Asset strikes and spotters

[lardener]

The Mercenaries book says that when the Strike rules reference Mech they also mean asset.  When considering artillery spotters that is confusing because it seems to leave out unit vehicles.  Under TO:AR all spotters are "units" and thus I see no reason spotters can't be vehicle units.  I therefore propose that the Asset rules should be updated so that unit vehicles can be spotters also.  I think we need a collective term for traditional "units" and "assets" that are unit-like such as vehicles and infantry.

I've been using the spirit of the Alpha Strike multiple attack rule to roll the attack for each damage group separately (eg. a Demolisher gets two separate 20 point attacks).  I think this should be an official optional rule.  Continuing, the asset TAG rules say that TAGging a unit counts as spotting and as if the spotter didn't move.  Since the asset rules for TAG demand a weapon attack, following my AS derivative multiple attack roll idea then TAG would be rolled as a separate attack.  However, if targeting a hex for a Strike instead of a unit for the Arrow IV special attack then it should be at -4 for attacking an immobile target.  For simplicity and consistency, an asset would not be able to TAG a different unit or a hex containing a different unit than one that the asset attacks directly.

If tagging counts as spotting then TAG should be able to contribute to the Strike asset -2 for spotting an offboard artillery Strike.  I'm not sure how I feel about needing to TAG a target two turns.  It should be sufficient to TAG on the turn the artillery Strike lands.

Standard unit TAG should be able to spot for asset indirect fire and Strike artillery in the same way as assets with the TAG special; a successful TAG attack would confer a -2 to Strike artillery, and reduce the asset indirect fire attack roll to: asset skill - 2 [for not moving as per errata] + TMM + range modifier from shooter to target + 1 [for indirect fire].

Attached NARC beacons (or successful NARC attacks from a future NARC special equipped asset) should convey the same benefits for spotting.

It should be possible to spot for an aerospace support bombing Strike.

[Kerfuffin(925)]

the Aerospace asset bombing is just dumb bombs.

They do have special rules for full play aerospace bombing to use the laser guided bombs, which use a spotting units TAG.

But no aerospace attacks have any benefit from a regular spotter in the full rules version. Thus with BSP they get no bonus from it either

[Calimehter]

It is worth mentioning that the BSP rules are really their own thing, and that assets and other specials (such as TAG, Arrow IV, etc.) should be considered "inspired by" their TW/TO counterparts, rather than something that can be converted back to them or something that should act "more like" those other rules.

There's nothing wrong at all with adding house rules of assorted kinds to BSP rules, of course.   Just something to keep in mind that making them work more like TW/TO options isn't really a "fix" per se, just a house rule for preference.