brian
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Posts: 91 
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Post by brian on Dec 4, 2014 5:26:56 GMT
Colonel Chickencrap (Glaug) and Loyal Stooge (Regult) are in Close Formation. A distant Phalanx shoots them with a 9 damage Blast missile. Attempts to shoot down or dodge the missile fail. The Glaug and the Regult each take 9 points of damage. The Glaug heroically dives under the Regult's shattered body. He uses the "Shield another" rule for Close Formation, and divides the 9 points that he would normally take, applying 4 to his Glaug (and spending a Command Point to roll with impact, reducing it to 2) and sticking the other 5 on poor Loyal Stooge. The Glaug takes 2 damage. The Regult takes 14 and is very very very dead.
Legal?
This would seriously reduce the effectiveness of Blast weapons. The best argument I can come up with against this is a rather strained reading of the rules.
Page 18 talks about Close Formation. It says about shielding another: "when one mecha in a close formation has been hit with an attack, the defending player can opt to split the MD evenly between that mecha and one other mecha in the close formation."
My argument? If you split the damage evenly, you split all of it, including any damage the other guy took from the attack. So you're not just splitting the 9 damage that Colonel Chickencrap took, you're also splitting the 9 damage that Loyal Stooge took (because it's all still one attack). So you split 9 and 9 and you end up with each person still taking 9 damage. The same logic would apply to split fire attacks. The example in the book certainly doesn't say this, but it's the best I can come up with. In order to effectively split damage, you'd need Loyal Stooge #2, who was standing just outside of the Blast area.
Thoughts?
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Post by ItsUncertainWho on Dec 4, 2014 8:10:54 GMT
At the GenCon demo, each unit hit had the option to shield/spread damage. Stooge one could share with stooge 2, while the Colonel would share with stooge 1. I vaugely remember it being an order of operation thing more than anything else.
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mouse
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Posts: 18 
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Post by mouse on Dec 4, 2014 17:57:09 GMT
Hi
I think your first example had it correct. And I think that is how it is intended. Yes it sucks only doing two point of damage to the Gluag, but....
Take the same situation, except our friend the Phalanx fired two volleys of 2 missiles (they have Volley 4). One volley is shot down, but the other does 18 damage. He gives 9 to his Regult (can a Regult take/share 9 or only 5?). The Gluag then rolls with the other 9, reducing it to 4 damage (still ok damage to a 9MDC mech). Maybe the second Phalanx can pick up the slack.
A four missile hail mary volley would do 36MDC. Half to loyal stooge, and half for captain with the roll, is still 9MDC (dead Gluag). 
Plus you are getting free Battle Pod Casualties.
The trick for Blast Missiles is you can't get too greedy. Two mech under the blast shoot down the volley with anti-missile 11 in 36 (31%). Three Mechs under the blast shoot it down 125 in 216 (58%). Also don't ever aim for the Glaug, aim for the Regult or the ground.
Someone can correct my math if I am wrong.
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mouse
New Member
Posts: 18
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Post by mouse on Dec 9, 2014 3:10:10 GMT
HI Just played the game Someone shot the Glaug and his faithful Regult with 3 heavy missiles 27 damage. They failed their anti-missile roll. The Glaug shares the 27 MDC with the Regult. He gives himself 12 and the Regult 13. Is this Legal?
Of course the Glaug rolls with the 12 reducing it to 6MDC. Thoughts?  |
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Post by popatachi on Dec 9, 2014 3:34:40 GMT
That sounds right. Shield rule says to split the damage and target's player allocates the odd point of damage. So, I believe you played that right.
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Post by merknight79 on Dec 17, 2014 3:42:03 GMT
I think one thing needs to be clarified about the Shielding rule....The book says the "target" of the blast may be shielded. You must remember that there is only ONE target chosen for the attack (unless of course you split the volley up and fire at multiple targets). While the blast attack may hit multiple models due to its AOE, and those affected may attempt to shoot missiles down or dodge...they are not the "target" and as such are not viable to be shielded. I have to believe this was written this way to keep people from chaining a whole units worth of mecha in a conga line of "Look Out Sirs!".
This makes sense as otherwise, the cinematic would be a dog pile of mecha rolling around trying to protect one another from incoming fire and looking quite comical.
Thoughts?
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Post by mike1975 on Dec 17, 2014 19:42:11 GMT
This was something I brought up and is under review. I would say that you are correct in the first example but also include that Close Formation units NOT under the blast marker cannot share the damage.
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Post by andrew on Jan 2, 2015 14:58:11 GMT
mouse, I believe that only the single mecha targeted for the missile can attempt to shoot down the volley, the others that will be in the area of affect are incidental and do not get a chance to shoot down the volley.
This, does bring up a good point though. A Phalanx with the Volley 4 and blast, can fire off four blast templates, but they have to be allocated as per the volley rules (all within 2 inches of the original target). So we should be getting a fair bit of overlap.
In the above example would you not put a single missile on the Glaug and then disperse the rest on anyone nearby (since they are in close formation there should be a number that you could spread out across in the hopes of increasing the number of anti-missile roles that need to be made and increasing the chances that the Glaug keeps taking those hits until there is no one left to use as shielding? At least that's my thoughts
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Post by Thorfinn on Jan 7, 2015 19:19:08 GMT
I'll preface this by saying I don't have a rulebook with me, but as I remember and understand the rules so far... Brian's first example is correct. Everyone under the template can take a shot with their respective anti-missile weapons. Any of which will take out the missile. The damage can be shared and mitigated as he described. As per the volley rules, if one pod is under 2 templates of the volley, and it succeeds in its anti-missile roll (it should only get one roll against the volley), then both of those missiles should be gone. mouse, I'm not checking your math, but your examples are correct. Also, the pod can take as much damage as you can legally spread to it, even if it's many more points than it has boxes to check off. There's no kill like overkill. @merknight, I believe the "target" of the attack is whoever is under the template (however many models that may be - even, in the case of a disastrous scatter, the firer of said weapon). Yes, the potential for damage splitting shenanigans is there, but game rules will always be difficult to match perfectly with cartoons - especially anime. Consider an alternate cinematic of the glaug running around dodging missiles that are instead impacting nearby pods. mike1975, Damage should be spreadable to any model that it would normally be spreadable to regardless of whether it's under the template or not, unless something in the blast rules specifically says otherwise (remember, no book here). |
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Post by InitiatedNeophyte on Jan 8, 2015 3:24:15 GMT
...the cinematic would be a dog pile of mecha rolling around trying to protect one another from incoming fire and looking quite comical. No disrespect meant, good sir, but this made me laugh quite a bit. Thanks for the giggles.  |
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Post by mike1975 on Jan 8, 2015 3:26:00 GMT
mike1975, Damage should be spreadable to any model that it would normally be spreadable to regardless of whether it's under the template or not, unless something in the blast rules specifically says otherwise (remember, no book here). I do know that this point is correct with RAW but is under discussion for changes |
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Post by Thorfinn on Jan 8, 2015 16:03:52 GMT
Under discussion by whom?
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Post by mike1975 on Jan 8, 2015 17:59:27 GMT
Under discussion by whom? PB, it could be changed or simply confirmed/clarified. |
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