HammerGS
commented
4 years ago Their is pending clarification - "Infantry never take damage from weapons fire that targets a 'mech in the same phase they attempt a Swarm."
Open HammerGS opened 4 years ago
HammerGS
commented
4 years ago Their is pending clarification - "Infantry never take damage from weapons fire that targets a 'mech in the same phase they attempt a Swarm."
Putting this here since the rules request is a result of a Megamek game. Apparently in the start of swarm phase the we are allowing damage to the swarming unit. I haven't actually tested this in game but don't want to lose it.
https://bg.battletech.com/forums/total-warfare/sub-phase-timing-of-swarming-and-weapons-attacks/msg1657706/#msg1657706
If battle armor initiates a swarm on a target and that target is shot at by another unit that same phase, can the elementals be hit accidentally?
Alternatively, is the status of 'being swarmed' conferred on the target before, during, or after the ordered application of weapons damage?
TW states (in short) that:
-- Weapons attacks on swarmed units can hit the troopers. -- Swarming attacks are made during weapons phase. -- (The sticking point) Weapons phase is kinda split into the sub-steps declaration, resolving weapons fire, and determining damage, but because initiating a swarm is not a weapons attack per se, I'm not sure when the status of 'swarmed' is conferred on the target.
Assuming that the success or failure of the swarm attack is determined in the same sub-step 'resolving weapons fire' it may be the case that the target is conferred the status of 'swarmed' during that step, prior to determining damage, in which case the target troopers may be hit during damage application.
Alternatively, the statuses of 'swarming' and 'swarmed' may be conferred as part of damage application. As such, it may be that the troopers may never be hit in this circumstance because the 'swarming' and 'being swarmed' statuses are conferred simultaneously with weapons damage.
However, damage application is not really simultaneous but is (informally) ordered by the order in which the damage is applied. If the status of 'swarmed' is conferred as a kind of damage-effect, at any time during damage application (similar to how the damage of a anti-mech leg-attack is resolved), then troopers may or may not have a chance to be hit accidentally, contingent on when the 'swarmed' effect is applied. That said, it's hard to imagine a case where the attacker would ever want to resolve the swarm success at any point other than at the very end, which would make the variability redundant...