Conan The Mechwarrior, on 12 June 2016 - 08:30 PM, said:
Obviously you are confused. There are hundreds of Merc units and you are basing your estimates of of the top 50 or so. Read more and you will learn that most do not survive cause there is not much profit.
I have to agree with Conan here. Large mercenary units are a rarity due to the cost of keeping up, transporting, and paying such a large fighting force. Even the ones that are massive -- Wolf's Dragoons, Eridani Light Horses, Grey Death Legion, or Kell Hounds for example may have each been able to influence or even be the sole deciding factor in the battles on single planets, but never were the main player in an entire invasion. Also, a quick search of Sarna reveals that the only mercenary unit with a WarShip at the time of Operation REVIVAL was the Wolf's Dragoons and they had one. In fact WarShips were thought to be extinct in the Inner Sphere until the Clans arrived. ComStar had their small secret fleet and with the rediscovered LosTech the Great Houses were looking into building their own fleets, but that was still years away.
Now, if you including DropShips and JumpShips under "supporting warships" then yes, plenty had their own DropShips and a few of the bigger units had their own JumpShip, but they are by no means capital WarShips. JumpShips rarely have weapons and DropShips only have 'Mechs sized weapons until the Word of Blake Jihad.