Does it work like this: 1. Activate the TAG 1.1 Spend the TacAware Order 1.2 Declare Move and dismount the Pilot (which does not have TacAware and who's profile you are now using for the entire order) Or this: 1. Activate the Pilot 1.1 Spend the Tac Aware Order 1.2 Declare Move and mount the TAG (which does have TacAware and who's profile you are now using for the entire order). The first is most supportable RAW (using an order is spending it at 1.1 - at which point you are using the TAG order) but the second is arguably correct and is certainly consistent with how Fireteams work.
Yeah. A little further discussion and I realised that there's a third option: A TacAware order is an Irregular Order and Irregular Orders can be spent on the Trooper who generated it: so nothing stops the Pilot from using the TacAware order while Dismounted because the Pilot and TAG are the same Trooper. IE (I don't like this answer as TacAware says "This Special Skill grants to its user an extra Irregular Order in addition to the one provided by their Training Characteristic (Regular or Irregular)." and I read the "user" as either the Profile activated at Step 1 or the Profile that performs the skill declared at Step 1.2).
I think that the idea of the Pilot and TAG being two profiles for a single Trooper supports the idea that the TacAware Irregular Order, once generated, belongs to whichever profile is active on the table. Given the following: TA Irregular Orders are generated during the Order Count. TA Irregular Orders are just Irregular Orders generated by a Special Skill; they're otherwise normal Irregular Orders. You may only spend any Irregular Order on the Trooper that generated it. The TAG and Pilot are a single Trooper with multiple profiles. Per Army, the TAG profile generates one Regular and one Irregular Order, and the Pilot generates no Orders. Per the Pilot rule, if one profile is Unconscious (the TAG) then neither profile generates more Orders during the Order Count. While mounted, the Pilot is not present and you may spend Orders on the TAG. While dismounted, you may spend Orders on a Pilot, even if the TAG is Unconscious or destroyed. While dismounted, you may not spend Orders on the TAG, even if the Pilot becomes Unconscious (exception for Resetting to reboot a RemPres TAG with an Unconscious Pilot). My interpretation is that the TA Irregular Order belongs to both profiles once it's generated, in the same way that the TAG's Regular Order, once generated, can still be spent from the Order Pool by the Pilot. Tactical Awareness governs generating the TA Irregular Order during the Order Count, but once it's generated there's no rule saying that a given profile has to have Tactical Awareness to spend that Irregular Order, just that Irregular Orders belong to the Trooper that generates them instead of going into the Order Pool. A Pilot doesn't generate Orders of any kind if the TAG is Unconscious, so giving the Pilot TA would be a catch-22 design error, but it's still an alternate profile for the same single Trooper. Thought experiment: Imagine a TAG that is Irregular, and that Tactical Awareness just causes the Trooper to generate two Orders during the Order Count instead of one, so an Irregular TAG generates two Irregular Orders. Now imagine you're the game designer. Would you write a rule that obliged the player to ignore both of those Irregular Orders and spend Regular Orders from the Order Pool when the Pilot dismounts in order to do anything with the TAG for the rest of the game, including re-mounting the Pilot later? (I would not.)
But if you start the turn with your pilot dismounted (maybe the enemy used hacking to eject you), you would get a regular order but not the tactical awareness order, since the pilot profile is active but lacks that skill.
I agree with wes-o-matic, order generation seems to be tied to the TAG and the pilot is the same trooper as the TAG (with caveats for how weird it gets with Booty from panoplies and some mission items)
Dismounting the TAG doesn't stop the TAG's Automatic Skills from functioning, so TacAware will still do its thing. The only thing that happens to the TAG is that you're not allowed to spend orders on the TAG.
Why? A dismounted Pilot doesn't generate any Orders (Army has no Order icons next to that profile) and as long as the TAG is conscious, it still generates its full complement of Orders during the Order Count. The Regular Order it generates goes to the Order Pool, the Irregular Order is usable by either profile. The TAG can't spend it until the Pilot re-mounts, but the Pilot can spend it freely. EDIT: Ninja'd by Mahtamori.
What's the issue with Booty from panoplies? I'd assume that the Booty applies to whichever profile is active. The issue with N4 supply boxes seems tied to the fact that the TAG profile doesn't have any Specialist skills so it can't actually carry a supply box, which is similar to the issue of camo specialists being unable to resume the camo state and still carry a box, and also that the supply box rule doesn't really explicitly cover whether you can actually move the box ("carry" is undefined) or drop it (not there at all). As an aside...I realized the other day that there's a very silly argument to be made that once a specialist picks up the n4 supply box, it simply can't declare anything that would render it ineligible to carry the box, so no re-mounting a TAG or assuming a marker state is possible. I assume the intended play is that "carry" means the supply box moves with the carrier as if it were a special state token, and that assuming marker state or mounting the TAG causes the specialist to drop the supply box token in base contact, but none of that's actually in the dang rulebook. Dropping the token only really comes up with regards to the trooper carrying it going into a null state. Both of those came up together in a single game of N4 Supplies a couple weeks ago.
