Sorry for the dense text.  :oops:

The more I think of it, the more I think that the proposed text is okay as is (sans "one slot" restriction).  I agree with tnjrp that this lets one "sneak his way into having 2 CDWs fire per turn, but I don't think that's too big a deal.  Given the friendly fire risks of the larger area CDWs, the only way I can see this rule exploited would be to slap 2 expensive CDWs onto a fast flier or jumper and try a kamikaze run on the first turn.  This situation seems, however, to be one that would be easy to combat in a tactical sense: the lax unit coherency rules mean that units can start the game in positions that make the best use of terrain, so in a sense the kamikaze vehicle could just as easily zoom into an ambush (depending on initiative cards, of course).

-Demian

Yup, unit augmentations count on a "per unit" basis.  They are meant to represent the fact that you can buff up a unit if you want to, but don't have to.  There are HTH augmentations for individuals that would allow any hero or officer to use them.

If you want units with better HTH, it's typically easier and sometimes even cheaper to just pay for a higher HTH rating in the troop builder.

Cheers,
Demian

This was not made clear in the original text but will be updated for the supplement.  Please consider the following text as being on page 77 of the D:VG rulebook:

Vehicle Builder: Assign Vehicle Weapon Choices (D:VG 77)
When arming vehicles before a game, players may purchase more than one weapon per weapon slot.  This represents redundancy in the weapon system.  Note that players may still only fire one weapon per slot per game turn, with the exception of CDWs, which do not require a fire action.

A Vobian player has some extra points left when building a force for gameplay.  He decides that he will maximize the offensive capability of his Mini-Jet to include anti-infantry and anti-vehicle weaponry.  The Mini-Jet has only one weapon slot, with the choices of Gigawatt Multilaser (+177) or Plasma Penetrator (+162).  The player can spend 339 PV (!) to give his Mini-Jet the flexibility to fire either weapon on any given turn, but in no case may he fire both weapons in a single turn, since they each correspond to the same weapon slot.

If he had fewer points to work with, the same Vobian player could have instead purchased both a Gatling Laser (+62) and Single Use Mega-Plasma CDW (+36) for his Cyber-Rhino.  Note that, in this case, the player could use both weapons in the same game turn if he chose, since CDWs do not require a fire action.

It was definitely a bummer to lose, but I was happy to see All Things Zombie as the winner.

Go independent press!

Yup, tnjrp is correct.  In my opinion, it's easier than trying to work out the math, (e.g., losing 2.25" each hit), though it does make move vaues that are multiples of 4 very slightly more cost effective.

tnjrp is correct, there is no troop quality that completely ignores the morale rules, although matrix troops can never be eliminated due to failed morale, unlike every other type (they auto-rally).

Hmmm, thanks for catching that...I must've not been thinking when I wrote the specific text.  The intent of crew-served weaponry is that a unit could consist of nothing but 2 people per big gun, if desired.

Consider this is an erratum: crew-served weapons count as the support weapon for *one* of the crew members.

-Demian

In Defiance, the idea was that too much fiddling with units moving onto and off of vehicles was a bit fiddly for the time scale, as was having specific rules for troops in pick up trucks firing out of them, etc.  Since "passengers" can only be on APCs or AFVs, people shooting from vehciles are abstracted as weapons with the exposed cupola modifier.  That's a long way of saying that passengers can not technically shoot from within a vehicle.

re: the 40K lists.  IIRC, they were made for Starslayer, Defiance's predescessor.  I made the generic lists that are downloadable, but don't have the time to do a series of 40K-specific lists myself.

re: the supplement.  It is actively being worked on in terms of layout.  It will contain some minor rule changes - many of which will increase the flexibility of the army customizer - and will have new point value charts for fighting in close quarters, where short-range guns and grenades are much more valuable than on an open tabletop.

Cheers,
Demian

Same: 4" SI, 2" PI

Yes, intentional friendly fire is not allowed, though as I'm thinking about it, this could be a +1 SR tactical advantage that would make sense for certain swarm or fascist armies.

Assigning the points is fairly simple as long as the game effect is turn-by-turn and easily defined statistically.  For example, a vehicle that will be non-functional 30% of the time would have a frame cost of 0.7x.

Things get trickier to balance when you add in "special effects" like "must move forward at full speed without firing" vs. "roll randomly for each figure to see if they get stunned", etc.

The exo-suits might best be described as mecha.