Infantry and roofs

[DarkAssasin]

Hey guys and gals recently me and some mates were trying to get into some good old battletech, especially some combined arms fighting and while we had good fun having tanks and planes trade fire while avoiding the wrath of all the big stompy mechs, we had some issues with the infantry that we couldn't find a clear answer for. So I thought I would check in with the experts to see what the consensus was!

Problem 1:
Infantry Standing on rooftops, are they 'Inside' the building for the purposes of fire declarations from units outside of the building. Or are they considered standing out in the open and therefore risk getting shredded by burst attacks?

Problem 2:
When infantry inside one building fire at infantry inside a different building would the damage be reduced as if it was a non infantry weapon firing at infantry, as well as being reduced by the class of the building (Light, Medium, ETC). Or would the damage only be reduced by the building's classification?

That's all for now, we still had a blast even if we had to flip a coin on some of the rulings!

[Daryk]

For problem #1, I would consider them neither in the open, NOR in the building.  That seems to be the most reasonable answer to me.

For #2, I see no reason why the answer wouldn't be YES.  If it's a different building, the receiving unit should absolutely receive cover.

[Sartris]

units on the roof are not considered in the building - TW repeatedly delineates roof vs inside mechanics. it would also seem the roof might not be so safe.

Clear Terrain: Conventional infantry hit while in Clear terrain (or any other terrain that provides no terrain to-hit modifiers) suffer twice the normal damage.

so unless for some reason the roof is providing woods-like protection, the wording would indicate infantry on the roof are boned.

[Daryk]

I would rule they could "dig in" at least.  The roofs I've seen have plenty of cover (AC units, water tanks, elevator machinery, etc.).

[Kojak]

While per TacOps you can't dig in on building hexes, you could "hit the deck", which gives a +1 to-hit modifier against them with everything except flamers and AE weapons. Better than nothing, at least.

[Sabelkatten]

Doesn't infantry in rough terrain hexes count as "in cover" (hex with no TN mod)? Or is that some old misreading of the rules?

[Kovax]

Unless the roof is designated as "rough" or "cover", the infantry on it would be considered "in the open" and take double damage.  If "rough", then normal damage.  If it provides cover, then the to-hit odds would be reduced, but they'd take normal damage if hit.  I was never fond of the abstraction, where damage is not reduced by cover, but either "all" or "nothing", depending on if the die roll indicates a hit or miss.  Better infantry weapon damage rules are sorely needed.

For the second question, the infantry would fire at the building, and damage would then be reduced by the building's construction factor and type.  Anything above that damage reduction would then transfer to the infantry inside.  Once again, damage is heavily abstracted, so there's not even the slightest chance of a trooper being hit by a lucky shot or ricochet if the CF is high enough to stop the damage.

[DarkAssasin]

Thanks guys seems quite clear cut on the first point, I guess I should be more careful in the future with deploying my infantry from vtol straight to building's roof.

As for the second point we only wondered whether the attack would be reduced twice, first for the building and again following the 'Non-infantry weapon damage Against Infantry Table' (TW Page216) As we weren't sure if the attack would be infantry vs infantry as technically you are targeting the floor the infantry happen to be in.

But from the replies so far it seems we should have only been reducing it by the building's classification. (Which makes sense.)

Ty all!