I would have posted this earlier, but the forum was acting up.

I sent off a bunch of questions to FFG as I wanted clarification on a few issues connected to flyers. Zach was quick to get back to me and supplied me with the answers below:

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Hello!

I have a couple of questions regarding the rules in the Zverograd book.

1. (Page 19). The Air Cavalry special ability for infantry basically allows them to "bail out" of a destroyed aircraft, being placed on the ground with a reaction marker. However, the similar Air Lift rule for vehicles does not. Meaning that if your (quite fragile) helicopter does get shot down your 40+ point walker is destroyed as well. Is this simply an oversight/error in the rules and the "bail out rule" should be there, or it this the intended way of making walker transport more risky?

The Carry Capacity rule on page 18 of Campaign Book: Zverograd does state that "When an Aircraft unit is eliminated, any units embarked in it are also eliminated." However, this Carry Capacity rule only applies to embarked Soldier units.

There is a minor oversight in the Vehicle Carry Capacity rule on page 20 of Campaign Book: Zverograd, in that it does not specifically state what happens to Vehicle units if they are being transported by an Aircraft and the Aircraft is destroyed.

The following ruling applies to Vehicles that are being transported by both ground Vehicles or Aircraft: A Vehicle suffers no damage if its transport is destroyed. Place the Vehicle on the battlefield in the location previously occupied by the destroyed transport. The Vehicle gains one Reaction marker.

2. (Page 21) Can you use bombs when making a March Move Action (ie move a total of 36" and use bombs), or does the bomb attack require you to do a Move Action followed by an Attack Action? Basically, is the bomb attack built into th e Move/March Move/Compulsive Move Action or does it require its own Attack Action?

Bombs can be used when performing a March Move action. However, a March Move is separate from an Aircraft's Compulsory Move action, so a helicopter would not be able to make a 36" bomb attack. An Aircraft may drop bombs when performing a Compulsory Move action (12" range), when performing a Move action (up to 12" range), or when performing a March Move action (up to 24" range).

The bomb attack is resolved as part of the Move action and does not require its own Attack action.

3. A discussion sprung up around this over at the dust-war.com forums and the talk moved onto however bombs dropped when the attacking unit is in the target unit's rear arc would allow for armour save rolls or not. The rules as written are quite clear that if the attacker is in the targets rear arc the target does not get to roll an armour save, and there is nothing in the Zverograd rules currently to contradict this (as bombs worm mechanically as a shooting attack). So does the target get to make an armour roll if attacked with bombs if the attacker is within the target's rear arc?

According to the order of operations for resolving a bomb attack, the attack is made after the Aircraft completes its movement. The range of the attack is determined as the distance traveled by the Aircraft during its movement. That range is measured from the Aircraft's rear arc and line of sight is determined just like any other attack. If line of sight from this attack strikes a Vehicle unit's rear armor, then that Vehicle cannot benefit from an Armor roll.

I understand that this may not seem very intuitive to some people, considering the physics of a bomb being dropped from above, as opposed to the current rules which make bombs seem as though they are "lobbed" backwards after an Aircraft has already passed overhead. However, this method for resolving bomb attacks was found to be the most in keeping with the game's core mechanics and actually works quite well.

Visualizing an attack with bombs during play can require some suspense of one's disbelief. However, it isn't too hard to imagine a bomb being dropped on the rear portion of a tank. And you are correct; the top armor of most vehicles tends to be weaker than that protecting its sides and front. The combination of these factors could easily allow for some deadly bombing runs against armored vehicles.

Hopefully this helps to clear things up!

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Pretty good rulings if you ask me! Transporting walkers became a little bit more viable (although I still don't think I'll ever do it) and bombs can be real scary if you can do the bombing run just right!