Small Arms AA

[Darios]

Just stolling through the armybuilder i noticed there seems to be no more small arms AA shooting? I don't have my book at hands... is it covered elsewhere?

[Stompzilla]

Not that I've seen. I've asked the question more times than I can remember on FB too and have received no answer so far.

[Feral]

hey- it's covered in battle for earth- any weapon with the reducing rule (so any infantry weapon basically) can do a small 6" AA attack with bonuses for every shot combined together. it's broadly the same as the old small arms rule.

[spacemonkeymafia]

This Reduced-X rule is pretty wacky. They combined the old Reduced-X rule where damage to the infantry unit reduces the number of shots accordingly but then rolled in the old SWA-7 rule to get infantry shooting at aircraft. In the process, they don't limit it to becoming AA, going out of their way to say that it can apply to CQ attacks (which aren't limited to infantry v infantry fights). The skill says to reduce your shot value to 1 and add an Energy 1 value to your single shot based on how many shots you gave up. In extreme cases, this means my Resistance Berserkers can use Reduced-X to make a single E18 shot on any unit it can get into base2base contact with. CQ also auto-hits now so those berserkers one-shot an Odin on a 4+ (anything E13+ ignores passive saves). I think, technically (though I haven't checked all the rules), I can rush a skulltaker carrying two Berserker bases, drop them right near an Odin and attack in CQ killing it if either base rolls 4+ or both roll 2+. Again, auto-hitting even after disembarking...

Even if using that example is too much of an edge case, Praetorians firing at aircraft, when reduced to one shot, shoot with an E11 AA shot per base. I believe that makes them the strongest energy AA shot in the game (haven't checked all the sources). I feel errata is coming...

[Lorn]

I overlooked this rather hilarious interaction. So far I cannot find anything that stops this.

[Gauntlet]

Oh cheese! That's quite the unintended consequence (or god I hope so!). Honestly, maybe small arms fire can just go away... one wonders why space-capable drop ships can be downed by SMGs...

As for Beserkers and other CC nonsense... I dunno... it kinda represents infantry doing nasty things up and close?

[Lorn]

Sorry but no, a badly worded rule is not justification to remove Infantry AA and further restrict the number of units that can even shot gunships. In particular how air heavy for example UCM can be.

[Darios]

Sorry but no, a badly worded rule is not justification to remove Infantry AA and further restrict the number of units that can even shot gunships. In particular how air heavy for example UCM can be.

second that!

[Gauntlet]

I'm not using the poorly worded rule as justification, I'm sorry, if I gave you that impression (I can see why). I've never found the rule terribly sensible from a realist point of view... which was my thought. That being said I agree that it would remove a lot of fun tactical options.

[Aladinn]

I think it is trying to combine 2 rules that got nothing to do with each other.
now my praetorians can fire an E11 shot at any unit (ground or arial) at range 6. This makes the combined use of 5 small submachine guns a more powerfull shot than a e10 sabre railgun shot, which is pretty rediculous.
The idea frome the rule from the previous edition was that it only worked for specific units armed with proper rifles/guns that could target the window of an airplane or gunship or something like that. It worked pretty nice, but I think with the new rules it got messed up by combining the reduced rule with it.