(Answered) Area Effect Weapons vs Grounded Dropships

[monbvol]

This thread has sparked some related questions from me.  There seem to be no applicable page references for this.

1: Does this mean that grounded Dropships are immune from damage of the secondary rings of AE weapons?  To clarify a bit if a cluster bomb dropped by an Aerofighter falls short of hitting the grounded Dropship but due to having a R1 AE still "splashes" onto the Dropship, will it do damage?

2: If this "splash" damage is applied is it only applied once only or once for each effected hex?  Using the previous example the cluster bomb effects two hexes of the grounded Dropship.  Is 5 points applied once or are 2 clusters of 5 applied?

3: Does AE damage always get abstracted to the nose location or can the shot hit a side arc?  Example: A Long Tom fires a shot at a non-designated hex near the grounded Dropship.  Using the scatter rules it scatters into the Dropship at level +3 above the underlying terrain.  Does the shot still resolve against the nose or would it instead impact a side armor location?  If it impacts at the underlying terrain instead would it then resolve against side arc or rear arc?

[monbvol]

Bump.

[monbvol]

Going to go ahead and bump this a couple days early just so *I* don't forget.

[monbvol]

And a topic of discussion has brought forward a related question.  Depends on the answer to 1 and 2 but what happens if an AE attack splashes onto a grounded Dropship in such a way that the main impact hex misses the Dropship but having different AE damage ratings?

Clarifying example:

A Cruise Missile 120 lands in a hex near a grounded Dropship.  The AE ring has one hex overlaying the Dropship at Radius 3 and three at Radius 4.  Would 9 clusters of 5(Radius 3 applies 45 damage) be applied or 12 clusters of 5(3 hexes of 20 damage for Radius 4?

[Xotl]

1. The splash will hit only if the center hex didn't hit.

2. Once.

3. No, it's always abstracted.

And a topic of discussion has brought forward a related question.  Depends on the answer to 1 and 2 but what happens if an AE attack splashes onto a grounded Dropship in such a way that the main impact hex misses the Dropship but having different AE damage ratings?

Clarifying example:

A Cruise Missile 120 lands in a hex near a grounded Dropship.  The AE ring has one hex overlaying the Dropship at Radius 3 and three at Radius 4.  Would 9 clusters of 5(Radius 3 applies 45 damage) be applied or 12 clusters of 5(3 hexes of 20 damage for Radius 4?

The DropShip would take the damage of the Radius 3 hex only.  In more than one Radius # hexes overlapped the DropShip, only one would take the damage, determined randomly.

Long story short: No matter how many hexes could be hit by a single AE attack, multi-hex units always only take damage from one hex and only that hex's damage.  The hex chosen is always whichever is most damaging.

[monbvol]

Kind of figured but doesn't hurt to clarify things.

But I do have four last clarification questions just so everything I can think of is cleared up.

Artillery Cannons(the shortened Artillery pieces) are still area effect weapons even if fired as direct ballistic attacks.  Do these attacks still abstract against the Nose location if fired indirectly?  How about fired directly?

Likewise if using the direct fire rules for full sized artillery and such a shot was available to said artillery unit would this attack still always abstract to the Nose or like other direct attacks hit the facing side?

In either case would scatter due to missed shots change the abstracted location for where to apply the damage(aside from the obvious exception)?

[monbvol]

A bit of a pain I know but they really are the last things I can think of that are not entirely clear.

[Xotl]

Sorry, where did you get the impression that AE always hit the nose?

[monbvol]

3: Does AE damage always get abstracted to the nose location or can the shot hit a side arc?  Example: A Long Tom fires a shot at a non-designated hex near the grounded Dropship.  Using the scatter rules it scatters into the Dropship at level +3 above the underlying terrain.  Does the shot still resolve against the nose or would it instead impact a side armor location?  If it impacts at the underlying terrain instead would it then resolve against side arc or rear arc?

3. No, it's always abstracted.

In other words this thread. 

[monbvol]

I know the rules say a month but I'm liable to forget myself if I don't do it now while I'm thinking about it, especially since the thread says Answered instead of Research.

[monbvol]

At least I waited a month this time. 

More seriously though in trying to thought experiment my own answers for how I'd handle this if it came up in a game until an official answer is given I completely understand that this is a more complex issue then it seems on the surface.

[monbvol]

That time again already.  Wow time flies.  Again my understanding and my appreciation for the time you guys are taking on this to sort out an answer.

[Xotl]

Appreciate your patience here, monbvol.  Unfortunately the entire answers process is backlogged at the moment, so I'm afraid I can't give you an ETA as to when this will be handled.  But it absolutely will not be dropped.  Thanks.

[monbvol]

No problem.  Finding an answer that works for both spheroid and aerodyne dropships without creating a headache of determining artillery flight paths is something that I understand could take a while longer yet.

[monbvol]

Yup.  That time again.

[monbvol]

Better late than never eh?

[Xotl]

Spheroid DroShips take damage on the side the AE comes in on.  In the case of artillery, roll damage on the left or right side, whichever is facing the firing unit.  In the case of bombs, again use the left or right side, whichever is facing the direction of the aero's approach.  Only cluster artillery or direct hits from orbital strikes roll on the nose chart.  Aerodyne ships determine hit chart in the same way grounded fighters do.

In all cases, a given AE shot will only damage one hex.  If a given shot would affect multiple hexes of DropShip, only apply damage to the hex struck by the most damage.  If all the hexes are equal, the DropShip's controller chooses the affected hex.

[monbvol]

Works for me.

Thanks.