Honour Forums

Discuss the Honour system.

1. flamin camel
   Member

   It clearly states in the errata that a unit that is not visible to the shooter may still be hit by bouncethrough fire (in the case that came up in a recent game it was a hill and the unit in question was completely out of sight of the battery), using reduced range.

   That is fair enough as heavy cannon balls bouncing around the field could bounce over a hill.

   My question is; when you are rolling to hit a unit that is out of sight behind a hill do you take cover modifiers into account? Hard +2 to hit, Soft +1 to hit?

   Or would you use the rule on page 51? If any obstructing terrain covers more than half of the width of the fire zone, then it terminates the roundshot fire immediately. A unit at the edge of that terrain can still be hit (in cover), but the fire would penetrate no further.

   If the rule on page 51 is correct then I am assuming that if the infantry is well behind the crest of the hill then the crest would immediately stop the roundshot.

   By the way, the battery was at a the same elevation as the infantry, ground level, with the hill between the guns and the unit behind the hill, and the hill was taller than the infantry.

   Thanks,

   Jim

   Posted 1 year ago #

2. Sam Mustafa
   Le Grand Fromage

   You use both.

   If the obstructing terrain covers more than half of the fire zone, it terminates the shot.

   Then if that's not the case, the shot continues to strike the next target. If that unit has cover, you determine what sort, and apply the correct modifier.

   The presence of the hill (a different level of terrain) would force the artillery to use the "Reduced" long range bracket for the bouncethrough.

   Posted 1 year ago #

3. cam_millar
   Member

   "... when you are rolling to hit a unit that is out of sight behind a hill do you take cover modifiers into account? Hard +2 to hit, Soft +1 to hit... If any obstructing terrain covers more than half of the width of the fire zone, then it terminates the roundshot fire immediately... If the rule on page 51 is correct then I am assuming that if the infantry is well behind the crest of the hill then the crest would immediately stop the roundshot."

   P21 defines cover, and says the default answer is that a "slope of a hill" does not provide cover.

   p51 says "Obstructing terrain for roundshot includes: woods or orchard; bulding (a town base) or man-made obstacles (walls, earthworks); water; and ditches." Note that hills are NOT in the list. So I would say that hill crests are not obstructing terrain and so do not stop roundshot.

   Hills do break line of sight (p21) and can mean you use reduced long range (p45).

   Historically the effect of hills would be "depends". Gentle hills (such as at Waterloo) do not seem to have stopped roundshot from causing casualties but certainly made it less effective, but I am sure some Peninsular hills may effectively have done so by stopping roundshot or providing cover.

   So I think a unit even entirely behind a hill crest can still be a legal bouncethrough target and it does not get to claim cover.

   Cam

   Posted 1 year ago #

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