THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE HAMMER’S SLAMMERS THE CRUCIBLE RULES SYSTEM HANDBOOK

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Can Combat Engineering Vehicles be used with Mines? And what about vehicles that already have mine clearing capabilities?

Mine Clearance with CEVs When clearing mines, CEVs operate like the systems fitted to the front of (for example) Slammers Blower tanks and some Combat Cars. They can check out any mine counter laid on the table within Point Blank range to see if it is a dummy counter or a real mine using a quality roll for 1LP to get a definite result (and employing the 1-2-4 rule if necessary). Any unit can do this, of course, but the CEV will  be treated as one quality level up and so will have a better chance of an accurate identification. The CEV can then simply remove the mine and - if it has LPs to spend on movement in that turn - move on - either through the gap it has created or onto other mines. Slammers blowers and similar vehicles are, of course, only set up to do this once per vehicle within a game (their anti- mine launcher has to be reloaded manually) but CEV's may do this as often as required (they have a special magazine feed system). Ground Penetrating Rockets Late Slammers Blower tanks have an almost unique feature - bunker busting rockets. Altough they don’t appear on the play sheets (as they are rarely used in a game) the M2A4 Blower tanks onwards are equipped with a pair of 12cm Ground-penetrator rockets mounted in the rear hull and fired through the plenum chamber. Guided by the vehicles sensors and AI the

vehicle can be positioned by the 'Booster' AI system over tunnel complexes or underground chambers and fired directly downwards into the soil. The CEV vehicles carry a similar rocket device. Effect What this means in game terms is: If a Slammers Bower tank or a CEV drives over any structure in a game which has a defensive value - examples might be a bunker complex or even a bridge crossing a river or road system - the bunker buster rockets can be deployed. The effect of this is a single attack made as if two heavy ATGWs were fired downwards onto the structure. A quality roll is made for each missile to see if they hit and the results resolved in the normal fashion; this may only be done once in a game (whether it’s a Blower or a CEV) and there is no defence against it beyond the DV of the structure itself (typically a DV of 8 or 9) Ambulances This is a stage up from the Elite skill Medic. A vehicle can be allocated, like an ARV or a CEV, at one per detachment, same costs and DV etc as a Command Vehicle. Like the CEV, these specialist medics operate at one level of quality higher than standard (Untrained to Trained; Trained to Veteran; Veteran to Elites but Elites stay elites). Effect In any given turn an Ambulance vehicle may

draw along side (within Point Blank range) an infantry TU that has been killed (either by direct fire or through suppression markers) or just suppressed in that turn. An LP is spent and a quality roll is then made to achieve a success in either case. The result is all suppression is removed (drugs are a wonderful thing…) or the infantry TU can be brought back 'from the dead'. Note that this requires that - if an infantry TU is killed - while it would normally be simply removed (or, if the Elite Skill of Field Medic is present they could attempt to 'heal thyself') - in this case it must be marked as 'dead' to be removed with the destroyed vehicles at the end of a turn, giving a chance for the Ambulance to reach them. Deaths can not be addressed over into the next turn - the patients were just not reached in time - but suppression markers can still be removed in following turns if the ambulance can get to them and administer the happy pills… Also Note that the Elite skill of Medic - which requires no QR roll but a straight 6 on the dice - if it is paid for with a detachment can be used in conjunction with this additional facility: Medic:  This TU has been trained and equipped to care for injured troops. If the TU is killed (either by direct fire or through suppression markers) roll 1d6 - on a 6 the TU remains on the table. i.