Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Shooting Discussion

G. Marchenko. On the outskirt of Stalingrad.
I've been asked a question privately about how shooting will work in M42. So here's a rundown of what I have in mind so far. Keep in mind that none of this is set in stone or anything.

To-Hit Rolls

In 40K, your to-hit value is determined by the skill of the firing unit and nothing else. In Flames of War, your to-hit value is determined by the skill of the defending unit, which represents their training. I propose a system where the to-hit roll takes both the skill of the Shooter and the Target into account.

First, every model is going to have a new stat called 'Evasion' (Ev). This represents their ability to keep their heads down, advance in ways that don't overly expose them to enemy fire, etc.

A trained Imperial Army trooper might have an Ev of 3. A Space Elf might have an Ev of 4 to represent their natural dexterity and fast reactions to threats.

An Army Tank would have something like a 1.

To find out what you need to roll to hit, you would simply compare your BS to the target's Ev.

A result of 'a' means Automatic. While '-' always fails.
So an Imperial Army trooper with a BS of 3 would need a base of 5+ to hit an Elf standing in the open. While he would need a 2+ to hit a tank that's standing still.

That's without any modifiers. If that Elf is standing in soft cover, he would get a +1 Ev. So the Army trooper would then need a 6 to hit him. A moving tank would get a +1 Ev. While a fast-moving tank would get a +2 Ev. So that trooper would need a 5+ to hit a fast moving tank in cover.

Some Possible BS Modifiers:

Shooter did not move: +1
Shooter is over/under half range (depending on weapon): -1

Some Possible Ev Modifiers:

Target is moving 'fast' (7"+ before running): +1
Target is moving 'very fast' (13"+ before running): +2 
Target is has soft cover: +1


To-Wound Rolls

This would be a straight-up comparison of the shooter's strength and the target's toughness (T). Using the exact same chart as above.

Some Possible Toughness modifiers:

Target is in hard cover: +1
Target is dug in: +1

Some Possible STR modifiers:

Weapon is 'piercing': +2 against 'armored' targets (Knights/Tanks).
Weapon is 'explosive': +2 against 'unarmored' targets (Trucks/Bikers/Infantry).
Weapon is 'burning': +2 against 'flammable' targets (Treemen/Buildings).
Weapon is 'plasma': -1 Str for long range.
Weapon is 'melta': +2 Str for short range.

Basically we'd use TheDaR's concept of keywords to handle special abilities.

So in the example of our lascannon, with it's multiple firing modes, the gun would be defined as something like:
Lascannon: Str3, Heavy 3, Piercing, Beam
So the 'Beam' keyword would tell us that it has the special firing mode where you can either sweep multiple models in a squad or concentrate them in a stacked attack against one target.

The 'Piercing' keyword would tell us that you get a +2 Str bonus against targets with the 'armored' keyword. So when you sweep a Knight (T5) squad you would have the same chance of wounding them as the models in an Imperial Army Infantry Squad (T3).

But if the Marines buy some gear that makes their armor 'reflective', then they would get a +1 Ev vs. weapons of type 'beam', but would lose cover bonuses or something.

These are my general ideas. Don't take any particular bonus/penalty as gospel. If you have any of your own please bring them up!

-SandWyrm

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