Hi,

My Acolytes are soon going to utilise vehicle based weapons so I have a question.

Do they need the Weapon Talent to fire the weapons on a vehicle.
Yes sure, if the weapon is pintle-mounted, but whit if it is a remote controlled turret, nose mounted weapon or weapon attached to the wing like a missile?

For the record, they will be getting something like Combat Bikes and a Small Guncutter.

The weapons on the bikes, yes, you need the Talent.

But for the Guncutter, for what weapons yes/no?

GrtZ,

Santiago...

For my players and their shuttle, I have the pilot roll a test against his BS and tech use skill.

It's just for effect at the moment, I rule if it's lower than the BS but over the tech use test the shot hits but the cannons can't fire next round, if the tech use test passes and BS fails, it misses. If both fail you miss and cannot fire next round.

As I said, it's not been tested in the heat yet so...

First of all, good question!

In my opinion, you should still have the talent. To me, the talent does not only "include" the ability the knowledge how to set up, ready and fire the weapon in question, but also some infos like the ballistic range, the "flight behavior" of the rocket/round use, in which way it´s "kicking" (or lack of) has to be taken in accord while aiming and so on.

A small example for vehicle/flight combat:
With a projektile weapon like heavy stubber or an autogan, it might be very with to aim at a point slightly "before" your target. Due to the huge speed and the higher distance, you otherwise might just miss by an inch. In case of a Las weapon, I do not assume this to matter since the "shot" is literally moving with the speed of light.

Therefore, I would see "yes, you need the talent". But if you guncutter comes equiped with controls, aiming cogitators and other "add ons" similiar to a modern jetfight, I would assume the shootist could be given

a) a bonus (up to +20, depening on the system!)
b) a "cap" for his mali (say, -10) since the machine spirit is actually doing a lot of his work

Just my two cents

Two more pennies for the pot.

If the weapon is integrated into the vehicle then the weapon should be considered trained under the appropriate Drive or Pilot skill.

Pintle-mounted weapons need the proper skill.

So whoever has the pilot: military vehicles skill should be trained in the use of the fixed weapons on the Gun Cutter. Anyone with the drive: ground vehicles skill should know that the red stud by his thumb fires the fixed weapon between his handle bars.

A sidecar or back seat gun position should require the appropriate weapon skill or drive skill if the weapon or vehicle combo is of a prolific enough pattern.

An option would be to give a bonus based on how good a pilot or driver the player is. Maybe that Pilot +10 equates to a +10 on their BS test while in the vehicle.

ItsUncertainWho said:

So fixed and remote controlled weapons is Drive/Pilot
(Nose mounted cannon, wing fixed rockets)

Manually fired weapons require the appr. talent
(Pintle mounted heavy stubber, stormbolter, Turret mounted autocannon, side sponsors etc.)

Gregorius21778 said:

"My autogan on my gancatter" ))) no offense, man

Part of the basic training of any crewman or pilot would include the functioning of any fixed weapon systems that are found on every vehicle of that type. But with the near infinite variation of what might be on a turret, pintle, or sponson they probably wouldn't be given any more training than "that's the trigger, pull and point."

Now when you get into the main gun on a tank or artillery piece, those may need some special training to be able to reload properly.

That would be my take with anyone with Pilot: Military Vehicles, Drive: Ground, or Drive: Walker skills.

Pilot: Civilian Craft, I would say, does not include weapons training. They may be able to get a Valkyrie up into the air and from point A to B, at a penalty, but all the extra controls would make no sense.

If it were up to me I'd rule that for a pintle mounted weapon you need the relevant Heavy Weapon talent. If the weapon is being fired from the cock-pit from a guncutter I'd use the Pilot (Military Craft) skill. After all, if you know how to pilot a MILITARY craft it pretty much covers the usage of the armaments as well. Otherwise making a distinction between civilian craft and military craft skills wouldn't make any sense. Compare it to a civilian jet and a fighter jet. Flying them is pretty much the same thing, however the fighter jet has weapon systems and special sensors that you need to be able to use before you can consider yourself a fighter pilot. If all you can do is fly the thing, then you're nothing more than a civilian pilot.

My two centi thrones...