So, the question is
primarily about BattleForce, but it also sort of reaches across into Alpha Strike as the two systems are, to my understanding, related.
I have been trying to figure out what is the actual effect of a Weapon Hit critical hit on advanced aerospace units (i.e., dropships, warships, etc), both in BattleForce and current Alpha Strike, and I've kind of been getting conflicting reads, so, I wanted to clarify.
AS Commander's Edition, pg. 50 has this:
For units with multiple attacks (such as DropShips and mobile structures), a Weapon Hit critical reduces the damage values at all ranges in a randomly-determined arc by 50 percent (round down, to a minimum of 0). Weapon Hit criticals do not affect a unit’s physical attack values.
Okay, so, my read is that at least in current Alpha Strike if, say, a DropShip gets a Weapon Hit, you just randomly determine the arc impacted and half all of its attack values. Simple enough.
But then, IO BattleForce pg. 85 instead says this:
Weapon Hit (Large, Very Large, Super Large Support El- ements, DropShips, Space Stations, WarShips, and Mobile Structures): Multiply all attacks in one randomly determined firing arc attack type by 0.50 and round down. This includes Capital, Sub-Capital, Standard, MSL, TUR, etc.
So... to my understanding, BattleForce mostly uses identical rules with Alpha Strike when it comes to damage and crits.
But, if my "rules as written" read is correct, this says that when a Weapon Hit occurs in BattleForce on a dropship/warship/etc, you randomly determine the attack type (i.e. STD, CAP, SCAP, etc) on the affected arc that gets halved, as opposed to all attack values on the affected arc getting halved.
It also doesn't seem to say how you should determine which arc is affected. Is it still random like in AS? Or is it supposed to be the arc facing the attacker like in old Companion rules?
The old AS companion rules seem most clear, but as I understand it they have been superseded:
For aerospace units with multiple attacks and firing arcs (such as DropShips and WarShips), a Weapon Hit critical will reduce the damage values at all ranges by 25 percent for a randomly determined weapon class in the arc that faces the attacker.
So how should I proceed in the context of BattleForce?
