(Answered) Advanced Engine Master Table: Fighter item slots

[A. Lurker]

Copying this over from the general errata discussion thread where I posted it originally...

Something I noticed just today: The TacOps Advanced Engine Master Table on p. 308 has a "Vehicle/Fighter" column for additional item slots taken up by the engine, complete with a (confusing) footnote trying to explain how to apply those slots to fighters. In addition to the types introduced in TacOps itself, the table also lists the stock Total Warfare engine types (sans internal combustion for some reason), with their extra slots taken up...

In every case, the number of extra slots is apparently the same for vehicles and fighters. So, while the TechManual states that none of the engines permitted for fighters there occupy extra critical spaces, Tactical Operations technically informs us that for example an IS XL engine does in fact take up two slots...and isn't even clear on where. ("[...] Fighter slots (if applicable) are located in the rear, with any extras divided evenly among the side wings." -- so, which of those two slots, if any, would be considered "extra", as obviously a single slot can't be evenly distributed between two locations and splitting both between the wings leaves nothing for the rear?)

The TechManual reference is to p. 184 there, of course. It seems as though there's a clear contradiction between the two books here that might need errata in some form or other to resolve; and as I've tried to point out, if any fighter engines end up taking up internal slots, which of them should go where in which cases doesn't seem to be particularly clear at the moment either.

[A. Lurker]

I only just noticed that TacOps errata v 3.02 addressed part of my question by taking the standard TechManual engine types off the table on page 308. So that much would seem to be settled already.

The question of how to distribute any applicable fighter item slots for the remaining types is still open, however. For instance, an Inner Sphere XXL engine supposedly takes up four slots on either a vehicle or a fighter. On a vehicle, those go to the body -- but how should they be split between wings and rear on a fighter, exactly?

[Xotl]

Researching.

[Xotl]

The largest engine occupies five slots, which is also the amount of room available, so the note about the wings is really unnecessary.  On p. 308, adjust the footnote as following:

Fighter slots (if applicable) are located in the rear, with any extras divided evenly among the side wings.
Change to:
Fighter slots (if applicable) must be located in the rear.