HE Pen and damage to units in buildings.

[Caleb Fisher]

This question came up recently after playing a game where this occurred, but I am not entirely sure on the answer.

When rolling for damage on a unit in a building hit by HE, does the HE pen modifier apply to the hits caused? I have always assumed it does, but I could not find anywhere stating that this is true for buildings.

I get that HE 2″ causes 1d6 hits and HE 3″ causes 2d6 hits, etc… But do the hits use the pen value when rolling to damage, or are they just regular hits that also happen to ignore the extra protection rule and bring buildings down after 10+ hits?

I couldn’t seem to find anything specifically stating the pen modifer applied to these hits. It also seems very similar to how when a transport gets destroyed it causes d6 hits to each unit inside. The hits from a destroyed transport don’t have any pen value (as far as I am aware), so it seems like a similar situation to me.

On another note, if the hits do not use a pen value for this, does that also mean a medic can save casualties caused by this damage (with the exception of a building collapse)? I am much more skeptical on this, although I couldn’t help but think about it after the first question.

In any case, any clarification would be great.

[Stuart Harrison]

1. Yes, and you’re looking for the wrong thing  with applying the pen value – can you find anything that suggests it DOESN’T apply in buildings?  You have a general rule that it applies, unless you have a specific rule that it doesn’t apply in that situation, it still applies.

2. It’s not similar.  In case of the transport, the unit is not the target of the attack, the transport is.  The unit is taking damage as a result of the transport being destroyed, not being hit by the weapon.  In the case of a unit in a building, the unit is the target.  They are being attacked by the weapon with a possibility of the building being brought down if sufficient hits are scored.

[Caleb Fisher]

I was thinking they did. I just wish it was explicitly stated that the hits apply the pen modifier when attacking units in a building. This is kind of why the issue came up in our game, since there was nothing explicitly saying so. It would certainly make buildings much safer.

Also, I reread the medic rules, and it says heavy weapons, so it wouldn’t matter if the hits used a pen modifer or not during an attack, only that the weapon has a pen value to begin with. I think we’re good there.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by Caleb Fisher.

[Nat]

Buildings – they give the extra protection rule which makes them safer as it effectviely negates +1 PEN – NOTE this rule states modified as useual so tells you the PEN modifiers are used.

Medics – key point there’s a German DDay Theater List that gives MMGs +1 PEN against infantry… they’d still save those hits (well possibly :p)

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