External riders (updated with findings)

[Xerxes77]

It seems that units being carried as external riders (e.g., riding a vehicle with a passenger capacity of 0) are extremely vulnerable to enemy fire.

Any unit firing on an enemy rider can inflict heavy losses, even with light arms. I've seen a squad get cut in half when fired upon by just a couple of rifles.

I understand why soldiers riding on a tank would be particularly vulnerable, but this extra penalty does not seem to be documented in the manual. Has anybody noticed this?
====================== EDIT ================================================
After a number of tests, here are my preliminary findings:

- External riders losses are not determined via the usual calculations, instead the game applies a flat rate on the nominal strength of the riding squad. On average, ONE FOURTH of the riders will be lost.
- Any individual firing upon a squad of external riders will cause it to take losses ranging from 0 to HALF the squad strength.
(e.g. A squad of 12 guys riding a tank may lose up to 6 men per firing)
- Notably, losses DO NOT DEPEND ON THE TYPE, NUMBER OR RANGE OF THE WEAPONS BEING FIRED. This means that a puny rifle at maximum range can kill up to 6 riders. Conversely, 48 dudes (max stack) firing adjacent to the target will not inflict more than 6 casualties.

Needless to say, all this makes using non-passenger vehicles as transportation a VERY risky proposition.