Clarification needed:

1. If the Operator is in a Sentinel Scout Vehicle, what is the comrade doing, exactly? Is he simply unaccounted for with the rest of the unit?

2. If the Operator is driving a Chimera Armored Transport, what is the comrade doing? Is he considered part of the crew (commander/driver/gunner)?

Thanks!

1. The comrade would either be following at his normal rate (and soon be left in the dust by the vehicle). Might as well leave the comrade back at base, or maybe with the squad.

2. The comrade would just as easily be a gunner or another operator in the vehicle. This is their best use for the Operator specialization.

Thanks for the feedback.

KommissarK said:

So to follow up, does the Operator player-character serve as "Commander" in the turret or is he actually driving?

Could the Sergeant player-character then take the reins as "Commander" and conceivably the party's Heavy Gunner character take the hull weapon?

I guess I'm just wondering… isn't the Operator's comrade simply taking up (limited) space inside the Chimera if he's not part of the actual crew?

If the rest of the party want to play vehicle crew, then the comrade is best used playing firefighter in the event something happens to the vehicle. Note that the comrade does not need to take a crew spot to do this.

In the example you gave, the comrade could also operate the pintle gun (unless another player wants to handle that).

Note that with a chimera, the party could also opt to open the top hatch, and allow the heavy gunner (and other squad members) to fire from there, while the comrade operates the hull gun. This way the operator can stay in the vehicle and operate things quite nicely, without it forcing musical chairs when the bulk of the squad chooses to disembark. Firing from the hatch also allows the gunner to benefit from their own comrades abilities.

So to follow up, does the Operator player-character serve as "Commander" in the turret or is he actually driving?

Whichever you like. The Operate skill is needed to drive, though, so I'd put him at the wheel*.

His comrade mans one of the guns whilst he's doing so.

In a Leman Russ MBT, players aren't really going to need all their comrades - 4 players gives you driver, main gunner, hull gunner and one sponson, and the driver's comrade takes the other sponson.

In a chimera, as noted by KommissarK, I'd give the driver's comrade the hull mount and let sarge take the turret, whilst the heavy fires from the top hatch.

In a sentinal - it depends. If the squad is all in sentinals, I wouldn't bother with comrades - a sentinal unit isn't that big. If it's a sentinal supporting a squad, he's just a dude in the squad - a warm body to absorb shots, and (in theory) can still ranged volleys to help you and task checks for other actions whilst you cover him.

*Arguably you might require Operate test to handle the main gun (certainly on something like an earthshaker firing indirectly) rather than base BS tests.

Thanks, guys, that helps clear things up for me.

I'd say the ideal Leman Russ crew is 3 PCs, at least in an Armoured Regiment focused game (as opposed to an Operator tagging along with an infantry regiment group)

PCs: Commander (Sargeant), Driver (Operator), Main Turret Gunner (Operator or Weapon Specialist)

Comrades: Hull weapon Gunner (Driver's Comrade), Sponson Gunners (the other two comrades).

If you've got 4 PCs the 4th gets to take the Hull weapon Gunner Comrade's place.

As for excess comrades, you could get creative and give the PCs a comrade tank . Though this would require more paperwork compared to normal comrades. Alternatively you could split the PCs between two separate tanks and use the comrades to fill extra crew positions.