Shooting

Shooting

Multiple actions allow a formation to shoot, which can occur during the Action phase.

Picking a Target

When one formation is selected to fire, an enemy formation must also chosen as its target. Formations may NOT split fire—any units unable to shoot at the nominated target formation lose the chance to shoot altogether.

Who Can Shoot

There are four requirements that determine whether a unit is eligible to shoot.

  • Line of Fire: Line of fire is a straight line drawn between a shooting unit and any unit in its target formation. Terrain features like buildings, woods, or fortifications do not actually block the line of fire unless it passes through two tiles of obstructing terrain before reaching the target. The only unit that can block lines of fire are war engines.
  • Range: At least one unit in the target formation must be within shooting range. Units armed with only Small Arms or Assault Weapons cannot attack outside of assaults.
  • Suppression: For every point of Shock, one unit in the attacking formation with line of fire and within range to a target is suppressed and cannot shoot. Suppression occurs from the back to the front of a formation, with the back consisting of those units farthest from the targeted formation. If several units are equally far from the target, then the attacker chooses which units to suppress.
  • Ammo: Units that have run out of ammo cannot shoot.

Shooting Procedure

  1. Apply one point of Shock to every unit in the target formation.
  2. Deduct ammo spent and roll to hit. Typically, it is best to roll groups of the same weapon at once.
  3. Allocate hits and make saving throws, then deduct integrity and apply Shock for failed saves.
  4. Apply further Shock for destroyed units, then check to see if the formation is broken.

Apply Shock

The target formation automatically gains a point of Shock as long as at least one attacking unit can shoot at the formation. Formations gain an additional point of Shock for each unit destroyed. When a formation comes under fire, it gains a point of Shock even if none of the attackers can cause any damage (e.g., armoured vehicles coming under heavy bolter fire).

Roll to Hit

Every time a unit shoots, it loses one point of ammo. Units without ammo cannot shoot.

For each weapon fired, the attacker must decide whether to use its AP, AT, or AA value if it has more than one. Units attack with every weapon they have unless otherwise prohibited. Additionally, each weapon can be fired. A roll of 6 is always considered a miss.

If some units in the target formation are in cover, but others are exposed, the attacker can elect to ignore the cover bonus. In exchange, however, they are unable to score any hits on the units that remain in cover.

To Hit Modifiers
Target Has Cover -1
Attacker Double Moved -1
Attacker Sustained Fire +1

Zero To Hit

If to hit modifiers result in a required roll of 0 or less to hit, the rolls needed are determined as follows:

Target D6 Rolls Required
0 1 followed by 1, 2, or 3
-1 1 followed by 1 or 2
-2 1 followed by 1
-3 Impossible

Allocate Hits & Make Saving Throws

The defender allocates hits inflicted on their formation against targets that are within range and line of fire of the enemy. Hits are allocated from the front to the back of a formation. AP hits can only be allocated against infantry units, and AT hits may only be allocated against armoured vehicles. Hits must be allocated to the closest potential target first, as well as evenly distributed among all potential targets.

Once all hits have been allocated, make saving throws for each unit that has been hit, using either the unit’s armour value or cover save. Every hit on a unit requires a separate save, with every failure reducing the target's integrity by one. Any unit that reaches zero integrity is destroyed and applies an additional point of Shock to the formation. Excess hits on a destroyed unit are ignored.

If an attacking formation scores hits both with normal weapons and weapons with the macro-weapon ability, then the opposing formation must allocate and make any saves for the normal hits first, then allocate and make any saves for the macro-weapon hits. Hits from macro-weapons can only be applied to units that are in a position to be hit by a macro-weapon. During an assault, all units (except War Engines) up to 4 tiles away are valid targets for allocation, regardless of whether the hits are from CC or FF.

Check Whether the Target Breaks

Once an attack is completely resolved, including the removal of all destroyed units, check to see whether the defending formation has been broken by Shock. Recall that a formation is considered broken if every unit is suppressed. Formations only break once an attack is finished.


Barrages

Many artillery pieces, as well as certain other weapons, fire a barrage of shots causing mass destruction on the enemy. When these guns or launchers are grouped together in an attack they always fire a single barrage at the same target. On their datasheets, these weapons have no to hit rolls — instead they have a number of barrage points (BPs). The main difference between a barrage and a normal attack is that regardless of how many units are involved in a barrage, it hits each defender once for every point of integrity (except war engines). Additionally, every unit joining the barrage increases its power. With enough attackers, a barrage can affect multiple tiles at once.

To fire a barrage, designate a target tile on which to center the barrage. Each weapon contributing to the barrage must be within range and have a line of fire to that tile. Weapons that are not in range or do not have a line of fire may not fire at all this turn. Any formation attacked — including allied ones, if they lie under a large barrage — gain a point of Shock for coming under fire. Determine the total number of Barrage points for the attack. The entire formation fires at once, so the number of Barrage points for each weapon that is in range and has a line of fire is added together. Once the Barrage point total is determined, consult the table below. Note that a formation may only fire one barrage per turn—a single formation may not fire separate barrages at different targets.

BP Radius Extra Shock To Hit Rolls
AP AT
1-2 Zero None 1
3-4 One None 1 1
5-6 One None 2 1
7-9 One One 3 2
10-12 Two One 3 2
13-15 Two Two 3 2
16-20 Two Two 3 2
21-25 Three Three 3 2
26-30 Three Four 3 2

Overwatch

A formation that takes an overwatch action may not move, but may shoot, outside of the normal turn sequence in response to an enemy formation’s movement.

While on overwatch, a formation may choose to shoot immediately after an enemy formation completes a move or unloads troops, and before the target either shoots or assaults.

Note that a formation on overwatch is allowed to shoot at an enemy formation after any move, so it may shoot at a formation making several moves after it has completed one of these moves and before it carries out the next one. This allows a sentry formation to prevent fast formations from speeding past using double move or march actions.

Also note that formations on overwatch may only react when a formation moves or unloads troops. They may not to choose to shoot at a formation that does anything else in their line of fire, such as shooting without moving or regrouping.

Resolve the shooting attacks using the normal rules. The overwatching formation must shoot at the formation that triggered the shooting — it cannot select a different target. Once it has fired, the formation is no longer considered to be on overwatch.

Formations remain on overwatch until they either shoot, or they undertake a new action in the following turn. Note that this means that a unit can go into overwatch on one turn, and not shoot until the following turn. Shooting in the following turn counts as the formation's action for that turn, preventing it from taking an action later on. If the formation does not shoot in the following turn then it may take an action instead of shooting.


Crossfire

Formations that take fire from the flank or rear are caught in a deadly crossfire, and will suffer additional casualties as troops struggle to find cover from attacks coming from an unexpected direction.

To represent this, formations are allowed to use the following rules to claim a crossfire bonus when they shoot. A crossfire bonus is available if there exists a line up to 12 tiles long between any unit in the attacking formation and any unit in an allied formation, such that the line passes through either one unit or the gap between two units in the target enemy formation.

The allied unit that the crossfire line is drawn to must have a line of fire to a unit from the target formation, but does not have to be in range with any of its weapons. Formations that are broken or marching cannot be used to claim the crossfire bonus.

All units from a formation caught in a crossfire suffer a -1 save modifier. This may result in some units automatically failing their saving throw. Some terrain features or special rules may counter this modifier.
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