Howdy friendly Thors and welcome back to Mech Overview! The initial Clan Invasion omni mechs are some of the most iconic mechs in BattleTech, coming in in the first major rules expansion the game got and running roughshod over the game at the time due to a lack of any balancing or points system. These are the earliest Clan record sheets, and while the writers sometimes got it right (Fire Moth, Mad Cat, Stormcrow), they also got it extremely wrong multiple times. In particular, all of the Clan heavy mechs not named Mad Cat are deeply flawed in one way or another. The Vulture and Loki lack armor, and the Thor… The Thor lacks common sense.

I have always been a huge fan of the Thor ever since bumping into one way back in the day playing Mech Assault as a kid. The Thor is an ugly motherfucker, asymmetrical, lopsided, boxy, and thoroughly unappealing in all the ways that a mech should be. I am not a big fan of the sleek fighter jets on legs, or of the well designed, aesthetically appealing mechs. I like the big ugly bastards of BattleTech, the Thunderbolts, Banshees, Regents, and Thors. I can’t give the Thor any negative points for looks, but I can give it plenty for stats.

Chassis

The Thor commits several horrific sins as an Omni-Mech. As I always mention, Omni-Mechs can’t make major structural changes with new variants, only swapping out the weapon and equipment load between versions. This is already a touch limiting, as it keeps the frame and armor locked to what the original writer thought it should be. That armor is the first major sin of the Thor, because much like all the other original Clan heavies not named Mad Cat, it skimps pretty significantly on armor, only carrying about 84% of its maximum load, and the layout isn’t great. The arms only have 17 points on them, which is under the 20 damage breakpoint and, insultingly, could be effortlessly fixed by moving 3 of the pips off of each leg, which are sitting at 23. The Center Torso is also 10 points short of maximum, so the armor protection here, while not nearly as poor as a Vulture or Loki, is still deeply suboptimal.

The second major sin is that the Thor hard-mounts a fuckton of equipment. The hard-mounted heat sinks aren’t a big deal, as they are contained to the engine, but 5 permanently mounted jump jets eats up 5 tons, meaning that the Thor has a fairly small 22.5 tons of pod space to work with for variants. This has a couple of knock on effects. First of all is that you have that extra half ton of pod space that is just going to become an ER small laser on every variant because what the hell else do you spend 0.5 tons on, and the Thor could direly use that extra armor. These hard mounted jump jets and low podspace also means that the Thor is in the Kingfisher zone of being functionally unable to use more than maybe 1 ballistic weapon per config, forcing it into using BV intensive energy weapons. 

Unlike the Kingfisher, the Thor isn’t particularly tough, has an XL engine, and with a stock profile as a 70 ton 5/8/5, you end up paying a *lot* of extra BV for speed factor. Stacking high speed factor on top of a requirement to load up on expensive energy weapons to carry effective firepower leads to a lot of deeply overpriced configurations that carry half the gun of a similarly priced assault mech or non-jumping heavy. 

The hard mounted jump jets also, from a fluff perspective, make the Thor much less Omni than other omnis. Have a mission that doesn’t need jump jets? Too bad, you are stuck with the damn things. The Thor is pretty much locked in to a mobile cavalry role, and any attempts to deviate from this identity tend to go pretty badly.

Anyway, enough negativity. As I have said a few times, a bad omni-chassis can be salvaged by good configurations that understand the assignment, so lets take a look at them!

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).

Prime

The Thor Prime is a profound fuckign disappointment of a mech and in my opinion the second worst Prime configuration out of the OG heavy omnis, just better than the Loki Prime. At 2298 BV, so 2300, you get a deeply mediocre weapon set. A Clan ER PPC, an LB-10X, and an LRM-15. This is a world-breaking alpha strike of 40 damage. The Enforcer III 6R, to pick a totally random mech that I happened to randomly roll in Megamek recently, costs 1694 with the same movement profile and an alpha-strike of 43. It has marginally shorter range, very similar armor, and the same movement profile. The Thor Prime is a complete waste of BV.

