Tank Drop makes at least some tanks useable - without it almost all tanks are total garbage, simply because Artillery and VTOLS are their natural enemies.

I agree it's a silly mechanic from a logical standpoint, but it does serve its purpose well.

I guarantee you'd never see a single tank in serious competition without it...and you already don't see many.

But would you really see it less if it didn't remove the token? I mean, all that would do is fix this rather large incongruity in the order system. So you couldn't fire twice in a row by abusing a poorly-written rule - does that really make your tank useless?

I use the Schmitt often, yet I have NEVER fielded a cap 3 transport. It's a great piece by any standard, even if all it did was attract enough attention to itself. But that's certainly not all it does.

Making 2-3 tanks playable in exchange for 75% of all mechs is not good for the game.

How do you figure it only makes 2-3 tanks playable?

All the Glory models (x4)
RoS Po
DF Morgan
AA gun tanks (ex. Liao MH1, SSW MH1, SH Aesir, DF Partisan)
Go-Cho
Mikel
DF Schmidt
..and just about every artillery unit in the game has use for a transport

Sure, it's hardly a huge percentage out of the total number of tanks in this game (most of which are worthless in battle), but it's a heck of a lot more than 2-3.

I've probably used about half of those in a drop at one time or another, and I wouldn't have done so if the drop didn't exist.

Ultimately I don't care if it stays or goes, but without it rest assured that *no* tanks will ever get played seriously.

Mainly people drop only the optimally tuned tankdrop units. Which is only a handfull...

DF Maxim.
DF Marksman (sometimes).
Go Cho.

Sometimes people drop AA, but that isnt really the whole "tankdrop" issue since it doesnt really supress mechs. Although some of those new 4-5 AP with decent attack MHI AA tanks might do double duty as AA _and_ mechbusters via drop. So that'll add one more...

MHI AA (sometimes).

Using 3-cap transports to move around arty isnt really "tankdrop" either... we always call it "arty dancing" locally. You arent really dropping the vehicle to get first hit on a mech, you are lifting and dropping it to dodge enemy counter-arty fire.

So that is like... 4 units that see common tankdrop. Maybe they field more variety where you are, so we'll quadruple that number to 16.

16 units viable at the expense of 75% of mechs is STILL bad for the game.

Well after CA there will be more :
SH JesII Missile Carrier
SH Behemoth II Tank
SH Aesir Medium AA Vehicle
Liao MHI AA Tank

Also the SC 16inch wrong mechs are AA Just bring 2 of them. Which is 322 points of 450. 128 of support when you mech is anty mech,AA, Arty all in one will on hurt.

Also I have seen the
DF SM1 Tank Destroyer
DF BE701 Joust Tank
BR GloryFire Support Tank
in TankDrop armies.

HEY!!! I KNOW!! if transports made tanks useful maybe they do the same for mechs!!! We could havee a 6 cap transport so we could move and drop mechs!!! goodbye charge warrior, say hello to TRANSPORT WARRIOR!!!!!

Au contrair, monsuier.

I would say all tanks with a 2" or better min. range tend to be very playable without a tankdrop. The Glory, PO 2, and regulator 2 are probably the best. The HL Schmidt w/ 2xHBs has also served me well. It just takes some imagination.

But why play with the regular rules when you can TD a DF Schmidt? You get to ignore its liabilities and give it super manuverability.

The major problem with TD is the move & shoot ability it confers. Why play a vehicle without it?

I think all they need to do is this, Make it so you cannot Deploy on a break away. If they did that i think tankdrop would be no problem at all, Because most people see it coming and put some infantry or some other fast tank out to stop it.

Something like "a unit may only disembark from a transport if the transport's base was free from enemy units at the beginning of the turn"?

Not bad! It would probably help, though it wouldn't fix the problem entirely. That's a good point, Gren!

I think a simple: "All vehicle 'unloaded' from transports come out with a token on them. Vehicles unloaded may then perform an action and suffer 'push' damage as per the 'push' rules."

Heh, the problem that people had with tanks before was that a single infantry could keep the tank tied up. If a transport couldn't deploy after a break, you'd just have the same problem with transporst as you once had with the tanks.

Personally, I'd like to see the "you cannot give a vehicle an order the turn it was deployed" fix. That way you could still, over the period of three turns,
Turn one: drop tank
Turn two: fire tank, rest transport
Turn three: rest tank, load tank & move
Heck, in a pinch, you could still push the transport to get the tank outta there. It would make a tank as manuverable as a mech, not as manuverable as a vtol.

Well, Bahoom, I think all it would really do is make people deploy more carefully. If the main pro-tank-drop argument is "anyone should be able to see that coming!", then the same can be said of basing infantry, can't it? On top of that, the tank-drop usually gets the first licks in, again unless its player is being careless.

That being said, I agree that your fix would be one of the simplest (and probably best). It's just that it's been flat-out rejected by all the players who rely on tank-drop. It'd be fun to find a solution SOME tank-drop players can agree on.


@ Terman8er,

That works too. What would you think about both your solution AND Gren5686's together?

I'm not a fan of the "can't unload on a break" as the infantry tie up is the reason TD came about in the first place.

Oh? I thought it came about to make a new high-damage, long range first-strike mechanic.

Still, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, as they say. Why is it that many people consider tank-drop balanced by the fact that it should be obvious when infantry movement should be just as obvious?