If this falls within your shooting 'box' does it count as friendlies in the fire zone, which means firing is not allowed? Since infantry's occupation of town bases is abstract i would have thought it stops the firing.
We had an instant in a game recently where the firing box clipped the corner of a town base.. i kept my mouth shut but felt that it should class as a friendly intersection.
When this first came up in a game I scoured the rulebook for clear guidance on this and couldn't find any (unless someone here knows different).
BUA's have many special rules so I don't think it automatically follows that that a friendly occupied BUA would block line of sight. However, I decided that it would be in keeping with the rules general philosophy on restricted firing angles and friendly units blocking fire to apply the same rule to an occupied BUA as would apply to a friendly unit occupying the same space. So thats how I have played it ever since i.e. a friendly occupied BUA does block fire if that BUA intersects the shooting area of the firing unit in any way.
Well, the town itself is obviously an obstruction, whether or not it's occupied, so - depending upon your position relative to it - there are implications for fire. But the rules prohibit firing if any bit of a friendly is in the field of fire; it doesn't matter what formation or terrain that friendly is in.
perhaps the optional rule of splitting fire on pg 80 comes in handy here allowing you to shoot with any bases not blocked by the friendlies / BUA.
For splitting fire you have to have two targets on either side of the terrain. Certainly does'nt fit with the example above which I think Sam has answered eloquently enough here.
Trev
Actually, it doesn't quite answer it (or I'm thick). As a terrain feature, it has implications, as Sam said. Is the entire town base considered to be a friendly unit if it is friendly occupied? If yes, then the fire is blocked. If no, it would depend on where the friendly unit was in the terrain feature (just like any other). That, I think, is the key to an answer here.
Phil
" Is the entire town base considered to be a friendly unit if it is friendly occupied?"
The reason that I can't answer that is: I don't know whether or not you use a town terrain piece that is more or less the same size as a unit, or larger?
I know some gamers, especially those who use 28mm figures, whose town pieces are much larger than the units that are in them, and consequently, this sort of question arises.
If, on the other hand, your town piece is exactly the same size as the unit in it, or at least close enough that you and your opponent can agree, then Yes: the town IS "the unit" for the purposes we're discussing here.
So we are back to my original reply i.e. the rules are not clear and BUAs have special rules that may be different to the rules that normally apply to situations not involving BUAs.
My BUAs are 3BW square as is more or less recommended in the rules (for 15mm). Therefore I have played that a unit occupying said BUA occupies the whole BUA and so would prevent a friendly unit firing through it.
A 3BW square BUA can actually accommodate between 9 and 12 bases depending on the exact depth of base used. So for a typical 4 base unit that leaves a huge amount of extra space. So Sam's suggestion of needing the unit to pretty much well fill the BUA area would mean that in this setup the players would have to agree on how to interpret what part of the BUA was actually occupied when it came to friendlies firing. Far too complicated and iffy for my taste. I think I will stick to my simple no fire allowed interpretation :-)
FWIW - my 2 cents - I thought the rules were quite clear - if terrain of any type interrupts your fire zone you can't fire past it with musketry unaffected - right (IIRC the example in the rules is a wood projecting into the zone). I would assume a Town Sector should be such as well regardless of whether it's occupied or not...
Mycenius
You need to read page 49. Obstructions affect bases not units.
You need to read page 49. Obstructions affect bases not units.
Well, I'm just going from memory - as I don't have the rules handy. Either way my point is the same & valid... Although it does result in there being two different scenarios possible in response to Adesant's original question... :-)
Either the unit gets to shoot sans 1 base, _or_ it can't shoot at all... Adesant's OP suggests they may have done neither (i.e. the whole unit shot in the game) - which would be wrong either way... :-)
Just trying to muddy the waters a bit... ;-)
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