw that can bite anything hard enough to know it’s been bit.
4. Locust LCT-1Vb. The “Royal” Locust is that perfect blend of cheap, fast, and nasty. I generally want my ‘Mechs to be able to force a PSR by themselves or be able to do something unusual by the time they start costing a thousand BV. This little bugger does it in 642. Premium gun, solid speed, okay durability given it has an IS XL at 20 tons, and dollar store price.
5. Spider SDR-9M. There’s a world where this is my #3 instead, and there’s a world where this is closer to #10. I don’t like this ‘Mech, but I can’t deny that it’s the picture of consistency. VSPLs are undercosted, and two of them that’s very mobile is undeniably effective.
6. Ion Sparrow C. I debated between this and the Prime for range, and came down on this one for accuracy and damage. This thing is rude and will absolutely jump 10 and then put 30 damage into the back of something precious to your opponent.  Right on the edge of too expensive for its durability, the bonkers +5 TMM keeps it going and keeps it boring holes in rear torsos.
7. Javelin JVN-12N. This was a tough choice over the Gunsmith, but ultimately won for cost. Under 800 for fast and flexible SRMs on demand is high value.
8. Fire Falcon E. See the other Fire Falcon config above. High speed ATM 12 is a premium Little Bastard Man and the tiebreaker in my heart between this and the C is the BV. Maybe when you’re a hundred BV cheaper we can redo the rankings, little guy.
9. Locust IIC. For exactly the same reasons as the Ion Sparrow C. Fast, skirting the lines of too expensive but staying just cheap enough, and packing enough Clan ER Small Lasers to bore a Locust IIC shaped hole in an Assault ‘Mech’s ass.
10. Locust LCT-6M. Pretend I copypasted the Fireball entry here again. It’s more expensive, more fragile, and slower, but it does the same things and ruins the same games the same ways.

Peri

1. Fireball ALM-XF and I copied that from where the others had already written it. This thing is actually fucking broken in the sense that it can’t be allowed to see tables. It is dirt cheap and can easily be bought down to 1 or 0 piloting and will just auto-slam 40+ damage charges into your opponent’s back arcs with absolutely nothing you can realistically do to stop it. And it can do it multiple times because it has sorta fine armor. And it has 40 MP to always find a back arc. And you can easily buy 3-4 of them. Just put caps on piloting skill. There is no kosher use for a piloting skill better than 4. If there are no skill limitations in place, this is the best mech record sheet in the game. Flat out, across all weight classes, nothing and I do mean nothing wins that fight.
2. Fire Moth P. This one is a bit different in that it needs to be played with a few brain cells compared to just charging people with a Fireball XF, but if used by a player who understands how to use it it rapidly becomes a very oppressive mech, ripping up any other mechs that mass less than 35 tons with contemptuous ease and seriously threatening to crit hunt anything bigger than that to death. It has a handful of counters but god it can be hard to deal with if you don’t play it perfectly, and it is cheap enough to take multiples.
3. Spider SDR-9M. The 9M Spider is a mech we rated at an A, and I stand by that because its upper limit for bullshit is a lot lower than something like the Fire Moth P. This is a brutally efficient little dork abusing VSPs, which is going to be something of a trend in this series. It is fast, mobile from jump jets, will always have good TMM, and can slap some pretty nasty 9 damage hits into things. Probably the best mech I would ever take to a casual game, and even then I’d feel a bit gross.
4. Venom SDR-9KC. This is functionally the -1 version of the Spider 9M. Marginally worse pulse lasers but more of them and with more armor. This will do about the same thing as a 9M but just a bit worse. That still puts it miles ahead of most of the game’s light mechs.
5. Gunsmith CH11-NG. This is a mech designed to kill and eat Spider 9Ms, Locust IICs, Fire Moth Ps, and Venom 9KCs. While it is a bit more niche and far more expensive than its prey, the combination of reflective armor with high speed and to-hit bonuses mean that it will typically win a fight against them, and 99% of light mechs can’t say the same.
6. Fire Falcon E. This is good in a different direction, mounting a big-ass ATM instead of the pulse lasers that most good light mechs do. It trades reliability for raw damage output, and has the speed to get into position and do some scary shit to enemy big boys if you don’t hunt it down with one of the other best light mechs here. Only kept in check by the various flavors of pulse spam.
7. Locust LCT-1Vb. The Royal Locust (quarter pounder in the US) is a simple, cheap, high quality little mech. Does a fuckton of damage, can proc a PSR, is as tough as a Locust can manage, and costs very little.
8. Javelin JVN-12N. This is god’s perfect SRM harasser, and it is easily both the best Javelin and the best SRM light mech. Fast, durable, good to great damage output, strong utility from a secondary bin of infernos, and an extremely reasonable price add up to make this just a little monster of a mech to deal with. I own 5 identically painted Javelins for a reason.
9. Ostscout OTT-12R. This mech makes you a terrorist and it is going to feel miserably not worth the price in most normal person games, but the combination of a super long ranged gun with insane jumping mobility and stealth armor means that on a long enough timespan on a big enough map it can solo 99% of the game’s record sheets, but fuck me it will not be a fun game on the way there. Just a dismal, annoying, no good very bad play pattern that shouldn’t ever be executed in a normal game, and terrible in a normal game context, but given infinite time it almost always wins, only losing to things that can outmaneuver it.
10. Locust IIC. It is extremely expensive and quite fragile but come on, it vomits out damage like few other mechs and outguns most other the other mechs in its speed bracket. That said, it has a really terrible matchup into the majority of the rest of the top 10 here and good lord it is expensive, but it is in most ways and most games going to be a -1 Fire Falcon E and that is still an insane thing to be.

