Topic: vehicle question

I want a mech with a primary weapon and 2 CDW as CDW do not take up Fire Actions but do take up weapon choices would this be legal?

Re: vehicle question

Umm, so what you would like to field is a mecha that has three weapons mounted (as opposed to listed in the primary and secondary weapon slot choice lists), two of them being CDWs? This is not possible since you can only mount up to one weapon from primary and up to one weapon from secondary weapon choices list of the frame (although you can field mecha with different weapon combinations or even no weapons at all if you like). Since CDWs must be entered in those lists, there is no "rules legal" workaround to this.

Re: vehicle question

Umm... :oops:

I must confess I don't even know if the MJ12 Yahoo group's still in operation but just in case it is, posts are still being forwarded there and somebody still reads them, I must apologize.

Namely, I read Ironchicken's question wrong the first time so my previous answer was to a wrong question. The MJ12 forum has the corrected version (which obviously the forum users can see above this post), but I don't think edits were ever forwarded to Yahoo so it won't show there.

Re: vehicle question

tnjrp wrote:

Umm, so what you would like to field is a mecha that has three weapons mounted (as opposed to listed in the primary and secondary weapon slot choice lists), two of them being CDWs? This is not possible since you can only mount up to one weapon from primary and up to one weapon from secondary weapon choices list of the frame (although you can field mecha with different weapon combinations or even no weapons at all if you like). Since CDWs must be entered in those lists, there is no "rules legal" workaround to this.

Yes. 3 weapons 1 primary and 2 CDWs. It says on page 77 note 1 "Even though CDWs do not technically require a fire action they still count as a vehicle weapon choice."

A Mech may have 2 fire actions. as CDWs do not count as a FA then could you choose more than 1?

If an AFV had a weapon choice of a smoke single use CDW, could it buy 3 shots?

What I wanted was a strong single use vehicle CDW and a weaker multi use one. This was for a martian tripod, to make it fit with its description in War of the Worlds. The strong one is the black smoke (poison+smoke) and the weaker on a terror attack (the martian cry OOO-Laaa).

It does not seem to be disallowed but I admit it is stretching the section as written.

Re: vehicle question

I wouldn't worry too much about "using up" fire actions. Three should be plenty, and you can always increase the feed rate, area of effect, or number of effectors on any given weapon to mimic the extra fire action you would have liked.

Re: vehicle question

Ironchicken wrote:

Yes. 3 weapons 1 primary and 2 CDWs. It says on page 77 note 1 "Even though CDWs do not technically require a fire action they still count as a vehicle weapon choice."

Well, as it says each mounted CDW counts as 1 vehicle weapon choice regardless of it being single-use or unlimited. And you can have up to 1 choice from each weapon slot mounted, and a mecha has up to 2 of these slots (primary and secondary). The actual armament mounted really has nothing to do with fire actions per se although the thing is explained in the context of fire actions. I grant this may confuse the issue somewhat.

For an AFV, you can have up to four slots of course, but otherwise it doesn't change the principle. A single weapon slot equates up to 2 weapon options, and of each one you can actually choose to mount 1 choice when you field the vehicle. Each mounted weapon then has a fire action of its own. So if you mount two CDWs on a mecha, then it can't have any other armament (except for its close combat stats obviously), but it can fire either, both or neither of them at any point during its activation.

Re: vehicle question

Hmmm... so does anyone have a solution?

Re: vehicle question

tnjrp wrote:

I must confess I don't even know if the MJ12 Yahoo group's still in operation but just in case it is, posts are still being forwarded there and somebody still reads them, I must apologize.

To answer your question, yes it most definitely is.
I'm actually "over there" more than I'm "over here."
smile
Kevin

Re: vehicle question

Ironchicken wrote:

Hmmm... so does anyone have a solution?

To which question, precisely? I do think I answered your question about the CDWs already. Obviously only Demian's word is the law on D:VG and he may well take a different stance on them, but pending that...

