Blast vs. Soldier unit within a Transporting Vehicle

[Elfy]

"Blast: This unit can’t attack Aircraft. When this unit attacks, make a separate attack roll against each Soldier and Vehicle in the target hex. (This includes friendly units, but not Aircraft.)"

"Transport (Special Ability) Definition: ...While a soldier unit is boarded, it't can move, fire, or defend for itself - it relies entirely on the carrying vehicle.

If the transport Vehicle is destroyed, any soldier on it is destroyed too. If the transport Vehicle is disrupted or damaged, any Soldier is unaffected."


The talk in this thread...

http://boards.avalonhill.com/showthread.php?t=11074

...suggests that the passenger Soldier of a transport can be destroyed independently of the transporting Vehicle itself...if the unit attacking it has the Blast special ability.

Is this correct? Is the Soldier being transported by a Vehicle fired upon as part of the Blast SA, or does it only suffer destruction if the vehicle itself is destroyed as per the standard rules?

[Y2UAsk]

We have a consensus, and it is that Blast affects every unit in the hex, including passengers aboard Transport (but not Aircraft).

Here's why ...

First, a key concept (that is easily missed) is that "Attack" is not the same as "roll attack dice" or "make a separate attack roll."

Second, the wording of the Transport special ability is unclear in the glossary. Where it states,

"While a unit is boarded, it can't move, fire, or defend for itself,"

it really ought to state,

"While a unit is boarded, it can't move on its own (except to dismount), attack, or be the target of an attack."

Third, the wording of the Blast special ability is also unclear and misleading. It was the intent of this special ability that only the attacker's primary target is 'attacked'. All other units in the hex are being affected by a special ability -- they are not the targets of an 'attack'. (Note that the wording of the Katyusha's Rocket Salvo makes clear that it has no specific target and therefore is not an 'attack'.)

Since passengers aboard Transport can use special abilities and be affected by special abilities, they are affected by Blast.

This clarification will be added to the FAQ when D-Day comes out and incorporated into any reprints of the rulebook.

Obviously, this doesn't differentiate between APCs (halftracks) and unarmored or makeshift transport vehicles (jeeps and tanks). In informal games, players are always free to alter the rules however they want. If you want passengers of APCs to be immune to the effects of Blast, that's an entirely reasonable house rule. Such a change is unlikely to be issued as errata, however. If it happens, it would coincide with a new edition of the rulebook (to accompany a new starter set, for example).

If you have comments on this ruling, please raise them in the thread on this topic in the General Forum (http://boards.avalonhill.com/showthread.php?t=11137).

Steve