Okay, spikes (p. 291) reduce damage from incoming physical attacks by 4 per hit to a minimum of 1 (in the event of physical attacks that hit in five-point clusters, that's presumably per cluster that strikes a protected location, not just once for the lump sum) and deal 2 points of retaliatory damage to the attacker -- to be possibly split between two locations for one point each in the case of pushes and death-from-above attacks -- unless said attack involved a dedicated physical weapon in the first place. (Again, if a "cluster" attack hits multiple spike clusters, that damage is presumably inflicted as many times, and in individual hits rather than a single lump at that where it would matter.) They also potentially reduce the damage a charging unit takes to any spike-equipped locations itself, although in that event they presumably don't also inflict 2 more points on the defender -- that's already what the extra damage potentially inflicted by specifically torso spike clusters in such attacks is for. Correct me if I've gotten anything wrong so far.
My questions now:
1.) Assuming a 'Mech performing a death-from-above attacks has spikes mounted on its legs, will those likewise reduce the damage it takes from successfully hitting its target?
2.) Do spikes interact with spikes? That is, if the retaliatory damage from a defender's spike cluster hits a location where the attacker mounts spikes as well, is that damage reduced like any other physical attack (assuming it wasn't already at 1 to begin with, of course)?
