Assault Question — Green AP FP Units

[Billy DiGiulio]

Hey All,

So we may be way over thinking this, but a unit with missiles as its AP Fire mode able to initiate and/or defend in an assault against Heavy Armor?

It came up in a game of ours the other night where a Good Order, full ammo Czech BVP 1 was assaulted by a Leo II. The rule as written states “ any unit which possesses and assault FP but does not posses either an AP FP or is indicated in its Module Rules as a unit with a High Rate of Fire HE may not Initiate or counter attack heavy armor units in an assault”. We could see it both ways because while the BVP does not have Rapid Fire capability it does have an AP FP rating. And normally an ATGM needs a minimum of three hexes to fire, there is no mention in the rules that a green colored (ATGM) AP FP is unacceptable.

How do other folks play this??

Reference Rulebook page 70.
Any unit which possesses an Assault FP but does not possess either an AP FP factor or is indicated in its Module Rules as a unit with High Rate of Fire HE (See 10.1, AP and HE Firepower – Which to use?) may not initiate an Assault against a Heavy Armor unit. Such units also may not counterattack an Assault by a Heavy Armor unit.

 

[Keith Tracton]

Ah, I see! I think a literal interpretation of rules I think is the easiest. The BVP is eligible to counter attack in case of assault. Technically it is also able to initiate an assault versus heavy armor as well. Hope this helps!

 

[CRFout]

I play it this way - since zero hexes is less than the three hex minimum range, the unit in question has no AP dice, so cannot conduct close combat against heavy armor.

 

[Nicolas Michon]

Hello,
Since the BMP had a low-pressure 73mm AT gun, which is not separately represented in the game (it is included in the HE value), it should be able to initiate and defend in assaults against heavy armor, so Keith's view is perfectly right.

The same goes for the Marders, with the same autocannon as the Luchs (which does have an AP value), but, since they carry Milans, they do not have a "regular" AP value. If one wanted to be finicky, one could allow out-of-missiles BMPs and Marders to conduct AP attacks using the 73 or 20mm AP values....

Best,

Nicolas

 

[CRFout]

Excellent point. I was trying to work within the game (for a change).
Perhaps there could be a sheet listing which Missile equipped units have Assault AP, sort of like the High ROF HE list? Or would it be simpler to list which ones don't?

If there's ever a new edition(or perhaps in future expansions), I recommend that the Assault firepower die color indicate if the unit is AP capable. Perhaps something similar for the high ROF HE units? (That might be going a step too far with color coordination.)