In a game today I placed 3 companies of Uruk ballistas inside a ruined building. I was playing an opponent who had Dwarves and had 3 companies of Dwarven ballistas.

He fired at the Uruk Ballistas in the building and added +2 to each dice, since it says on page 61 to add +2 to artillery whe shooting at a building. However, it also says that a 1 always misses and does damage to the friendly units.

Granted, ballistas have their own hit tables, but a +2 to hit for attacking anything in a building makes it automatic to hit the target. I argued that I did not think that the authors meant that a hit from ballistas is automatic, and that there should be a chance of failure just like trebuchets and cataputs. Thus, just like them, ballistas could miss if a 1 is rolled.

We agreed that this was the interpretation, but I would like to see what you all think?

Brian

You should have carried on reading pastthe table Last line says a rolled 1 is always a Friendly Fire result.

Hithero,

The wording in the book does not say "a roll of 1 is always a miss," it says "a roll of 1 is always a friendly fire result." There is no friendly fire results with ballistas, they simply miss. Since it does not say they "miss" this that means you never miss a building.

If the cart on page 61 is to be replaced like it says under the special rules for each of the ballistas in the army lists, then that means when you roll a 1 you get a +2 modifier for firing at a target in the buildings. A score of 3 always hits.

So our conclusion is that what was meant by the authors was "a roll of 1 is always a MISS."

Brian

good question, but Id have played it was a hit

you can modify a "1" with might to not be a miss so unless the rules say somewhere Im not aware of, modifiers do just that, modify the 1 to the new number (no book here at the office)

just my thoughts on it.

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