So I've been on a bit of a Dark Age kick lately, which includes looking at designs that originated in MWDA and only later proliferated to Total War play. While far from universal, one design concept that crops up several times is the mounting of clusters of light anti-personnel weapons in numbers that would seem ludicrous in any other era, particularly on vehicles. This doesn't seem wise on the surface, as vees that get into MG range of a decent infantry platoon are pretty much asking to get critted into immobility, and the number of platoons that 4-8 machine guns and/or flamers would call for pretty much guarantees you're not moving away from that engagement under your own power even if your armor is otherwise intact.
Then an idea finally occurred to me: What if these weapon clusters aren't intended to get several hits on target, but instead to get one or two hits on target when the shot is extremely difficult? A rifle platoon is a serious threat to any tank, but that platoon only gets a single to-hit roll, and if they miss that roll, say because of long range modifiers, that's it for the platoon for the entire turn. But a vehicle can have multiple rolls, and if you have four guns, your odds of connecting with at least one gun are pretty decent. So while a Vedette that wants to engage infantry with its machine gun needs to do so from 1-2 hexes and will probably get hit in return, a Demon or Marksman can do so at 3 hexes and could very well get off scott free. And then there's the Joust, that will have eight rolls at the six hexes, allowing it to play the range game against all but the farthest-reaching platoons.