Liberty

1. Fireball ALM-XF. Look until charging isn’t fuck busted this thing will rule every roost that’s ever been created. It does not matter what you as a pilot, player, or mortal decide to do about the presence of this machine on a given table, it’s going to get your ass and you will do fucking nothing about it. Don’t take this, your friends will hate you about it… Unless of course a TO has accidentally allowed you to have this machine, in that case take it and teach them why they shouldn’t let you do that.
2. Gunsmith CH11-NG. Fast as hell, resilient to light hunters due to the reflective armor, and nasty as all get when it gets ahold of its poor lil’ light mech target. This thing is an apex predator when it comes to being a pain in the god damned ass. So what it shoots up 10 heat after a running alpha, it can still go 8/12(16) by that point which means it’s still leaving, it really doesn’t matter.
3. Fire Moth P. I hate this thing with a burning passion, it’s here and it will not leave you alone. It’s cheap, its fast, and it hurts. The only thing keeping this thing from being number 2 is it, and all Fire Moth’s, propensity to just explode given any meaningful attention which means it will end up losing the fist fight to something like a Gunsmith. That said this thing is great at zooming in to rip up an already damaged target because it can just pour a ton of hits into something with no real issue.
4. Spider SDR-9M. This thing is nasty, and as such very quickly becomes a tournament staple. It’s fast, mobile, well sunk, cheap as dirt for what it can do, and relatively tough for the job you want it to be doing. It can bully big boys and murder lights with the best of them. Sending this thing after bugs is like pulling out a bowie knife to chop the twine off a present on Christmas morn’.
5. Javelin JVN-12N. I have been harassed, annoyed, bullied, beaten, brutalized and even perturbed by this damnable little fucking warcriminal of a ‘Mech. It is one of Peri’s favorites and it is a bastard. It does the same shenanigans as my beloved Baboon 6, except its shenanigans are cruel, and tragic. It makes me sad on the inside everytime it gets to bully one of my machines. I say get because, without a very good light hunter you are not telling it no. It will appear next to a machine, feed it some SRMs or SRM-Is and then before you know it disappear across god’s green earth to come back to bully you shortly.
6. Incubus Standard. This is a staple of good, hard hitting trooper work light ‘Mechs. I use it alot and the only time its ever failed me was when it was fed a pair of Precision AC/20s in the same turn which… God gets us all when the Chemjet goes off.
7. Locust IIC 7. As a cheap ‘Mech to putt about at good speeds with a loadout that gives you the capacity to either assist your heavy hitters or hunt down squishy lights I really do like this thing.
8. Fire Falcon E. As an efficient manner to convert the spent BV into good movement and real damage the Fire Falcon E is an astounding option. I use this thing a fair bit to cart in BA before ripping open whatever they just got dropped off in front of so they can get to work. Not too much utility, and has the hit or miss issue that comes with a one-gun design, but man does it have the ability to just waylay something well out of its weight class.
9. Baboon 6. It is not often you find a nice filler for a misc. Clan list and the Baboon 6 is it. I love this thing for the sole fact that it just gets to do what it wants, you won’t care that it dies. You won’t care that it didn’t do much. When you’re this cheap while still having the anger of a hive of bees in you you win a place in my top 10. Also he’s adorable, just look at him!
10. Wolfhound WLF-3M. This is a bit of a departure from other things I have here but that’s because it serves a somewhat different role from the others. Much like the Baboon the 3M is here for pestering bigger foes on the cheap, just from a good ways away.

