Aircraft vs. Sniper Question

[colringbk]

First off, I’m really new at playing A&A minis, so after I ask the question and you want to roll your eyes and say, “What a dummie!”, just remember my rookiee status.

Last weekend, I employed a Wehrmacht Expert Sniper in my army. During deployment, I had no great cover, so I thought in a couple of turns, I could get him in cover. So, first round my opponent pulls in the IL-10 Sturmovik and strafes the heck outta my sniper. Now he’s dead, but he did eliminate a soldier during the Assault phase.

So, what I want to know is can Aircraft attack Snipers? I understand that if I had cover, he probably would have been okay, but it still doesn’t make sense to me that it happened that way.

Again, its a rookiee question, don’t  :roll:

[Motdc]

Unfortunately, aircraft can target snipers.  Even in cover as long as they are at Short range…

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

@Motdc:

Unfortunately, aircraft can target snipers.  Even in cover as long as they are at Short range…

That makes sense. It sucks but it makes sense to me. Hey Motdc, can you field another question pu-lease? How does the fixed howitzer rule work? I don’t quite get it. I know it says you can only shoot units directly in front of you but what if your in a situation where it’s one diagonal angle or the other? (Hex wise) Should you just line up a fixed howitzer tank with one string of hexes and that’s where it can fire? For instance, even if the tank isn’t facing directly one side of a hex? Can it just face whatever direction as long as it lines up a single string of dots? If you can explain, I would greatly apprectiate it.

[Motdc]

The definition of Front (and Rear) is a good one.  It’s actually a bit convoluted…

A hex, obviously, is made up of 6 sides and 6 corners or vertexes.  That’s 12 locations so using a clock anology may work well.

In AAM, vehicles must “face” one of those sides.  The “Front” includes:

1.  That facing hex side (lets call it 12’oclock)
2.  Going counter-clockwise around, it includes 11’oclock (the hex corner) and 10’oclock  (the next hex sdie)
3.  Going clockwise around, it includes 1’oclock (the hex corner) and 2’oclock  (the next hex side).

So any LOS that passes through those hex locations (10’oclock thru 2’oclock) is to the Front.

The “Rear” LOS is just the opposite, so its 4’oclock thru 8’oclock.

Directly to the sides (3oclock and 9 oclock), PLUS the center of the clock (meaning within the same hex) is considered to not be in the Front or the Rear.

Confused yet?

Mot

[Motdc]

Here are few other posts that may help clarify (or not):

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=10620.msg250967#msg250967

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=10911.msg264918#msg264918

Mot

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

@Motdc:

Here are few other posts that may help clarify (or not):

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=10620.msg250967#msg250967

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=10911.msg264918#msg264918

Mot

Your a good man. Thank you. Oh and yes I’m confused as hell about line of sight but I’ll figure it out.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

I just got my first plane. A japensese Zero. Now if I could only get the Meserschmitt Ace & Stuka plus an ammo & fuel dump, I’d be perfectly happy.

I do not fully understand the plane rules & I don’t find them explained in depth in the online advanced rules. I’m figuring it out the best of my ability though.

[Ducky]

@Obergruppenfuhrer:

I just got my first plane. A japensese Zero. Now if I could only get the Meserschmitt Ace & Stuka plus an ammo & fuel dump, I’d be perfectly happy.

I do not fully understand the plane rules & I don’t find them explained in depth in the online advanced rules. I’m figuring it out the best of my ability though.

The game flows in this order:

deployment
movement phase
aircraft placement
aircraft attack
assault phase
casualty phase (remove aircraft)

It can be a big advantage to go first if you have an Ace aircraft because of their 4 hex defensive fire ability. Unfortunately, the Zero is the crappiest plane you could’ve possibly gotten, so don’t let its shoddy performance turn you off the idea of using them. The aircraft can only shoot straight ahead, so whichever way they are facing, use the lines going diagonally forward to determine that. In terms of getting attacked, anything attacking the aircraft without the anti-air special ability suffers a -1 to it’s dice rolls. I don’t remember the rule exactly, but if the unit is not directly infront of the aircraft, it suffers a -1 penalty to its range as well (so if it’s 3 hexes away, you count it as 4 away).

[Motdc]

The new revised rules added the Agility SA to the zero, while keeping it the cheapest fighter at 12 pts…so maybe they are not as bad as you might think!  You can easily field two in a Japanses build.

[Ducky]

@Motdc:

The new revised rules added the Agility SA to the zero, while keeping it the cheapest fighter at 12 pts…so maybe they are not as bad as you might think!  You can easily field two in a Japanses build.

That is a good point, but the 3/3 armor really keeps it less appealing.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

Thanks for the help. Both of you. Now where the crap are you reading all these rules!!

[Ducky]

@Obergruppenfuhrer:

Thanks for the help. Both of you. Now where the crap are you reading all these rules!!

Expanded rules book for me…

[Motdc]

Ducky started a different thread on the new “Revised” units including links.  It has all the new stats and costs of all the units ever made!

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

So when other units attack an aircraft, is it treated as a soldier or a tank?

[Ducky]

@Obergruppenfuhrer:

So when other units attack an aircraft, is it treated as a soldier or a tank?

Soldier. The attacker gets a -1 to each die, unless it has anti-air.

[Obergruppenfuhrer]

I actually get it now. Thanks Ducky!…and MOTCD  :-)