nealhunt wrote:
Quote:
Skimmers may ignore dangerous or impassable terrain as they
move. They may not land on impassable terrain, and if they
land in dangerous terrain they must take a dangerous terrain
test. Skimmers may also move over other friendly units as they
move, but may not land on them. Enemy units and zones of
control affect skimmers normally.
As noted, the Skimmer rules never define "landing."
Personally, I've never played "landing" as "the end of each move" and only counted it as landing at the end of all moves. I read "...as they move" as a generic reference to moving, not a game-defined "move". So, if you're Marching 105cm and the first 35cm move ends over woods, we don't make that a terrain check. Only at the 105cm mark is it a check.
If you make them check and avoid impassable terrain on every individual move, it could be a pretty large hindrance to Skimmers. For example, in dense terrain like a city board, a high portion of moves will have to be diverted around impassable buildings, gaining little advantage over conventional vehicles (especially with road move bonuses). That seems at odds with the idea of the special rule.
From the conversation, though, it seems as if many people are taking checks at the end of each move.
Not quite Neal; If the skimmer is making a single move, it can fly over the terrain as required (popped up or not) - it just has to find a safe spot to land in. However for multiple moves I have always played that the player has a choice to 'pop up' and fly in a direct line over dangerous terrain, or to 'touch down' after each move, which may necessitate slight deviations. Even 'popped down' in a city-scape, skimmers should be appreciably faster, (providing they can find somewhere to 'touch-down') or they can take the DT tests instead of being shot at. The point being that if you do fly high over terrain, you potentially become a target for OW fire, which seems a reasonable trade-off.
Assaults are the other time that popping up helps avoid terrain when making a 'multiple move' as presented earlier .
The onlly real problem with this approach has been the Tau Manta which has been defined as "always popped up". This is at odds with the rule that requres a transport to be on the ground to embark or disambark troops. However, I am reliably informed that in this case the Tau have special embarkation technology onboard, which gets around the problem of trying to find a suitably large, solid and flat piece of terrain on which to park the Manta
