Twelve tanks, one order: ground units
Published
In short: hover tanks fight as companies of twelve, ordered as one unit like a squadron. Every tank has a fighter’s gun on a turret that fires all round, at small craft overhead and at other ground units. Numbers are placeholders.
At a glance
| Company | 12 hover tanks, one unit |
| Where | on the ground, in the atmosphere only |
| Speed | 20 m/s, about 72 km/h; crosses water |
| Gun | a fighter’s gun on a turret: bursts of 8, 625 m reach at Mk1 |
| Fires at | small craft and other ground units |
| Hull, Mk1 | 360 per tank, 4,320 a company |
| Armour | 60, the same as a turret |
How it works
- One unit. A company takes orders like any ship: move, halt, follow, engage. It hovers 1.5 m over the ground and tilts with the slope. On the unit card its height band reads “Ground”.
- Guns all round. Each tank still standing fires, with no nose to point. It shoots at the nearest enemy in reach, either a fighter overhead or another ground unit. Hits are rolled like a fighter’s: see dogfights. Against craft and infantry the gun gets +10.
- Losses one tank at a time. For each tank’s worth of hull lost, one tank goes. At zero the company is destroyed.
- Hard to shoot. Fighters treat a tank company like a turret: a big target that doesn’t dodge, but has armour. They go for fighters and turrets first, unless you order them to engage it.
- Hold Alt to see the company’s gun reach as a flat circle on the ground.
One company starts on the ground, 1.5 km off the carrier’s bow.
Enemies on the ground
Two enemy ground units can be fought in the simulation for now:
- Raider tanks: an enemy tank company, the same as ours. It drives to within about two thirds of its gun reach of the nearest ground unit, then halts and fires.
- Swarm infantry: 48 small fighting machines of the machine swarm, each with a light gun. They move at 5 m/s and have no armour, so guns get +10 against them.
Click an enemy ground unit to see its card, or order an engage on it.
More: squadrons, simulation, guns and ranges.