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Arcadies, on 27 November 2013 - 05:36 AM, said:
The Highlander doesn't even appear in the unit tables for Steiner or Davion in the War of 3039. It does for Kurita units.
And Hollis wasn't producing new construction units. They were refurbs of destroyed Highlanders. Again, after the Helm Data Core, Hollis lost the license. StarCorp was only producing less than a dozen Highlanders a year from mid 3030s to 3057. And this is coming off Highlanders being wiped out in the Succession Wars with Hollis only resurrecting a few here and there. At 3039, adding in new production, existing, and Hollis restored Highlanders, there were probably less than 100 in the hands of all houses combined outside Kurita.
Whereas the DCMS was gifted with several hundred Highlanders from ComStar. These, along with Chargers and Hatamotos comprised AT LEAST a quarter to a third of all assault mechs in the DCMS A* rated regiments in the War of 3039. All Genyosha regiments, all Ghost regiments, all Ryuken regiments were A* rated.
The Highlander appeared in more significant numbers in the DCMS forces in 3039 due to ComStar's involvement, but they were not so widespread by any means.
In fact, the Highlanders would have represented, on average, ~11.1% of the Assault 'Mechs received from ComStar (where 11.1% is the 2D6 probability of getting the result of 5 on the Draconis Combine Special Random 'Mech Assignment Table presented on page 146 of War of 3039) and would have appeared with (on average) the same degree of frequency as the Hatamoto-Ku.
On top of that, very few of the lances in any of the A* regiments would have had more than one ComStar-gifted 'Mech (one in 6 of such lances would have had two such 'Mechs), with the remainder of such lances (that is, the remaining 2-3 'Mechs) being made up of more-common, lower-tech machines.
Quote
When randomly determining lance composition, the controlling player should use the Random Unit Assignment Table: Draconis Combine. When generating A* lances, he may choose to consult the Random ’Mech Assignment Table: Draconis Combine Special to determine a portion of each lance. In this case, the controlling player should roll 1D6 before randomly determining any particular lance’s composition. On a result of 1–5, he may roll once per lance on the Draconis Combine Special table, while a 6 allows him to roll twice per lance. For the rest of the lance, the player must use the normal Draconis Combine assignment table. The controlling player may do this for every A* lance he intends to field.
(Source: War of 3039, pg. 146)
(Source: War of 3039, pg. 146)
If every one of those 19 regiments (2 Genyosha regiments + 12 Ghost regiments + 5 listed Ryuken regiments) is composed of 180 'Mechs (being extremely generous), the A* regiments would have a combined total of 3420 BattleMechs.
No more than half of those (e.g. two 'Mechs per lance - and, again, being extremely generous) would be ComStar-gifted 'Mechs - an upper limit of 1710 BattleMechs from Operation Rosebud.
On average (and according to the unofficial Faction Assignment and Rarity Tables put together by a member of the Master Unit List team), about 10% of those (~171 BattleMechs) would be Assault 'Mechs, with (on average) ~11.1% of those (~19 BattleMechs) being Highlanders.
(We could even be extremely generous yet again and say that a full third of the 'Mechs from Operation Rosebud were Assault 'Mechs (because the DCMS traditionally hates Mediums), with ~11.1% of those being Highlanders... which still only yeilds a total of ~63 Highlanders gifted from ComStar.)
With both the HGN-733C and the HGN-733P appearing in 2866 (at the beginning of the Third Succession War) along with the HGN-733 continuing to exist, it is evident that the Hollis facility on Corey (a formerly-Capellan world that has been in FedSuns hands since 3030... and stays there until 3057) was capable of more extensive modification than simply piecing salvaged HGNs back together again (which can only be done a rather limited number of times - especially on a century-plus timescale - before there simply aren't enough salvagable spare parts for even a single Highlander... unless new spare parts for every part of the 'Mech are being actively produced).
And even if the refurbished StarCorps facility on Son Hoa (a world effectively held continuously by the Lyrans from 2596 to 3135) only restarted production in 3037 (about the latest that could still be reasonably considered "mid-3030s"), there would have been ~20-24 new-construction Highlanders (from the "~dozen per year" figure from TRO 3039, and matching the likely upper bound of what the DCMS would have received from ComStar) from that facility by 3039 (with the majortiy of them likely going into Lyran hands and a few going elsewhere)... and about 130-156 new-construction Highlanders from that facility by 3050 (again, with the majortiy of them likely going into Lyran hands).
And there is still no evidence of the Combine having the ability to produce the the chassis on home soil - which still means having to buy or steal them from other parties (two of whom are not overly fond of the DCMS).
All of which reinforces the point: the Highlander as a chassis is most definately not exclusive to the Draconis Combine at this (or any other) point in the BT/MWO timeline.