There is something I haven’t mentioned yet that some of you are waiting for. The Thor Prime has a befuddling design choice. Normally, the point of an LB autocannon is to carry both solid and cluster shot, so you can pick and choose which to use depending on the situation. The Thor Prime, in its infinite wisdom, only assigns 1 ton to the LB, while over-ammoing the LRM-15 with 2 tons that it, bluntly, does not need. Swapping the ammo around is a common fan improvement, and if you insist on using the original variant for fluff reasons, I would actually just make a custom that does that change. 

The Thor Prime is also oversinked, being -1 heat with a jumping alpha strike, -4 at a run. This is not a well constructed omni-mech, and it is genuinely baffling to me that this was the best thing they could think of for the Thor.

Peri’s Rating: D-

A

Moving from one shitshow of an Omni-Mech to an entirely different shitshow, the A weighs in at 2145 and is better, but not by any significant margin. For guns we have a gauss rifle, large pulse laser, and SRM-6. The Gauss Rifle only has 8 shots, but don’t you fucking worry, they made sure that the SRM-6 has 2 full tons of ammo so you can shoot it 30 fucking times in a row. I am actively mad about this config, it does mediocre damage for too much BV and it is is built sickeningly badly. You know it is a bad config when a CLPL can’t save it.

Also when all that SRM-6 ammo goes off you also lose the Gauss Rifle. Love it. Direly shitty mech.

Peri’s Rating: D

AA

Exactly the same as the A, but swaps a ton of SRM ammo for gauss ammo and swaps the CLPL for an ERLPL. It’s more expensive at 2215 BV, and the ERLPL is a far shittier gun than the CLPL.

LMAO.

Peri’s Rating: D-

B

The B is a config I want to like because it is kinda funny, but it is, unfortunately, still a Thor, and therefore sucks. At 2159 BV you get 2 LRM-20s, 2 SRM-4s, a NARC, and an Anti Missile system. Don’t get me wrong, that is a lot of missile based hate, but it is full of ammo, overpriced due to mobility, and you can add 50% more LRMs and a couple of medium lasers for 300 BV with something like a Nova Cat B. CLRMs have such good range that the Thor’s ability to control ranges is a bit less important on an LRM config, and the NARC and AMS are a bit wasted on this mech. I have a lot of experience trying to make this specific config work, it was one of my favorites growing up, but the moment that you are playing against people who want to win it is really hard to get your BV’s worth out of the B.

Peri’s Rating: D+

C

To provide a small spoiler here, the C is a decent Summoner that is crippled by the existence of a far better Grand Summoner config that does very nearly the same thing. At 2379 BV you get a UAC/20, an ER large laser, an ER small laser for .5 ton reasons, and a streak SRM-6. This is a touch light for 2379, but at 5/8/5 it would be a decent weapon load, were it not for the Thor II C that beats the living hell out of this thing for a lower price. It will struggle to use the jumps offensively with a weapon as swinging as a UAC/20, but putting that sort of gun on a 5/8/whatever chassis is very threatening. Shame about the cooler version of this thing existing and easily working with the same miniature.

Peri’s Rating: C ish on its own, but the Grand Summoner C punts it down to an F. Take that instead.

D

The Summoner D is significant victim of the BV system. With a weapon load of 2 ER large lasers, 2 ER medium lasers, 2 machine guns, 2 anti missile systems for reasons that made sense in the 80s, and a targeting computer, this is theoretically a great, mobile sniper. The issue is that “mobile sniper” is the unit archetype that BV punishes the hardest, with a cost of 2643, only a touch shy of some of the cheaper Clan 100 ton assault mechs. This is very heavily overpriced. 34 points of damage at a -1 is cool but it isn’t 2643 BV cool. The Summoner D is also significantly oversinked, being -4 at a run firing everything, and it is full of ammo for those MGs and AMS. This simply costs far too much to be worth taking in a normal game situation, but I could see some use in a game where you know you are going to have nice open sightlines and tons of room to manuever.

