The Gladiator-Hero o the Combine, or 'There was no Such Battlemech.'

[Vehrec]

Which of the two versions of history do you think the Combine subscribes to when it comes to talking about their first homebuilt Mech?  While the first is always special, the Gladiator was a bit of a weak squib militarily speaking, and the design was sold off to a company in the Terran Hegemony, where it died an unhappy death less than 40 years after the first models were produced.

Still, has it's black history been retconned away in universe?  Or would any person trying to flog one to a museum in the Combine be advised to get off the planet before the security services pay them a visit for re-education on the value of the scrap metal?

[Maelwys]

I don't think they'd mind too much. It probably won't be looked at favorably, but its not the Von Rohrs, so they won't freak out too much, its just a failed design, rather than a hated design.

I always thought it was sort of disappointing that they didn't get to put it back into production themselves (I think its a StarCorps rebuild, rather than say, LAW or something).

[Vehrec]

I don't think they'd mind too much. It probably won't be looked at favorably, but its not the Von Rohrs, so they won't freak out too much, its just a failed design, rather than a hated design.

I always thought it was sort of disappointing that they didn't get to put it back into production themselves (I think its a StarCorps rebuild, rather than say, LAW or something).

  It was built by the Von Rohrs though.  I probably should have noted that-though the Von Rohrs were also the ones who canned it and stopped production.

[haesslich]

I think they do their best top pretend it doesn't exist, like the Mauler. I wouldn't want to bring it up too much, but unlike the Maskirova I wouldn't get vanished. Maybe blacklisted by the O5P and then condemned to poverty and an ignominious death for going against established histories, but that's it.

[martian]

Which of the two versions of history do you think the Combine subscribes to when it comes to talking about their first homebuilt Mech?  While the first is always special, the Gladiator was a bit of a weak squib militarily speaking, and the design was sold off to a company in the Terran Hegemony, where it died an unhappy death less than 40 years after the first models were produced.

Still, has it's black history been retconned away in universe?  Or would any person trying to flog one to a museum in the Combine be advised to get off the planet before the security services pay them a visit for re-education on the value of the scrap metal?

There is no big problem.

The Draconis Combine produced the primitive GLD-1R Gladiator in one or two locations during the Jihad.

[Arkansas Warrior]

I think they do their best top pretend it doesn't exist, like the Mauler. I wouldn't want to bring it up too much, but unlike the Maskirova I wouldn't get vanished. Maybe blacklisted by the O5P and then condemned to poverty and an ignominious death for going against established histories, but that's it.

Since when has the Combine tried to pretend the Mauler doesn't exist?

[haesslich]

Since when has the Combine tried to pretend the Mauler doesn't exist?

By calling it the Mauler instead of by its original name, the Daboku. 

[Col.Hengist]

By calling it the Mauler instead of by its original name, the Daboku.

Lineman. The original name was the lineman.

[Arkansas Warrior]

By calling it the Mauler instead of by its original name, the Daboku.

When did they start doing that?

[massey]

I don't think it would be an issue at all.  Why would it be?  The average person, even the average mechwarrior, probably knows next to nothing about the Gladiator.  I don't think there would be any kind of controvery that a primitive battlemech from 500 years ago wasn't very effective.  I doubt the Combine would take any sort of official position on the mech at all.  If anything, you'd have stories about "brave Combine soldiers, fighting in inferior, hastily-designed machines, defeated their enemies blah blah blah."

I can't imagine people today caring at all if you described the muskets that were used in the American Revolutionary War as "inferior to their British equivalents" or something like that.  Sure the Combine is pretty uptight, but I just can't see it being something anyone cares about.

[soshi]

Mauler is the FedCom's code name for it

[Arkansas Warrior]

Mauler was the FedCom code name for the Daboku.  When the Combine decided to give the design another look in the late 40s, they adopted the FedCom name because they though it sounded mean and officially produced the new design under that name.  Or at least, that's what TRO 3050 says.

