HE vs soft skin

[SteveT]

This has probably been asked lots of times but I cannot seem to locate a definite answer for Rules v2.

What if a soft skin  is hit by an AP shell? Just roll once on the vehicle damage table?

What if a soft skin  is hit by an HE shell? Just roll once on the vehicle damage table with the HE pen modifier, or multiple hits needs a 6 to damage?

 

Thanks

 

[Master Chief]

In both cases the steps should be:

(1) roll to hit, adding all applicable to-hit modifiers

(2) for each hit, roll to damage, adding the weapon’s Pen value and checking against the Damage Value Table (page 106).  For HE, place template with vehicle in the center (page 107). This is done as the template might also cover nearby units which will be hit. For multiple HE hits, place the templates as described on page 69. Each template is a hit, so roll as many dice as templates.

(3) for all hits that do damage, roll against the Damage Results Against Vehicles table (page 108).  Pen value is not used. For soft-skins, always full or massive damage, no superficial damage.

[Nat]

Just to add that for softskins you never get a superficial roll on the damage table, but could end up rolling massive damage (if the damage roll is 3 or more than the target roll twice on the damage table)

 

 

[Jacob Carter]

I’m going to check when I get home, unless Master Chief can beat me to it.  I’m pretty sure that there is a rule where rolling a 1 on a wound or penetrating roll always counts as a fail no matter what AP value a weapon has.

[Nat]

yeah that rule is there…cant give a page number as my PC has messed the pages of my digital copy up!… but in the basic shooting rules ‘Roll to Damage’ section it says is says “Regardless of any modifiers that apply, a roll of a 1 is always a failure”

• This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Nat.

[Stuart Harrison]

One incorrect statement I spotted in MasterChief’s reply:

“For multiple HE hits, place the templates as described on page 69. Each template is a hit, so roll as many dice as templates.”

Once placed, multiple templates act like a single irregular shaped template, not as individual templates.  Each model under them is only hit once – not once per template.

Edit to add reference:

See p70, Weapons, Weapon Special Rules, HE (High Explosive), Multiple HE hits, last two sentences of the first para – also note that you only suffer a single batch of pins, not one per template. (second para)

• This reply was modified 3 years, 12 months ago by Stuart Harrison.

[SteveT]

So… from one HE strike each soft-skin take only 1  hit  (and 1 roll maximum on the damage table)? I assume so otherwise this will be a massacre :p

[Stuart Harrison]

@ Steve T, correct – see p107, Vehicles, Shooting at Vehicles, Hits From HE Shells, first para, second sentence – “The vehicle itself takes a single hit, as the unit consists of a single model – just roll to damage the vehicle using the pen value of the shell (see page 70).”  Note there is no distintion between types of vehicle, this applies to all vehicles.

First edition was very different in this respect – a soft skin could take 3D6 hits from a single heavy howitzer hit.  Before the first errata, this applied to armoured vehicles too, making HE the best AT weapons for the sheer number of possible damage rolls.

[Nat]

@stevet – as I said earlier massive damage still applies

[Stuart Harrison]

As Nat says, massive damage is a possibility with 3″ or 4″ templates vs a soft skin, so it is possible to have two rolls on the damage results chart despite only having one hit and one roll on the roll to damage.

[Author]

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