Dodge, multiple systems, and formation

You have to pay all CP's before you make any attack rolls.

Each attack requires a separate dodge roll.

As far as sharing RAW would be one of the 5 attacks could be shared as far as using Pods to shield damage. Excellent question that may need absolute clarification.

This really helped. I also reread again the rules. Still unclear on keyword 'attack'

say I fire 3 weapons systems, is this 1 'attack' and thus gets 1 dodge attempt against the highest to hit? Or is it three distinct 'attacks' that each get their own dodge attempt.
all thrFor example, lets say a guardian mode pays 1CP and Valk fires gunpod + missiles with Volley 4 (split among two targets 2 each for 'simplicity), all hit
Is this considered:
A. 1 attack(originates form 1 mecha), or
B. two attacks(targets two mecha) or
C. three attacks (targets 2 mecha and 1 mecha targeted twice).
D. three attacks (2 weapons systems+ 1 extra target)
E. None of the above

The mecha targeted byt the 2 missiles only can:
i. 1CP dodge or 1CP antimissile no matter. the rules I believe clearly state that each targeted mecha in a volley rolls antimissile or dodge seperately. This is similar to Blast targeted mecha. So if this mecha chooses to antimissile and succeeds, only 2 missiles are shot down, not all 4 in the volley. This seems to me to indicate the A. above is not correct.

Now lets look at the mecha targeted twice
The gunpod+2 missile target then gets to either:
i. 1CP for one dodge (both as it is from A. or B. above) or 1CP antimissile (only missiles, the gunpod still hits hit) again A. above cant antimissile a gunpod
ii. or because missiles and gunpod are 2 different weapon systems it is considered 2 attacks, and the target can both antimissile the missiles and dodge the pod? 1CP dodge(gunpod) + 1CP dodge or antimissile(2 missiles) eg C above.

After resolving this step Next comes the share damage for close formation and then lastly RWI(roll with it). This si done clearly in the rules... no conundrum for me here.

Ok now lets look at 5 pods and a glaug in close formation all select 1 target, the Glaug spends 5 CP to use all weapon systems all target 1 mecha.


is this 6 attacks(eg 6 different weapon systems) or 1 attack.  does this allow for/require potentially 1 dodge or 6 dodges?  

Man I am confusing myself. Thank you very much for the wisdom and insight in advance.

Ok, so that's a lot of words there...

I think I can answer all your questions without actually reading the specific questions.

Each die roll for a weapon system is an "attack". So the gun pod is an attack, and the head laser is an attack. Each is rolled separately because they do different damage. If you have multiple dice colors, you can roll them together by nominating which color is which attack. Any hits will be dodged separately, so if the gunpod fires twice (rapid fire) and the head laser fires once. That's three attacks, costing 2CP. We've got lots of dice here, so green dice (2) for the gun pod and a red die for the head laser. We're using multiple dice colors, so let's roll all three together.

Let's say they all hit. That's 3 potential dodge rolls for the target, costing 1CP each. It's also 3 potential Roll With Its, each costing 1CP each.

I kept missiles separate above because they work just a little different. The Valkyrie's stock missile is Volley 4. Firing the missile at 1 target is 1 attack. Splitting it to 2 targets is 2 attacks. Remember any secondary targets of a split missile volley have a -3 penalty to hit.

So say you fire all 4 at 1 target. That's 1 attack, with 4 rolls to hit. If all 4 hit, they cannot be dodged, so anti-missile is the only option - 1 roll to shoot down all 4 missiles. Then, if that doesn't work, you can pay 1CP to halve the total missile damage (4x9=36), which would be 18 points of damage.

Assuming only 1-3 missiles hit, lets say 3, the target will again have only 1 dodge roll against the highest to hit roll made to dodge all 3 missiles (or not) OR 1 anti-missile roll to shoot down all 3 missiles (or not). Failing either of those 2, the target will have 1 Roll With It to halve the total damage inflicted by all 3 missiles that hit (27/2 rounded down is 13).