[Liam's Ghost]

Lineman. The original name was the lineman.

Lies!

[Col.Hengist]

Lies!

I'm a bad man... :D

[GhostBear]

From a sidebar in an upcoming soon-to-be-published-this-year-or-next work:

Following the raid in 2461 that netted BattleMech plans for the Draconis Combine, House Kurita set out on a crash course of construction. To build this first design, the paranoid Kozo Von Rohrs established a secret division of New Samarkand Metals, watched over obsessively by his newly formed Draconis Elite Strike Teams. It would be up to New Samarkand Armor Works to tackle the task. (When the capital of the Draconis Combine moved, NSAW migrated wholesale, becoming Luthien Armor Works). Due to the restrictions of personnel and resources from such secrecy, the GLD-1R Gladiator would not reach full production until 2468.

Following the disastrous assault on the world of Nox—the first large-scale ’Mech vs. ’Mech battle—in 2475 against House Steiner, additional resources were poured into the nascent ’Mech program. Advances in new technologies meant an end to the “primitive era” of ’Mech production.

With the Gladiator forever dishonored by the Nox affair, the Combine moved on to produce its first “modern era” BattleMech in 2487. The Von Rohrs family immediately created and funded a new BattleMech construction company, Kankoku Military Fabrication Corporation. The sole purpose of the company was to take the lessons learned by NSAW and the battlefield failures of the Gladiator and produce a BattleMech that would not only be superior to the Combine’s enemies but also a standing reminder of the head of the Dragon. In 2487, the Combine’s first “modern” BattleMech, the Von Rohrs,  walked off the Kankoku assembly line. It was immediately put to use.

The Von Rohrs served in every Kurita line regiment that reclaimed worlds lost to the Steiners during the 2463 Lyran invasion. The ’Mech was on its way to becoming the standard Combine BattleMech unit when the success of the McAllister Rebellion wiped out the Von Rohrs line. One of Martin McAllister’s first formal orders after taking command of the Combine was to issue the DCMS an order to change immediately the name of all Von Rohrs ’Mechs to Hebi (serpent). None of the Hebi were to be replaced if destroyed, and Kankoku MFC was immediately closed down and dissolved.

Fortunately for the Combine, the years after McAllister’s Rebellion were peaceful, allowing the Combine to dismantle and replace the symbols of the former dynasty. Nearly seventy years later, the Combine’s leadership blamed this sudden spike in manufacturing and military purchasing (and, by extension, the Von Rohrs Coordinators) for the House’s poor economic position when the Star League was formed. Few foreign economists agreed, instead pointing toward much more recent economic mismanagement of the Combine’s economy.

—Early Battle Technology: Draconis Combine; Sun Zhang Publications, 3067

Hopefully that somewhat addresses the OP's query. ;)

[haesslich]

Sure does. And wasn't there similar information in the XTRO Primitives the first Gladiator was mentioned in?

[GhostBear]

Sure does. And wasn't there similar information in the XTRO Primitives the first Gladiator was mentioned in?

Probably. Which all stems from the initial Von Rhors/Hebi entry in TRO85 (I think).

[Arkansas Warrior]

Probably. Which all stems from the initial Von Rhors/Hebi entry in TRO85 (I think).

Most of the sidebar you posted is practically verbatim from the Gladiator entry in TRO 3075, isn't it?

[GhostBear]

Most of the sidebar you posted is practically verbatim from the Gladiator entry in TRO 3075, isn't it?

'75! That's it!

Maybe. I know I used a lot of our other publications in pulling together HBHK, with some crossover text. But hell, I finished HBHK four years ago, and I don't remember any more.

[Col.Hengist]

This looks VERY good. I can't wait for it to come out.

[haesslich]

Any new color art of the Kurita family?

[GhostBear]

Yes.

[gyedid]

What about the fact that the intro-tech version was actually superior to the Wolverine in a number of respects...well, IIRC, it was toothless if its arms got shot off...

cheers,

Gabe