We’re now deep into our investigation of the rules of Warhammer: The Old World, having learned how to strategise and move. This week, we prime our muskets, draw our bowstrings, and crank the old arbalest handle to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune in the Shooting Phase.
As with the other phases, the Shooting Phase is broken into four steps which you follow in turn for each unit: Declare Targets, Roll to Hit, Roll to Wound, and Remove Casualties. Everyone and everything shoots in this phase, whether they’re lowly peasant bowmen and barbarian javelineers, a macabre Khemrian screaming skull catapult, or a High Elven mage manifesting a Fiery Convocation.
First, pick a unit and declare its target. A unit can only shoot if it has a ranged weapon, hasn’t marched or charged that turn, and isn’t fleeing or in combat. To shoot, a model must have line of sight to its target and you can’t split fire – so in some cases, not every member of a unit can let loose. Models can (almost always) shoot only once, no matter how many Attacks they have in their profile, and unless they have the Volley Fire special rule or are stationed on a hill, only the front rank may fire.
Once a target has been chosen, it’s time to roll To Hit. Here’s the big news: old-style Ballistic Skill, or BS as it is on the profile, is back, and it runs from 1 to 10. The higher your BS, the easier it is to bullseye your target, and once models reach a BS of 6 or more, they start earning rerolls on their missed shots.
Of course, it’s not always as easy as that – there are various negative modifiers to your shooting: it’s -1 to hit if you’ve moved, you’re at long range, you’re receiving a charge, or if the target has partial cover. On top of that, a natural one always misses, while negative modifiers can stack past 6+, and you may find yourself having to roll 7+, 8+, or 9+ to hit (a natural six followed by another roll of 4+, 5+, or 6+!).
There’s more old-school goodness in the next step, in which you roll To Wound by comparing the Strength of the Attack against the Toughness of the target. There are even Toughness caps – a Strength 3 bow is simply too weak to harm a beast of Toughness 9.
It wouldn’t be Warhammer without a saving throw, which your opponent will make during this step. It’s a familiar process: compare the Armour Penetration of the weapon with the armour value of the model it’s hitting. Light armour grants a 6+ save and heavy armour a 5+, which can be boosted with a shield, a barded mount, and certain spells and magical items. There is a small difference, however, as models can also have a Ward Save. This cannot be modified by AP, and it is rolled for as a separate save made after the armour roll has failed.
The final step is to remove casualties and take panic tests where necessary. This is super simple – remove one model for every Wound caused, unless the target has more than one Wound. You know the drill. You’ll need to take a panic test if the shooting has killed more than a quarter of the models in a unit – but we’ll get to what happens then in another article.
There are plenty of weird and wonderful shooting units in Warhammer: The Old World, and a plethora of special rules to go with them. Big beasties have Breath Weapons, some skirmish cavalry can Fire & Flee, while Dwarfen Irondrakes have cinderblast bombs that can Quick Shot. Wouldn’t you like to know…
As for magic, there are two categories of spells to be fired off in the Shooting Phase – Magic Missiles and Magical Vortexes. Human wizards using Battle Magic can, for instance, blast off a quick fireball, while those blessed by the Dark Gods may use the Lore of Daemonology to conjure a Vortex of Chaos.
That’s it for this week, but prepare to close ranks and raise that shield wall for next week, when we’re talking about the combat phase.
