Unaffiliated 'Mech Production (Part 4: ComStar)

First Look at ComStar

Due to the order weapons manufacturers appear in the HD:FS book, I suspect that Aldis Industries sells no more than 60 or 65 'Mechs and Aerospace fighters annually to Davion. For instance (counting a tank as half a 'Mech, which MW1e does when awarding XP), that could be 40 tanks, 20 'Mechs and 20 fighters. 

That might make Aldis bigger than Scarborough or the Exeter group, but is it enough to beat out the New Earth Trading Company and Ceres Metals for the title of "largest independent manufacturer of weapons in the Inner Sphere?"

Aldis should be selling to everyone, so only a portion would go to Davion - 110 / 385, if we go by regiments (110 / 402.33 including the major periphery states), or 35.67 / 88.5 if we go by mercenaries* (35.67 / 97.67, allowing for Capellan unchartered mercenaries). That would make total production something like 2.5x to 3.67x Davion's portion, or about fifty to seventy-five 'Mechs/yr.

It would be... aesthetically pleasing? ...if Aldis produced the Phoenix Hawk, Wolverine, Rifleman, Crusader and BattleMaster, since those are the five core types not produced in the periphery. I'm also tempted to assign the Chameleon and Longbow to Aldis, perhaps in place of the Phoenix Hawk and BattleMaster. As a neutral party, Aldis Industries makes a convenient supplier for these two 'Mechs, which don't otherwise seem to be produced anywhere in 3025.


*In a similar vein, how much a realm has to rely on mercenaries may be a good indicator for how easy it is for independent weapons manufacturers to operate in that realm.

Twenty Thousand

First, I shouldn't have treated 20YU, TR:3050 and MW2e as representing a single point in time. I've rewritten my "79k" post to reflect how things change from one to the next.

I don't know if the "1000 'Mechs per entry" trick will tease any useful data out of TR:3055; I doubt it'll work for TR:3058. (Fortunately I have the Field Manuals to work from. What will be trickier is figuring out how to account for ultra-light 'Mechs.)

ComStar's Cache Under Hilton Head

The Warrior Trilogy says "ComStar has more BattleMechs hidden here than any of the Successor States can claim." Clearly more than Davion's 110 regiments (14k 'Mechs), but probably less than Davion+Steiner's 110+75 regiments (23.7k 'Mechs). TR:2750 has twenty 'Mech entries; at 1k apiece, that would make 20k 'Mechs--right in the middle.

The MW2e affiliation table implies that ComStar expends 1200 'Mechs/yr against the Clans. At that rate, the cache would last 16.67 years, which would seem like a natural fit for the Truce-End date in 3067. 

Except ComStar already pulled at least 8300 to 8900 'Mechs out of the cache between the end of the Fourth Succession War and the Battle of Tukayyid. So the cache runs dry no later than early 3062, more likely by 3060, and even earlier if Focht prepares a secondary cache on Tukayyid. [Edit, Aug 28: Or earlier yet if ComStar continued supplying 'Mechs to the Rasalhague Kungsarme. /Edit]