Question on Defensive Fire

Have a look in the Expanded rules book for “Enfilade Fire”.

If you get a unit adjacent to an enemy unit then during your assault phase you can say that that the enemy unit is preoccupied(and therefore facing) your adjacent unit.  Then if any other units can trace a line of fire into the rear of that enemy unit they get a plus one on their rolls.

Of course if you surround an enemy with adjacent pieces you can dicate where the facing is so that each of your pieces gets the bonus.

Happy New Year folks.  May you have plenty of gaming time!

Audacity

I’m starting to like infantry more now….

:-D

Thanks again!

Thanks!  That’s what it seemed like, it just doesn’t say so explicitly.

Additionally, if you download the scenarios that you’ll find at www.axisandallies.com, they’ll actually list suggested units for you.  It makes quick, pick-up games much easier to get started.

Units don’t block line of sight. When attacking you have to declare a (valid) target unit. Only units with blast will attack every non-aircraft in the hex.

“On a sucessful cover roll, can the attacker resume his attack with the effected unit?”

I’m not sure what you mean.

Attacks go as follows:
Attack declares target and rolls appropriate dice, counting successes for hits, etc.
If the defender is in cover and takes hits he does a cover roll; on a 4+ THAT attack is limited to disruption.
Procced to the next unit.

1. On stacking limits in a two player game you’re correct - 4 Units total. Only 2 units per player, and only 1 of the 4 can be a vehicle (whether it’s a Jeep or a King Tiger doesn’t matter). However in multiplayer games it may work a bit differently.

2. Units never block line of sight.

3. Hills are basically no different from forests - they don’t give you any extra vision on their own (though some units can benefit from them because of SAs, like the Nashorn); the only difference is vehicles have to make a movement roll into the forest. That’s it. AH/WotC kept the rules fairly simple so no extra LOS mechanics.

4. You can move into a hex with an enemy unit, but doing so provokes defencive fire, as GrimJesta states. However remember disrupted units can’t defencive fire either. Defencive Fire is provoked if a unit moves from an adjacent hex to another adjacent hex (note moving out of an adjacent hex does not provoke defencive fire). The defencive firing unit can decide which hex to make the attack in. Roll the attack normally, but if you would score 1+ hits you simply cause an immediate disruption instead, causing the provoking unit to stop in that hex and end its movement.  If the hex the provoking unit is being attacked in provides cover, then the unit rolls; if successful then the provoking unit isn’t disrupted and continues on. Each unit can make one defencive fire attack per phase, so a standard tactic is to move in first with a less threatening unit to draw fire.

5. You can’t die from defencive fire unless it was caused by a flamethrower; the three 6’s effect still applies. Except for units which are immediately destroyed (death by flamethrower, or a Carro Armato going up) the effects of damaged/destroyed/etc aren’t applied until the casualty phase after both players have made their attacks.

@General:

But you must remember the hexes are 100 meters from side to side, so even if an infantry squad approaches a tank “from the front” there is a lot of room to maneuver in the hex itself, so your infantry can ostensibly be approaching from the side, around trees and hills, in the FOG OF WAR as bullets are flying and the tank is preoccupied with other things.

Which is the point I was about to make. I’d also like to add to it that though the hex might be a clear, grassy field as far as game mechanics, you gotta keep in mind that the grass is usually very high, has some scrub and trees scattered about, rocks, gullies, maybe even a cottage or two… they’re not flat and empty. So at 100 meters and having some clutter (but not enough to warrant making cover rolls) and such it isn’t unrealistic for infantry to be able to avoid defensive fire from a tank. It’s only when the infantry gets close to the tank (ie: in combat) that the tanks machine guns defend it. Otherwise the infantry isn’t visible to the tank regardless of how many peepholes it has.

-=Grim=-

Here is the rule as reinforced by Avalon Hill.

The Tiger immediately disrupts a soldier unit upon entering the hex (face-up counter).  This happens before defensive force occurs in that hex.  Units with face-up disrupted counters cannot perform defensive fire.

So, in order to stop the Tiger tank from using its special ability (remember- special abilities trump the rules, as explained at the back of the starter set rule book), a soldier unit must employ its defensive fire while the Tiger is in the adjacent hex.  Most soldier units don’t have enough attack dice to equal the Tiger’s frontal defense of 7, so the Tiger will have no problem moving into the hex.