"BFE: World at War questions 2" Topic

I'm hoping to run this at our next game night, but there are some fundamental things that aren't quite clear to me from reading the rules. For example

The fire zone mechanic requires that the highest die rolls are allocated to the closest models to the firer. Therefore if the fire zone contains a vehicle but infantry models in the zone are closer to the firer, does this mean that the highest roll for ordinance firing at that vehicle for example are therefore absorbed by the closer infantry models? this would allow infantry to unrealistically screen tanks from anti-tank fire. I am presuming of course that anti-tank fire creates a fire zone just like MG/small arms.

Does a unit firing both regular small arms and automatic weapons together create a 6" fire zone or a 6" fire zone for the automatic weapons extending beyond a 3" fire zone for the regular stuff?

I find that a lot of issues like this would be easily clarified if there was an example of play in the rules.

Dave

I don't know if these will help, but they will hopefully provide some insight. Perhaps the members with more expertise in WaW can comment--my knowledge is based mainly on the original BFE.

In the original Battlefield: Evolution, ordnance could choose to allocate their dice against targets of a certain size. So, for example, a M1A1 Abrams main gun could have its dice allocated against targets of size 3 or larger--i.e. an APC or tank. Check the traits for the individual units for clarification, but I don't see any reason why this mechanic would have changed in BFE: WaW.

Your second question is specific to WaW. I don't have the rules, but in BFE, everything creates a 6" radius fire zone.

thanks RJ, but I can't find an ordinance rule like the one you describe in WaW. Of course that doesn't mean it isn't there…

If a weapon in WAW has the Auto trait its 6", other infantry weapons, like bolt action k 98`s have a 3" one, so american rifles are better then bolt action etc…

Good question about the tank gun, i know it can have s small 2", but need to grab my book.

Sorry i was only alittle help for you tonight

As RJ said in BFE main guns could ignore infantry if there was a bigger, tastier target in the fire zone – this does seem to be forgotten in the new WAW rules, I've only played 1 game and am already having to make house rules to cover events not mentioned within the rules. I'm guessing that only weapons can hit models up to 6" if it has that fire zone.

Here's the direct quote from the back of the unit data card for BFE's M1A2:

M256 Gun: This weapon causes a -4 penalty to Armour rolls, and will roll extra Damage Dice (but only D6+1 with no penalty to Armour Rolls) against every model within 2" of the centre of the model its first Damage Dice is allocated to – these extra models need not be in Line of Sight. It may only be fired once per turn. If a model of Size 3 or greater is within the Fire Zone, you may opt to roll this weapon's Damage Dice against that model, rather than allocate normally.

As the basic BFE rules were only a 4-page supplement that came in every box of figures or vehicles, the additional weapon-specific rules were printed on the unit data cards.

Sorry I can't be of more help specifically on topic, but if needed, you can always adapt the wording of the BFE rule to WaW with the appropriate changes.

Thanks RJ.

AFAIK – If different weapons have different fire zones you work out the hits for the auto weapons seperately as they can spread further. Combine results for seeing suppression etc.

As you put down the fire zone on the target judicious use of the template should stop the infantry being a screen. AT weapon targets the tank and small arms the soft moving bodies etc.

Had a look this morning, you have fire zones and lethal zones, a firezone is 3" or 6" thats for infantry weapons, unit to unit, the big guns have a lethal zone of 1" or 2", then you place this over a tank, no troops should be within the small lethal zone..

Then a tank shoots its Mgs, thats 6" fire zone, so the troops infront of the tank would be in the 6" firezone, but only the target tank under the shooters main gun lethal zone..!!

Hope thats a little clearly, i did have to have a good look myself to think about this one…

Im not really understanding this lethal zone rule. What is the advantage of it? A main tank gun can shoot at infantry. So hit zone is say 3 inches than say the lethal zone is an inch the inch is centered on the unit being fired upon. Do the units within the 3 inch radius take diffrent damage than the one in the lethal zone? or all the same? if they all take the same damage what is the point of the lethal zone?. any responses would help.

You target an enemy model, the fire zone is created around this model, any model within this zone is a possible target.

Roll x dice (depending on whats shooting) and allocate hits within this fire zone, allocating starting with the closest to the shooter.

The Lethal Zone is completely different. Once you have allocated the hit to a model, all others withing the lethal zone also get hit.

Hope that helps.
Dave

MM

Thanks for that explanation, I think that is very clear and straight forward

Ta

Andy

Major so everyone in the zone gets hit and than the figures in the lethal zone basically get hit again…is that correct…..meaning once for the initial hit and than again for the lethal zone….

No quite, only 1 model gets hit for every succesful shot from the firing unit/vehicle. In addition, models within a weapons (those that fire HE) Lethal Zone can be hit by the blast.

ok so basically when a tank shoots its main gun at infantry it dosent create a 3 inch radius fire zone…it only uses its letahl zone say 1 inch for this example… any figure within that 1 inch be it 1 or 2 models for example would be hit by the blast….is that correct?

The tank still creates a Fire Zone and the model closest to the tank within this 3" radius is the model that gets hits. When a tank fires though it will probably fire MG's as well which are 3 dice each. These dice are rolled to hit at the same time as the main gun. For example:

1- Nominate a target to create a Fire Zone.
2- Roll to hit with weapons, lets say the gun gets a 5 and the MG gets a 1, 4 & 6.
3- Now allocate the dice. The MG (6) dice is allocated to the closest model, the tank gun(5) the next closest and the other MG (4) the next.