Alright, so here's the dilemma:
Me and my roommate are wanting to field some units in that would benefit from my Raven carrying a Narc beacon. We are used to using tag, and therefore adding the cost of semi-guided ammo to the unit equipped with tag.
We *assumed* that Narc would follow a similar process, but could not find a rule in the tech manual that said something as obvious as the tag rule:
"Only affects a unit’s BV if it or other friendly units carry equipment that can be used in conjunction with it. See Constructing a Battle Force, p. 315."
So, we searched around the tech manual for clues. Here's the reasoning we came up with:
1) Artemis and Narc ammunition are listed under the same description on pg. 230. (This makes sense since they do relatively the same thing, +2 to clusters.)
2) Artemis FCS requires the mech to pay for the system in BV AND add a 20% cost to that of the mounting launcher. HOWEVER the missile ammo incurs no additional cost.
CONCLUSION:
Since a spotter mech (like my raven) has to pay BV for both its narc launcher and ammo for said launcher, other mechs in a force can simply say they have "narc equipped missiles" at no additional cost, much like a mech not paying for Artemis ammo.
So, are we correct? Is there a rule we somehow missed? If so, where is it? Give us your wisdom, o elders/veterans of the BattleTech realm.
NOTE: we are calling them "narc equipped missiles" as they are listed as such in the total warfare section which explains their function.
