Some questions that came up during proofreading

From: Sam Dale <epic_at_...>
Date: Fri, 5 Jul 2002 00:13:38 +0100

I did a proofread of the main rules. Came up with a couple of things.
Exchanged a couple of mails with Jarreas, and i thought the discussion would
benefit from other people's opinions. Things in quotes are from the rules,
">>" and the final responses are me, ">" is Jarreas.


>>Line Of Sight
>>"Note: Line of sight to models in wooded terrain is restricted to models
>>on the woods edge. Models deeper within the woods are considered
>>hidden and cannot be targeted."

>>How about indirect barrages, passing aircraft on bombing runs and flamers
>>(Hellhound/Cauldron of Blood template jobs)? Surely there's some way to
>>winkle em out...

>I've been playing that any woods heavy enough to stop hover-tanks from
>entering is heavy neough to completely hide things inside. That's the house
>interpretation here, and I haven't seen anything on the list about it.

There needs to be some way of winkling things out other than sending in the
IG tacticals to shift minotaurs...

I had this problem in one game. Chaos player who had cover-skipping down to
an art. Even though i got weapon systems that could bombard the forest
(creeping barrage with aid from tree-bursts surely will do the job) or
immolate the whole place (Hellhounds gotta love anyone trying to take cover
in flammable things), i couldn't do anything about em.

Scattering of barrages sounds alright. Maybe a BP penalty as well, but it
doesn't seem right that there's no way to winkle em out.

>>Special Abilities
>>Penetrating +X

>>Would this be better called Titan Killer +X or something? "Penetrating"
>>suggests it punches through armour rather than make a mess of whatever's
>>the other side of the armour.

>I took the name from the Champions RPG, where Penetrating used to be an
>advantage that caused more damage past armor. You're right that it's none
>to descriptive a name, but it's what I could think of. Since Titans aren't
>the only units with damage tables I'd like to keep "titan" out of the name,
>but that's a personal preference. If you've something else I'd like to hear
>it.

Titan Killer sounds right to me. Or Massive Damage or Extra Damage. Which
ain't great, but... Titan/Praetorian Killer might be a compromise.

>>Special Abilities
>>Tow
>>"May tow a light artillery piece. It takes one turn to mount or dismount,
>>during which neither the artilley nor the towing unit may do anything
else."

>>Has this been playtested? An entire turn spent limbering or unlimbering
>>kinda defeats any point in doing this...

>>Maybe something like: "Towing vehicles can each tow one light artillery
>>piece. Treat (un)limbering exactly as infantry (dis)embarking, except
>>the weapon may not fire that turn, and the artillery piece is treated as
>>a seperate target for shooting."

>>And does this really need its own ability? Is this not something that
>>transports could automatically use?

>Not personally, but the Artillery Tractor was in the Net Epic 4.1 list and
>a number of people commented that they'd like to keep it. I wanted to
>combine Tow and Transport, but the idea was rejected on the list. *shrug*
>I'm not planning on using it unless I play a convoy scenario, but I do
>admit that it will fit in nicely there.

I like the idea of using artillery tractors, rescue vehicles, "funnies"
(Hobarts Funnies - crabs, bobbins, armoured dozers, etc used on D-Day), FOOs
and engineers, but the Tow rule sucks if it takes that long to
limber/unlimber light artillery. If it's specifically for use with the likes
of earthshaker platforms, then yeah, that makes sense, but it needs to be
something else for light arty.

>>And are infantry seriously allowed to drop buildings in assault? Surely
only
>>engineers are equipped to do this in a battlefield situation...

>Kinda - Engineers can destroy buildings in one go while infantry inflict SI
>points. An infantry squad is 5-10 people with grenades,
>lasguns/bolters/shuriken rifles and power weapons. I figure that's plenty
>to take out walls.

Will take walls out, but you'll not drop anything more than the smallest
building with em. Imagine trying to structurally damage an office building
with frag grenades, especially with no specialist knowledge of the weak
points of buildings... Not everyone carries power weapons, and those that do
are expected to get into combat rather than be on demolitions detail.

Sam.
Received on Thu Jul 04 2002 - 23:13:38 UTC