Based on the Martians from the H.G.Wells book, I'd be inclined to give the Tripods a choice of a heat ray and a black smoke launcher (this latter a combiweapon of standard AOE and cone, both with B effector -- it's not the same as the poison effect* but it's nasty enough) for a primary as I don't recall there being a definite mention of a Tripod having both, but they did use the black smoke in both shells and "gas siphons". The signature ululation would then be an unlimited terror CDW taken as a secondry choice.

---

*) it is not entirely impossible for a poison effect ranged (as opposed to CDW or grenade) AOE weapon to make an appearance in the planned supplement, but I wouldn't count on it happening

Re: vehicle question

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.

Re: vehicle question

So...

This means that a vehicle with a CDW in each slot will be able to fire twice as many times as now, albeit the CDW shots obviously will be at short range. This would seem to make CDWs rather more "cost effective" to select than currently.

I do assume that a single use CDW will (still) count as one weapon choice?

Re: vehicle question

Yes, that is how i read Demian's post.

So my tripods can have a primary in weapon slot 1 and 2 CDWs in weapon slot 2. Exactly what i wanted  lol  :shock:  lol

The best you can manage then would be to put a standard weapon and a CDW as the choices for each slot. This could give a mech 2 main guns and 2 CDWs by assigning a standard weapon choice and a CDW choice to each slot. Possibly cheesy but certainly expensive.

Re: vehicle question

Ironchicken wrote:

The best you can manage then would be to put a standard weapon and a CDW as the choices for each slot. This could give a mech 2 main guns and 2 CDWs by assigning a standard weapon choice and a CDW choice to each slot

Yep, and because of the simple placement of weapons in different slots altering their relative usefullness for the vehicle I don't find this modification to the rules too much to my liking. Small as the true overall effect to the game play probably is.

Re: vehicle question

Pretty close to immaterial, I think, tnjrp.

Re: vehicle question

I admit it's a question of principle. I just don't find rules like this to my taste.

Re: vehicle question

What if each vehicle could only choose more than one weapon in one slot?

Re: vehicle question

Demian Rose wrote:

What if each vehicle could only choose more than one weapon in one slot?

I had to read that 3 times...

I dont think it makes much difference...

If you were worried add an Augmentation of extra weapon slot. This adds a weapon slot without adding a fire action still limiting the frame.

Re: vehicle question

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

Re: vehicle question

To recap, I'm not actually worried about how much "sneaking in extra CDW shots" will actually accomplish in a game. And I can accept that old skool D:VG vehicles may be too limited for some tastes, although I've gotten rather the opposite feedback from my vehicle frame designs. I simply don't like the fact that under the new rules, the simple placement of different weapons in different slots effects how the vehicle will perform at the game time for no effect to its cost. Has a "minmaxing 101" wibe, is all.

Re: vehicle question

I see your point, but the slots are abstractions any way, so there's no reason to assume that weapon slot #1 is a distinct area of space separate weapon slot #2 (though I think it makes design simpler to sometimes assume it is).  If you look at it this way, then there's no min/maxing involved.  Plus, CDWs still count as weapon choices, and taking them restricts the variety of other weapons available for the frame. 

In other words, vehicle weaponry is now just an extension of what all infantry figures can do with one fire action: shoot a ranged weapon while they're active or covreing, *as well as* fire off a CDW at any point in time -provided they want to use up one of their 4 weapon choices to do so.

Thanks for the input - I like how this group always makes me *think* about my design choices.

-Demian

Re: vehicle question

1: CDWs have friendly-fire and range issues.

2: Taking two weapons for the slot is WAY more expensive than making a combi-weapon (in the case of non-CDW weapons). Were I trying to maximise close-combat, I think I might take an AOE/Cone combi weapon rather than stacking CDW's.

In short, I don't think this will be a big issue

Re: vehicle question

Works for my martian tripods tho big_smile

Re: vehicle question

Well, "rules is rules" as I always say, and technically there isn't anything in this rule that doesn't work. I don't have to like it, but I do need to check that my frame designs are of the primary: gun1, cdw1; secondary: gun2, cdw2 type (max 4 fire actions, cost Xpv) instead of the primary: gun1, gun2; secondary: cdw1, cdw2 type (max 3 fire actions, same pv cost) :wink: