After writing Gen. Prioux, you spent the next week in a very uncomfortable limbo. While this was all on the company's dime, the higher-ups at Hotchkiss were getting very nervous. The Mle.1917 Araignée refit program had been dragging on far too long, and the Mle.1917/24 had continued morphing into the Mle.1917/27 spec. Along the way, the High Command had finally revealed to you the purpose behind the lunacy that was the 96mm rocket: a direct-fire anti-mecha weapon, light enough to mount in small batteries on obsolete mecha. The new Mle.1917/27 was supposed to add two racks of ten- half the loadout of the FCM- to the Araignée, but the issues were stacking up faster and faster. Accuracy was all over the map, the technical boost system was failing, and fire direction was turning it into an area saturation weapon no matter how exotic the guidance system was turning out to be.
After that week, however, you finally got some news as the judges publicly revealed what their stance on some of the mecha.
The Christie-Ford was first- while the design was absolutely acceptable for a light recon mecha or other design, it was obviously unsuited for front line operation in contested areas where incoming fire would quickly and decisively disable it. Ultimately, they did receive a contract for twenty units, and the company rep was not displeased with this state of affairs.
The Renault was deemed acceptable for use in secondary roles, to be procured at the discretion of the Army Office of Quartermasters. At present moment, they were under contract for forty units, plus another five in trainer configurations.
The FCM was deemed unacceptable for adoption with the French Mechanized Cavalry. However, the Corps of Artillery did tender them a contract for five units, in order to design an organic artillery mecha for the purposes of supporting the mechanized formations.
There was no report on the Hotchkiss designs, however. Instead, you and Andrei were requested to join the board of generals for discussion on your designs, as well as the company representatives. After the usual buttering up, things boiled down quickly to more prosaic matters. Put simply, Hotchkiss had hit it's industrial capacity.
This involved getting into the technical aspects of the company briefly. Hotchkiss Mecha owned three proper mecha foundries, and two parts development shops. The problem was, however, all these facilities were booked. Foundry 1 was booked up with the Mle.1917/27 Araignée jobs, and would continue to be booked up for quite a long time: the entire national fleet of six hundred units was getting the refit- and it wasn't a small refit. New limb actuators, new engines, new feet, and new machine guns plus the rockets was a large ask; especially since the refit brought the entire design up to forty tons. Foundry 2, meanwhile, was churning out the Requin, a design that was theoretically supposed to go offline any day now, except massive numbers of the Araignée units had to get totaled. Considering their operating conditions during the War, you weren't surprised, but the fact that the far less capable Requin was getting accepted as a per-unit replacement was. Finally, foundry three was churning out Fourmis, which, while universally well-acclaimed, were also universally getting panned by units in exercises. Their lack of heavy weapons and low speed meant they were incredibly vulnerable to anti-mecha infantry and wheeled field guns, and even the Mlr.1927 pattern Fourmi with a Riebel and an infantry mortar on the commander's cupola couldn't fix this issue. Both parts shops were dumping time and labor into each of these mecha, running hell for leather on this.
As a direct result, the sales reps had torpedoed your position. Since the generals didn't want any of those three projects to bit the dust, the Hotchkiss designs- both of them- were disqualified from final selection unless Hotchkiss could secure additional manufacturing capability. The issue was, with all their money tied up in the three running lines, the sales reps couldn't shake loose the money to build an additional mecha foundry. Since nobody was selling foundries, either, the result meant that Hotchkiss was up a creek.
That said, your mecha was the best one to be produced at present time. The Renault could also fill the roll of cavalry mecha fairly well, and as such was being procured as a second line unit, but that didn't change the fact the generals still wanted your design in the production. However, the realities of the situation meant you'd have to license production out, and with it take a massive hit to the revenue created.
Of course, the minute the rest of the representatives found out about this, you were the most important person in Brest. Everyone was breaking down your door to talk to you, and they all had the manufacturing capability to get in and talk shop.
First and foremost of these offers, however, were FCM Their main selling point, aside from being willing to slap down a premium up-front payment for the licensing with a large earmarked payment to you in specific, was the fact they'd be willing and able to cast their own armor. This in turn would massively cut armor costs- the second most expensive part of the mecha- in turn increasing your profits. However, since they'd be the actual producer, you or the company wouldn't have any control on later refits. While little stuff like the Mle.1925/27 wasn't really something you'd get called in on, if they decided to do major work to one of your designs you'd get called in for it.
Next up, unsurprisingly, was Christie-Ford. They had actually set up a two-line production facility, and they needed orders or they'd have to start dipping into civilian mecha. While they weren't as lucrative a contract as the FCM licensing agreement, you'd certainly have a higher guarantee of competence in whatever design they built. In addition, they were also discussing a tech trade: in exchange for permanent exemption from patent licensing on your gyrostabalization system, they'd sell you their improved articulator systems licenses- including their hip articulation scheme that had been so critical to their stellar field performances.
Renault, interestingly enough, was also offering to buy the license, and for good reason since they'd recently spun up an eighth mecha foundry. As much as working with your competitor struck you as a bad idea, they'd been making automotives and mecha since both were invented, and as a point of order were also one of the main manufacturers of the armored cars and wheeled gun carriers that had been proliferating through the army. As such, they were the best positioned company to provide post-delivery support, and far more importantly, would also be the company most invested in making major redesigns during the inevitable upgrade cycle you were estimating to hit in '29 to '31.
Still, once you got this done, you'd be done, done, finally done with this massive project, and that thought filled you with relief. Soon, sweet freedom would await!
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VOTES
[] License with FCM. Pros: lots of money, perfect for boosting your workshop with. Cons: FCM.
[] License with Renault. Pros: Best support infrastructure, ready to get rolling tomorrow. Cons: Forget about maintaining anything approaching a trade secret around them.
[] License with Christie-Ford. Pros: Tech transfer, and virgin production lines. Cons: Tech transfer, and Americans.