Also the Grand Summoner C manages to be a better version of both the Summoner C and the Summoner D at the same time while being cheaper than either. Clan Pulse needs to be 50-75% more expensive..

Peri’s Rating: D-

E

The E is a massive fucking letdown. You see, E normally means ATMs, and ATMs means good. Unfortunately, the Summoner E is still a Thor, and therefore disappoints the shit out of me. For a princely 2612 BV, you have the earthstopping firepower of an ATM-12, an ATM-6, and an ER PPC. This is, bluntly, not good for the price. ATMs are a cheap way to pile shitloads of damage into a mech for comparatively cheap, but the Thor E fucks that up by putting a big expensive energy weapon on it and also by being a Thor. If you want a fast ATM striker in this movement range, take a Stormcrow E instead.

Peri’s Rating: D

F

At 2186, the Thor F is a dismal heavy mech. For more BV than, say, a Nova Cat C, you get 2 UAC/5s, 3 ERMLs, and an LRM-10. This is shockingly mediocre for this price. I am a fan of UAC/5s for drinking up tonnage on an omni-mech, but being a Summoner disease is pretty bad and manages to make it still way too expensive. Just a bummer of a mech. I am positive you can get better for less on basically every MUL that you would conceivably be restricted to with this stupid thing.

Peri’s Rating: D-, the theoretical damage output is at least mediocre, even if it does come in tiny, disappointing little hits.

G

At 2452 the G is overpriced but this is a hilarious fucking Thor config. You get an ER PPC, ER large laser, small heavy laser, and 6 fucking SRM-4s. This is a funny amount of missiles, a mediocre but present amount of long range damage, and a small laser I guess. I don’t think this is a good config, but it is doing something different and something very funny. I don’t really know how to rate this honestly, that many SRM-4s is making a very funny amount of to-hit rolls and you will probably spin to win into a TAC or Head hit every other turn. Probably not great, but this would be a lot of fun and spinning to win on SRMs is a viable strategy.

Peri’s Rating: C? I think? Maybe a C-.

H

So the Thor H is a mech that I initially disliked a fair deal due to the shockingly high 2536 BV price point. I have, however, recently seen it used to great effect in a league we are running in the Goonhammer Patreon Discord, and that means I have to begrudgingly admit it is at least usable. Carrying 2 heavy large lasers, 2 ER medium lasers, and an anti-missile system, the H compensates for its crappy accuracy with a targeting computer. 2500 BV for a couple of big damage hits and good mobility can apparently be used pretty well, and heavy large lasers are the ultimate “Spin to Win” weapon. They sometimes straight up win games for you, but even with a targeting computer they are still pretty unreliable. Were it not for literally seeing one of these clean fucking house in a game lately, I would write this off completely as a bad heavy laser one, but I have seen first hand evidence that this is, in fact, a good heavy laser one.

Peri’s Rating: B-. One of the best Thors.

HH

Okay first of all I am not terribly fond of this designation. I know we have the AA above and some of the early “bad” configs get remakes with 2 letters but maybe they should have picked a different one here. 

Anyway, it is kinda bad. For 2490 BV, you get a scattering of random crap. You get a HAG/20, heavy medium laser, 2 ER MLs, an AP gauss rifle to kill some fucking pathetic writhing infantry worms, and a plasma cannon to GET THEM OUT OF MY SIGHT KILL THEM ALL BURN ALL OF THEM FUCK INFANTRY.

This is a pretty mediocre amount of damage coming, mostly, in small hits. I greatly dislike this config.

Peri’s Rating: D-

J

At 2666 BV, a very funny amount, you get a very goofy weapon load. The main gun is a HAG/40, backed up by a pair of improved heavy medium lasers and a light active probe. HAG/40s are extremely funny and good, but the expense is a problem here. Having one on a 5/8/whatever platform is good, but it isn’t 2666 good. The iHMLs are funny as hell but not good overall, and in general I am not convinced the price is worth it here. There is a world where you can range-edge people with the HAG’s monster short range bracket and do something extremely funny, but range botting people like that only really works if your opponent isn’t resisting or is distracted. It’s worth learning how to do it, but for most people I think this averages out to a high D.

