Roll a D6 for each shot fired. The model's
Ballistic Skill (BS) determines what score they must equal or beat to hit their target after any modifiers have been applied. Not all shots have the same chance of hitting. The better the individual's
BS, the greater his chance of hitting.
To determine whether you hit, you must make a roll to hit, i.e. you roll a D6 for each model that is shooting per shot. Note that the number of
Attacks a model has will not affect the number of shots – each model can only shoot as many shots as their weapon allows (see
Weapons section for more details).
Count how many models in your unit are shooting, and the number of shots they are each making, and roll that number of dice. It is easiest to roll all the dice at once, although you don't have to. If there are a lot of models shooting, you might need to roll several batches of dice.
Each dice that rolls a number equal to or greater than the value required has scored a hit. Each dice that rolls less is a miss.
For example, you fire with five Imperial Archers. Humans have BS 4+, so you need a score of at least 4 to hit. You roll five dice and score 1, 2, 2, 4 and 6, which equals two hits and three misses.
Some troops have a BS of 1+. Of course, you cannot roll less than 1 on a D6, and in
Battleaxe a To Hit roll of 1 on a D6 always fails, regardless of the dice modifiers and
Ballistic Skill of the model.
Shooting Modifiers
Raw skill is not the only factor to determine the difficulty of a shot. Many battlefield conditions can alter the accuracy of missile fire, and we represent these with a series of shooting modifiers. BS modifiers are applied to the
Ballistic Skill of the unit making the shots, making the shot more difficult, and therefore less likely to succeed.
Continuing the earlier example, if the five Imperial archers had a -1 modifier applied to their shooting attack, all of the dice would count as needing to roll one point higher than their initial BS. Instead of needing 4s to hit, they would now need 5s (whether you read that as a roll of a 5 counts as a 4, or if the target goes from 4+ to 5+, it makes little difference). Accordingly, only one archer would have hit.
The
Ballistic Skill modifiers are cumulative (except when noted otherwise), and are as follows:
- Moving and Shooting: -1
- Firing at Long Range: -1
- Firing at Point-Blank Range (4"): +1
- Standing and Shooting (Reacting To Charges): -1
- Volley Fire: -1[/li
- Lone Target: -1
- Large Target: +1
- Target Behind Soft Cover: -1
- Target Behind Hard Cover: -2
]
Moving And Shooting
Models that moved for any reason this turn will have less time to aim, making their shots less accurate and suffering a BS modifier of -1.
Firing At Long Range
Missiles lose power and accuracy long before they reach their maximum range, so any shots taken at an enemy that is further away than half the weapon's maximum range suffer a -1 BS modifier.
For example, a short bow has a maximum range of 18". Targets within 9" are in short range. Targets that are more than 9" and within 18" are in long range and so the firers suffer a -1 BS modifier.
Firing At Point-Blank Range
Hitting a target very close to you is much easier than one further away, no matter your skill. To represent this on the battlefield, when your unit targets an enemy that is between 1 inch and 4 inches away, your attacks get a bonus of +1 to hit. You do not get this shooting into combat, should you have a special rule allowing you to do so, nor do you get it in a
charge reaction.
Standing And Shooting
Having a bellowing enemy bear down on you whilst you're trying to aim is most distracting. Models that are making a
stand and shoot reaction suffer a -1 to BS modifier. Since the enemy is bearing down on you, this does not stack with the penalties for long range (it is assumed the unit waits until the best moment to loose their shots) or the bonus for point-blank range (due to the chaos of the incoming charge, the shooting unit cannot wait until that last moment to loose their shot or they won't be able to swap to their melee weapons and defend themselves).
Volley Fire
Some weapons fire in arcs and thus allow the whole unit within range and line of sight to fire in a volley. Since these shots are indirect, declaring you are firing a volley means all the shots from this unit are at a -1 penalty.
Lone Target
If a model is alone (a character on their own or the last remaining model in an otherwise decimated unit), they are harder to hit. Not only are they alone and thus a smaller target to hit, but they have more space to dodge arrows and cannonballs and such. To represent this, models attempting to shoot an lone target suffer a -1 to BS modifier. Note that war machines are not lone targets, as they have at least one crew plus the machine itself.
Large Target
Some targets are big enough that it is easier to hit them. Models with the
Large keyword are therefore easier to target. Models targeting large targets get a +1 to BS modifier, making it easier to hit them.
Cover
If the majority of the models in the target unit (or, when firing against a single model, more than half of the target model) is obscured from the shooting model's view by other models (friend or enemy) or by terrain then an additional To Hit modifier is applied. This will be classed as either soft or hard cover – see below. It is common for some models in the firing unit to have something in the way, and for others to have a clear shot. Where this happens, simply resolve the two sets of shots (and thus the two sets of To Hit modifiers) separately.
Target Is Behind Soft Cover
Soft cover offers a little protection against missile fire, but its main advantage is to hide the target from view. If the majority of a unit is obscured by hedges, fences, wagons or other 'soft' terrain, it is said to be in soft cover. Soft cover inflicts a -1 shooting modifier.
Target Is Behind Hard Cover
Hard cover represents cover of a more durable kind, like that offered by stone walls, boulders, buildings and such-like. We also count intervening units as hard cover (if they obscure the line of sight to the majority of the target, of course) as their presence will play havoc with the shooters' accuracy. If the majority of a unit is obscured by such 'hard' terrain, it is said to be Hard cover. Hard cover inflicts a -2 shooting modifier. Note that the To Hit penalties for hard and soft cover do not stack – in a situation where a target would benefit from both soft and hard cover, simply apply a +2 shooting modifier for cover.
7+ To Hit
If BS modifiers result in a required score of 7 or more on your dice roll, it is still possible to hit the target. As it is impossible to roll a 7 or better on a D6, you will first need to roll a 6. Then, for each shot scoring a 6, you need to roll a further score as shown on the chart below. So, for example, in order to score an 8, you must first roll a 6 followed by a 5 or better. If you require a score of 10 or more then it is impossible to hit the intended target – the shots are lost.
Automatic Hits
Some unusual attacks (most commonly those made by magic missile spells – see
The Magic Phase, earlier) hit automatically. Where this is the case, it is exactly how it sounds – do not roll for the attack, it instead automatically causes the number of hits stated within the wording.
Resolving Unusual Attacks
There are several circumstances in
Battleaxe that call upon you to inflict hits upon an enemy – spells being an obvious example (the
Fireball spell causes D6
Strength 4 hits on an enemy unit), as well as things like the
Impact Hits made by a charging chariot (covered in the
Special Rules section). Such hits are resolved using steps 4 and 5 of the
rules for shooting attacks.
The only exceptions are hits caused by melee combat attacks – these are discussed in
The Melee Combat section.
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