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Thanks to Halohog for this.
| Unit | Armour | Bs |
|---|---|---|
| Longfin | 14 all over | BS 5 |
| Shortfin | 13 all over | BS 4 |
Type: Aircraft (see below)
Please note that as I am unsure as to whether Thunderhawks etc. have their own type, I have devised my own set of rules for the MAKOs. Please change them as necessary, and someone comment on them if there are already rules for this.
Squadron: there may be up to three air teams per Mako squadron. Each team is either a Longfin with up to two Shortfins per Longfin acting as escort, or up to five Shortfins. Each team acts independently of the other teams.
Weapons: A Longfin carries 10 fusion bombs, and has a twin-linked railgun on each wing. A Shortfin carries 10 Tracer Missiles (you’ll have to look elsewhere for their profile), 5 on each wing, and wing-tip-mounted networked markerlights, as well as a nose-mounted Ionic Pulse Blaster (IPB - see below for details.)
Escort: each Bomber may have up to three fighters as escort. Each aircraft can be targeted individually, but if the bomber is targeted, a fighter will pick up the targeting signal or predict the incoming attack and attempt to block the shot. Attack the bomber as normal, but after a successful hit is made on the bomber, roll a D6. On a 5+, the shot is intercepted by the fighter. Intercepted shots land a direct hit on the aircraft, glancing hits only, but the weapon fired gains a +1 strength bonus for the purposes of penetration hits (in other words gains a +1 bonus to try to glance).
When bombs get hit: Any roll of six to glance a bomber that is carrying bombs will cause a bomb to explode within the drop bay. If this happens roll dice for each of the bombs remaining - on a roll of 4+ another bomb goes off and lands a S10 hit on the bomber. Please note that this will NOT cause chain reactions, but glancing 6’s will destroy the aircraft as normal. A bomber destroyed by a penetrating 5 or 6 in this way will cause the bomber to explode, landing strength 9 hits on any fighters escorting it.
| Unit | Armour | Bs |
|---|---|---|
| Sailfish | 13 all over | BS 3 |
Type: Transport aircraft
Weapons: Wing-mounted ion cannons and nose mounted TL SMS.
Escort: A Sailfish may take two Shortfin Mako to escort it.
Access points: one large rear hatch for piranhas, side hatch on both sides big enough for broadsides and regular troops.
Transport: A sailfish can transport two squads of battlesuits/fire warriors/drones. Suits with jetpacks may deploy if the bomber moves, although they use deep strike rules, with 1D6 scatter ONLY, when deploying. The sailfish may also carry an extra squad of drones if used for transport, but only if both squads it is carrying are not already using drones that cause them to exceed their usual squad limit (e.g. a squad of 12 FW has 2 attached gun drones, bringing total models to 14. This is more than the standard limit of troops available (12) and therefore the ship cannot take an extra gun drone squadron) AND there are no Broadside suits aboard.
Vehicle transport: There are a few cases when piranhas have needed rapid deployment - as in instant action - and orcas and other craft have been deemed unsuitable due to size, lack of armour, lack of number, or some other reason. Sailfish are capable of carrying up to three piranhas - this means that they CAN carry multiple squadrons - but they may not carry any other units when carrying these light skimmers.
Aircraft are almost always flying high, and therefore shorten weapon ranges by 12". They cannot be hit by ordnance weapons, as these generally need a big target to hit, or else the shells are just so slow-moving that they are easily evaded. For weapons that have a 12" range (e.g. meltaguns) they must be directly underneath the aircraft. Aircraft cannot be engaged in close combat, and grenades have no effect.
Aircraft must always move at least 12". They can move up to 24", and they can fire all weapons all the time (stable platform). Because of their high speed, accuracy is much decreased. To represent this, BS 1 or 2 hits on 6s, BS 3 or 4 hits on 5+, and BS 5+ hits on fours. Aircraft are completely unaffected by terrain, and can finish movement wherever is appropriate for them. However, you do NOT need line of sight to aircraft, but common sense should still be used here (e.g. you cannot shoot a Lascannon through the roof of a bunker if the roof is completely enclosed!)
Bombs: some aircraft (e.g. Mako Longfin) carry bombs. In the movement phase, the player with the bomber can declare that it is going to launch a bombing run. This must be declared before the bomber is moved. A bomber can drop up to four bombs on the path that it flew over, evenly spaced (e.g. if a bomber moves 18" and drops bombs, they are placed at 6", 12" and 18"). The bombs scatter 2D6 inches and cannot hit other aircraft. Tau fusion bombs are S9 AP3, and all bombs are large blast radius. The bombs land in the shooting phase.
Transport: for a transport aircraft to unload ground troops, the owning player must announce at the start of his movement phase that the aircraft is landing. The aircraft does not move, but units inside can get in or out as usual for a stationary transport. The aircraft will move normally next turn unless the owner wishes to keep it on the ground. It can load and/or unload as many units as is required to (un)load.
When landed, a transport is much more vulnerable to enemy fire, and it is hit as if it were a normal ground vehicle (i.e. no BS penalties, no range penalties, combat can hit). If a transport is destroyed in mid-air, the units aboard it are lost. However, if they are jump infantry, roll a D6 for each model with this rule. On a roll of 4+ the model is saved, but scatters 2D6 from the centre of the stand. If this separates a unit, they must try to reach each other, and risk taking a leadership test due to poor coherency. Note that if a penetrating 6 is rolled, all units aboard the craft, including jump troops, are lost.
IPB - Ionic Pulse Blaster: a hybrid-technology weapon containing both ionic and pulse technology. it maintains a very high rate of fire and damage rating.
IPB - S6 - AP4 assault 5, rolls to wound/penetrate of a six are AP1.
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