How many Gwazines were there, and what were their fates?

[jtrainor]

I know several were destroyed during the OYW in general, with at least one breaking up during re-entry tests. And we know that Delaz's Gwazine got trashed after the war. There was also another that participated in the evacuation to Axis.

[MythSearcher]

I know several were destroyed during the OYW in general, with at least one breaking up during re-entry tests. And we know that Delaz's Gwazine got trashed after the war. There was also another that participated in the evacuation to Axis.

8 were said to be built.
But like a lot of things in the UC canon, you got more names than that.

The first is Great Degwin,
the second, Gwamel, is the one breaking up in the re-entry test.
The namesake ship is likely the third or the fourth.(data showing Gwazine being the flag ship of the Space Assault Forces in Loum and stayed in the back, likely sunk in ABQ's N field)
Then we have ships for the Zabi family(sans Karma)
Gwaden for Ghiren(The one used by Delaz to escape ABQ and became his)
Gwarip for Kycillia,
Gwaran for Dozle.(sunk in Solomon)
You have Gwaban and Gwazan that escaped to Axis from ABQ.(later dismantled and used for building Gwanban and Gwadan classes)
Asarum(Mac'bre) was used to bring Minerva to Axis
Zwamel

[HalfDemonInuyasha]

There's also the remains of one in Zeta (Ghost of Zeon) that the AEUG gets the Gelgoog remains from and it blows up by the end too. Not sure if it's any of the existing ones or another extra, unknown one.

[Gelgoog Jager]

8 were said to be built.
But like a lot of things in the UC canon, you got more names than that.

The first is Great Degwin,
the second, Gwamel, is the one breaking up in the re-entry test.
The namesake ship is likely the third or the fourth.(data showing Gwazine being the flag ship of the Space Assault Forces in Loum and stayed in the back, likely sunk in ABQ's N field)
Then we have ships for the Zabi family(sans Karma)
Gwaden for Ghiren(The one used by Delaz to escape ABQ and became his)
Gwarip for Kycillia,
Gwaran for Dozle.(sunk in Solomon)
You have Gwaban and Gwazan that escaped to Axis from ABQ.(later dismantled and used for building Gwanban and Gwadan classes)
Asarum(Mac'bre) was used to bring Minerva to Axis
Zwamel

Before the battle of A Baoa Qu, we can confirm the destruction of 3 Gwzine-class ships:

-Gwamel (ship destroyed during re-entry test)
-Gwaran (Dozle's ship)
-Great Degwin (Solar Ray)

At A Baoa Qu itself, before the final battle, I had spotted as many as 7 Gwazines among Zeon's forces:

http://www.mechatalk.net/viewtopic.php? ... 01#p264144

According to Mark, besides those already at A Baoa Qu, Kycillia's Gwarib still hadn't arrived at that time, and there was one more Gwazine next to Solar Ray, which probably is still at Side 3.

Adding these up we could have as many as 12 Gwazines (assuming all ships spotted at A Baoa Qu are different ships).

After that, we know the Gwaden and Asarum survives, and supposedly also these Gwazine versions of the Gwanban and Gwadan (more on that in a moment), plus one more unidentified Gwazine seen from afar in Zeta defending A Baoa Qu (Gate of Zedan), along the Titans and the Republic of Zeon forces, firing at Axis before getting sunk:

http://smg.photobucket.com/user/YFX-600 ... 3.jpg.html

At first I thought it was a Gwadan, however it's facing the wrong direction and firing at Axis while having A Baoa Qu at its back, so it would make more sense to think it is a Gwazine from the Republic of Zeon instead.

Finally, although I do have suspected it being the case, I had never confirmed about Gwazines being dismantled and used for building Gwanban and Gwadan class ships. If it's truly the case, could the number of these new ships point towards the number of Gwazines that arrived at Axis?

We know at least 2 Gwanban class ships (Gwanban and Gwanzan) and 3 Gwadan class ships (accordign to some written sources), for a total of 5 new flagships. If each ship required at least the remnants of one Gwazine, that would give us at least 5 ships that were dismantled and scrapped for building new ship. However, Gwadan class ships are supposed to be much larger (exactly how much is up for debate) than a Gwazine, so these could technically require the components from more than a single Gwazine.

[toysdream]

I do think we're probably getting some repeats in the establishing shots at A Baoa Qu. But even by the most conservative accounting, we have at least three Gwazines out on the frontlines alongside the Dolos, and one more close to the fortress itself - plus Kycilia's Gwarib, which hasn't arrived yet. Given the time lag between the firing of the Solar Ray and the start of the battle, it's possible that Asakura's Gwazine has traveled from Side 3 to A Baoa Qu by the time we see those establishing shots, so I'd say the most conservative estimate would be that five Gwazines still exist at this point.

Previous to this, in the animation, we've seen the Great Degwin vaporized and the Gwaran was reported destroyed at Solomon. (It's unknown whether the wrecked Gwazine that appears in Zeta was the Gwaran - it seems to be in the vicinity of Solomon, but it has at least one Gelgoog aboard, which would be a little early for the Battle of Solomon.) So the TV animation seems to confirm the existence of at least seven Gwazines total.

In addition to this, we have the various claims from the Japanese publications, as MythSearcher describes. Gundam Century says that the Gwamel was destroyed early in the war during a failed re-entry test; EB 39 says that four Gwazines fought in the Battle of Loum, of which two were destroyed or disabled, and that three fought at Solomon and were all destroyed. If we credit these accounts, that's another 4-6 lost during the war, so we'd have a dozen or so total. That seems like a lot to me, though, since they're really huge ships.

-- Mark

[Gelgoog Jager]

I see what you mean, but we have examples of far more financially-challenged Zeon movements getting a lot out of their far smaller budgets, specially Haman's Neo Zeon which builds the massive Gwadan class ships:

Axis/1st Neo Zeon: Builds 3 Gwadan class ships, at least 2 Gwanban class ships and at least 1 Sadallahn class ship. That's not counting the Endras (essentially overall equivalents to the Argama class), which going by the animation could probably be around 35: 33 from the civil war at Side 3 (35 dots seen on glemy's screen, minus the Gwanban and Sadalahn), plus the Endra and an unnamed ship destroyed before the Earth arc. Add somewhere around 800 MS built with Gundarium Gamma armor and some huge MA like the Zodiack and Neue Ziel.

2nd Neo Zeon: Builds 1 Rewloola and around 13 Musakas, plus the large MA Alpha Azieru, around a 100 Geara Dogas and a few newtype MS.

3rd Neo Zeon/Sleeves: Although I'm not entirely convinced, I have heard people claim that only the Rewloola survived the previous conflict, meaning that any Musakas seen afterwards are new ships. We can add the Garencieres and, IIRC, a few other camouflaged freighters. They also built around 60 Geara Zulus, several unique units (Kshatriya, Kraken Zulu, Rozen Zulu and Neo Zeong) and most likely financed the Shamblo as well.

Taking those into consideration, 12 Gwazines for the original Principality of Zeon do might be feasible.