Lynn

1. I’m listing the Fireball ALM-XF under protest. The Unique ride of a specific criminal who works with no factions is effectively a mech that never exists in a normal game, ever. Does it break the game open via charging? Sure. Will you ever see it in combat? If you do, you know what player doesn’t get invited to the next meet-up. Consider this slot shared with the Celerity CLR-05-X for me; it technically doesn’t qualify for this list by virtue of being an Ultralight, and it’s slightly harder to jack up its skill because it’s a drone, but it’s one of very few mechs in the game which are explicitly designed to break the charge rules in universe, and was deployed in sufficient numbers by the Republic that you might encounter it in any collapse/fall of the Republic campaign.
2. Spector SPR-6F. This is one of very, very few light mechs which cost more than 1200 BV which I actually think are worth it. You move like a Spider, soak anti-Light fire like a Gunsmith, and vomit damage in bigger chunks than the Gunsmith’s. You don’t have the heat-sinking to hold down all the triggers, but you won’t have to. As Valk says, though, you do not want this thing to take a kick, ever.
3. In the Fire Moth Wars, I’m siding on team H. I’d rather send something heartier than a Fire Moth to hunt other light mechs, and against big and clumsy targets the chunky damage of the H just calls to me more than the thousand tiny cuts of the P. There’s also a lot of mechs out there who take internal damage off a six-point hit to a rear side torso. And it’s slightly cheaper, which can be helpful if you’re juggling a tight list! I also genuinely think that it’s an advantage that the H is available for a bigger chunk of the timeline. I rarely get a chance to play in The P Years, but Heavy Lasers show up in time to party at the Great Refusal. H for lyfe.
4. Spider SDR-9M. VSP BV is known to be busted even by pulse standards under the current formula, so this is one of the few mechs which feels like it’s cheating because it kinda is. The only thing holding it back at all is that it doesn’t inflict a PSR by itself (at least until it follows up the gunfire with a kick).
5. Javelin JVN-12N. If you know me, you know I LOVE Inferno SRMs. I love cheap things that can vomit Inferno SRMs. I especially love when the cheap thing that vomits Inferno SRMs can actually survive getting shot at like once or twice. This is, sadly, one of the variants that forces me to acknowledge that the FedSuns’ mech designers know their shit, it’s just the platonic ideal of a Javelin.
6. Locust LCT-1Vb. I fielded one of these for the first time recently, and by god, I’m in love. The Royal Locust’s damage output is silly for its BV cost, most of it’s coming in with pulse bonuses, it doesn’t have to think about heat at all while holding down the triggers, and it has JUST enough HP to take a little effort to kill.
7. Ion Sparrow C. The only reason it’s so low on my list is because it’s here purely off theory-crafting; I haven’t had a chance to actually field one yet. This thing looks nasty, though, and I hope to pick up the IWM model soon for my Fox Patrol!
8. Locust IIC 9. Listen, this should probably be the Standard or the 7, but this is my list, and my gracious the 9 is funny as heck. It moves 14/21 with no tricks, no MASC, no Supercharger, no TSM, just a good, clean XXL engine, and it can still force a PSR on its own with two Improved Heavy Medium Lasers. It’s expensive for what it is (enough so that you wouldn’t want to turn this into a chargebot), but when you can walk faster than the Locust IIC Standard can run, I have to tip my hat to you.
9. Tarantula ZPH-3A. No wait, come back! I’m serious about this one. It’s no Spider 9M, but for my BV I’d take the ZPH-3A over the Spider 8M every time. It’s slightly more expensive, and gives up one hex of jump distance (for an irritating 8/12/7 profile), but you gain enough armor to seriously improve survivability, you gain quad movement tricks, and you gain obscurity. Spiders are a known quantity, but Tarantulas often get underestimated. I really like this little guy.
10. Adder E. I’m including this babby on the strength of a friend’s testimony, but I look forward to giving it a go myself soon. This guy definitely belongs to the “pocket medium” category of lights, and won’t survive focused hate, but if it’s standing behind or beside something bigger and more distracting to keep it alive, two ATM-9s and a smattering of micro pulse lasers are one hell of a bite on a chassis with as much “I’m Just A Little Guy” energy as an Adder brings to the table.

