Fire Combat

Fire combat in Ambush!: the seven-step procedure, range, modifiers, jams, ammunition, crew weapons and bazookas.

During Action Rounds a standing or crouching soldier may fire any weapon he carries, if he has at least one clip for it and can see the target (rulebook p. 20). Crew weapons and bazookas must be prepared first. Fires are resolved one at a time, in any order for the US and in letter order for the Germans; results apply at once. The base chances, ranges, jam and ammunition numbers are all on the Weapon Chart of the Chart Reference Screen.

No soldier may fire into a hex holding a friendly active soldier unless he is in that hex himself. A hex with only incapacitated, dead or captured friends may be fired into, but not at the German guarding a prisoner (p. 20).

The procedure

1. Target and fire type: pick the weapon, aimed or snap fire, and, in a multiple-target hex, the soldier (p. 20).
2. Jam or dud: roll percentile dice; at or below the weapon’s Jam number the weapon jams (or the round is a dud) and the fire ends. Snap firing twice rolls twice.
3. Range: same or adjacent hex needs no count. Otherwise count hexes from the firer (exclusive) to the target (inclusive) and read short, medium or long on the Weapon Chart.
4. Hit chance: the base chance for that range, minus the sum of the modifiers from the Fire Combat Modifiers Chart combined with the firer’s . Clamp the result to 0–8.
5. Roll one die: at or below the hit chance hits. 0 always hits; 9 always misses.
6. Damage: roll one die on the weapon’s row of the Damage Table: panic, wound, incapacitated or killed, and any penetration (see Damage).
7. Ammunition: roll percentile dice on the Out of Ammo column; at or below the number a clip is spent. Twice for two snap shots.

Range

Range is the shortest count of hexes to the target, including the target’s hex and excluding the firer’s (p. 20).

Modifiers

The Fire Combat Modifiers Chart crosses the target’s stance with the terrain he stands in; the firer’s own stance and terrain never matter except for vehicles (p. 21). It also lists the other shifts: snap fire, wounded firer (−1), captured weapon (−1) and more. All modifiers and the firer’s combine into one number applied to the base chance.

Friendly fire and multiple targets

A hex with more than one enemy soldier or vehicle is a multiple target (p. 21). You pick any German you can see. A German firing at your stack must shoot the most exposed soldier: standing before crouching before prone, ties at random.

Aimed fire with an automatic weapon at a multiple target adds +1 to the base chance per target beyond the first (vehicles count, even if immune), and a hit on the declared target may carry on to others: roll damage again, and while each roll is lower than the one before, the next most exposed soldier is also hit (p. 21, 27).

Jams and ammunition

A jammed weapon cannot fire until cleared. Clearing is an action in Operations or Rounds: roll one die against the soldier’s on the Clear Jammed Weapon Chart; a broken weapon is gone for the mission, and a captured weapon clears at WS −1 (p. 21).

A US soldier carries up to six Ammo Boxes. Grenades, satchel charges and bazooka rounds are crossed off when used; clips only when the Out of Ammo roll says so, and only clips of the weapon fired. Reloading a personal or crew weapon is automatic; a bazooka is reloaded with a Prepare action (p. 21).

Germans never spend clips. They run out of ammunition only when a paragraph says so; a German ordered to fire with no ammunition fires a secondary weapon, swaps ammunition with a German in his hex, takes his first non-firing option or lies prone, and never leaves his path to find more (p. 21). A German with a jammed weapon uses his second weapon or spends his fire orders clearing the jam; a weaponless German picks one up from a German or an inactive US soldier in his hex (p. 21).

German fire terms

A German fires his primary weapon, the one with the best chance to hit; grenades are never primary. Best fire means aimed if he can, otherwise snap. Closest target counts hexes, ties go to the easiest; easiest target is the one he has the highest chance to hit, ties go to the closest; final ties are random (p. 22).

Crew weapons

Light, medium and heavy machineguns are crew weapons with their own marker, prepared side up when ready (p. 22).

• Carried in pieces by exactly two soldiers: a light or medium machinegun fills three Port Boxes, a heavy four. The carriers may separate but must share a hex to prepare it; in Operations that is automatic, in Rounds it costs one action. Moving a piece unprepares it.
• A firer must be crouching. One soldier alone always snap fires. Two soldiers may each snap fire once, or combine their two actions into one aimed fire resolved with the declared firer’s ; at most two soldiers fire one weapon per Round. Two Germans use the higher WS.

Bazookas

A bazooka is a personal weapon that cannot snap fire. Preparing it (loading) is an action by the carrier or another soldier in the hex; it stays loaded while moving and each shot crosses off a round (p. 22). Against a soldier use the Personnel result, then roll the Grenade Inside row for every other soldier in the hex; against a building or vehicle use the Penetration result. A miss has no effect and never scatters.

Optional: Germans firing at walls

The rulebook suggests an optional rule for Germans facing a target who has gone prone inside a wooden building: if his paragraph gives him no other option, a Perception Check lets him crouch and fire at the wall for a penetration result; a tank uses its main gun on stone and a machinegun on wood (p. 22–23).