Rules Questions

[Mark G]

Thanks for the clarification.

The other issue that came up and caused some confusion on one of the other tables related to Stuarts.

These are 8+ vehicles and have the special rule of Vulnerable. So the question was when shooting at the side of this tank the armor value is effectively 6+ (-1 for side and additional -1 for Vulnerable, or even 5+ if hitting from the rear).

So can you shoot with small arms as its now the same as soft skinned but then use the vehicle damage table with D6-3 if you roll a 6 or would you still need to use a heavy weapon even though you are effectively shooting at a 6+ or 5+ target. I also suppose thinking about this a bit more that the same would be true for firing at the side or rear of 7+ transports.

[Nat]

Small arms NEVER get damage modifiers against armour (DV7+ vehicles)

Only heavy weapons (ie those with a PEN value of at least +1) get to use those modifiers.

(sorry cant give the page number… but underneath the table of damage values in the vehicle section… just before the modifiers chart)
[quote]
DAMAGE VS ARMOURED TARGETS
Because armoured targets have a damage value of 7+ or greater it is impossible for them to be damaged by small-arms fire. Hits from small-arms fire are ignored, they cannot damage the vehicle and hits do not pin. Note that open-topped armoured targets are an exception to this general rule, as described.  When shooting against armoured vehicles with a heavy weapon, the following penetration modifiers apply in addition to the weapon’s own modifier as <snip>
[/quote]

Important parts i’ve highlighted in bold

• This reply was modified 2 months ago by Nat.
• This reply was modified 2 months ago by Nat.

[Mark G]

Thanks Nat will pass the message on.

[Steven Chambers]

What are the rules on firing into/out of dense terrain? Example can a unit fire out of dense terrain but not then be shot at in the dense terrain?

[Steven Chambers]

If the majority of a unit are in hard cover and cannot be seen, can you still shoot at those that can be seen butt hey benefit from the protection of the hard cover??

[Steven Chambers]

Can Airborne units operate with captured weapons and if so, what would be the added points for Panzerfaust, Assault Rifle or SMG?

[Stuart Harrison]

Dense terrain, you can see into our out of dense terrain, but you cannot see right through it.  This means a model in dense terrain can draw LOS to a model outside and shoot at them, but they can also have LOS drawn to them and be shot at in return.  Enemy shooting into the dense terrain will suffer the appropriate cover modifier unless the majority of the firing models can draw their LOS to models not in the dense cover.  Whether the unit in the dense terrain suffer a modifier shooting out will depend on how many are at the edge and not drawing their LOS through and inch or more of the cover, as per the cover text box, p57, Shooting From Cover heading.  You can’t draw LOS from a model outside the cover to an enemy model outside the cover if that LOS passes through dense terrain.

Yes.  Each firing model only needs to draw LOS to one model in the target unit to fire, but cover is assessed on the whole target unit – if you can’t draw clear LOS to at least half the target unit’s models with half your firing models they will benefit from the cover even if the models you can see are in the open.  Up side is that you’re not restricted to only being able to kill those you can see.

The majority of captured weapons are just an alternate model for the same effect – a rifle is a rifle, a SMG is an SMG etc.  The only ones you will need special rules for are weapons your nation doesn’t have access to – ie: panzerfausts for a nation without access to them in their army book – an example for US airborne is provision for the 82nd Airborne to have access to up to two panzerfausts per squad in up to 50% of their squads for scenarios from Campaign Market Garden – p51 of that campaign book.  The same section makes provision for the British 21st Independent Company to use captured MG42s (specifically without the ‘Hitler’s Buzzsaw’ special rule).
If you want to use something you can’t find guidelines/rules for, you would need to discuss it with your opponent or proxy it for something you do have provision for (ie: play an assault rifle as an SMG.

[Christian LaSala]

Okay, here’s a really oddball one for everyone here:

If you have a Support Lt with a few buddies near an artillery piece and you use the Recrew option when taking an action to move ALL of them over to the gun, what happens to the officer’s order die?

