Booby Trap

A Booby Trap is an explosive charge placed on a unit's engine that completely destroys that unit, leaving nothing for salvage. Though invented in the pre-spaceflight era, the Booby Trap fell out of use after the fall of the Star League. It only reappeared during the Jihad, frequently found in the ranks of the Word of Blake and the Capellan Confederation. It appears that the Clans don't use this system at all.

When found in more mainstream militaries, a Booby Trap is often used to completely destroy an experimental unit so enemy forces cannot examine it. Another use is to load a drone unit with a Booby Trap and maneuver the drone into an enemy camp. This tactic was used by the Capellan Confederation with their Bullet Suicide Drone.

Game Rules
The Booby Trap is Experimental Technology. A Booby Trap weighs 10% of a unit's weight (rounded up to the nearest half ton for every unit over 5 tons or nearest kilogram for units under 5 tons) for every unit except mobile structures. A unit can only carry one Booby Trap, and it must be carried in the same location as the unit's engine (center torso, vehicle body, fighter aft, etc.). A Mobile Structure must devote two tons per level of structure to a Booby Trap.

The Booby Trap can be activated during the Weapons Attack or Physical Attack phase; It activates immediately and completely destroys the unit carrying it. When activated the Booby Trap inflicts damage in a manner similar to an artillery strike to ground units. Any unit in the same hex as the booby trapped unit suffers damage equal to the unit's engine rating. If a unit lacks an engine rating, multiply cruise/safe MP by tonnage and use that value (maximum 500). Mobile structures use the formula MP times number of hexes times number of levels (maximum 500).

Units that are one hex away from the exploding booby trap receive damage equal to one half the exploding unit's engine rating. Units two hexes away take damage equal to one quarter of the exploding unit's engine rating, while units three hexes away sustain damage equal to one-eighth of the unit's engine rating. Units four hexes or more away from the booby trap take no damage.

Aerospace units that detonate a Booby Trap in space inflict no damage on nearby units. Airborne units that activate a booby trap inflict damage on other airborne units that are in the same hex on the Low Altitude map. The other airborne unit must make a control roll/piloting skill roll when the booby trap activates. Should that roll fail, the airborne unit takes damage equal to one eighth the engine rating of the booby trapped unit. Ground units that are within three levels and three hexes of an exploding airborne unit check for damage as an airborne unit.

Any non-water hex on a planet with an atmosphere will have a fire in the hex directly underneath the Booby Trap. A critical hit to the Booby Trap will not detonate it, but instead disable the arming system, rendering the Booby Trap unusable.

A Booby Trap costs 100,000 C-Bills and occupies one critical slot.