Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[frankfrey]

Since I like to do a lot of ACW skirmishing, I developed a set of rules for massed volley fire in Showdown. These rules should work for anything from a unit of elvish archers to a line of Civl War infantry. They're basically a varian of the Suppressive Fire Rule on p.10 of Showdown.
Volley Fire:
In order to fire a controlled volley, a unit must consist of between 6-12 figures all armed with the same missle weapon. Any excess figures above 12 should be treated as seperate units following the same 6-12 figure limit.
The unit must be formed in close order with no more than a 1/2" seperating each figure. There must also be a command figure(usually an NCO) with the unit. This figure doesn't have to be a Wild Card.
The units arc of fire is directly to its front.
Roll a firing die with all applicable modifiers (including Snapfire) for the following effect
Failure= No Effect
Success = Normal Results (Figure hit on Spirit Roll of 1)
Success With Raise = Figure Is Hit On Roll of 1-2
Succes With Two or More Raises = Figure Is Hit On A Roll of 1-3

I've found that if you simply take the average damage of a weapon (say 8 for a roll of 2d8) it can save a lot of die rolling. I also add a +1 to this number if the volley is fired at medium to close range.
For the ACW, I also add an additional +1 at close range if the unit is armed with smoothbores to simulate the devastating effects of "Buck and Ball"
Anyway, I've found these rules to add a great deal of flavor to black powder skirmishes. I look forward to your comments.

Frank Frey

[ogbendog]

From what I've read in historical fiction novels, volley fire's main use was in breaking morale; of 12 guys shoot and drop, say, 6 guys in 30 seconds it's not as scary as a volley of 12 muskets suddently dropping 6 guys all at once.

the downside is you ahve to wait for the slowest guy to load. I'd be tempted to say, takes an extra round to prepare for volley fire, but the unit attacked must make a morale check or be shaken?

[CynicalMisfit]

[SlasherEpoch]

[CynicalMisfit]

[frankfrey]