Quick question about Mines, Data Trackers, and Designated Targets. Player A's Data Tracker drops a Mine that ultimately kills Player B's Designated Target who got the kill, the Data Tracker or the Mine? I am specifically thinking about how it would score in Decapitation.
Deployable. The user of this weapon or piece of Equipment can place it on the battlefield—but never on a vertical surface— whereupon it becomes an independent element. Deployable weapons and Equipment have their own profile with Attributes, and are targetable by Attacks and Skills. The placement of Deployable weapons and Equipment cannot violate the Deployment rules or any restrictions on deployment put forth by the rules of the scenario being played. In the Active Turn, the trooper can deploy the Deployable weapon or Equipment in base contact or, if he moved, in base contact with any part of his route. In the Reactive Turn, the trooper must deploy the Deployable weapon or Equipment in base contact. A Deployable weapon or Equipment is not considered deployed until the Conclusion of the Order. Suppose Player's A DataTracker is a zero (who is not using camo marker). The mine, once placed, doesn't count as being a Zero. Any attack it makes and any ARM saves it takes, doesn't count as the Zero making attacks and saving attacks. The mine is independent ("whereupon it becomes an independent element"), making its own attack and ARM rolls.
Isn't that like saying "I pushed him out of the airplane but I did not kill him, the ground did." I am on the fence on this one. I do see what you are saying I am just questioning it a little. It still says the "user of this weapon" so have to have a someone to use it (Guns don't kill people, people kill people), you can make Intuitive attacks with it, so it is being deployed by the trooper as a weapon, and it could not exist on the table without the original user to deploy it in the first place. And independent element does not mean it becomes its own trooper, in fact in the FAQ: Q: Do Camouflage markers that do not represent a trooper (Mines, Ambush Camouflage decoys ...) belong to a Combat Group? A: Yes. They are considered to belong to the Combat Group of the troops that have deployed them. Afterthought: If I planted a mine in my front yard and you blew your leg off stepping on it, who are you pressing charges against, me or the mine?
I don't think this reasoning applies within the game rules. But as mentioned above, mines and other deployables are considered by the game to be completely different from the model which laid them. Otherwise TAGs equipped with Mine Dispensers would be throwing DAM 14 mines around. If you data tracker laid a mine and the mine exploded on an enemy, your army gets that kill, but you can't claim your datatracker did it for scenario purposes.
I just don't think they were thinking about how mines, and now mine dispensers as you pointed out, would interact with mission elements like targeting a Designated Target with a specific model when they came up with it in ITS 9.
You're definitely trying to fit logic and laws into a ruleset that doesn't support those. There is nothing to read beyond the "whereupon it becomes an independent element." ...and yes, it has been ruled this way. People are simply trying to show you that it shouldn't require (yet another) official ruling. That said, it may have been on the old forums which have been eradicated from the Universe.
This isn’t an uncommon situation in wargaming. For instance, in Malifaux one model can poison or set another model on fire, and by default death by fire or poison is considered “death by natural causes” because they don’t want to track who applied the condition. As a Combined Army player with access to Sepsitor, it would be great if I got all of minelayer’s mines when I took over a minelayer. But I don’t, because they’re independent once placed. And Sepsitor, dating back to 2nd edition and its FAQs, is when they first had to figure out what still belonged to the trooper and what needed to switch sides with it.
On the other hand, if the trooper that placed them changes combat groups, the mines will not change combat groups. You’re quoting a FAQ entry which is related to the other entry: Q: Is the Combat Group of a Marker (Camouflaged, TO Camouflaged, IMP-1, IMP-2...) Open or Private Information? A: It is Open Information. That would give away that the deployed item wasn’t a trooper unless the deployed items were assigned to combat groups.
It's been answered several times on the forums. Here, the ITS section, and a couple others as random comments. Can't find an "official" comment but it's attributed to Corvus Belli. Might have originally been a face to face answer. Otherwise you'll just have to settle it among you and your friends and possible tournament organizer/judge. But the above is how I've seen it handled by every single tournament organizer.
