In the waning years of the civil war, LAAF commanders demanded a command vehicle that was capable of coordinating the attacks of an entire company with the C3 system much like the Combine's own Tai-Sho design.
However, the particular nature of these commanders made them ask for several strange design features. The emphasis was placed on speed and survivability, not firepower.
It later came to light that the commanders who asked for these mechs were the breed called the 'social generals', which made the Haig rather more understandable in light of the pilots who would be using them.

'Run away! Run away!' would be the most expected transmission from a Haig should it ever encounter real combat. Not surprisingly, for it mounts less than most light mechs in way of offensive armament.
However, the centerpiece of the design rests in the two C3 master computers in the torso, which enable its company mates to provide more adequate protection against enemy forces.
More than 8 tons of armor provide additional protection, and when all else fails, the 7 Lexington Lifters jump jets allow the Haig to make a hasty and undignified retreat from the battlefield.

On Dalkeith during the civil war, one of the last few battles involved a 'social general' in a Haig with the 3rd Royal Guards.
With his battered company facing the full fury of the 5th Davion Guards as they sought to break free of their encirclement, the Haig pilot desperately backpedaled away from the Guards, while throwing his own men at their advance, forming more by happenstance than skill the perfect counter to their assault, as the C3 system afforded him the luxury of coordinating his forces from a safe distance while providing favorable telemetry for his troops.
Though his company took almost 75 percent losses, the Haig commander managed to slow the Davion Guards enough for the rest of the loyalist forces to overtake and destroy them.

Kommandant Elton Allardyce
The Hauptmann who delayed the Davion Guards almost singlehandedly, Elton was promoted for his actions. However, he is more than aware that he is not the best of tacticians nor warriors, having bribed and paid his way through the LAAF to his position when the Davion Guards' attack erupted. He knows very well that he survived on luck alone, and the serious losses his company incurred has given him a real kick in the backside.
Now studiously training and reading up desperately on anything and everything to do with command and tactics, Elton hopes he'll be better prepared when war comes around again, no longer content to just play at being a warrior.
He retains his Haig, which he has named 'Fish Bait', even going as far as to prepare tactics where he deliberately placed his mech in a vulnerable position for enemies to get at him.

Haigs have been sold mostly to commanders of noble rank, all hauptmann and above. The LCAF refuses to purchase the mech, preferring that the pilots who want the mech spend their own money instead on it, since it is regarded as a 'yellow' mech.
In fact, several aristocratic scions in the Free Worlds League have also bought the Haig from Mountain Wolf.