Tank riders questions

[Iain McGhee]

a few of things about desant teams (when passengers) I'm not sure of.

1: Are they treated as passengers (as if they had boarded a half-track or something, with all the normal rules that apply) or are they treated as if they were in cover (which is how it would seem from the Tank Rider rule on p112 and 113) ?

2: If they are classed as being in cover, does that mean that they can be targeted seperately as if they were behind a wall or something ?

3: If they are classed as being in cover, does that allow them to take actions as normal (specifically, shooting from the tank) ?

4: If the tank is destroyed, are the riders automatically killed (as with transports) or is the squad attacked as per the normal shooting rules ?

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

Remember that you don't target specific units, but rather lay down a fire zone with all the models within it as valid targets. So say for example, a tank with a main gun and two machine guns fires on a tank with riders. rolling a 10 from the main gun, and 2.2,4.4.5.6 from the machine guns. You assign the 10 to the tank, and the 4,4,5,and 6 to the riders as hits (because they cound as being in light cover they get +1 kill and +1 to their armour save) Bear in mind that the tank's main gun will likely generate a lethal zone and cause more damage dice to be rolled against the poor riders.

 

[Iain McGhee]

That's fine if they're treated as being in cover, but if they count as passengers (like in a truck or halftrack) then they couldn't have dice allocated to them. I'm fairly sure that they are just treated as if they are in cover, but that still leaves me wondering whether or not they can shoot or make reactions while being carried.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

I'd say they can't shoot or make reactions - they're gonna be busy hanging on after all. Given that tanks don't have the transport special rule they're not going to benefit from the protection of the vehicle beyond being in cover.

 

[Paladin]

Just to further complicate it, check out page 62 from S&P 42 for the old BF:Evo. Granted the rules have changed, but that article addresses some of these issues in a suitable manner for a house rule.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

I think there's enough changes in how transports in general work between the old and new editions of evo that it's safe to ignore the old tank rider rules.

 

[Iain McGhee]

Thanks guys, that helps a lot. It was the wording in the Soviet special rules that said that some tanks could act as transports and then in the tank riders rule for the vehicles it says that they count as in cover that was throwing me a bit (and I remembered the BF:Evo article as well, just to confuse me even more . Makes sense that the riders can't do anything when the tank is moving, that's how I was playing it. It was just other situations e.g. my T-34 + desant is parked in a wood and a German Pioneer team pop out of hiding with AT explosives. You'd think that the desant team could react against them, at least to dismount. I'll just have to get into the habit of dismounting my desant teams if the tank stops for any length of time.

 

[Lorcan Nagle]

I'll just have to get into the habit of dismounting my desant teams if the tank stops for any length of time.

You know, that's probably a good way to deal with AT teams at the best of times...