Hello all,
Old BT player here from the 1980s and I am getting back into it thanks to Catalyst Game Labs (keep up the good work!).
I started building some advanced infantry platoons and I have run into a problem with Disposable Weapons (DWs), due to a general vagueness in the manuals about them.
I have searched the forum on this topic, and found some posts, but unfortunately ended up with more questions than answers. Also, I don't know if Battletech rules undergo modifications anymore, or if they are just reprinted and only reworded for clarity, but the DWs rules could use with some clarification, because they seem to violate the core infantry platoon construction rules.
So here are some questions:
1. The Tactical Ops manual seems to state that each solder in a platoon can carry DW, which would contradict the normal rules which limit a maximum of 2x Support Weapons per squad:
TO:AU&E, p.116 (Construction Rules section at the bottom): "Any Conventional Infantry unit may be equipped with a single one-shot Disposable Weapon per active trooper."
Is this correct, or are they assigned with the same limitation of Support Weapons (max 2 per squad)?
2. If each trooper can have a DW, then is ammo tracked as number of DW in the platoon (like 28 troopers in the platoon, and I want all of them to have LAWs, then ammo is 28?). I assume so, but the rules on how the DW attack is resolved (on the same page) seems to imply that you calculate the attack as if every soldier is attacking with one:
TO:AU&E, p.116 (in the description box): "If the attack succeeds, resolve the damage per a standard infantry ranged attack based on the number of active troopers in the platoon and the damage value of the disposable weapons..."
So... this is confusing. My first instinct was that you can give DWs to every trooper - its just a matter of cost (like in a Mercenary Campaign) whether you want to give 28 LAWs, or say, 14 LAWs per platoon, because the text makes it seems like you have some control over how many are present, rather than just saying that the platoon "has LAWs". But then the attack resolution makes it seems like it doesn't matter if the platoon is equipped with 28 LAWs, or 1 LAW -- that the attack is resolved by calculating the total active troopers.
3. Then to make things even more confusing, on the same page it states "The total damage inflicted equals three times the disposable weapon's normal damage value, multiplied by the number of troopers who hit using the Cluster Hits Table..."
Why is it 3x the weapon's damage value? Why not just have the weapon's damage value be 3x what it is in the table? This seems like an odd thing to remember - like perhaps someone rewrote the rule to try to make the DWs more effective. But either way, it also implies that if all 28 LAWs hit a target at 3x damage would be 45 damage, rather than 15. Ouch! :-\
4. On the same page it says "Once per scenario, the platoon... may make a single attack using these Disposable Weapons..."
Now maybe on this one I am reading between the lines too much - but does it mean that all the DWs the platoon has are fired in one attack? Or does it mean that once per scenario a DW can be fired once. So, for example, if I have 28 LAWs, I choose to fire 8 of them in a once-shot attack, leaving 20 LAWs to fire later in the scenario (which still means that I am only firing them once per scenario).
If its all DWs fired at once, then I recommend putting some text there to say:
"Once per scenario, the platoon... may make a single attack using all of its Disposable Weapons..."
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I am not trying to nit pick or be a rules lawyer here, I am genuinely confused. Any answers are appreciated. :D
