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	Archive of Official Q&A Rulings	1		03/30 03:50pm
	Archive through September 06, 2015	25		08/11 12:48am
	Archive through February 20, 2021	25		02/20 07:51pm

The BUNKER Answers!

L7.11d Infantry cannot damage or destroy a bunker except by close assault. All kinds of units (except HW or GWV) can shoot at a bunker normally but a "destroy" result stuns one unit inside (no damage to bunker); any other result has no effect. Heavy weapons units (HW or GWV) can fire at the bunker and produce a destroy (the bunker) or damage (the bunker) result or a stun result (which stuns a unit inside the bunker).

L7.11b: Any unit inside a bunker which is stunned counts as one of the limited number of units able to fire out of the bunker in the direction the attack that produced the stun came from.

L7.21a: Indirect fire (GWV or HW) cannot damage or destroy a bunker but can be fired at a bunker. Such fire can stun the troops inside. A "destroy" result stuns one unit inside; any other result has no effect.

L7.26A3 Unitary transporter artillery) can damage or destroy a bunker.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:27 pm: Edit

L7.14a: Fighters are the ONLY units with a "turn mode". Gunboats and shuttles do not have one.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:29 pm: Edit

TRANSPORTER ARTILLERY

L7.26c: This clearly says you can only use one shot per game turn. This overrides E20.111 which is an abstraction.

L7.26a: Transporter Artillery does NOT get the -1 bonus for a range one attack.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:32 pm: Edit

SHIPS

L8.4: Ships in orbit cannot fire into an SFM scenario. (If you were willing to do that, you never sent the Marines. If the Marines fail and you want to nuke the site from orbit just to be sure, you cannot do so until all of your Marines are removed from the map. Captured Marines are assumed to have been escorted off the map 10 turns after capture.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:51 pm: Edit

MISC

L5.12 Units can spot during the shooting phase and then move during the movement phase.

On the Terrain Table the road should have the * for wheels and hover.

Truck passengers are "internal" even though the vehicle probably has an open top.

L7.12: Every andro unit is consider a HQ for purposes of the benefits but is not consider militia.

Vehicles cannot harm anything just by movement. They have to shoot at it to hurt it.

"A Battle Raider flew onto the map and broke the scenario because the Marines had no way to hit it." This was never true, either side of rules (the one on the chart or the real one) allowed attacks on ships.

If two "ships" are on the map they fire at each other using SFB rules including directionality of shields and weapons. (You're really going beyond what SFM was designed for.)

Anything that can receive a damage result is killed by the second damage result (unless another number of damage results is given in specific cases).

L7.13d4: The rules treat all shuttles equally (3 damage results destroy them). You could argue that it should be 2 for shuttles, 3 for fighters and GAS/GBS shuttles, 4 for heavy fighters/shuttles, 5 for bombers of either size but changing the published rule doesn't seem worth it. Call it an optional rule if you want. Both players would have to agree.

L7.27 applies to anything (vehicle, building, shuttle, gunboat, ship) that isn't a bunker (which have their own rules)_so four stuns equal a damage and several damage results equal a kill.

L5.23 A result of 0 or a negative number is counted as "1" unless the cell of the Combat Table has such a result listed, e.g., armed truck vs armored vehicle.

L4.3 is supposed to say the same thing as L7.27. If that isn't clear, L7.27 is right, L4.3 needs fixing.

L7.21: Snipers do not have an extended range capability.

L5.17 can indirect fire within normal range be supporting fire. Yes, but not for a close assault.

L7.21b To control counterbattery fire, the HQ must be within range of the unit conducting the counterbattery fire; It does not have to be in any particular range of the enemy unit that did the original attack or the friendly unit that was the target of the original attack. GWV can perform counterbattery fire. Counterbattery fire that is indirect fire has the +2 penalty in addition to the +1 penalty. Counterbattery fire that is direct fire does not have this penalty.

