Bows and arrows in Warhammer

[pauljc]

Dunno if anyone ever discussed this before, and maybe this belongs in the rules discussion section, but..

Has anyone ever considered what Warhammer FB would be like if ranged weapons fired more indirectly, and used things like 'blast' templates and scatter to work out hits?

For some reason, the more I imagine it, the more it fits my personal vision and experience of how bow n' arrow-type weapons work.

This is just a random musing, of course. I might be totally off my nut.

[Kieranator K82]

I see where you're coming from, but I think that would not only be pointless but actually make things worse. On one hand, you might hit a different unit, but imagine the size/shape of the templates being used. And - templates! You'll end up getting more hits than you would have using the current method.
That's what I think anyway.

[Chronowraith]

I certainly understand the idea behind this theory since you can easily arc the path of an arrow, however this would present many problems. Using a blast template would mean that a small unit of say 5 high elf scouts could potentially hit up to 16 20x20 based models in a unit. So while I agree that arrows do arc and it would be nice to have that functionality in the game, last I checked most fantasy warheads weren't equipped with cluster munitions or MIRV warheads. You would have to have constraints on how many could be affected by the blast in which case it starts becoming more complex than it's worth. I think a simpler solution would just be to allow indirect fire at a penalty when using Bows and Longbows (not shortbows though, those were traditionally a pretty direct shot sort of weapon).

[Thornblood]

If you got a blast template for say , every ten models in the unit.... but now we are into epic 40k rules?

I like it, its worth thinking through. I think with indirect bowfire you sort of get thick lines of arrows on the ground (roughly the same shape of the formation that shot them, but over a larger blurry area).

But the more I think about it, the more it seems the current way works.

On the other hand if we get to Fantasy-apocalypse (ok were nearly there) I would really appreciate a quicker way to resolve using units of 40+ models. Ordanance template maybe....

[Wildeybeast]

I can understand where you are coming from here with the indirect fire idea, but even when firing over intevening troops, a skilled bowman has a good idea of where his arrow is going to land. I think that if you want to introduce an indirect fire rule, a better way of doing it would be with 'to hit' modifiers, as chronowraith suggets, rather than blast templates.

[pauljc]

Fair points all. I suppose when you think about it, firing a template or shooting directly doesn't really make a difference anyway. :)