A question:
Regarding friendly units obstructing fire, is artillery treated the same way that musketry is?
On page 41, it says, A shooter may never fire at a target if any part of a friendly unit is in the fire zone.
Is this true for artillery? I would think it was.
Yes
Per pg 45, bouncethrough fire does not count. Last sentence "Note, however, that it is possible for a friendly unite to be the target of bounthrought Fire!"
Sam
In a game last week we had a situation where it was thought the rules on blocking fire were not quite right.
The best way to describe it (without photos or diagrams) is to refer to diagram at bottom left of rules page 49.
STAGE 1
Replace the white infantry with a 5 gun Russian battery A numbered 2 to 6.
Replace the wood with another Russian unit (actually a horse battery B aligned perpendicular and very to the first battery).
In the layout on the diagram battery A would not be able to fire anything as there is a friendly unit closer than the enemy (Page 41) Friendlies in the Fire Zone)
STAGE 2
The infantry now charge into Battery A, so they are at zero distance and hence closer than the Russian friendly unit.
In this situation the rules on page 41 allow the full 5 gun battery to fire as there are no friendly units closer than the enemy, this seems wrong as at least 2 of the guns are firing through their friends.
I would suggest that this situation could (should) be remidied by ammending the Obstructed Fire: Musketry and Canister rule on page 49 to include friendly units in the list of obstructions. If this were done then quite sensibly those bases being charged could fire, but the others would be obscured.
Am I reading this correctly, and any thoughts on my suggestion?
Steve
[In the layout on the diagram battery A would not be able to fire anything as there is a friendly unit closer than the enemy]
Correct
[The infantry now charge into Battery A, so they are at zero distance and hence closer than the Russian friendly unit.]
Correct
[In this situation the rules on page 41 allow the full 5 gun battery to fire as there are no friendly units closer than the enemy, this seems wrong as at least 2 of the guns are firing through their friends.]
I understand what you're saying. It was a poor decision on the part of the Russian commander to put a friendly infantry unit right in front of his own battery. By the same token, however, that player might ask: "Hey, if you're penalizing me by not letting me shoot with the un-blocked gun sections during the enemy's approach, how come you're suddenly allowing me to shoot with those same gun sections when the enemy is at point-blank range?"
We did puzzle through all of this during playtesting, and there were many advocates for the approach of "Just count the eligible shooting bases, and the first thing they hit... they hit. Period. At all times."
...which seems like a wonderfully simple solution until you begin to apply it in practice, especially with large units, and you find that it hopelessly divides firepower to the point that a shooter is virtually impotent if he has multiple targets in front of him.
So I settled for a system that (I think) is easier to apply, and produces more decisive results, even if it sometimes looks as if there's some "magical" angular shooting going on there. I wanted, above all, to make defensive fire something to reckon with.
best,
Sam
Sam
I understand what you are saying.
However the obstructing unit was a 5 gun horse battery which had arrived at that position at the last moment to fire into the infantry flank. Until then the 5 gun foot battery was able to fire a at full effect.
I was not advocating a compulary split of fire at all times, just blocking of fire as would be the case with terrain. As it stands I feel there is the opportunity for a lot of gamesmanship.
Anyway you are the big cheese - so we will play as written and see if it really is a problem!
Thanks
Steve
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