Here's the first part of the Shooting section, covering the basic sequence and the LOS rules. I especially want to know what you think of the rules on elevated positions.
Shooting
As you and your opponent’s forces close in on one another, the air will vibrate and thunder with the reports of your shots. Lasers will silently cut through the stillness like glittering knives, and luminous bolts of heated plasma will boil away anything that stands in their path. Welcome to Shooting!
Who Can Shoot?
Any of your units that has ranged weapons can perform a Shooting Action. Apart from a few specialists that have better things to do on the battlefield than trade shots with an enemy; such as Medical Teams or Observation Drones. Who either may not be carrying weapons at all, or who have certain restrictions on their use.
Armed units which have moved At-The-Double, or which have performed a Fall Back move may not perform a shooting action either. Neither may any unit which has 2 or more suppression markers at the start of it’s controlling player’s action phase. These units will either have been pinned down by enemy fire, or will have been forced to fall back. Making it impossible to fire in any sort of coordinated fashion.
Units which perform a Halt, Go To Ground, or Advance Action will also be unable to shoot. As they have not chosen an action that allows them to fire on the enemy.
Actions That Allow Shooting
When selecting a unit in the Action Phase, you will choose an action based on what you wish the unit to do, and how many suppression markers the unit has. The following actions allow will you to shoot:
- Open Fire
- Halt And Fire
- Shooting Advance
- Focus Fire
- The Shooting Sequence
- Select Your Target(s)
- Check Line Of Sight
- Check For Concealment
- Check Range
- Roll To Hit
- Roll To Penetrate
- Roll To Kill
- Remove Or Mark Dead Models
1. Select Your Targets
A unit with a Leader may select up to 2 different targets for it’s models to shoot at. Both the Unit Leader and the models firing at a particular target unit must be able to draw Line Of Sight to at least one model in each targeted unit.
A unit that has lost it’s leader may only fire at a single target. All models firing at that target must be able to draw Line Of Sight to at least one model in the target unit.
2. Check Line Of Sight
In order to fire on an enemy unit, your models will need to be able to ‘see’ it. Obviously, your models will not be able to tell you if they can see their foes, so you will have to determine this yourself. To do so, get into a position where you can look just over the head of your firing models and see whether any part of an enemy unit is actually visible. This is called a True Line Of Sight Test, or TLOS-Test.
If you can see any part of an enemy model’s head, torso, legs, or arms during a TLOS-Test, then you can shoot at that unit. If all you can see is the end of a weapon or a flag, then you cannot target the unit. You know that the enemy is there, but you can’t draw a bead on them.
Exceptions To TLOS
For some types of terrain, True Line Of Sight won’t work as intended. Because to model, for instance, a wood or ruin with enough foliage/rubble to meaningfully affect Line of Sight would make that terrain piece impractical to move models through. Therefore, there are some exceptions to TLOS for specific types of terrain.
TLOS And Area Terrain
Area Terrain, such as woods and ruins, not only may block Line Of Sight to units behind them, but may also allow units to hide within it.
To determine the height of a piece of Area Terrain, simply use the height of the tallest tree, piece of rubble, or other feature of the terrain. Models which are completely behind or within a piece of Area Terrain that is taller than the models themselves can neither see, nor be seen, by models which are more than 12” away.
Models which are only partially within a piece of Area Terrain that is taller than the models themselves can both see, and be seen, so long as they are on the same side of the Area Terrain as the models which are firing at them.
Models which are either completely or partially within a piece of Area Terrain which is shorter than the models themselves will be visible to all enemy models.
Models which are completely behind, but not wholly or partially within, a piece of Area Terrain that is shorter than the models themselves will be visible to models on the other side of the terrain.
These Area Terrain exceptions do not apply to bare hills, around which LOS will always be determined by using a standard LOS-Test. If a hill has a wood, ruin, or other Area Terrain feature on it, then treat those features separately from the hill and it’s boundaries.
TLOS And Linear Obstacles
Linear Obstacles that are higher than the models in either the shooting or the target unit will block LOS between them.
TLOS And Buildings
Buildings that are higher than the models in either the shooting or the target unit will block LOS between them. Even if there are windows or doors in the building that appear to let you see through them to models on the other side.
If there are features on the outside of the building, such as pillars, open exterior arches, or air conditioners, treat these as separate features and determine LOS to models behind them using a standard LOS-Test.
The tops of buildings are always treated as area terrain for the purposes of drawing line of sight to the models positioned there.
TLOS And Elevated Positions
Models on hills or the tops of buildings have an elevated view of the battlefield and can see further into area terrain than units that are standing directly on the table surface.
Measure the distance from the the table surface to the bottom of the model’s base to determine it’s elevation. For every full 3” of elevation a model has from the surface of the table, it adds 6” to the distance within which it can see models that are completely within or behind a piece of Area Terrain.
Thus, a model whose base is resting on the upper floor of a ruin 7” above the surface of the table would be able to see models within or behind a piece of Area Terrain if those models are within 24”, instead of the normal 12”.
The reverse, however, is also true. For every full 3” of height a model has, models attempting to draw LOS to it though area terrain (including building roofs), 6” will be added to the distance within which they would normally be able to draw LOS. For a model on the upper floor of a ruin 7” from the surface of the table, any model within 24” would be able to draw LOS to it.
Elevated positions may also allow models to see over Linear Obstacles that would normally block LOS to models on the other side. To determine whether a model in an elevated position can see over a Linear Obstacle, simply perform a standard LOS-test by looking behind the head of the model towards it’s target.
Special Rule: Adaptive Camo
Almost all soldiers wear camouflage of one kind or another to make themselves more difficult to see. But Adaptive Camo takes this one step further by altering the colors and patterns of user’s camouflage on the fly to more closely match the colors and lighting of his surroundings. Hence, a soldier wearing Adaptive Camo need never worry about whether he should use jungle, urban, or desert patterns for a particular battle. It will be taken care of for them by the systems built into his gear.
Units with the Adaptive Camo rule half the distance at which other models may draw LOS to their models through Area Terrain.
Special Rule: Easily Seen
There are some soldiers or creatures who make no attempt to hide themselves on a battlefield. They may even paint themselves bright colors in order to better stand out and intimidate their foes.
Units with the Easily Seen rule double the distance at which other models may draw LOS to them through Area Terrain.
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