 

We already have rules for officers in units, so I’d assume he continues to function as an officer, just as part of the gun crew and only activating when the gun activates, but what happens to his order die? Is it considered a casualty? Is it put aside until the officer is killed, then awarded as a kill? Is it just removed from the game and no one gets credit for it?

 

Additional complexity to the situation: he and the extra guys he has are armed with SMGs; if the gun is assaulted can they reaction fire with their personal weapons? Normal artillery crew don’t get personal weapons, but the extra guys a Support Officer takes explicitly DO get weapons. While you cannot make reaction fire with an indirect weapon, can the six extra dudes with SMGs fire their personal weapons when their gun is assaulted?

More awkward questions: the extra crew have weapons with their own equipment line, in addition to the artillery piece. Can they fire them when you shoot the artillery piece IF you have more men than it requires to crew it? Precedent has been set for this with the IJA Machine Gun Section that specifies any men beyond the 2 required loaders are allowed to fire their weapons in addition to the MMG (so you don’t get left with 8 riflemen loading one MMG). If it’s an indirect weapon can they fire at another target (since indirect weapons in squads can fire independently already)?

Yeah, the Support Officer really mucked up a BUNCH of rules.

[Stuart Harrison]

As far as I can see, the order is lost – you have destroyed that unit to re-crew the artillery piece.  If you don’t want that, leave a man in the officer unit to keep it in the game.

As for the personal weapons, you’ve converted them to artillery crew in an artillery unit that is bound by the team weapon rules – team weapon crew cannot fire personal weapons.  Unless specific rules to counter that are provided (ie: the IJA machine gun section you cited), you’re stuck with that as a consequence of using them to recrew the gun, that would be the whole reason behind it being specifically addressed for that section.

 

[Nat]

My take – [HOWEVER dont forget that this is why campaign units should only be used in campaign scenarios… apart from that see how your opponent wants it played BEFORE you start playing the game.]

So, recrew the gun – you remove models from the unit and use them to resurrect the casualties from the gun crew…

So you have now lost the officer unit… the rules dont care HOW a unit is lost, but if it no longer exists to activate its Die is removed from the bag and the enemy get the VP.

Artillery crew dont have personal weapons, so cant reaction fire with them (or gain tough fighter in combat).

Officers special rules- theres no rules for an officer in an artillery gun team – so I’d say he has none.

[Mark G]

Question on Sectors:

Played this sectors last night and when counting points at the end came across an issue that hopefully you can resolve for me.

I had 2 squads at the end of the end of the game that had the majority of the models in the opponents sector (6 in 1 out for both units). The rules state that units only score if they are totally in a sector, so played them as not scoring at all as not totally in any sector? is this correct?

[Stuart Harrison]

@Mark G – “The rules state that units only score if they are totally in a sector, ” – It then goes on to add “If a unit straddles across two or more quarters, it counts as in the quarter where the majority of it’s models are (or most of the model in case of one-model units) – if in doubt, of course, roll a die for it.” p148, Playing a Game of Bolt Action, Scenario 12: Sectors, Victory, last sentence – both of your units would count as being in the quarter they had six models in.

Addition of that last sentence makes me think the author changed his mind about the ‘completely’, made provision for it to not apply, then failed to remove that word from the preceding sentences.

[Mark G]

thanks, does make a lot more sense this way.

 

[Eric T Holmes]

Are Forward Observers allowed to “Advance” on to the board from reserves or per scenario instructions, and call in their appropriate strike?

• This reply was modified 2 weeks, 2 days ago by Eric T Holmes.

[Stuart Harrison]

@Eric, no, they cannot.  “Once per game, when the forward artillery observer unit receives a Fire order…” and “Once per game, when the forward air observer unit receives a Fire order…” – in both cases it’s specifically a Fire order (both also have ‘not from Ambush’ as an additional restriction).

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