Slitherine

Apologies if this has been done before, but can't find any info after a search.

I was just wondering, how do you allocate dice from a unit that is shooting at two targets, particularly with respect to the rear ranks?

So, I have an 8 base shooting BG (say, medium foot with bows) 4 wide by 2 deep. That potentially gives 6 shooting dice at effective range (4 from front, 2 from rear). However, if 3 files have to shoot at target A, and one at target B do you:

1) Say that the three files at target A get 3 dice from the front rank, plus one from the rear (three rear rank bases rounded down to one), and the single file at target B gets 1 dice from the front and none from the rear (one rear rank base rounds down to zero), for a total of five dice on both targets.

2) Say that you have six dice from the shooting BG as a whole, but these are allocated to targets proportionately, say 4 to target A and 2 to target B?

I have a sneaking suspicion that 1 is correct, as the rear base always counts as shooting at the front base's target, but it just looks a bit odd as the BG as a whole is losing a shooting dice. Can someone tell me which is correct?

Thanks for your help!

All your front rank bases have a target priority you can establish from p 81. You are allowed to shoot with your second rank, too, but with only one die per two bases. The target priority of each second rank base is the same as the base in front of it, so in the case you cite, it would be 4 dice at one target and one at the other, as you suspected!
I guess the message is to try to position shooters so they don't lose dice, hwereever you can!

Martin