Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have always played that side sponsons, like those on a land raider, or those purchased for a predator are each treated as a separate weapon. Meaning a machine spirit can fire one, but not both but I have always had this nagging doubt because the sponson's weapons are always a single line item in the weapons list. Have I been playing this correctly?

The Vehicles section covers firing vehicle weapons (which side sponsons are part of) fairly clearly.

BRB page 71, "Shooting with Vehicles" lays it out for you.

The Machine spirit is fluff unless you're talking about "Power of the Machine Spirit" of course. In that case, you're firing one more weapon at full BS than you normally would be able to assuming the vehicle didn't flat-out of pop smoke, and that one more weapon can target a unit the other weapons did not.

If it's PotMS you are talking about (somewhat confusing question on the first couple of read-throughs) each of those sponsons are a separate weapon. One (if that is the one that PotMS is allowing you to use full BS on) may fire at a separate unit from the rest of the vehicles weapons in addition to full BS (while, assuming your turret weapon (for example) is firing at full BS, the other sponson would be firing as a snap shot iirc).

2 separate weapons, so only one may be fired by PotMS.

They are purchased together, but each is its own weapon. Each draws its own line of sight and each may be destroyed individually by penetrating hits.

 DJGietzen wrote:
I have always played that side sponsons, like those on a land raider, or those purchased for a predator are each treated as a separate weapon. Meaning a machine spirit can fire one, but not both but I have always had this nagging doubt because the sponson's weapons are always a single line item in the weapons list. Have I been playing this correctly?

You are correct. They are separate weapons.