In this post I discuss direct fire.
Direct fire is ranged fire with Anti-Tank weapons. The firing unit rolls its AT Dice, the opponent then rolls his Reaction Dice, and the results are compared.
Firing
When activated a unit may fire without moving, or it can move and fire, or fire and move. It may not fire while moving. A unit may also use opportunity fire during an enemy Command Pulse whenever an enemy unit moves or fires within its LOS. I’ll be posting the Opportunity Fire rules in a few days.
All firing is done on a unit by unit basis. Resolve the shooting of one unit before going on to resolve the shooting of another.
Fire Markers
Units that have fired are marked with a Fire Marker. A unit cannot fire again until next turn. Fire Markers are removed at the end of the turn.
Arc of Fire
A unit’s arc of fire determines in which directions it can fire. Most units in Armour Battles have turrets and can fire in any direction with a 360° arc of fire. The Stug III doesn’t have at turret and is restricted to a 180° arc of fire. It can fire to its front only.
When activated a unit may pivot on its centre to face any direction. This, however, counts as moving for the purpose of triggering opportunity fire.
How to Fire
To fire a unit needs LOS to its target. The range to the target is then measured. If this is out of the weapon’s range, the unit fires, but misses.
Target Priority
A target is declared before the dice are rolled. Nominate which one of your units is firing at which enemy unit. Your unit must fire at the closest enemy unit.
After firing one unit, nominate another unit and carry out its attacks. You are not required to make multiple attacks against the same target, but you can do so if you want to. Once a unit has been fired at you can then fire at the next closest unit, and so on.
As the Combat HQ, you order your units to engage the enemy and assume that they will perform to the best of their abilities. This means that your units target enemies immediately to their front and don’t take the time to decide whether a more distant target is a greater threat. A Command Group can be ordered to concentrate on one target or to spread its fire, but it cannot be ordered to ignore the closest units in favour of ones further away.
Armour Battles doesn’t require you to deploy your units into formal formations, however, the target allocation rules make it advantageous to do so.
For Example, Tom’s 75mm M4s are set up in a two up, one down formation. He has two 75mm M4s in the front and a 76mm M4 in the rear. Max fires at Tom’s M4s with three Panzer IVs. Max wants to target the 76mm M4 as this is the biggest threat, but he has to target the two M4s at the front of the formation first with two of his Panzer IVs. He can then target the 76mm M4 with his third tank. If Max had four tanks, he could have targeted the 76mm M4 twice.
Fire Modifiers
The Target Number required to hit a target at effective range is 4+.
A unit’s Anti-Tank Dice and TN are modified according to the situation.
Suppression: A suppressed unit cannot fire.
Target Number Modifiers
The following modify the unit’s TN.
Range: A unit’s ability to hit decreases at long range and improves at short range. The TN is reduced by –1 at short range and increased by +1 at long range.
Short Range –1 TN
Effective Range +0 TN
Long Range +1 TN
Flank and Rear Attacks: Units are more vulnerable to fire against their flanks and rear. When firing at the flank or rear of a unit the firing unit’s TN is reduced by -1.
To qualify for a flank/rear attack, a unit must be entirely behind the target’s front base edge. Otherwise, it counts as a normal attack.
Movement and Flank/Rear Attacks: A flank/rear attack can be made when a firing unit begins its activation completely behind the front base edge of the target unit.
A unit that makes a single move from the front to the flank/rear of its target must still fire against the front of the unit. However, a unit making a double or triple move may move behind the front facing of the enemy unit and fire into the flank/rear.
Dice Number Modifiers
The following situation reduces the number of dice rolled.
Multiple Move: A unit making multiple moves has its number of AT dice reduced: -1D for a double move and -2D for a triple move.
Double Move -1D
Triple Move -2D
Target Uphill: –1D when firing at an uphill target.
Next Post
Reaction Checks explained.
