Centurion

Why it earns its tonnage

Everything on the CN9-A points at one job: stay in the fight at whatever range the enemy picks. The AC/10 and LRM 10 overlap enough that there's rarely a gap, and the two medium lasers, one of them facing backward, mean getting behind a Centurion isn't the free kill it is on most mediums.

The catch is the autocannon itself. A Luxor D-Series AC/10, fed from a two-ton magazine in the right torso, and per Sarna's own account, its loading system is "notorious for its defects." Because the whole assembly is custom-fitted rather than a standard part, a tech without the exact spare on hand often can't repair it at all. The standard fix, documented across the variant list, is to strip the mount and put something else in its place. That's not a flaw the factory ever fixed. It's the reason there's a CN9-AH with an AC/20 crammed into the same space, a CN9-Ar running twin PPCs because Jihad-era factories couldn't get autocannon parts at all, and a dozen more in between.

Heat is a minor concern next to that. A full alpha on the CN9-A runs 14 against 10 sinks, 4 over each turn it fires everything at once, which is manageable if you're not doing it constantly.

Two centuries of a temperamental gun

The Centurion earned its keep early. Born into the First Succession War, it became close to the Federated Suns' unofficial house medium, and its slow, steady advances backed by that intimidating autocannon gave AFFS pilots a reputation for grinding fights rather than winning them fast.

By the early 3000s, Corean was in real trouble. The autocannon's chronic reliability problems had followed the design for two centuries, and losing the Centurion contract would have hurt badly. Corean's answer was to build an entirely new production facility on New Avalon in 3012 and move its whole headquarters there, spending heavily to fix what could be fixed. It worked well enough that the New Avalon Institute of Science took notice, and in 3022 NAIS partnered with Corean to make the Centurion a testbed for new technology outright. The line survived, and when the Federated Suns and Lyran Commonwealth merged, the AFFC inherited it as a going concern.

Demand kept growing. Corean licensed Jalastar Aerospace on Panpour to build the original CN9-A in 3047, and unveiled the modernised CN9-D two years later. The Clan Invasion pushed variants further still, and each new generation cycled the previous one out to mercenary units, which is how the design ended up scattered across the Periphery and even into Marian Hegemony service.

It didn't survive the Federated Commonwealth Civil War as a first-line design. Newer chassis pushed it out through the 3060s, and by the time of the HPG Blackout the original CN9-A was gone from front-line service entirely, though the line kept producing new variants well past that point.

How these are rated

Every verdict below is against other Centurions available in the same era. One variant, the CN9-D3D, fails the Trap test to the CN10-W, which does the same sniping job for less.

Only the Trap tier is calculated. It is worked out from the variant data rather than decided by me, which means it is falsifiable: to argue with it you only have to name something the cheaper machine gives up. The other three are my opinion and you should treat them that way. 1 of the 25 Centurion variants fail the Trap test. The full rating scale is here, including what it deliberately does not measure.

The variants worth arguing about

All 25 are in the table further down. These are the ones that change how the machine plays, or that carry a name worth knowing.

On the table

Piloting one. Use the range overlap. Open with the autocannon and LRM together, and don't be afraid to let something close in, the rear-facing medium laser means it doesn't cost you as much as it should. Watch your heat if you're running one of the later doubled-up variants, but on the original ten single sinks, firing everything every turn will catch up with you.

Fighting one. It's slow. Walk four on the original, nothing exotic even on most later builds, so out-manoeuvring it is realistic if your own 'Mech has the legs. Its rear medium laser means a flanking attack isn't free, but it is survivable, since a Centurion caught from behind still can't bring its heavy gun to bear in time.

What I see go wrong. People treat every Centurion like the original AC/10 build and get surprised when it's actually carrying a Gauss rifle or twin PPCs. Check the variant before you commit to a plan, because this chassis has changed its primary weapon more times than almost anything else on this site.

Against OpFor Command

If you run solo games with our AI opponent, the Centurion splits across all four roles: 10 Brawlers, 8 Skirmishers, 5 Snipers and 2 Juggernauts out of 25 variants.

• The AC/20 builds, including both early CN9-YLW fits, play as Juggernauts and Brawlers and will close the distance.
• The XL-engined CN9-D family plays as Skirmisher, repositioning rather than holding ground.
• The PPC and Gauss builds like CN10-W and CN11-OE play as Snipers and will hold range.

A good mid-tier lance filler precisely because it refuses to specialise in just one thing.

All 25 variants

Damage figures are the Alpha Strike short, medium and long values. BV is Battle Value 2.0.

Where and when you can field it

Availability for the CN9-A by era, straight off the Master Unit List.

Related designs

Take it to the table

Common questions

Stats on this page are generated directly from our variant database, which is reconciled against the Master Unit List for Battle Value, introduction dates and per-era faction availability. Alpha Strike damage values are the standard card figures. If you spot something wrong, tell me and I will fix it.