Slitherine

Had an interesting discussion on overhead shooting the other day. page 109 for those interested. Art on higher ground can shoot over intervening friends if the friends are over 3 MU from target base along the shortest line.

A
(6 MU)
F
E
E
E
(4 MU)
e2

A= Artillery on higher ground. F= friendly to artillery p&S. E = 4 deep Enemy keil 1 MU from front of F. E2 is another enemy unit.
So clearly the rules state that the front base of E can not be shot out because it is too close to friends. It was opined that the Artillery could shoot at a deeper rank of E that was beyond 3 MU. In the event of E not having a base that was beyond 3 MU the artillery would target E2. However when someone read the rule it does not permit shooting over enemy troops (LF and artillery are exceptions). So once blocked does that area become a dead zone the artillery cannot fire at as it is now over enemy or is that a too tight of wording? Thoughts?

Hi Dan - it would seem that the rules as written only permit Artillery to shoot over friends and enemy LF - not other enemy bases.

Looks like one for the authors to reflect upon.

I can see it either way it is easy to justify the rule.

Gunners see friends and really don't know where they start or stop. So withhold fire.
Gunners see different clump further away.

I actually favor in the renaissance the former to the later. Maybe in later years like 1968 artillery FOs learned to distinguish but then they weren't alway precise about it either.

Then there is the movie version where the bad guy says, "shoot dem. Shoot dem both."

There was a thread related to this before: viewtopic.php?t=23605.

I'm not sure that ever made it into the errata though, and it looks like a couple of different clarifications may be needed.

petedalby wrote:Hi Dan - it would seem that the rules as written only permit Artillery to shoot over friends and enemy LF - not other enemy bases.

HArt and MArt can also shoot over enemy artillery. Otherwise you are correct.