So I've read that storyline-wise, the Clan 'mechs that will be dropping with IS 'mechs are considered salvaged units from the invasion. That doesn't sit well with some people. Sure, it happened in lore, but I propose this which also happened in lore.
As the Clans conquered worlds, they left planetary garrisons, made up of Solahama troops. These troops were generally poor warriors by Clan standards (I think they're equivalent to regular IS mercenary mechwarriors), or good warriors who have aged out of active duty without acquiring a blood name (like Pytor from the BattleTech Cartoon in the early 1990s).
Being at the status they were, they didn't get the best in omnimech technology. In fact, they got a lot of older Star League-era 'mech types, like the Atlas, Orion, Kintaro, and Jenner (and likely the rest of the chassis available to us right now in MWO). Many of those 'mechs probably weren't refitted with Clan weapons, and kept the IS weapons they've had for the past few hundred years. They also used Clan-built second-line battlemechs, like the Hunchback IIC, Urbanmech IIC, and Commando IIC.
With that being said, I do believe that the Solahama commanders might've gotten omnimechs. So if you please, you can pretend you're leading a bunch of Solahama warriors into battle from your state-of-the-art omnimech to a glorious death
![:P](https://static.mwomercs.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/default/biggrin.png)
If you hate to think you're in a Solahama unit, I think standard Star League-era battlemechs were also used on the front lines during the Clan Invasion, but I imagine their numbers were few compared to the omnimech. But if you lead an invading Clan and didn't have enough omnimechs in the touman, you still wouldn't pass up the change to invade the IS and conquer Terra, so it probably wouldn't matter to you anyway!
Any thoughts?