L7.21a All extended range fire by heavy weapon/GWVs is indrect. Non-extended range fire by heavy weapons/GWVs is direct fire if the HW/GWV can spot its own target and is indirect fire (even at normal range) with that penalty if it cannot spot the target itself.

L7.25 Vehicles in VBPs do not get the double bonus for covering terrain.

L9.32 Buying Romulan platoons of 4 squads costs 1.5 not 3.0 points.

L5.4 units can start the scenario with opportunity fire markers from "turn zero".

If you are dumb enough to use a HQ for a close assault it is a militia unit just like it says.

Marsh is not covering terrain for hover vehicles. Other vehicles cannot be in marsh.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 07:55 pm: Edit

There was a question about a walled city but no rule number. I think it's in one of the scenarios but I don't know for sure.

By Steve Cole (Stevecole) on Saturday, February 20, 2021 - 08:08 pm: Edit

GUNBOATS
The combat table uses the original/earlier playtest rule for shooting at ships/gunboats. This was replaced later but the replacement chart (which was on the website in 2013) somehow went 404 years ago.

The gunboat/ship column is this:
=
Marines: 1-3 damage, 4 stun, 5+ miss
=
Heavy Weapons, GCV: 1-4 damage, 5 stun, 6+ miss
=
Tank, GAV, GWV: 1-5 damage, 6 stun, 7+ miss
=
GB shuttle: 1-4 damage, 5 stun, 6+ miss
=
GS shuttle: 1-3 damage, 4 stun, 5+ miss
=
Admin Shuttle: 1-2damage, 3 stun, 4+ miss
=
Fighter: 1-5 damage, 6 stun, 7+ miss
=================
One could argue that gunboats should take 8 hits to kill but during the original design we deliberately decided to make it 6 just to encourage gunboat drivers to LEAVE when they get hit 4 times. After 4 hits they have no weapons so they may as well.
=
As for what specific systems are destroyed in SFB terms, I am going to spare you four pages consisting of one special rule for every gunboat in the SFB system and just tell you to use the PF-DAC from SFB except that you must take one weapons hit per four SFB damage points and can only take one weapon hit per four SFB damage points. So if you rolled three times the fourth one is a weapons hit, and if you got a weapons hit on the 1st or 2nd or 3rd then you re-roll any further weapons hits.

By C. Cox (Theletterc) on Monday, June 24, 2024 - 03:30 pm: Edit

Hey friends,

I recently bought Marines: Assault and finished reading the rules. Before jumping into play, I have a couple questions about the Combat Chart, notably regarding shuttles and fighters.

1) What are four the double daggers (‡) on chart indicating? I don't see an obvious note for them. They are two listed in the shuttles and fighters column, one on the admin shuttles range and one of the fighters, gunboats, and spaceships range.

2) Rule L7.13d1 says that shuttles have a range of 15 in aerial mode and 5 in hover. On the combat table, however, admins are listed as "10‡" Does this mean they have a shorter range not listed in the rules? Are they range 10 and unable to fire while hovering?

3) Fighters, gunboats and spaceships are also listed as 10‡ for range. I know fighters can't hover or land, but gunboats can and are listed as a having a range of 5 in the rules (L7.15d) so I'm again confused if they're 15/5 like shuttles and if so what does the 10‡ mean on the Combat Table?

I hope this make sense. I'll be happy to clairfy my confusion further if necessary.

Thanks!

By C. Cox (Theletterc) on Sunday, July 21, 2024 - 07:20 pm: Edit

Additional question about spotting: What is the point of being able to spot units at distances beyond the firing range? Does this only matter when using indirect fire from heavy weapons or shuttles?

For example, a regular marine squad as a spotting range of 5 and firing range of 3 (or 4 with extended range), what if anything can it do against a spotted target at range 5?



Another spotting question, rule L5.12c says that a unit on a hill has a spotting range of 1 plus its firing range, but a regular marine squad already has a spotting range of 5, which is one plus its maximum firing range of 4? Does it have any spotting advantage for being on a hill?
A regular marine squad already