Peri’s Rating: D+

M

The M is the one that the main villain of the terrible 1990s BattleTech cartoon uses, apparently. It is the exact same mech as the prime, but it swaps the LRM for a Streak SRM-6. It still has 2 tons of missile ammo, 1 ton of LBX ammo, and is 2251 BV. It fixes none of the Prime’s issues. Good job!

Peri’s Rating: F

Q

Holy fuck there are a lot of Thor configs. FASA/CGL really wanted to make this mech work. This is a very funny attempt. For 2479 BV it carries an ER PPC, large pulse laser, heavy medium laser, heavy small laser, and 6 SRM-4s. This is a hysterically funny configuration, dealing mediocre damage at range but ramping up to pretty hilarious damage up close. It is heat neutral with the LPL and all the SRMs, which is hilarious, and this is in general a perfectly usable heavy mech. As mentioned, you are really spinning to win with the SRMs, but the Q can open up a few holes as it closes in and then exploit them with the SRMs. This seems like a pretty viable config, but it 100% is stupid. Really stupid.

Peri’s Rating: C+, perfectly viable but still expensive.

T

It sucks.

Peri’s Rating: D-

Okay so jokes aside the T is a remake of the Prime. It carries a Protomech AC/8, an ER PPC, and a Streak LRM-15. At 2355 you are paying way too much to do 38 damage. Just a hilarious amount. This would be a good medium mech config, maybe. Fucking Thors dude. God they suck.

U

Not only is this a U variant with all the underwater stuff, but it is a uniquely bad U variant, to the point that it is worth talking about!

So the U is over 3000 BV, has a pair of ER PPCs with a TComp, an LRT-15, and is probably the worst thing you could make a U variant of for underwater fighting. You see, you basically can’t move underwater without UMUs, which take the jump jet slot. Since the Thor has hard-mounted jump jets, it can’t mount UMUs, meaning that it can barely move underwater and is, in general, an overly expensive, stupid ass target.

Literally the worst U variant I have ever seen.

Peri’s Rating: F-

Z

So the Z is a society variant with iATMs, which are insanely annoying to play against and very powerful. That said, it still manages to be bad. Fucking Thors. For 2783 BV you get an ERLPL, my pick for “Worst primary-class Clan energy weapon”, an iATM-12, 8 AP gauss rifles, and a NOVA CEWS to force your opponent to break out the rulebook. The APGRs are hilarious for dealing with FUCKING INFANTRY WORMS and do adequate work against mechs, but the rest of the firepower here is just… not great for nearly 2800 BV.

Peri’s Rating: D-

Thor Final Thoughts

The Thor is, for the most part, a dismal piece of shit. The overwhelming majority of Thor Configs are just horrible, and the few that are good would be better on an Omni-Mech that wasn’t named Thor. It isn’t quite Loki bad, but it is Vulture bad. Fortunately, the H, Q, and G are all at least usable. On the other hand we do have a better Omni-Mech that you can use the miniature for, which is just below!

Grand Summoner/Thor II Chassis

The Thor II is the sequel to Thor, and is vastly better. It shuffles around some components to fix the Thor’s armor sins by bumping the arms up to 20, and it drops the hard mounted jump jets. This lets it get up to 30.5 tons of pod space, quite a lot more, and it can still add the jump jets on a case by case basis if it needs it. This is, on a raw chassis level, a straight upgrade on the Thor. Mechanically this extra Pod Space does let it cram in extra guns, which can get a little spendy. Let’s take a look at the configs.

Thor II/Grand Summoner 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).

