The aerospace rules in Stargrunt II are fairly simple, but they are also rather unforgiving with respect to "bugging out".

In the rules as written, if an aerospace vehicle is hit but the armour isn't penetrated, the vehicle's pilot must make a Threat Level 2 Confidence Test. If he fails, he aborts the mission. This all-or-nothing test seems a bit severe. This simple house rule results in a less severe penalty while treating aerospace vehicles like any other unit on the game table.

Aerospace vehicles are given a Confidence Level marker just like any other unit on the table. When the Confidence Test is made, treat it like any other unit on the table. If the vehicle fails the test, the vehicle's Confidence Level drops by one level. If the Confidence Test was half or less the number needed to be rolled, the vehicle drops two Confidence Levels.

• A vehicle can operate normally while it has a Confidence Level of "Confident" or "Steady".

• If the vehicle's confidence drops to "Shaken", the vehicle immediately departs the board and heads to the Loiter box of the Inbound Chart. The vehicle may not attempt to arrive back on the table for one turn. After the one turn wait is over, it may attempt to return to the table top, but a Reaction Test must be made. If the Reaction Test is failed, the vehicle is treated as having been activated for that turn.

• If the vehicle's confidence drops to "Broken" or "Routed", the vehicle aborts its mission and heads back to base.

Note that this Confidence Test is made for non-penetrating hits on a vehicle while it is on the tabletop, or for ADE fire on the vehicle as it attempts to come onto the tabletop. If the vehicle drops to "Shaken" while attempting to arrive on the table, it is instead moved to the Loiter box for one turn, as noted above. The vehicle will only abort if its Confidence Level hits "Broken" or "Routed".

If you want to make use of Mission Motivation, this aerospace vehicle Confidence Test should be made at a Threat Level of 0/2/3 for High/Medium/Low motivation troops. As a default, treat the vehicle's Mission Motivation as medium motivation (which gives the TL 2 test used in the rulebook).