Tank MA Shots When in Bypass

[Matt “Rolling Hot” Cicero]

Rules conundrum of the day….

You have a tank in bypass of a wood building. There is a squad in the building. The tank wishes to toss a 75mm shell into the squad.

Part 1: What are the mods to the TH?
The reason I started pondering this is to figure out the impact of a bypass vehicle’s TCA on the shot. Same hex shots normally don’t require you to adjust your TCA (the Case E +2 applies but not the Case A). The lone exception to this is if the target moves into your hex…then you must adjust your TCA to cover the hexside traversed by the target. In this case, any change of TCA would cause you to have both Case A and Case E penalties.

Ok, but a vehicle in Bypass has some extra TCA issues. First off, firing at anything in the “Side Arc” gives you the glorious +1 mod simply for being in Bypass. Ah, but does this apply for fire in your own hex given the rules noted above? Maybe if the target was entering the hex. But what if the target is already there? Set aside the rule about not paying the additional +1 if you have already fired on the target…consider the shot to be the tank’s first shot at the squad ever.

Part 2: Does the tank need to change its TCA?
The side issue to all this is the actual TCA of the tank. Normally, if a tank occupied a hex and wanted to shoot at an in-hex enemy, it does not have to change its TCA. Very useful if you wish to keep exposure to out-of-hex threats to a minimum. But how does this work for the Bypass tank? Does he have to turn his turret to face the in-hex squad (side arc) in order to shoot at it? Or can he shoot the squad and still cover his front TCA arc?

I think everything is very clear for Bypass To Hit mods if you are shooting at an enemy outside your hex. No issues there. Also, no issues with how to deal with To Hit if you actually occupy the hex (not in Bypass). But the example above tossed me a bit because combining Bypass with an in-hex shot seemed to make the issue somewhat cloudy.

Matt C.

[Paul Simonsen]

Matt,

The answer is quite easy…. Find out where Fred is playing and ask him.

Interesting rules issue, however.

-Groo

[Paul Simonsen]

Matt,

I would say that you would have to have a side facing TCA (at the hex you are bypassing) and you would use Case E and the extra +1 side TCA if applicable (i.e. no acq., etc.).

Fred

[Paul Simonsen]

I forgot to add that I base my reply the figure in D2.321 which shows hex BB3 (the bypassed hex) in the side TCA whereas the figures in D3 show only hexes outside
the vehicle's hex in its TCA/VCA.

Fred

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