Glossary for Ground Vehicles

General Terms

Price: This is the price in game terms for a vehicle with a wear value of 1 or less. It indicated the relative worth of the vehicle in game terms. In general, the price of the vehicle listed will bear no resemblance whatsoever to the real-world price, except possibly by accident.
Fuel Type: This lists the types of fuels the vehicle may use to power its engine. The abbreviations here are D=Diesel, G=Gasoline, AvG=Aviation Gasoline, and A=Alcohol (methyl or ethyl).

Load: This is the amount of cargo the vehicle may carry internally. Up to 10% more may be hung on the outside of the vehicle without penalty; if more is hung outside of the vehicle, it goes against the internal cargo capacity. (This does not include the ERA which may be mounted upon some armored vehicles, if the armored vehicle is listed as being able to mount lugs for ERA or already has lugs for ERA.) This capacity may be exceeded even further, with a maximum overload of 25% being able to be carried for tracked vehicles, or 15% for wheeled vehicles. Of course, this may be mitigated by carrying less fuel, ammunition, or crew/passengers. The additional 10% which may be hung outside of the vehicle is not considered over load for this purpose.

Of course, carrying cargo will slow a vehicle down as well as increase the fuel consumption. For every 100 kg of listed Load capacity the vehicle carries, the vehicle speed is reduced by 0.5%, and fuel consumption is increased by 0.5%. If the vehicle is carrying an overload (as listed in the previous paragraph), the vehicle’s speed and fuel consumption is affected in the same way (to a greater degree). The additional 10% which may be hung outside of the vehicle does count against this vehicle movement and fuel consumption penalty. The listed Crew capacity does not count against the cargo capacity for these purposes.

For reducing the amount of passengers to increase cargo/equipment carrying capacity, consider a person to weigh 80 kg.

Veh Wt: This is the vehicle weight in metric tons (or tonnes). This weight includes a full load of ammunition and fuel, and, if the vehicle is listed as coming with it, the weight of a full set of ERA blocks.
Crew: This is the amount of crew the vehicle requires for optimum performance, along with the amount of passengers the vehicle may carry (if any). If one number is listed, they are all crewmembers; if the number is listed as “n+x”, this is the number of crewmembers required for optimum performance plus the maximum number of passengers the vehicle may carry.

Night Vision: This indicates what, if any, night vision devices are carried as standard integrated equipment by the vehicle. The most basic are simple headlights, others may include Passive IR (Infrared), Active IR, Image Intensification, Thermal Imaging, 2nd Generation Thermal Imaging, FLIR, WL (White Light) or IR searchlights, and Radar. Most of these are covered by the Twilight 2000 rules, but a few extra notes are in order:

Active IR: Active IR generally has more range than Passive IR (+10-25%, depending upon the generation of the device), but has largely been abandoned in favor of Passive IR due to one glaring defect – Active IR emits an infrared beam which lights up the area in which it is searching. This beam stands out like a brilliant light on other IR viewers (whether Passive or Active), Image Intensifiers, and Thermal Imagers, generally revealing the position of the vehicle using the Active IR immediately.

Image Intensification: While Image Intensification (also known as Light Intensification) may be used as a night vision device, they do have some defects and problems. Depending upon the generation of the device, the user of Image Intensification as a night observation device (i.e., using the night channel of the device as opposed to the day channel) can be temporarily blinded by bright flashes, including flares, searchlights, the main gun firing, and suchlike. This can also blind the device itself, causing anything from permanent damage to a reset requiring up to 2 minutes (again, depending upon the generation of the device). The newest Image Intensifiers have night channels that cut off the device for a fraction of a second when a bright light flashes, preventing damage to the Image Intensifier.

In addition to the above, (and again with severity depending upon the generation of the device), the shapes seen in an Image Intensifier can be a bit indistinct and fuzzy, making identification of friendlies and enemies difficult. The newer the generation of the device, the better the image will be. They will also be in shades of green or shades of gray; colors cannot be seen.

Thermal Imaging/FLIR: As with Image Intensification, the vision through a Thermal Imager will not be in color; they are generally in shades of white, gray, and black. It’s also sort of like looking at a photographic negative; the hotter the item, the darker it will be (though this can be reversed in many Thermal Imagers). Though 1st generation Thermal Imagers generally have a range of 3000 meters, and 2nd Generation devices 5000 meters, identification of targets becomes more and more uncertain at ranges over 1000 meters for vehicles, 500 meters for personnel, and a variable distance for buildings depending upon their size. GMs should require an Intelligence roll for identification starting at these ranges, starting at an Average level of difficulty and increasing in difficulty for every additional doubling of range beyond that. For this reason, Thermal Imagers are generally coupled with some sort of telescopic sights.

True FLIR is rare in ground vehicles, but it generally has the same difficulties as Thermal Imaging, but at double the range.

Radiological: This is a general measurement of the amount of protection the vehicle has against chemical, biological, and radiological agents. The levels are None, Open, Enclosed, and Shielded.

Tr Mov: This is Travel Movement, the amount of ground in kilometers the vehicle may cover in a four hour period when cruising at an average speed. This may be increased (see basic Twilight 2000 rules), but at the cost of increased fuel consumption and an increased chance of breakdowns or mishaps.

Com Mov: This is Combat Movement, the amount of ground the vehicle may cover in a 5-second combat phase in meters when traveling at safe speed. Again, this may be increased, but at a cost of increased fuel consumption and chance of breakdowns or mishaps.

