Arcing Fire: Many kinds of ranged weapons lob projectiles on high arcing trajectories, such as arrows, trebuchets, mortars, howizers, or even just a thrown rock.
If you can see the target, the initial attack is handled the same as any ranged attack, remembering that the maximum increase to hit DC for the arcing motion of the projectile (handled by the Speed value) is one half of the Range Score.
Artillery: If you are shooting at an immobile target (such as a fortification, or a spot of land), you can substitute your Smarts for your Coordination when making attack rolls with an artillery piece.
Generally, to qualify for an artillery piece, the weapon cannot be aimed by hand but rather firmly mounted or stably braced and adjusted with mechanical or electronic controls.
Don't forget to take the benefits of Careful Aim, Committed Attitude, and Focus.
The artillery piece is automatically braced for the purpose of careful Aim.
Naturally, immobile targets get no defense roll, although those in the area of effect can make a defense roll to clear the area before the shot hits if they are aware of the incoming shot.
If you know the range to your target, and have access to a good set of artillery tables, you can adjust the angle (and possible speed of the projectile, depending on the weapon) to compensate for the range.
This allows you to ignore all Speed penalties to hit (but does not eliminate the Speed bonus for your target to defend).
You need a way to estimate the distance to your target; when you shoot you will end up shooting at this estimated point, not the actual target.
- Using a range finder will automatically get you the distance.
- You can estimate the distance with a DC (4 + Range score - target Size) task against Smarts + a relevant skill, which can include Navigation, Shoot, Profession (Surveyor), or anything else the referee consideres would reasonably train in judging distance.
Add your Eye For Distance Special Training (if any) to this roll.
If this succeeds, you have the distance good enough that shots that strike where you think the target is will actually land directly on it.
On a failure, the estimated target location is Value Of [degree of failure + target Size] away from the center of the true location.
Roll high/low on a d6 to see if you are ahead or behind the target.
As a convenient reference for finding the Size of things, a target 1 meter across in both directions is Size +1.
So for targets that are roughly the same width as length, Size is Score Of [distance across] + 1.
For targets that have a width different from the length, you would use the average of the Sizes found from the width alone and the length alone.
But for artillery, it might be more useful to aim for a roughly square spot on the target (so if the target was 10 meters long and 2 meters wide, aim for the middle 2 meters of the length of the object and let shot placement dispersion deal with blasting the other parts while homing in on a center hit).
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- If you have a known reference point, you can estimate the distance from that instead of yourself, using the same method given above.
Example:
Lieutenant Garcia's squad has spotted an enemy camp further down the valley, near the old Gibson farmhouse.
She knows that the farmhouse is 5.7 km away from her position.
The referee knows that the camp is 400 meters away (Range Score +18) from the house.
The center tent is Size +3 (about 2 meters in length and width), the camp as a whole is Size +10 (the cluster of tents is about 50 meters in diameter).
This gives a DC of 19 to get the range to the target tent, or DC 12 to get a range that will just land somewhere in the camp.
The Captain rolls against her Smarts (+2) + Navigation (+1) skill: the dice come up a 5, modified to 8 for her task bonuses, so she misses the distance to the camp by 4.
Thus, the distance estimate is off by Value Of [4 + 10] = 100 meters.
The referee rolls a d6 and gets a high number (5), meaning she overestimates the distance and thinks the camp is located 500 meters downrange of the farmhouse, or 6.2 km range.
She consults her artillery tables, calculates the required charge and elevation, and tells her Seargant to lay in the guns at her parameters – a direct hit will land 100 meters beyond the center of the camp and about 50 meters from the edge of the camp.
- If you have an accurate map of the area you are shooting at, you can use any feature on the map that you can see as a reference point – but you also need to know your own position on the map!
Use the same procedure as above, but for yourself to find the displacement to the point you will be shooting at.
If you have a GPS receiver, you can automatically locate yourself on an accurate map.
- With a good set of survey tools, a surveyor can estimate distances with a significant bonus to her Profession (Surveyor) skill – assume +7 for a basic one point measurement, or +14 if the surveyor has the opportunity to traipse across the land performing measurements (perhaps difficult in a war zone).
This can be used to make the maps in the first place, as well as to collect information on reference points.
Indirect Fire: An artillerist does not need to be able to see the target herself, as long as she knows its location.
