Once the Movement and Magic phases are over, it is time to work out any shooting that is to be done. Troops armed with bows, crossbows or other missile weapons may shoot at any enemy targets they can see. Unless otherwise mentioned, each model can only make one shooting attack in each Shooting phase. You may also shoot with any war machines such as stone throwers, cannons, etc. The rules for these are covered later. You always start shooting with any weapons that require you to guess the range of the shot (such as cannons and stone throwers for example). Guess all the ranges of these before measuring any of them. Otherwise, there is no particular order in which shooting must be resolved. Nominate one of your units that you want to shoot with and select the enemy target you wish to shoot at. For example, in the situation shown in the diagram on the right, you might choose to shoot with your Empire Archers at the Goblin Wolf Riders or the unit of Goblin Spearmen. Once you have declared your target, measure the range and resolve shooting using the rules described. Continue until you have shot with everything able to do so, including any war machines you may have. All missile weapons have a maximum range which indicates the greatest distance that they can shoot. If your declared target lies beyond this maximum range, your shots will automatically miss. This is why you must pick your target before measuring the range. It often happens that some models in a firing unit will be within range and other models in the unit will be out of range. If this is the case then only those which are in range can shoot and the remainder automatically miss. These ranges are the maximum distances that the weapons can fire. Missiles Lose power and accuracy long before they reach their maximum range, so ranges are divided into two types: short range and long range. Short range is up to and including half the maximum range of the weapon. Long range is between half and maximum distance of the weapon. For example: Short range for a short bow is up to 8". A target that is at more than 8" counts as being at long range. As we shall see later, there are modifiers that make it much more difficult for a weapon to hit a target at long range. |
