Melee weapons with AoE damage

Fallout: Wasteland Warfare - Rules Questions
1

As fas as I know, there are 2 melee weapons wich are able to do AoE damage, Blade of the East and Fire Hydrant Bat (critical hit).
When I asked this to James, he said the weapons are different when measuring their AoE, but the icons and ruling are totally the same, but the differences are not stated in any place (they are just RPG perspectives about how the weapon would hit), so I think it should be updated in next FAQS or something because people get confused…

So, Fire Hydrant Bat critical attack could hit on the ground/target in any point around the wielder’s base (or up to Orange if you use Behemoth or Blitz perk while wielding it), taking the James’ explanation, creating a little earthquake or something like that, then:
A: Would be the measuring point that target/point on the ground and the wielder would hit himself if the area of effect catchs him up?
B: Is it measured from the center of the model’s base and the impact hits on himself, so there is not a real target? (like hammering beneath him)
C: It need a model to target and you measure the AoE from that model’s base.
But Blade of the East works in a different way regardless of the icons. In this case, the wielder’s attack is measured from his own base (center), and does not attack directly on any target or point on the ground (like a whirlwind attack), so the wielder attacks around him, not hitting himself.
Actually, it is totally legal to have the Blitz perk and Blade of the East on the same model, so how could you resolve this situation?
A: The attack is not a “whirlwind” attack anymore and you can target a point on the ground, possibly hitting yourself? (really odd from a RPG perspective)
B: Like A but you don’t hit yourself due to the initial intention with that weapon (pretty magical)
C: This is not allowed and it was not intended. It should be always measured from the wielder’s base
I suppose it would be treated as a Shooting action too as the FAQS stated.
In any case, this kind of melee weapons can create some odd situations with all the possiblities the game offers, and maybe they need to have their own short explanation on the card or something.

2

Hey @DK-dark

Blade of the East, the Fire Hydrant Bat and any other instances of melee weapons with AOE damage should not damage the model using it. Blade of the East will now behave like every other AOE weapon, with the AOE measured from the target model.

i am aware that this means that Blade of the East behaves differently. I don’t believe the clarification regarding the Blade of the East measuring the AOE from the attacker made it into an errata, which within itself makes it hard to track for newer players - we can’t expect them to trawl through the internet for answers and consistency is key. We’ll update this in the next errata.

With this explanation, you could place the AOE covering the user of the weapon (such as the Fire Hydrant Bat) but they still wouldn’t take damage from it.

This should also cover Blitz and melee weapons. You would make the one attack at a longer range and position the AOE on the target (who would be further away for that one attack).

I hope this answers your individual points?

1 Like
3

So, from now on, melee weapons with AoE damage never hit the wielder, it does not matter if you hit from your base or you hit in front of you wtih Blitz; and the AoE is always measured from the target’s base (but could you target any point in the battlefield, as usual with all AoE?)

4

Your understanding is correct here but it won’t be official until we add it to the next errata.

1 Like