((That's assuming compact plasma weapons are at all efficient, cheap, and effective.
Efficiency and expense are more a matter of working out the kinks than inherent issues with the weapons, when you're capable of bending the laws of physics. Effectiveness is much the same.
ARM's the type of group that might put automanips in all our weapons, but not the UWM.
Putting aside the assumption that automanips are the only way to go...how is this evidenced by their weaponry? Sure, they didn't give Hephaestan sods automanip weapons, but they also didn't have much of a defending force, period (as evidenced by the fact that a couple squads of criminals captured the base with their greatest problems being from their teammates). They did, however, have a couple of other space magic folks, one of whom
overloaded on purpose. Also, their warships have almost exclusively automanip-driven weapons.
The argument that the UWM doesn't give out automanip weapons seems to be based entirely on the sods on Hephaestus, so arguing that the sods on Hephaestus weren't underarmed because the UWM doesn't give out automanip weapons is more or less circular.
And plasma is more expensive/difficult to make.
Not that much, when you have as much energy as the UWM clearly does. There's no energy crisis in the future (well, no galactic ones; there might be localized ones on backwards planets).
And the equipment used by inmates is surplus weaponry.
Your point? They're willing to give inmates surplus weapons almost as good as the ones on Hephaestus (without even paying many tokens). That indicates either a low level of armament (especially for such an important planet) or a very high level of trust in the inmates.
((Arguable.
Then argue it.
I thought of another advantage it has- bonuses to rolls. An avatar grants a +1 to everything, and even a basic synthbody, which is too small for most benefits, gets +1 to physical stats.))
Pretty sure that that's less because of the synthfleshiness and more because it's just superior to normal muscles.
((Again, arguable. I'll still say you won't be able to do it at mecha sizes.))
Why?
((...Even the troops that are never supposed to even see combat were equipped better than us.
Which really shouldn't be saying much.
And their sods were wearing light armor, something we certainly don't have, milnoplate and longcoats notwithstanding.))
"They have light armor, and we don't! Except the light armor we do."
...
((I didn't find anything here objectional up until "we will lose". If the UWM is using well-understood S, which adds A(4) and B(6) together to make S(10), then why would we lose if we used M, which adds F(?), Z(?), and X(7) together to make M(19)?
If? Then we wouldn't. But that's not the case. The UWM has M too, and it can make more S and M than we can.
...
You know what I mean. Anyways, I'm pretty sure that, sooner or later, we need a technological advantage. Otherwise, we're relying on guerrilla tactics, which only work so well in space.
We'd have a short-term advantage, but it would be supplanted because they can out-produce us in conventional terms. If we use risky, poorly understood alien space magic, then they will hesitate to try to repoduce it.))
If you were arguing the use of stuff the UWM didn't use, that's all well and good...but the UWM uses synthflesh.
Also, aren't "Mecha" and "Battlemech" pretty much synonyms, as the latter is just a name for the former in a particular game?))
Eh. It depends on who you ask; aside from them both being subsets of "big robot," there's not a well-agreed-on definition for either.
But it would be even more defensless against amp users and such than an avatar...
Why? Keep in mind that a surgical amp strike on a mech would disable it, while on a titan it would cause it to rampage, which would occur deep within our lines if the UWM has any tactical sense.
It still wouldn't supplant the use of avatars...
What would supplant the use of them? Remember, just about the last military technology to be completely supplanted IRL was the warhorse.
and would be vulnerable to their deployment
How so?