If a second person (known as a forward observer) can determine and communicate the location of the target to the artillerist, she can shoot her artillery at that location.
The forward observer does not need to know where the artillery is; the artillerist does not need to know where the forward observer is.
Indirect fire is occasionally possible in the Age of Sail to the Age of Steam, but it usually requires the forward observer to be within shouting distance of the artillery, perhaps because the artillery is sheilded behind a hill for protection against direct return fire.
In the Age of Industry to the Atomic Age, indirect fire is usually carried out with communication over radio conveying location using shared gridded maps of the area.
In the Information Age, the forward observer is more likely to communicate the GPS coordinates obtained by a range finder or drone.
Indirect fire uses the same basic procedure outlines above:
- The forward observer estimates the position of the target with any of the methods listed. In addition to finding errors in range, you also need to find errors in bearing – roll 1d6 with 1 being the direction away from the artillery and count clockwise in 60 degree increments instead of rolling for close/far.
- The forward observer tells the artillerist his estimate of the target location.
- The artillerist lays in her guns to fire at this estimated position.
A forward observer is not needed to shoot at a known location on a map (assuming you have the map), or in other circumstances where the artillerist happens to know where to shoot even if she cannot see what she is shooting at.
Artillery is often registered on certain important points by firing and correcting until the shells land in the right place. Thereafter, as long as neither the artillery pieces or the target points move, the artillery can automatically be set to hit within the Spread effect of the targeted location.
Time of Flight:
Now the artillerist fires her shot.
Because the shot is a projectile, it takes time to reach the target.
For low angle trajectories, assume that the projectile moves ten times its Speed value in meters every turn.
High angle trajectories may be needed to clear high intervening obstacles, or when using mortars (which can only fire high angle shots).
For game purposes, figure high angle shots move half as fast over terrain as low angle shots.
Dispersion:
Now check to see how close the artillerest got her shots to the place she was actually firing at.
If your point of aim was actually in your target area, then a normal hit on the target hits the target area. You are now hitting what you aimed at.
If you were shooting at an estimated point that was not inside of the area you were trying to hit, and your artillery pieces have a listed Spread score, make a task check with a DC of the Spread score - Aim score - 2.
If you succeed, your shot hits within the innate dispersion of the artillery piece.
This is an area with an effective Size of (Range score to target) - (Spread score of artillery piece), which corresponds to all shots landing within a circle of radius Value Of [effective Size -3] meters.
If the artillery piece does not have a listed Spread score, you can assume that it is shooting at a 1 meter wide area for an effective Size of +1; hitting that spot is a task with DC of the Range score - Aim score -1.
If this task score fails (which is likely, given the usual high number for the Spread for artillery) the shots will land a distance Value Of [effective Size -3 + degree of failure] meters away from the estimated target point.
Determine the direction of the miss by rolling 1d6 with 1 being the direction away from the artillery and count clockwise in 60 degree increments
For artillery without a Spread score, this relationship can be extended in the other direction to account for how good your shot was: the shots will land a distance Value Of [effective Size -3 - degree of success] meters away from the estimated target point.
For artillery with a spread score, you can find where the shot lands by rolling 1d10 - 5½, and then row shifting by -8 + effective Size as the distance in meters the shot lands away from the central point of aim, with positive distances being further from the artillery piece and negative distances closer. Then repeat this for the distance the shot lands in the transverse direction, with positive distances landing to the right and negative distances to the left.
If the artillery does not have an area effect, you can skip most of this and use the usual rules for Area Fire to see if a round that lands within its normal spread hits anything in that area.
Adjusting Fire:
The artillerist shoots her shell, and it hits some bit of non-descript land at some distance from her target.
Whoever is observing the fire can now use the rules for estimating distance from a reference point to figure out how far away (and in what direction) the shot landed from the target.
If this is the forward observer, he can then communicate this new target information to the artillerist.
The artillerist knows that if she does not adjust her artillery piece, she will hit the same spot (or at least within the normal spread of that spot); adjusting the aim from this known coordinate is more accurate than just trying again.
The DC to hit the new estimated target location uses the Range score of the new target location from the place where the previous shot hit instead of the range the artillery piece actually has to shoot.
For any shots after the first two, the artillerist also knows how much a given adjustment changes the shot location, and can use this to proportionally guide the next shot – give her an additional +3 to her task roll to hit.
Once an artillery piece has been dialed in, each subsequent shot will hit within the normal Spread distance of the artillery without any further adjustment.
