MAGIC & ARTILLERY Questions

REFERENCES
Looking at the Shooting and Fight phase rules (sections 4&5 in both cases) - Rolling To Hit/Removing Casualties.
You roll to hit
You divide hits by resilance
You remove casualties

Page 40 has an additional statement re: automatic hits being successful with no need to roll.

MAGIC & ARTILLERY
Magic section clearly states to roll the die and IMMEDIATELY apply the results.

Most attack spells and artillery units cause a set number of hits...... usually worded that the formation SUFFERS hits.
Natures Wrath (pg 73)
Dwarf Ballista (p 134)

.... but they also have a strength value. A variable in the case of Nature's Wrath.

Being that automatic hits have no roll, how is the STR of the attack involved in what happens?

Neither the magic or artillery sections mention rolling to hit on the shooting/combat chart, so what makes the Str 10 catapult better than the Str 6 Ballista?

HOW ARE YOU GUYS PLAYING THIS?
When you succesfully shoot a Ballista (rolling 3+) is this the "To Hit" roll?
The chart says the unit SUFFERS d6 hits - are you then rolling these hits or are you comparing hits rolled to the target resilance and removing casulties?

Anyone? Bueller?

Shadow, slow down, give everyone a chance. Magic and Artillary are rarely used. And you are asking several questions.

Even the "old timers" have been playing WotR only a month or two.
I am researching your questions.

I do know you match the defence to the strength. So if you have an infrantry of defence of 4 match to a Ballista str 6 you need a "3" or greater to kill, but I am getting ahead of myself, wait and let me read up a bit.

We have played Magic and artillary and no one had to much problems with so far, although we have played wrong (i.e. you can not shoot through your own units to hit a target).

jerryB

JerryB

NP - just curious to what everyone thinks.

The book is so solid and well thought out, but when they make a wordsmith error - they seem to go big.

I think we are one solid FAQ away from Nirvana. Let's hope it comes soon.

The Quick Reference Sheet says (for example):

"D6 hits at the Siege Engine's strength."

What I assume this means is that you roll the D6, then you roll that number of dice at the engine's strength.

So: I fire my trebchuet and roll a "3". Then I take 3 dice and roll my str (10) against the enemy's defense for casualties.

Thats how I think the artillery works is my guess.

I think it means the unit has the potential to suffer D6 hits. You roll the die. Lets say you roll a 6. Now you roll six die at strength 6 against the targets defense rating.

I made that mistake with my Balista.

The way the siege weapons work, is you roll a D6 to see how many hits you get. In my case its 1-2 miss, 3-5 d6 HITs (how many hits i got) at str 8, and 6 is d6+4 hits at str8.

Unfortunately you have to roll for the hits as normal. But the d6 is to determine how many hits you got.

correct Saj....at least the way I readses it.

Sounds like warhamer to me, there are weapons/spells in warhammer that does D6 hits at the strength of the weapon, Warp Lighting for example: Does 2D6 strength 5 hits vs the target. SO, the way i read is that the weapon does 1D6 hits at its strength vs the target.

Yup.

I just read the artillery section, and noticed that we missed some thing.

If we're shooting at a single company, we get a -1 penalty on the roll. if its 4 or more companies, its a +1 on the roll, and 8 or more companies get +4 on the roll. Also, a roll of 1 always gets friendly fire result (unless your using a different table from the main one.)

Saj, don't forget +2 if the target is in a building in addition to other modifedcations.

There is a generic table and there are specfic tables (like the Dwarves which is more reliable, you don't kill you own units if you miss).

Artillery does NOT suffer from -1 strength due to long distance firing.

Roll one six sided dice and then consult the Artillery table. One and Two are pretty self evident, Three through Five "ON TARGET" you roll a six sided dice to see how many hits the target (group) recieves the damage is base on the siege engine that is being used (remember this a generic table, so it depends on what weapon is being used at the time you are consulting this table) the strength should be listed in the armies listing. Examples are Mordor Seige Box strength 8 is going to hurt more than a Gondorian Avenger Bolt thrower strength 6.

So if my Mordor bow hits your group of Gondorians and because there is a nice group of 4 compainies I get a +1 on my dice roll, I roll a 5 which is now a six, I consult the table, it's a "Dead Aim", so I get 4 automatic hits (no need to roll your 4 smurfs are dead), I roll the six sided dice again to determine how hits, the results is 3! I then roll 3 dice with a strenght of 8 and consult the "To Hit Chart". A lot of work, but worth it.

That's how I am reading it, I could be wrong.

JerryB



JerryB

I dont think that you get the 4 auto hits. you get 4 on top of what you roll for the hits.

For example, you're shooting at a 4 company formation, and roll a 6. you're next roll is for the amount of hits. you roll a 6 again itll look like this - 6(die roll) +4 (lucky strike) = 10 str8 hits.

If you dont get the lucky strike, you just plain get what ever hits you roll. Unfortunately you don't get any auto kills (siege weapons are NOT Gimli!)

I would have to agree with Saj
You would get d6+4 "attacks" (the word they should have used), all of which must be rolled.

By RAW, all magic and artillery hits would be automatic; but I think we all agree that spells and artillery hits still need to be rolled.

There are exceptions, but they are specified as "automatic" and have no strength. Some examples:
Black Dart (pg 75)
Epic Shot (pg 69)
Baruk Khazad (pg 138)