Direct or Indirect Fire rules

Direct fire:

This uses Shooting Skill (SS) and the shooter must be able to see at least half of the target to hit it. State what you are firing at and measure the range of your weapon towards the target, then roll a D6 and compare the result with the shooter's SS. If you hit the target, damage from armour piercing ordinance is worked out as per the weapon's specifications. If you are firing a weapon that uses a blast template, you must take a weapon effect card and check the result on the weapon effect table. Ignore hit, or deviation results, simply check the damage caused on the table.

Armour piercing ordinance is always fired directly at a target.

Indirect fire:

This uses the following rules:

1 – State what you are firing at and guess the range from your weapon to the target.

2 – Measure your guess towards the target from your weapon. DO NOT measure the distance to the target! Place the blast template at the range you guessed.

EG “I think the range from my cannon to your Orks is 24” Measure 24” from your cannon in a straight line towards the Orks and place the blast template with its centre over your guess.

3 – Take a weapon effect card to find out what happens.

Whether a weapon can fire directly, or indirectly is largely determined by the type of weapon being used at the time, although some weapons are able to fire both directly and indirectly. This is shown on the weapon specifications as -

D – direct fire

I – indirect fire

DI – either.

For example, a rifle is always fired directly at a target and the target has to be visible to the shooter, so the spec's for a rifle will have D. A mortar is always fired indirectly and the target does not have to be visible to members of the weapon's team. The mortar will have an I in its spec's. An artillery piece, such as the German 88mm AA gun, can be fired directly or indirectly at targets, so will have a DI in its spec's.

Here are some more examples:

The longbow – in reality, this could be fired indirectly at a target. For example, a large unit of spearmen is behind a unit of swordsmen. The archers can see the spears, so know that there is a target there and they could angle their bows to fire over the first unit. However, for the purposes of wargames, Shooting Skills penalties would make this impractical. Therefore all bows, crossbows and bolt throwers are direct fire.

Trebuchets are indirect fire.

Black powder cannons, such as used in fantasy battles, are direct fire.

Siege mortars are indirect fire.

Pistols, rifles, submachine guns and machine guns are direct fire.

RPG's are direct fire.

Mortars are indirect fire.

Tank guns, although these can be elevated to a degree, they are direct fire.

SPG's depend on their purpose. Tank hunters are direct fire, while artillery can be either.

Artillery can be either.

Missiles depend on their purpose. Weapons that are similar to the nebelwerfer are indirect fire. While more modern systems can be either. I suggest you decide amongst yourselves depending on what you are fielding.

Weapon effect tables, weapon effect cards and full specifications for weapons, vehicles, troops, etc are included in all of my core rule sets. They are available from www.1poundrules.website and cost £1 each.