Hi!
Can you clarify the rules for distributing damage when a model is shooting at a group of targets that are base-to-base, including friendly units and the shooting model itself?
Specifically, I’m interested in understanding whether the damage from the attack is distributed randomly to each targeted model or if there is any spill-over effect to other models engaged in close combat.
Shooting into engaged models, Page 26, Rules of Play, you get a +2 because the melee is easier to hit, but all the damage goes to a randomly selected unit in the group, unless it’s an area of effect weapon.
Let’s say your Nora fires her 10mm Auto Pistol into a group consisting of two Super Mutants engaged with Dogmeat. Her intended target is Super Mutant #1. Her attack succeeds, but now you place token #1 on Super Mutant #1, token #2 on Dogmeat, token #3 on Super Mutant #2, and token #4 on Super Mutant #1. Nora rolls the Red Armor dice and rolls a “3”, so both wounds go to Super Mutant #2, who then rolls for his Armor Save, if applicable.
If Nora fired a Missile Launcher at the melee, she gets her +2, hits the melee, assigns the tokens the same way so Super Mutant #1 gets tokens #1 and #4. She ends up rolling a “3”, Super Mutant #2 ends up being the primary target so he gets hit by 3 Physical Wounds (plus any bonus wounds or affects), while the other two engaged units get hit by 2 Physical Wounds (plus any bonuses or affects) because they’re within Yellow centered on SM#2.
If the Weapon Range was Orange, depending on where SM#1 is located in relation to SM#2, he might not get hit, but Dogmeat would, since the center Orange would touch Dogmeat’s base.
What if Nora is base-to-base with any of the targets or two of them, how would the damage distribution work in that scenario? Does her proximity to the engaged models impact how the damage tokens are assigned the same way?
If Nora is engaged with her target, you don’t randomize anything, she gets a -2 to her shooting and the target she’s engaged with gets a +1 to its appropriate armor rating.
P. 24 Rules of Play, Using Ranged Weapons in Close Combat
What if Nora is base-to-base with a friendly unit, and that friendly unit is also base-to-base with enemy targets, and Nora decides to fire at one of the targets, would the damage distribution be randomized in this case, similar to shooting at a target group that includes a friendly unit?
If Nora isn’t engaged with an enemy unit and fires at an enemy that’s engaged with a friendly, it’s randomized between her friendlies and the enemies.
If Nora is engaged in the melee and is engaged with an enemy who’s also engaged with one of Nora’s friendlies, it’s not randomized. Edit: Also, since Nora is using a shooting attack in Melee, she gets a -2 penalty to hit and her target gets +1 to their Armor