Fuses:
Fuses are used to get a shell to burst at the right time, place, or under the right circumstances.
In the Atomic Age and later, there are many fuse options:
- Impact detonation. The shell delivers no impact Penetration to the target, but the full effect of the shell's warhead occurs right on the target.
- After impact, allowing the shell to deliver some or all of its penetration to the target before bursting, or bursting at a set distance after its first impact.
- Altitude. The radar in the fuse detects when the shell is the right altitude over the ground and then bursts.
- Proximity. You get to treat a target that is smaller than the set Size as if it were that Size for the purpose of hitting it; but when the shell bursts it will be at a distance of Value Of [set Size -1] meters from the target.
- Timed.
A timer in the shell bursts the shell a given time after it is shot.
Ideally, this occurs at the altitude you wanted it to burst at.
Choose the place and altitude where you want the shell to burst, and make a DC 7 task of Smarts + Shoot (Artillery).
Roll high/low on a d6 – high means the fuse bursts late, low means it bursts early.
For shells on a low angle trajectory, an exact success means the shell bursts a distance of Speed meters before (for an early burst) or after (for a late burst) from the intended point, and an altitude of 1⁄3 Speed meters above (for an early burst) or below (for a late burst) the desired altitude.
For a high angle trajectory, both the range and altitude are off by -1 RS of the Speed in meters.
Every degree of failure increases this discrepancy by +1 RS; every degree of success decreases it by -1 RS.
When the altitude reaches zero, or if the shell runs into something without exploding, the shot stops going forward. If it penetrates armor from the impact Pen, it will eventualy explode inside the thing it hit. If it does not penetrate the armor it is up to the referee whether it just stops there, gets stuck in the thing it hit, bounces, or rolls around for a little while until its fuse runs down.
During the Second World War, only the Americans and their allies had altitude and proximity fuses, but other fuse types were available.
In the Age of Industry, impact, after impact, and timed fuses were available.
In the Age of Sail and Age of Steam, the only fuses were timed fuses consisting of lengths of burning fuse cord, ignited by the powder charge that fired the shot.
The artillerist would need to cut the fuse to the right length and attach it to the shell.
These are treated as normal timed fuses, but the DC to set the fuse is 12.
Before the age of sail, there were no fuses. You just shot things and let them do whatever they do when they hit.
Guided Rounds:
Starting in the mid Atomic Age, artillery rounds can be laser guided.
A person with a designator who can see the target needs to shine the designator's laser beam on the target. When the artillery round reaches its target, check to see if the user is successful in keeping the target designated at the end of flight. This is treated as an attack roll, except use the gunner's Smarts + Use Gear (weapons systems) in place of Coordination + Shoot. If the target is evading, it can get a defense roll against this lock-on attempt as usual.
Once you know that the shell is flying at the right target, make a melee attack roll with the shell's Homing score substituting for the usual Coordination + Fight score to see if it successfully impacts what was being designated.
By the Information Age, artillery shots can be GPS guided. The shells go directly to the provided GPS coordinates, no roll needed.
Starting in the Automation Age, you can fire rounds that can use image recognition to home in on a target. The target can be designated by identifying and object in a streamed video feed to the artillery team before firing, by a controller watching the round's video telemetry in flight, or by allowing the round to automatically determine viable targets and autonomously choose the best one to strike.
The cameras of the round will be multi-spectral, combining visible light, near infrared, thermographic, and near ultraviolet camera images for increased target discrimination and improved ECCM capabilities.
Homing rounds will have a Homing score that the round uses to strike its target as a melee attack in place of Coordination + Fight skill, an Evasion score that it uses to evade attacks aimed to shoot it down, and an ECCM score used in place of Awareness to see if it is fooled by counter-measures such as decoys, jamming, or flares.
Area Attacks
An area attack affects all targets over a wide area. Anyone caught in the threatened area will be damaged (although barriers provide normal protection unless the attack is engulfing, see below).
Anyone fully caught by the attack will take Wound of the character's Wound Score Limit; all hit locations are affected but use an initial Injury Score determined from the Large Wound Limit for determining specific effects to each body part.
Cover that is not penetrated by the attack will reduce the Wound by the cover penalty.
If the target is wearing armor, divide up the attack against groups of hit locations afforded the same protection by the armor; the Wound score against each of these sections is: