hunkering down

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talagarz
Posts: 28
Joined: Sat May 02, 2020 10:36 am

hunkering down

Post by talagarz »

Hi guys

what does this mean? really getting their head down hiding deep in the trenches? I get that it makes it more difficult to hit, but can hunkering down troops shoot e.g.? we had a platoon in a trench in light woods, so we decided this would mean a poor shot. but can they hunker down to make it even more difficult to shoot at them and still fire?

with regards

Jan
Archdukek
Posts: 5741
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:49 pm
Location: Linlithgow, West Lothian, UK

Re: hunkering down

Post by Archdukek »

Hi Jan,
“Hunkering down” just means trying to make the maximum use of whatever cover is available and as it says in 7.3 this makes the enemy fire at one level worse. Hunkering down in a trench in light cover will certainly improve the targets chances to avoid getting hit. Depending on the circumstances, in addition to making it a poor shot you could treat it as if the enemy were firing at a longer range band as well.

When a unit is hunkered down it isn’t firing but the impact on firing depends on how you and your opponent use your action dice. It requires one dice to hunker down so that immediately limits the number of dice available to shoot with. Typically a unit with 3 actions might use 2 dice to shoot before hunkering down to make themselves a smaller target to any retaliatory fire from the enemy. They could subsequently pop up, fire then hunker down again. If the enemy unit has reserved his dice (effectively been placed on Overwatch) it could interrupt that sequence to fire when the enemy reappears so that they don’t get the benefit of hunkering down.

Hope that helps,

John
dirk bracke
Posts: 65
Joined: Tue May 12, 2020 11:52 am
Location: Gent - Belgium

Re: hunkering down

Post by dirk bracke »

Hi John

Thank you for the answer, does this popping up counts as a movement action too?

cheers

Jan
Archdukek
Posts: 5741
Joined: Tue Sep 03, 2013 11:49 pm
Location: Linlithgow, West Lothian, UK

Re: hunkering down

Post by Archdukek »

Hi Jan,
The rules don’t specify and to be honest I think this needs to be a judgement call to some degree as it’s a bit situational. Popping up from the bottom of a trench I would be inclined to treat as requiring an action to move back into a firing position so limiting your actions for firing particularly if you want to hunker down again.
I’d probably be a bit more generous and ignore the movement bit if the firer was in the open or skulking behind a bush.

Just decide with your opponent in advance how you want to treat it.

John
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