Rules Questions

[Roberto]

Good night friends,

Im a player from the Southern Cone of America.

Can a Multi Launcher use spotters (artillery observers of other artillery pieces)?

The Multi Launcher fires like a mortar but isn’t one; can it fire in ambush?

Thx to all.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by Roberto.
• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by Roberto.

[Stuart Harrison]

1. Yes, unless inexperienced.  The ability to use a spotter is tied to being a regular or veteran indirect fire weapon.  A multiple launcher uses indirect fire, it just doesn’t benefit from ranging in.

2. No.  Indirect fire weapons can’t be fired by units that were in Ambush that turn – p100, Wepaons, Weapon Special Rules, Indirect Fire, 8th paragraph.

[Fred]

When a HMG shoots & hits a soft vehicle or infantry man at long range, does it lose its +1 Penetration when rolling for damage/wounds?

[Stuart Harrison]

No.

The pen modifiers from the vehicle rules (p138-139) only apply to heavy weapons firing against armoured targets.

Roll to Damage vs Armoured Targets, second para introduces them with “When shooting against armoured vehicles with a heavy weapon, …” and the third para reinforces that with “Remember, the additional modifiers below do not apply to small arms hits or to hits against soft skinned vehicles, but only to hits from heavy weapons against armoured targets.”

[Kar98k]

Do tanks also get the +2 point-blank range modifier to hit if a tank shoots at an infantry or artillery unit?

This might seem simple to answer, but please keep reading.

I only ask because 1) we have “Shooting at Vehicles” rules (p.137)* but no “Shooting at Infantry” rules, and 2) under “Roll to Hit” (p.83) the point-blank heading says “Also know as Hand Grenade Range”. So, given these two interesting points, a reasonable person might wonder if the point-blank modifier does not apply to tanks shooting at infantry. What do you think?

*this states, “This works as normal”, so yes, add point-blank, but the heading is “Shooting at Vehicles” and not Infantry.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by Kar98k.

[Stuart Harrison]

P131, Vehicles, introduction, second para, last two sentences – “Before looking at the role of vehicles in depth, we will briefly discuss how the various rules already given differ in respect to vehicles.  In all other respects the rules for vehicles and infantry are the same.”

If the vehicle rules don’t specify that something is different/doesn’t apply, it applies the same as it does to infantry.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by Stuart Harrison.

[Kar98k]

P131, Vehicles, introduction, second para, last two sentences – “Before looking at the role of vehicles in depth, we will…

Okay, thanks Stuart, that’s helpful. Yep, “In all other respects the rules for vehicles and infantry are the same.” But in my book, this is on page 130  😉

Overall, that helps keep things simple and easy, and even though tanks don’t have “hand grenades”, at point-blank range, the muzzle blast might count for something.

• This reply was modified 2 months, 2 weeks ago by Kar98k.

[Wolfy]

Hello,

is the re-crewing move for artillery units affected by terrain or always as the bird flies 12″?

[Jeff Knez]

Hey Friends,

Sorry if this has been covered before, but I couldn’t seem to find the answer.

Let’s say I have a Inexperienced transport that has a MMG for a weapon (a German SdKfz 251/1 halftrack for example).  When it shoots, it incurs a -1
To Hit penalty due to being inexperienced.  Got it.

Now let’s say I have a Veteran infantry squad riding in the transport.  Can it shoot the MMG instead so that it doesn’t incur the -1 to Hit penalty?

Pg 146 of the MRB seems to say that there has to be multiple weapons on the transport in order for the passengers to shoot, but then it also states
that you choose which unit is shooting which weapon.

My guess is I incur the penalty, but I’d like to have a definitive answer.

Thanks

 

[Kar98k]

is the re-crewing move for artillery units affected by terrain or always as the bird flies 12″?

Impassable terrain is still impassable, as are other terrain restrictions.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 5 days ago by Kar98k.

[Kar98k]

Now let’s say I have a Veteran infantry squad riding in the transport. Can it shoot the MMG instead so that it doesn’t incur the -1 to Hit penalty?

To discourage exploiting build points mechanics, most gaming groups I know do not allow this. If you purchased a inexperience half-track, it fires as inexperienced regardless of the passengers. Also, page 134 (VEHICLE-MOUNTED WEAPONS) supports this, “FIXED AND TEAM WEAPONS – We assume that vehicles have sufficient crew to employ whatever weapons they carry. “

[Stuart Harrison]

@Kar98k – that would be a house rule.

There is a special rule for transport vehicles which over-rides the general rule you cited (specific ‘Transport vehicles have a minimal crew, so each turn they can only fire one weapon’ vs the general ‘We assume that vehicles have sufficient crew to employ whatever weapons they carry’) .  They are limited to firing one weapon, with additional weapons requiring passengers to fire them, and specifically requiring the player to decide which weapon is fired by the crew, and which weapons are fired by the passengers.  Unless a house rule has been agreed beforehand, a player should expect the special rule to be in effect.

[Wolfy]

Normal terrain restrictions for the re-crewing move do not apply. It is different from infantry movement.

If an artillery unit is set up in rough ground and the crew wants to make a re-crewing move which is treated as a Run, can it move and if yes how far? Normally you can´t Run in rough ground, only Advance.

[Kar98k]

@Kar98k – that would be a house rule.

@Stuart Harrison and @Jeff Knez (answer to your question)

Stuart, yes, you are correct. This was a common house rule for earlier editions (which still intermingles with long-timers), but in Bolt Action: Third Edition, it is no longer a house rule. It is included as a rule. This is on page 146 under Weapons Mounted on Transports. You are correct in that passengers can fire the other weapons (if there is more than one), however, “If either the vehicle crew or the passengers are Inexperienced, or have pin markers, their shots suffer the normal penalties.”

[Stuart Harrison]

” If you purchased a inexperience half-track, it fires as inexperienced regardless of the passengers. Also, page 134 (VEHICLE-MOUNTED WEAPONS) supports this, “FIXED AND TEAM WEAPONS – We assume that vehicles have sufficient crew to employ whatever weapons they carry. “ – This reads to me as you suggesting that the inexperienced vehicles modifier applies to all shots.  That is not what is being said in the rule – the vehicle crew’s modifiers apply to the shots taken by the vehicle crew and the passenger’s modifiers apply to the shots taken by the passengers.  That is why the rule requires you to declare who is firing which weapons.

First edition started out with no special rules for the weapons carried, so always fired all weapons with the vehicle’s modifiers, then that was changed by errata to only being able to fire weapons with passengers, but no mention of using the passenger’s modifiers:

“Weapons mounted on transport vehicles can only be
fired if the vehicle is carrying a unit whose members act
as weapon crew – each weapon being fired needs one
man to operate it. If the vehicle has no passengers, it
cannot fire any of its weapons”

Second edition was pretty much the same as what we now have with third, except for having the proximity rule and weapons rules rolled into one heading, ‘Role of Transports’ – the only difference I could see is third edition also mentions that spotters and medics can’t man guns.

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