Several questions from a beginner

[xibalba]

Just started playing and I am really impressed. So far I only have played solo games and I have a few questions.

1.  How does the Aim ability work with weapons that fire multiple shots per AP (I.e. With rate of fire of 2:1 or better)? Does every shot in the "burst" get the bonus or only the first? Or maybe you cannot Aim with a burst (like crack shot).

2.  If an individual joins a squad that has not yet activated that turn, what happens when the squad is activated? Does the individual get to act again?

3.  Do heroes with the Natural Leader ability gain the Get Up and Shoot ability from Over the Wire?

4.  Can a OORD agent with the Doll ability choose the driver of an opponent's vehicle as the Doll's target?

5. Can a Hoodoo Conjurer use Compelling Trick on an enemy model that has already been activated this turn? Does the "compelled" action of the model count as that model's activation (so that it cannot act again that turn). If so, how does that work if a single model in a squad is "compelled" - does the rest of the squad still get an activation?

6.  The OORD agent's Totem ability lasts until it's next activation. Does that apply for the Eagle totem? Does this mean the healing ends and the wound comes back?

7.  What is advantage of the Wolf totem of the OORD agent? How is this useful if the effect goes away in the next activation?

8. Does the Petrifying Gaze ability of Hell Hounds and Hell Host require Line of Sight?

9. The Scent ability of Hell Hounds lets them charge enemies outside of Line of Sight, but how can that be used sense they must charge in a straight line?

10. For the Smoke ability in Basra, what effect does halving Line of Sight have in standard, day-time conditions

[TrueRonin]

Before answering these questions for you, consider that I may be wrong as I am just another player who interprets the rules as you do.... You do however, raise some interesting points about some of the rules and the DD crew should consider revising the ruletext on some of these issues you address.


Anyway, here goes...

1. The rules aren't explicitly clear, so an educated guess is all I can give, as the wording of the text seems to suggests both. The initial phrase of the rule suggests that you forego the additional bullets for a single well aimed shot but the remaining text suggests otherwise. This is just my interpretation but Ruleswise I'm inclined to consider the ”next attack” as the catchphrase here, and this means a ROF 3:1 weapon would get the aim bonus to all three dicerolls, but if this is intended or not I can't say.

2. No. The squad activates but must remain within squad coherency with the model that is unable to activate with them.

3. "Get up and Shoot" is not as much an ability as it is an action linked to the Command Ability. So yes, Natural Leader benefits from this too and can perform a Command action by ordering a squad to "get up and shoot".

4. Well, erm... Good question? But my guess is no, the rule says to select an ”Individual” from the opponents list. A driver is not an individual but part of a crew. But individual could also mean ”single person” though, and then the answer would be yes.

5. Yes he can and no it does not.

6. No, the healed wound is permanent.

7. It is until the next time the OORD agent is activated that the +2 DR is in effect. It works well if the cumulative effects of temporary DR losses would bring the Agent below breaking point.

8. Yes, although not mentioned it does count as "shooting" hence it needs a viable target within LOS.

9. It means you can declare a charge action on a model you can't see due to battlefield conditions that limit or reduce LOS or a model can be outside LOS but still be in a straight line away from the Hellhound. Not all terrain features prevent charging simply because they are in the way as they are still considered open ground for movement purposes. Picture the Hellhound at the bottom of a ramp looking up, unable to see the target on top as he is obscured by the very thing that makes i possible to reach him in a straight line.

10. Obscuring LOS to an otherwise wide open target.

[xibalba]

Thanks for the very thorough reply. You cleared up almost all of my questions.

So it sounds like there is still some doubt about #4 (and perhaps for #1).

Regarding #9, that seems to me, that the Scent ability is not too useful. On my map, I don't have any areas where it would apply. If I am understanding you correctly, you need some situation/terrain where LoS is blocked but not movement. Even at night or fog, it would not matter because the Hell-Hound cannot move farther than it can see. Your example about the top of the stairs makes sense, but just does not seem to come up very often. Seems like kind of a superfluous rule.

I must admit that I am still confused by #10. In normal day-time conditions, I assumed that LoS was infinite. So if smoke halves LoS, this is still infinite. This effect seems to only apply to Fog, Night, etc. where LoS has a finite distance.

[TrueRonin]

1 & 4. Yes, these depend on intent from the designers side and granted, are a bit vague. So they have as much to do with what you feel/think would be right as they do on wording or lack thereoff.

9. Situations where Scent means a difference do come up, but you're correct that it very much depends on the available terrain, and if ramps/stairs and such aren't in your collection the Scent Ability is just that, an ability with no use. But make sure to define Difficult Terrain and Obstacles before play starts. Some pieces of terrain I wouldn't necessarily consider Difficult Terrain from the GetGo are hills and light woods, for instance but these can still block LOS. Under such circumstances ignoring the Scent Ability would be a dangerous mistake for the opponent.

10. All right, just to make sure, we are talking about the Smoke rule for Tanks on page 50, right? The effects of this rule mentions no LOS reduction in my book except for the 3" barrier around the tank that gives anyone inside a +1 to their hit roll for Ranged Combat. The upside is that if your troops or the Tank is being shot at, the smokescreen increases their A value by 2. So in effect you increase the A value just like you would if the target was behind a low wall or similar (it's even possible to stack a cover bonus with the Smoke bonus).

[xibalba]

Thanks for all your replies, trueronin.

I think I will play with the following interpretations (until I hear otherwise)

1. Aim will work for an entire attack, so an attack with a Rate of Fire > 1 will get the bonus on all shots/dice rolls.

4. Since the book capitalizes Individual in the Doll's descriptions, I will assume it does NOT work on the driver of a vehicle.

9. Since I have no terrain that will work with Scent, I will play it as the Krieghound's special ability (in the Core Rules, p 122) in that the model does not have to Charge in a straight line.

10. For Smoke, on p. 50 in the Basra book, it has the +2 A bonus and the +1 RC penalties you mention, but it also has the sentence, "Shooting out of the smoke is difficult and unless the tank has special optical filters the line of sight is halved when the affected tank, or any model within the smoke, is making a ranged attack." I am torn as to whether this is supposed to mean the range of all attacks is halved or if this only has an effect in Fog/Night, etc.

[TrueRonin]

1. I would too.

4. I would call it that way too.

9. Good idea, but since I have plenty of terrain, I'll go with the way it's written in the book.

10. Oh... I missed that part of the text before. Good question really, but it could mean one of three things I can think of. 1. It litterally means what it says and then it would only have any effect during night or other LOS limiting effects. 2. It's a typo, and it should have been half range on any weapon due to the difficulty of seeing things very far away. 3. Any weapon fired from inside gets a long range modifier even at close range (this third option is moot however since the +1 RC is already mentioned).