You're effectively arguing that the user referred to in TacAware is the Trooper with the TacAware skill. I think there's a reasonable argument that the intent is user referred to in TacAware skill is the profile. But it certainly simplifies the issue of you just go "it can be spent on the Trooper", so I'll take it until and unless there's a FAQ.
I don't disagree, but my comment about how giving the Pilot TacAware would be a design error is meant to address this, specifically regarding why the lack of TacAware on the Pilot isn't a dead giveaway. If the designers intended that only the profile with TacAware could spend that Order, and they intended to give that ability to both profiles, they'd have to add TacAware to the Pilot, which would result in questions like "does this TAG generate three Orders when the Pilot is dismounted, and can the Pilot use a Regular Order to re-mount, resulting in a TAG with two Irregular Orders?" because it'd result in unclear interactions and would conflict with the rule about Pilots not generating Orders if the TAG is Unconscious, since the Pilot's copy of TacAware wouldn't be turned off by the TAG being in a null state. At which point to fix that they'd have to rewrite TacAware or something. If the designers intended that only the TAG profile could spend it, they could have included a specification about profiles in the TA rule text, but they didn't do that either. Given that TA on TAGs is a Big Deal (TM) that seems like a weird oversight. I'd definitely like an official answer on this, but I'm strongly inclined to lean toward the "either profile can use the order even if only one profile can generate it" interpretation because it presumes the least amount of designer error. (haha I'm funny, I know, but still)
Thing I love about Infinity: The rules (eventually) make enough internal sense that it's possible to solve this kind of puzzle at least some of the time. Thing I do not love about Infinity: This puzzle isn't the point of the game, and could have been pre-solved with a bullet in Pilot explicitly saying that the dismounted Pilot may spend any Irregular Orders generated by Special Skills belonging to the TAG or Vehicle. *sigh*
Id' swear it was specified a few seasons back that the pilot and the TAG are different things, specifically because you can't use a Killer Hacking Device against a pilot onboard her tag... That would point to the tac-aware order being used to dismount, but not to mount afterwards. Also, both the Iguana and the Gorgos have Tac Aware (both in the TAG and Operator profile, to be precise), while Scarface has certain bonuses present on both the TAG and the maniacal (CC-3, berserker +3, CD attack +1 damage, Courage), and the Anaconda Operator doesn't have Pilot, nor Tac Aware (but she does have specialist operative).
It was also specified that as far as special status gained from ITS missions, such as Datatracker, the TAG and pilot were in fact the same trooper unlike Proxies where each proxy was their own trooper. Gorgos and Iguana are operated TAGs, their drivers do not have the Pilot skill. When the TAG itself is destroyed, the Operator will still be generating orders and would be required to have TacAware skill in order to generate that order since the TAG itself is in a null state. The same is not true for a pilot if the intention is for the pilot to be able to use the TAG's order. Btw, if the army ends up in LoL with the pilot dismounted, the pilot becomes irregular and starts generating orders as long as the TAG is not UNC.
The Anaconda (as I mentioned) has an Operator too, by name since the rule has dissapear, and gets no tac aware of her own. And Scarface has certain bonuses both in the pilot and the TAG. That means 2 "operator" with Tac Aware, and one without. While regarding all the other TAGs, none has Tac Aware on the pilot, but all on the TAG. To me, that is evidence pointing to only the TAG generates Tac Aware, if the Pilot is dismounted in the order generation phase no Tac Aware order for the TAG.
Yes, and in spite of being a heavy infantry when the Symbiont is alive, an Ectros is not hackable when the Symbiont is gone because they are no a light infantry. And despite a Fusilier being immune to Hacking while prone, an Orc is not. Troopers have different abilities and limitations, an Anaconda pilot is apparently not intended to keep generating TacAware orders when the TAG is dead. The relationship between a TAG and operator and a TAG and pilot are different, what is specific to one does not inform us of the other. Scarface doesn't have anything divulging whether skills generated by the TAG belongs to the Trooper as a whole or to the TAG profile only. This whole question is about stuff generated for the trooper, that doesn't happen due to actively using a skill.
