(Answered) Unit displacement and facing and hit location after falls

[Alfaryn]

This post is partly inspired by answers given in the following threads:
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=55635.0
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/index.php?topic=59585.0

1. The rules for units displacement on p. 151-152 TW seem to suggest (though it is not explicitly stated) that Vehicles don't change facing using Facing After Fall Table on p. 68 after being displaced into a hex 2 or more, but use it to determine hit locations for damage caused by such falls. Is this correct?

2. What about other units that may be displaced if they end up being displaced into a hex that is two or more levels lower than the hex they have been displaced from? Do Protomechs keep their facing from before they were displaced? What about 'Mechs, do they keep their facing in this situation, or determine it (and the hit location) as normal using Facing After Fall Table?

3. What about grounded aerospace units? Can they even be displaced? My gut feeling is that you can't displace a DropShip, and perhaps an Airship, but it should be possible with a Fighters and possibly a Small Crafts and Fixed-Wing Crafts, because they are as a general rule capable of Taxiing (p. 88 TW), and unlike aerodyne DropShips are not considered immobile targets, but I'm not certain, because of mass of some of them - can a 2,000 ton Small craft be displaced by a successful DFA for example? What about a 200 ton one?

4. Similar problem with some ground Support Vehicles. Can a 200 ton tracked Vehicle or a 300 ton Naval Vessel be displaced? What about units covered in TO - like a Large Naval Vessels covered on pp. 154 - 163 TO and Large Airship Support Vehicles (p. 164 TO)? Can they be displaced in any situation, and if so - how? It doesn't feel like something so big should be possible to displace by a DFA or a Charge by a 'Mech or a 100 - 200 ton Ground Vehicle.

5. Is a (likely suicidal due to mass difference) Charge or DFA against a unit as big as a DropShip, Large Naval Vessel or Large Airship Support Vehicle even allowed?

6. On page 179 TW it is stated that Vehicles that move into basement use Front or Rear column when determining damage caused by a fall into basement depending on whether they "moved forward" or "backed" into a basement. This causes problems that have been discussed in the second thread I linked above in more detail, but to put it shortly there are problems with Vehicles that were displaced into a building, causing it's basement to collapse (they may "move sideways" while being displaced, or they may already be in the building hex when another unit enters it causing a basement to collapse). Perhaps it would be better to resolve damage to Vehicles falling into basements just like it is done with displacement into a lower hex on p. 151 - 152 TW - by using Facing After Fall Table to determine a column to be used in appropriate table(s) on pages 193 - 196 TW for each 5-point damage grouping?

[Xotl]

1: The facing changes.

2: The facing changes.

3: The facing changes.  Aerodyne DropShips are not immobile; they can taxi as well.  For simplicity, assume that any aero unit weighing more than 100 tons is immune to being displaced by physical attacks.

4: See above.

5: Yes.

6: Displaced or stationary vehicles change facing.

[Alfaryn]

Thanks for the answers.

Just wanted to add a small note regarding point 3. (sorry for doing it so late by the way). When I wrote that aerodyne DropShips are considered immobile targets, I didn't mean that they can't taxi around a ground map, but that the way I read the Firing at Grounded DropShips section on p. 110, units attacking them get a -4 to-hit modifier for firing at immobile targets, can make called shots without a targeting computer, etc., which to me seems like a decent (if somewhat confusing due to the word "immobile" used in the context) way to handle the fact that a taxiing aerodyne DropShips are not only some of the biggest objects that may be targeted in TW, but also tend to move rather slowly compared to their size.