ManaValkyrie, on 09 April 2014 - 02:08 PM, said:
Actually No.... For example, The Draconis Combine, pretty much still has little to no mercenaries in its employ at this point in the timeline, and the DCMS generally has little to no trust with mercenary units. The idea was that you would be a member of that house, representing it's military either in one of the supposedly earnable 'faction unit' awards for loyalty in CW, which we are still waiting for, or represent a non canon based house unit. If you want to go Mercenary they have their own faction.
The difference between picking "mercs" or "Draconis Combine" is that mercs have no allegiance to any one house, they can pick and choose. However, as Draconis you can either be part of the DCMS, or a merc in their employ, as unlikely as it may be. The DCMS did get mercs every now and then, rare, yes. Impossible, not really.
The difference here is that as a merc with DCMS, you have different command structures, bla bla bla, you know the rest. It also does give you the ability to not always participate in house major operations (in fact, knowing the DCMS, mercs will never be in a major operation unless they are the bait or the fodder).