Prime

The Thor II prime is an uprated Thor F. At 2554 BV, you get 2 UAC/5s, an LRM-15, and 4 ERMLs. It moves 5/8/5, remounting the jump jets. This is a bad one to start with, we have some mediocre damage output for the mid 2000s BV range, but at least it has decent heat management and mobility. I am not a huge fan of this; it is better than the Thor F but it is not 300 BV better, and it manages to cost 300 more. Cool.

Peri’s Rating: D-. I want to stop giving D- ratings.

A

The A is a remake of the Thor Prime.

Peri’s Rating: D-

Okay so for 2473 BV you get an LB-10X, an ERPPC, a LRM-5 and a LRM-15. This sucks. At least it has 2 tons of LB ammo this time, but god this sucks. I hate it. This was not a design you could fix. Let it go. Its ok. I used to love Mr Thor too, but we can’t keep going back to him like this. It’s time to let go of the Thor Prime, it can’t hurt us anymore.

B

The B is an interesting one. It is fucking covered in missiles, with 2 LRM-15s, 2 LRM-5s, an ATM-9, an ATM-6, and 2 ER small lasers. At 2354 BV this is a good amount to spend for… Well there is a lot of missiles coming out of this mech. Damage output is good, and the mobility at 5/8/0 is pretty decent. The BV price is a bit high, but the damage is pretty decent. CLRMs and ATMs are both very good ways to cram damage into a mech. I don’t think it is worth it, but it isn’t unusable.

Peri’s Rating: C-?

C

This is the good one. For 2351 BV you get a 5/8/0 mech with an Ultra AC/20, a pair of LPLs, a Streak SRM-4, and a Flamer. This is a pretty good mech. It has the speed to be very proactive with the UAC/20, and has good skirmish potential with the LPLs. It is more or less heat neutral, and it has a huge amount of agency. It is in that fun, magical zone where it has enough gun to outgun anything faster, and enough speed to outrun anything with much more gun. Even a Mad Cat or some other high-firepower 5/8/0 is not really going to want to tangle with a UAC/20 and a pair of LPLs. I have gotten some very good use out of this mech in the past, and, if you can position it well, it’ll kill the hell out of things.

Peri’s Rating: A-, quite good.

D

This is almost exactly the same as a Regular Thor D.

Peri’s Rating: D-

For 2878 BV you get a 5/8/5 mech with 2 ER large lasers, 2 ER medium lasers, an LRM-15, a targeting computer, and way too many fucking heat sinks. This is just not remotely enough firepower or durability for this BV, even with the decent movement. This just won’t manage to make its BV back in most games, unfortunately.

E

The E is fucking hilarious. For 2638 BV you get a pair of ER PPCs with an ER small laser for some fucking reason. That is not the main appeal though. The main draw is the movement profile, at 5/8/8. It uses improved jump jets to get that, and like… It is very expensive but holy hell a heavy mech jumping 8 and spinning to win with a pair of headchoppers every turn is insanely funny. In practice it will likely hit slightly more often than it is hit, with that beefy +4 TMM combined with heavy mech grade armor letting it survive a whole lot of bullshit that would kill other, lesser mechs. It is expensive, but there are going to be games where this thing feels completely unbeatable. There will also be games where it misses every shot and does literally nothing. Fuck it, buy a ⅔ pilot for this thing and fuck people up, it’ll suck but god it’ll be funny.

Peri’s Rating: C, but its the most inconsistent C imaginable. Will range from F to S based on your dice.

Thor II Conclusion

Well most of these are also ass. It isn’t as bad as the regular Thor, and the C in particular is very, very good. I am just still disappointed in the majority of these stupid jumpy lumpy weirdo mechs. Neither of them are great overall, but at least there are a handful of usable configurations. I really do think that the Thor II has the potential to have some insanely nasty configs, but there really is only one that I would say uses it effectively, that being the C. 

Holy shit there are so many Thors and Thor IIs. Almost all of them suck. Use the ones that don’t suck. I am currently dehydrated as hell, and I want to not be writing about the Thor. Cheers.

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