It's the end of the Deployment phase, you roll on the Booty chart with your relevant troop, and the result of 18 comes up, which gives you a motorcycle, changes yours Silhouette to 4 and your movement values. But what if, in the position you originally picked, there are terrain pieces that prevent you from placing the bike, whether from being between columns, walls, barricades, scatter terrain, other troops, you can't physically place the bike in the same spot as where you selected your troop with Booty Level 2. Is it to the players' discretion? Do you have to agree to place it in the closest area it can fit? Can the troop not be placed at all?
I believe the motorcycle is trapped there. There was an old FAQ that I can't find anymore that specified you need to choose your table placement before rolling for things like Booty/MetaChem, and you have to live with the results.
In addition, there are official rules for how to deal with a model changing silhouette size. Gaining a bike would certainly qualify. If you're not able to legally change size due to not being able to place the new silhouette where you are, you actually enter IMM-2. Your character, in game terms, gets stuck in that tight space and can't free themself. I don't know how this would interact with Dismounting from a bike though. You'd probably have to review that with a TO. The rules don't mention getting "unstuck" by dismounting, but I don't think it's beyond the scope of the rules that a character could dismount the bike and leave it behind, effectively removing IMM-2.
Has it been confirmed that looting a motorcycle actually changes the silhouette? So TAG's and other big troopers that loot a motorcycle from a panoply actually shrink in size?
Whilst not written in stone every Motorcycle equipped trooper is S4, and unattended motorcycles are S4, and the official ABH on bike model is S4. So precedent implies a model on a bike is S4. Even a TAG on a bike would be shorter due to the position needed to ride it, like this:
Is it not possible to deploy a model with a Bike dismounted with the Bike in base-to-base contact (same for Piloted TAGs, though I don't see why you'd want that)?
....yes? So if you can't replace your ABH with a mounted model, place the bike next to it (so that the ABH is dismounted) so the problem with being stuck doesn't happen, maybe?
Oh, I seem to have dyslexified your question into a statement. As far as I can tell, you don't get a choice in how to deploy (mounted vs. dismounted) per RAW. As mentioned above, I would just agree with my opponent to allow a Dismount to remove the stuck situation. I do think that base-size changing options on a random roll are problematic to begin with.
This so much! CB, if you do this, I'm sure lots more people will buy the model. I know it's the only thing stopping me.
I've done due diligence now and which profile to deploy for Motorcycles is an outstanding issue. We have not got an official answer and it has been asked before, prominent forum members like Soltan and Toadchild diverge on the topic and as far as I've been able to tell the question has not been asked on the Spanish forums. The question was asked in 2016 when @HellLois had recently clarified (to the shock of some) that you are in fact allowed to deploy Climbing. Mechanical Transmutation specifies that you must declare which profile you deploy in, Transmutation specifies which that you don't get a choice, Escape Device unsurprisingly specifies that you may not voluntarily leave the TAG and Pilot skill specifies that you must spend a Short Movement Skill to dismount before you may use the Pilot profile. All in all, I'd say this leaves Motorcycles in limbo. I mean, if you could deploy dismounted, that'd not impact the game greatly and it'd solve the ABH problem for most situations where an ABH gets a bike (if not all - I'm looking at you, ABH Sniper)
As a general rule, anything with more than one profile is deploying with the first profile. As you point out, Mechanical Transmutation is an exception to this, but I think it's just that, a specific exception to the general. Motorcycle rules definitely start from the default assumption of "mounted" and gives no such deployment choice, but that could also be an oversight on the rules-writing side. That being said, if someone asked before start of game if this could be handled differently, I'd have no qualms about it.
I dont follow. While everyone with a motorcycle is s4, doesnt mean a motorcycle makes you s4 as no rule indicates as such. I would argue that a booty motorcycle does not change size. Edit: this is incorrect as posted below.
While I get your point it looks like the model is supposed to have 2 profiles which it will not have. The cycle marker if you dismount is clearly S4 as stated but the model still has its profile (which will not have S4 on it anywhere). Don't get me wrong I think the intention is the you have a second profile with Move 8-6 and S4. The rules just forgot to mention all that and assumed that you knew what they meant.
Well, I mean, either the motorcycle equipment/rule grants you a second profile, or rolling a motorcycle on a single profile trooper means you can't use it. I'm going to go with the rules interpretation that functions most of the time and breaks in edge cases, instead of doesn't function at all...
I agree 100%, hopefully the fact that this isn't explained well at all will be in the next FAQ and they agree with that logical conclusion.