If you had split the volley to 2 targets, each target has the option to make 1 anti-missile roll or 1 dodge roll against the portion of the volley coming at them. Success will not help the other target. They have to take care of themselves.

The only thing left is possibly splitting the damage...

Each attack is eligible to be split with one other mech. So if a Glaug was the target of the above attacks, it got hit with 2 cannon shots, and 1 head laser shot. Pod A can split the first cannon shot, Pod B the second, and Pod C the third. It WAS going to take 6+6+4 points of damage, but now it's taking 3+3+2 points. Rolling With It takes place after damage is shared, so the Glaug can halve any or all 3 of those hits, assuming it has the CP to spend. Let's say it does, and spends 3 CP. We round down, so now it takes 1+1+1 points of damage.

The missile attack also hit it with 3 missiles. This was all from one Valkyrie, so it's all simultaneous, but we're working out separately for simplicity. 3x9 is 27 points of damage. He's going to share that with Pod D (different attack must be a different squad mate). The Glaug takes the 13 points, and the pod takes the 14 points - Kaboom! Then the Glaug elects to pay 1 more CP to Roll With the missile hit, halving the 13 and rounding down to take a final 6 points of damage + the other 3 means that the Glaug takes 9 points of damage and dies anyway.

Probably not worth spending 4CP and 1 or more pods.

So the basic answer to your basic question is, with the exception of missile volleys, each roll to hit is an "attack" and is defended separately. Missile volleys are treated as 1 attack with multiple dies rolls, and are defended and resolved as a single attack, regardless of how many hit (with multiple missile hits increasing the damage of the attack).

Yes, and I thought you'd gotten me with that, but it's a weekend and I have my book. The rules for Roll With Impact on both pp. 16 and 20, have you round down, to a minimum of 1.

HA!

YES! Correct. -3 only applies to models out of LOS.

On the other part, I would disagree. All missiles fired as part of a volley are treated as one attack, so 1 attacker to 1 target is one attack. If you have 2 attackers, that's 2 attacks, and each is defended separately, even if they're in Close Formation. P. 29 is the rules for Volley. "While separate rolls to strike are made for each missile, all of the missiles that hit from a single volley are treated as one attack." (my emphasis)

I could see that there's a case to be made that all missiles from a single volley, regardless of how they're split between targets could be considered a single attack, such that if you split that Volley 4 missile attack between 4 pods, only one of the pods needs a successful anti-missile roll to knock down the whole volley (all 4 missiles). Like a Blast. However, the sentence after the one I quoted above, where it describes Dodging and Rolling With Impact goes on to say, "...all of the missiles in the volley that strike the target...", not "targets". Since they specifically mention a single target of the attack, we have to assume they don't intend all the missiles in a split volley to be shot down by a single anti-missile shot from 1 of the targets. All the targets are on their own.

Sadly, this is a poorly worded paragraph since it starts out talking about splitting a volley to multiple targets, and goes on to explain how to dodge a volley. It really should have been broken into 2 paragraphs to make it clear we're talking about 2 separate ideas. This kind of writing leads to confusion.

Brian, in your 2 examples above:

"If Valk 1 shoots 4 missiles at Pod 1, and Valk 2 shoots 4 missiles at Pod 2"  -- This is 1 attack at pod one, and 1 attack at pod 2. A total of 2 attacks that must be defended.
"Valk 1 put 2 missiles on each, and Valk 2 put 2 missiles on each" -- This is 2 attacks on pod 1 (1 from each Valkyrie), and 2 attacks on pod 2 (1 from each Valkyrie), for a total of 4 attacks that must be defended.

I'm going to say there will be a difference here between Rules As Written and Game As Played.

Designate all attacks coming from a model and any models in close formation with it. Pay the CP for any attacks that require it. Then roll the dice in whatever order you want. Once you're done dealing damage, the target(s) gets to figure out what to do with it.