Phase 8: Direct Fire

Lightning War

Eligibility for Firing

In order to fire, the target unit must have been previously spotted, must be able to be spotted by the firing unit, and must be within range of their guns. Infantry and turreted vehicles have a 360° arc-of-fire. For other units, such as guns and self-propelled guns, the target must be within 45° of the direction the gun is pointed.

The firer may fire at the target at any point of the target's movement. Thus, a unit that starts out-of-arc, crosses in-arc, and ends out-of-arc can be targeted while still in-arc. In a more common circumstance, a target that turns its side to the firer and then pivots to face them at the end of movement may be shot at during the portion of the turn when their side was exposed, as long as they were visible during that time. The range should be measured from the firer to target at the point where the shot was taken.

Order of Firing

During movement, each detachment moves as a whole, but during firing each unit fires separately -- a unit in this case referring to the lowest level shown on the TO&E -- for instance a platoon of German tanks or a company of Soviet tanks.

Each unit desiring to fire during the phase generates a Fire Order Number (F.O.N.). The F.O.N. is the sum of the gun's Rate-of-Fire and the roll of 1d6, minus two if the unit is Low Initiative and plus two if the unit is High Initiative. If the entire unit is stationary, add three.

Place a numbered chit or a die next to the unit showing its F.O.N. Firing is conducted in order from highest to lowest F.O.N. Units that have become greatly separated should generate independent F.O.N.'s for each sub-group -- for instance a tank that has been immobilized and left behind by its platoon will generate its own F.O.N.

A vehicle or unit destroyed by a gun firing with a higher F.O.N. does not get to fire -- firing is generally non-simultaneous. Only units with the same F.O.N. fire simultaneously and can kill each other.

The Referee will call out Fire Order Numbers, starting with the highest and moving down until zero is reached. It is up to the players to call out when their F.O.N. is reached -- if they forget, their fire is delayed until they alert the Referee (and they participate in the firing for the F.O.N. at that time).

All units firing with a given F.O.N. should independently designate their targeted units before rolling any dice. The choice of targeted unit is limited by the firing unit's Initiative. Regardless of their orders, Low Initiative units always fire at the enemy unit that poses the greatest threat to them (that they have a reasonable chance to harm). It is up the player and the Referee to apply good judgment and fair play to figure out which unit is the greatest threat. Average Initiative units will similarly fire at the greatest threat unless they've got orders to fire elsewhere. High Initiative units can always choose the targeted unit at the time of firing.

After designating the target unit, Militia and Recruit units will randomly target the units in that unit -- simply roll 1d6 or 1d10 to figure out which vehicle or stand will be targeted as each firing vehicle shoots. Yes, with bad rolling, their poor fire coordination could result in all of the guns in a unit firing at the same vehicle.

Regular and Veteran units can fire in a very simple pattern at the enemy unit, such as "one-on-one, left-to-right".

Elite units can designate any firing pattern against enemy units (though the elements of the unit still all fire at once).

Measuring

When measuring distances for the firing, measure from the rough center of the firing group to the rough center of the targeted group. At his option the Referee can measure individual ranges for each shot if the situation calls for it (say, there are shots at 50m, 150m, 250m, and 500m, so there will be a great deal of variance). If there are only two range categories involved -- simply use the range from center to center.

Fire Phase Procedure

1. Consult the firing vehicle's gun chart to find the Penetration at the range to the target (rounded up). For instance, the StuG III's 75L48 has a penetration of 10cm of armor at 1000m with normal ammunition. Some guns have more than one type of ammunition, and some scenarios limit the amount of special and/or regular ammunition, so the player doing the firing must designate which type of ammunition is being used at this point.


2. Determine the aspect of the shot from the firer to the target's hull, e.g. Front, Front-45°, Side, etc. The Target Aspect Tool can aid in this.


3. If the angle is Front, Front30, or Front45, and less than half of the hull of the target vehicle can be seen from the firer's position, the target is Hull Down.


