Tanks and Vehicles vs. No Cover weapons

[beermonkey]

Hey just a quick question regarding No Cover weapons: Tesla Cannons, Flamethrowers and Tesla Pistols used against Tanks and other vehicles. Basically can you do it and how does that work? Thanks guys.

[lawndart]

Our local group has played two games with tanks in the last month, and this is how we've been doing it. Correct me if I'm wrong:

For vehicles with enclosed compartments (tanks, armored cars), the attacker is attacking the vehicle - not the individual crew members. Consequently the attack goes against the full armor of the vehicle, which does not get any benefit of cover from terrain. The net result is that Tesla cannons and flamethrowers have basically no effect on heavy vehicles. The only exception are against any crew using the pintle weapons of tanks/armored cars. According to OtW 16 (p. 15) and the Basra book (p. 52), these crewmen are exposed and have no cover bonus against any weapon. Our group treats these crew in the same way as crew in an open topped vehicle (although they never get any cover bonus, from attacks by any weapon). As a result, armored car gunners tend to die very quickly now, and hatches tend to stay closed on our tanks.

Against open topped vehicles, Tesla weapons/flame throwers also do an attack against the vehicle armor to possibly damage the vehicle, but in addition they also go against any crew under the template just as if the vehicle was not even there. Crew take the full effect of these weapons without cover bonuses, and just use their own personal armor values when making a save.

[beermonkey]

Well since no one has corrected your answer lawndart I guess you're doing it right! Thanks for the reply. Just getting back into AE recently in preparation for GenCon. Also managed to convert a couple of our local historical gamers to AE. So far they have been impressed with the rules, and I love all their great terrain! Match made in heaven really.