Valk

1. Ion Sparrow C. What if we made a Locust IIC that jumped and dropped the pulse laser for a Targeting Computer? The one drawback here is that you have to put up with a Small Cockpit, but when you jump 10 hexes every turn, you’re probably not going to have to make any PSRs you don’t actually want to make.
2. Spider SDR-9M. It’s a Spider with VSPs. It’s on like, three other lists here. It’s on mine for the same reasons. Moving on.
3. Gunsmith CH11-NG. Again, nothing I can say about this that the other folks haven’t said already. Stupid fast, laughs off pulse lasers, scary accurate, doesn’t cook itself alive with the XXL too much. Great ‘Mech.
4. Fire Falcon E. I have a chronic problem that I’ve had to learn to work around: I like to play “fluffy” Jade Falcon forces (read: a full Star), but I typically find myself playing under BV limits that are somewhat austere by Clan standards. The Fire Falcon E is one of my first pass options for filling out a Star with a fast Elemental dispenser that can then take a couple hits and dish them back out. Yes, there’s faster Omnis. Yes, there are cheaper Omnis. Yes, there are Omnis with more gun. The Fire Falcon E shines by sitting right at the crossroads of those three things.
5. Fire Moth H. It seems like most people’s preferred guided missile of choice is the Fire Moth P, which is frankly superior in nearly all respects, but I like the Fire Moth H more. This may just be personal trauma, but I’ve found that when I miss critical shots, no pulse bonus in the world will save me, so when I do hit, I want to hit big. Hence, my love of heavy lasers. Going with heavy smalls means you’re shooting for TNs that are always going to be 2 higher than micro pulses even with the Targeting Computer involved, but you do double their damage per hit. When shooting rear armor, more often than not that’s enough to make the difference between punching through on the second hit or needing a third. Let’s go gambling.
6. Spector SPR-6F. This one’s a Gunsmith for people who don’t want to think about ground movement. 8/12/8 movement profile. Maxed out Reflective Armor. Clan-spec Improved Heavy Mediums in one hand, a Medium VSP in the other, an emotional support IS ER Small in the head, and a Targeting Computer to tie it all together. This thing is a brutal skirmisher that ties some of my favorite Light ‘Mech traits into a single (admittedly expensive) package. Just don’t let anyone kick it.
7. Hussar HSR-950-D. This one falls out of my usual “I play fluffy forces” policy because it’s just so much fun. A 9/14 move profile with a Snub-Nosed PPC, twin ER Medium Lasers, and a shockingly un-Hussar-like amount of armor makes this ‘Mech one of the most annoying Lights you can field without jump jets.
8. Javelin JVN-12N. This is an upgrade of my introtech Inferno workhorse, the Javelin JVN-10N, so naturally I love this thing too. Being able to play mind games with other peoples’ heat gauges by not declaring whether or not you plan to shoot Infernos at them until after your opponent has decided to pop off their “heat neutral” ER PPCs is a trick that never gets old.
9. Horned Owl. I’m a bit surprised that the Zaku IIC didn’t show up on anyone else’s list, but here it is. The standard Horned Owl is, effectively, a pocket Vapor Eagle – a CT-mounted large pulse laser, and medium pulses in each arm. It’s also got a standard engine, which makes it bizarrely difficult to put down for a light ‘Mech. Boring, but gets the job done.
10. Razorback RZK-10T. The Razorback probably won’t show up on a lot of people’s lists because it’s a weirdo design who’s a.) most relevant in the Civil War era and b.) wasn’t in MechWarrior 4, but it was in MechCommander 2, so I have some fondness for the little dude. The RZK-10T is a Jihad era variant that takes the RZK-9T’s loadout, then cranks the laser strength down, cranks the PPC up, and stuffs a 7/11 move profile in to make sure you’re in a good bracket more often than not. At 1,172 BV, it’s a bit pricey for an IS light ‘Mech, but the first time someone ignores it and gets their head taken off, they’ll be chasing it around for the rest of the game. Pair with the Uziel -8S for best results.

