Operators and Their Comrades

By Tenebrae, in Only War Rules Questions

Just a quick question to which I believe I know the answer, but I know this'll be asked:

An operator can 'order' his comrade to fire a weapon in the same multi-crew vehicle which the operator is driving. This uses the BS value of the operator.

This seems to be a way for the player of the operator to still shoot, despite driving.

But what about Talents?

What if the operator has eg. Mighty Shot or some other talent which affects shooting. Does the comrade get to use these as well, or just any BS advances?

I let the operator of my group use all Talents and a Full Action, works fine since he really sucks on foot (except for still being good with his M36 but he is worse than everyone else) so thats his moment to shine

I let the operator of my group use all Talents and a Full Action, works fine since he really sucks on foot (except for still being good with his M36 but he is worse than everyone else) so thats his moment to shine

Is this RAW though?

I would say yes. Quoting the book "he may also make a Ranged Attack Action using whatever gun his Comrade is manning, as if he were stationed at it himself." Sounds like BS, talents, and anything else would apply

Awesome!

I was expecting a chorus of 'NO!' - this makes operators somewhat more interesting

The way Comrades aren't codified as actual characters/NPC:s in Only War always rubbed me the wrong way. I think all comrades should have all their stats all by themselves, and that Comrades should use those - although affected by certain Talents and abilities of their "keeper" - to determine their successes and failures.

That being said, bar this, I would definitely allow the player to use all their Talents and such when using the Comrade in such a fashion as described in the OP. In fact, the line "as if he was stationed at it himself" make it seem like this is the intended functionality.

So yeah, go wild.