| Purestrain |
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Joined: Thu Feb 13, 2003 10:52 pm
Posts: 9617
Location: Nashville, TN, USA
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Aircraft can only load or unload once per turn, it cannot do both.
Actually, that's not true. An aircraft can load or unload as any other WE. It's the embarking formation's action that determines whether they can load up. If they can move to contact with the WE, it can load. if that's 1 formation of 8 models or 8 formations of one model each, it doesn't matter to the WE.
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Maimed: Really, you need to re-read the rules on WE transports and Aircraft landing. I'll try to summarize, but I make no promises. It's pretty fiddly.
A landed aircraft becomes a ground unit. It's a WE, so all loading and unloading issues are handled as WEs unless noted differently.
There are a lot of things 'noted differently.'
A landing aircraft can either load or unload as part of its landing. This is a "free" embark or disembark. Under most circumstances, this means the aircraft lands and the troops/transport either assault or fire (usually assault).
WE transports can be mounted by any units that can move into contact with them, but once mounted, they cannot activate later in the turn (this stops a dual-activation loophole). With a consolidation move after an assault, the troops can mount but the WE cannot move. For aircraft, this restriction on movement after consolidation is extended to mean that the aircraft may not disengage in the end phase.
If you want to do multiple air assaults with the same formation or aircraft, there are a few ways to do it.
1) Air assault, consolidate back on board - this is bad. You get the assault, but the aircraft is trapped on the board for an entire turn with the troops loaded.
2) Air assault, leave the troops on the ground, bring another aircraft on to pick them up (landing the aircraft gets the "free" embark move for the troops, even though the troops have activated) - Because it's not a consolidation move, the second aircraft can disengage as normal and return to air assault in the following turn. Obviously, the downside of this is that it takes 2 aircraft so it's expensive in points.
3) Air assault, disengage as normal, land/embark on the following turn, air assault again on the third turn. - This is a favorite of Biggles, I believe. You get the initial air assault. The ground formation can activate on the second turn. The aircraft uses the "free" embark to pick them up, and returns for the assault the following turn. It's a pretty good technique.
4) Air assault, have a second, separate formation mount up on the aircraft using their move, disengage as normal (it wasn't a consolidation move, so the aircraft can go), return to air assault the following turn. - This can work, but it is tough to pull off. The second formation has to be in position and it has to move onto the aircraft, which means it cannot fire or assault. The only way I've thought of to make this work is with a FF-oriented formation. You air assault a target near the support formation so they can lend FF support to the assault. The assaulting formation moves off. The support formation activates and boards the aircraft. They "lose" the activation but they got to support an assault so it's almost like they got to shoot anyway. The only real practical means I see to pull this off is with soemthing like Eldar Swooping Hawks that can teleport into position, have decent FF, and can load up even at a reasonable distance. it should work... in theory... but it's got a lot of moving parts and I've never actually seen anyone do it in a game.
There's no way for an aircraft to "hop" around the board during a turn. They either disengage in the end phase and come back in as aircraft in subsequent turns, or they sit in place on the ground the entire turn.
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Neal
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