4. On the target's Armor Chart, look down the column corresponding to the aspect. Find the penetration value from the first step, and read across the row to find the target Vulnerability at that penetration. For instance, a Cromwell VII struck on the front with a penetration of 10 is Vulnerability "C", which means about 60% of the time a single shot hitting the front hull will penetrate.


5. Finally, the firer looks at his gunnery chart at the appropriate range and the Vulnerability found earlier. Check the modifiers chart below to find any modifiers that affect the shot, e.g. size of the target, skill of the firer, etc. For every two full negative modifiers, shift out one column to the right. So if the modifiers summed to -3, there would be a one column shift, and the shot would change from "6t7k" to "7t8k" on the StuG III chart. For every full two positive modifiers in the sum, shift in one column to the left.


6. Every vehicle firing rolls a single die. If the roll is equal to or higher than the "k" number (e.g. 8, 9, or 10 with "7t8k"), the target vehicle is destroyed. If the roll is equal or higher than the "t" number (but less than the "k"), the target vehicle is tracked (hit in the suspension).

The vehicle gunnery charts and armor charts take into account a wide variety of factors, from the inborn accuracy of the gun and optics to its rate of fire (both due to ammunition handling limitations and crew size). Antitank guns for instance will have a high chance of killing if they can penetrate because their high rate of fire is built into the chart. The armor charts take into account the distribution and chance of hitting each separate armor location on the target vehicle and appropriately handle the lack of a lower hull target when the vehicle is hull down.

If the vehicle moved at half speed or less during the turn (which in reality meant moving near full speed for half the turn and then trying to fire in the other half), it may fire with the severe penalties shown on the chart. Vehicles moving faster than half speed cannot fire their main gun that turn.

Ammunition Types and Hit Resolution

Most guns are armed with more than one type of ammunition, for instance Armor-Piercing (AP), High-Explosive (HE), High-Velocity Armor-Piercing (HVAP), High-Explosive Anti-Tank (HEAT), etc. The most common type of ammunition is usually the one listed first. Players may opt to use either the ammunition listed first or high-explosive. The use of any other type of ammo requires the approval of the Referee.

If ammunition is being tracked, mark off one ammo box on the unit's TO&E chart any time any gun in the unit fires. (The gun's Rate-of-Fire does not result in additional boxes being marked...the number of boxes already takes the rate-of-fire into effect.) In some games, each type of ammo (AP, HVAP, HE, HEAT...) will be tracked separately.

Suspension Hits

Any time there is a suspension hit, the target is immobilized.

A vehicle crew may attempt to repair an immobilized vehicle if it is not firing or under fire. Roll 1d6 per turn; if the roll is "1", the repairs have been successful; if "6", the vehicle cannot be repaired during the duration of the scenario. Any vehicle immobilized more than once cannot be repaired.

Hull Down

A tank is Hull Down to the firer when less than half of the tank can be seen because the lower half is behind an obstruction such as a wall or the crest of a hill. There is a special column on the Armor/Penetration chart for hull down shots, which should be used when the target is hull down and within the Front, Front30, or Front45 aspects. Suspension hits should be ignored. Side, Side45, and Rear aspects should be treated normally -- there is no hull-down bonus other than the lack of suspension hits. The difference between the HullDown column and the Front column depends on the depression of the tank's gun and whether it has a turret.

HEAT

HEAT (High-Explosive Anti-Tank, or Hollow Charge) shells have effective penetration shown on the gun charts. Their penetration does not vary with range. Resolve HEAT hits in the same way as AP hits, except only use the FRONT, SIDE, and REAR aspect columns with these shells. For any hit in the FRONT, FRONT30, and FRONT45 aspects, use the FRONT column; for any hit on the SIDE and SIDE45 aspects, use the SIDE column; and use REAR otherwise.

High-Explosive (HE)

Most weapons can fire HE ammo directly at targets. If all vehicles in a unit fire at a single target or vehicle, the fire is considered as "Converged Sheaf"; if they fire at a number of targets no more numerous than the number of firers, the barrage is considered "Open Sheaf". The Artillery Charts show how to resolve the damage.

Infantry Anti-Tank Fire

Post-Fire Observation