Jack

1. Fireball ALM-XF. Reliable damage is the name of the game, and nothing is more reliable than a high skill charge. Cheap enough that you can boost skills into the stratosphere, and with charges hitting based on the difference between skills it’ll connect every time. 40MP makes it impossible to dodge, and meaningless guns keep it cheap enough that BV stays low as piloting skill goes high. I don’t think you can actually price this mech high enough to be balanced.
2. Fire Moth P. Incredibly high mobility, good damage, good accur­acy. Fast enough to stay hidden until you’re ready to engage, and with the pulses it can outfight a lot of traditional light hunters. It is paper thin, so it can be hard to use as a misplay will see it evaporate without doing much.
3. Spider SDR-9M. High mobility with 8 jump makes it very survivable, and a pair of medium VSPs give good damage and accuracy (plus they’re undercosted). Makes an excellent light hunter and decent back­stabber, though an inability to force a PSR on its own means it wants to work w/ another mech it possible.
4. Locust LCT-1Vb. Cheap as hell, strong armor for a light, 8/12 move­ment hits the baseline for being fast, and strong pulse-based armament makes it good at hunting lights or backstabbing. Does just enough damage to force a PSR.
5. Gunsmith CH11-NG. Four medium pulses, ludicrous mobility, and reflect­ive armor makes this one of the best light hunters in the game. It spikes heat hard when it shoots, but has the mobility with MASC to disengage for a turn while it cools off.
6. Locust IIC. Like the Locust it’s fast and well armored for a light. 8 Clan ER small lasers is a big chunk of firepower – they hit hard enough to actually threaten rears, not just scatter damage.
7. Ion Sparrow C. Similar to the Locust IIC, but with 10 jump. A little less firepower, though more accurate with the targeting computer.Getting a +5 TMM reliably means it doesn’t die easily while still being able to put a lot of damage anywhere on the map.
8. Fire Falcon E. A lot of other choices are based around being fast with pulses, often to fight other light mechs. This doesn’t care about other lights, it exists to deliver a boatload of damage from the ATM 12. It’s a little expensive, but at 8/12 it takes focused fire to get reliable hits and bring it down, and it absolutely can’t be ignored.
9. Javelin JVN-12N. This is just a fairly cheap delivery system for a pair of SRM 6s. With 2 tons of ammo it can carry infernos and still have enough ammo for an entire game, and 8/12/8 mobility means it can get those SRMs wherever other mechs have punched holes in armor.
10. Spector SPR-6F. The most expensive mech I have on here by a pretty big margin. As a 35 tonner moving 8/12/8 with a full load of reflective armor it’s surprisingly durable, especially against common light mech hunters using pulses. While it doesn’t have the highest raw damage output of anything on this list (though it’s close), the tarcomp equipped improved heavy medium lasers and medium VSP deliver big hits, which are great for punching entirely through rear armor rather than scattering damage around like a Fire Moth often does.

That’s it for our light mechs. Check back next week as we dive into the mediums.

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.