Fuel Cap: This is the Fuel Capacity, the amount of fuel the vehicle carries in its internal tanks. If this figure is given as “n+x”, the vehicle is capable of carrying external fuel tanks to increase the range of the vehicle, and the number after the plus sign is the capacity of those external tanks. Note that external fuel tanks are very vulnerable to any kind of weapon fire or shrapnel, since they are almost never armored. External fuel tanks, regardless of where they are carried, are not protected by the armor face upon which they are carried (if the vehicle has armor). However, most external fuel tanks have mechanisms, triggered from inside the vehicle, which will drop them off the vehicle.

Fuel Cons: This is Fuel Consumption, the amount of fuel the vehicle burns in a four-hour period if traveling the entire time at cruising speed. (If the vehicle is just sitting still or crawling along, it’s still going to burn fuel, just at a lesser rate.) This figure is based on the burning of gasoline, diesel, of aviation gasoline as fuel; if the vehicle is burning ethanol or methanol, the vehicle will consume fuel much more rapidly (see the Twilight 2000 basic rules for more on this).

Config: This is the Configuration of the vehicle. The types of configuration are Cycle, such as a motorcycle or bicycle; Stnd (Standard), which is simply a basic body, chassis, and suspension, with no sort of turret; CiH (Crew-in-Hull), also known as Small Turret, in which the vehicle has a small turret that is either unmanned or has one crewmember who is only partially inside the turret (usually from the chest up or less and Trtd (Turreted), in which the vehicle has a large turret on top of the hull (like a tank), which is almost always manned.
Susp: This is the Suspension rating. A wheeled vehicle has a W followed by a number in parentheses, which relates to the number of hits the suspension may take; tracked vehicles have a T followed by a number, which is an actual armor value for the suspension. Consult the basic rules for more information on suspension damage.

Armor: This gives the Armor Value for each face of armor on the vehicle. The faces are HF (Hull Front), HS (Hull Side), HR (Hull Rear), TF (Turret Front), TS (Turret Side) and TR (Turret Rear). The roof armor for the hull is one-half the lowest armor rating of the hull faces, rounded down; the turret roof’s armor is one-half the lowest face of turret armor, rounded down. Belly armor for a vehicle is one-half the lowest armor value of the hull, rounded down. However, the minimum AV for the hull roof and floor of an armored vehicle is 2, unless otherwise listed. Certain vehicles have extra-heavy roof or belly armor, or designs which increase the effective armor value of the roof or belly; this will be noted in the vehicle description. Some vehicles are equipped with Remote Weapons Stations (RWS these will not have increased turret roof armor, even if the vehicle description calls for increased roof armor protection.

MRAP hulls can have various hull floor values, but such hulls are always considered to have Spaced armor for the floor and the damage to occupants, internal components and equipment, and the suspension is considered to be 25% less than it might otherwise be. MRAPs can be thrown over on their side by mine explosions, but often all that is required to make the vehicle operational again is to right it.

Bar/Slat armor for armored vehicles (or much less commonly, unarmored vehicles) consists of a cage of flattened barstock assembled into sections which can be attached to the exterior of a vehicle. This generally extends about 15-30 centimeters out from the body of the vehicle (and can vary depending upon its position on the vehicle), and extends to just below the wheel wells/tracks of the vehicle, and upwards to about 30 centimeters above the top of the vehicle. It is designed to not obstruct any turrets or pivoting weapons, and therefore is not normally applied to turrets. Bar/Slat armor works by not letting HE-type rounds reach the skin of the vehicle before detonating, acting as spaced armor (-2D6 penetration) 75% of the time and substandard spaced armor (-1D6 damage) 25% of the time. It is a cheap way of applying extra protection to vehicles, adding $167 per meter of protection (obviously, the GM/players will have to do their homework on what size their vehicles are. Weight will again depend on the size of the vehicle, but is given in the stats. Bar/Slat armor has no effect on kinetic energy penetrators or AP rounds; indeed, AP rounds can damage Bar/Slat armor enough to provide an opening for HE-type rounds – 25% for an AP-type hit that covers 10% of the Bar/Slat armor face, and 25% for a KEP hit or Sabot hit which covers 10% of the armor face. Enough hits will break Bar/Slat armor to the point that it is falling off the vehicle – Bar/Slat armor can absorb 20 hits per meter it covers before opening a 10%-wide hole; 50% damage and the Bar/Slat armor face has a 25% chance of falling off, cumulative.

Bar/Slat armor can be added to doors, but this severely limits the opening of the door unless special precautions are taken when installing the Bar/Slat armor, and is not normally done. Ramps can likewise be fitted with Bar/Slat armor, but such can be easily damage by normal operations of the ramp, and it is likewise not normally done. The rear of vehicles are therefore protected by Bar/Slat only as much as opening and closing or doors and ramps allows, and leaves significant open areas – only 25% of a rear area is generally protected by Bar/Slat armor. Bar/Slat armor does not obstruct firing ports.

Appliqué armor can take many forms, from simple metal plates bolted on to the vehicle’s faces to spaced armor modules to composite armor modules. The can also be incorporated into the base design of vehicles. The effects of appliqué armor is accounted for in the stats for vehicles. Appliqué armor typically seals off firing ports, unless specially provided for, and reduced visibility from windows.