Rule change - Archery - Volley fire

[eBob]

Volley Fire: Rule changes discussed and playtested at Kauzenberg, Germany.

Volley fire is when a unit of archers fires rapidly into the air allowing the arrows to shower down on the enemy with devastating effect. Medieval Longbowmen could fire extremely rapidly even having up to 3 arrows in the air before the first lands on its target. It is therefore possible to hit more targets than there are archers firing.

Volley fire lands in a circular area of effect. The minimum size of the area of effect is 2" radius, and increases by 1" radius for each additional 5 archers over 5+. So 5 archers hit an area 2" radius. 10 archers hit an area of 3" radius and 15 archers 4" radius.

• The minimum unit size for volley fire is 5 archers.
  
• Unit Captain must have line of sight to target (or at least see a banner)
  
• Targetzone (area of effect) is 2" radius
  
• For every 5 additional archers the radius increases by 1"
  
• The maximum no. of archers in a single unit is 15 models plus a captain.
  
• Volley fire can target anywhere on the game table.
  
• The player places an arrow marker (or a dice) at the spot on the table he wishes to aim at - provided the captain has reasonable line of sight.
  
• Deviation: Roll one d8. The pointed end of the dice shows the direction of the arrow fall deviation, and the number shows the distance in inches. However, a roll of 6,7 or 8 indicates the shot is on target.
  
• Calculate the area of effect. All models who's base is completely within the area of effect must roll for being hit.
  
• Roll 1 d6 for each model in the zone including horses.
  
• Separate the dice for friendly models and enemy models before rolling if friendly models are in the zone.
  
• Every roll of 6 indicates a wound. the defending player chooses any model in the target zone.
  
• If the player chooses a model with a shield, he may re-roll but using a d6, but a roll of 1,2 or 3 is failed and the model is removed.
  
• The minimum range for Volley fire is 18"
  
  

[Rab]

You say that the enemy player gets to choose which models are hit - does this supplant the rules which had that (imo) great aspect of randomness as to where the arrows actually fall? That would be a shame.

[Assi]

Jan 9, 2008 4:27:11 GMT -5 eBob said:

• Every roll of 6 indicates a wound. the defending player chooses any model in the target zone.

So lets say i hit an enemy Unit with three Hits. My Opponent could allocate all three Hits to one Model until this is dead or no more Hits availible?

[andrew]

# Roll 1 d6 for each model in the zone including horses.
It means that you only roll once per model... but for every model.
Does it mean that with 10 archers I can hit 12 enemy models?

It was better rolling a d6 for each archer and selecting randomly the target models!

[eBob]

Yes it would be possible to hit more targets than you have archers - but it should be remembered that medieval archers could fire so quickly that they could get 3 arrows in the air before the first hit the target.