The Havoc is essentially an upgraded Jenner. Upgraded technology takes the same weapon loadout and shuffles it into something faster and better armored than nearly any Jenner, while also throwing on hand actuators (a mixed blessing – while they can be useful for some missions that have mobile objectives, it also means that you lose the ability to flip your arms. It also, potentially most importantly, looks a lot cooler than the Jenner. If you’ve read our Jenner overview you’ll see how we talked about it being a striker light – something fairly well armed with enough mobility to get those weapons in to threatening positions. That’s exactly what the Havoc does, though with more speed its also more expensive.

Havoc. Credit: Rockfish

Chassis

The Havoc checks in at 35 tons, running nearly full armor (97-99%), and with an XL engine providing a base 8/12 move profile. This is a very solid setup for a light mech – you’ve got the armor to take a clan large pulse hit anywhere without going internal, and your CT and legs can all take a hit from a gauss rifle without taking a crit (assuming they start undamaged). If I’m going to build a combat focused light mech this is almost certainly how I’m going to start.

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).

Davion Heavy Guards Havoc. Credit: Jack Hunter

HVC-P6

The base model Havoc has four ER medium lasers and an SRM 4 coupled to two ammo bins. With 22 heat sinking, it’s building 1+ movement heat when firing everything, which is pretty perfect when it all shares a similar range band. The second ton of ammo lets you carry infernos, and there’s minimal risk that you’re going to self-overheat from firing too much and cook them off. It’s a solidly useful weapon load for a striker, somewhat let down by only having five jump jets, giving you an 8/12/5 move profile. Those jets cost 136 BV, but aren’t enough to get used to build extra TMM – you’re only using them to hop over hills, which often as not the 12 run MP would also get you over while building the same TMM. They’ll be most useful in something like a mid-rise city where you’ve got obstructions that are 3-5 levels high that you can’t move around or over, but it’s a decent chunk of BV for an occasional use. At 1,255 BV I think that this is a little too expensive when I can compare it with a Wraith that’ll perform the same role better.

Jack’s Rating: C+

Dawn Guard Havoc. Credit: Jack Hunter

HVC-P7

The second variant of the Havoc is superficially similar to the base model, carrying the same set of four ER medium lasers and four tubes of SRMs. This time, however, the SRMs come in the form of a pair of improved one-shot SRM 2s. Weight freed up through that gives it a bloodhound active probe, targeting computer, and bumps up to a full eight jump jets. This is overall an increase in damage, as while you’re not getting multiple turns of SRM fire anymore the increased accuracy of the lasers makes up for it (with a little disadvantage in crit seeking). The great thing on this variant is that bloodhound probe, which can be very useful in a couple of the playtest missions, both for scanning and cutting out some fog of war tokens when that complication is used. At 1,385 BV it’s still on the top edge of acceptable light mech prices, but it’s a decent way to get a bloodhound probe into a list on a mech that still packs acceptable firepower, mobility, and durability.

Jack’s Rating: B

Final Thoughts

The most direct comparison that you can make with a Havoc is to a Jenner JR7-N, which is basically the same mech as the HVC-P6 but trades speed for a probe. Much like that Jenner, there’s not a ton of reason to bring the Havoc when you could bring a Wraith (even the base TR1 variant) instead, as it’s a 1300ish BV light striker without exceptional damage. The P7 variant adds an interesting wrinkle with the targeting computer, bloodhound probe, and full complement of jump jets. While it definitely doesn’t fall among the best light mechs out there, it’s still a good option to fit a probe into a force without sacrificing too much.

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