Matrix Games Forums

I have found that you can attack units in melee without incurring damage to the attackers side units.
Is this the way it is supposed to be?
I think in the old ASL rules both sides had to take effects from the fire.
I also haven't experienced the other side trying to attack units in melee, which makes it seem an unfair advantage.
No big thing, just wondering.

ORIGINAL: slaphappypappy

I have found that you can attack units in melee without incurring damage to the attackers side units.
Is this the way it is supposed to be?
I think in the old ASL rules both sides had to take effects from the fire.
I also haven't experienced the other side trying to attack units in melee, which makes it seem an unfair advantage.
No big thing, just wondering.

Your units in melee got lucky that's all

As Peter said, your units got lucky.

I attempted to get rid of one of those pesky BAZ teams in 'Audie Murphy',so I entered CC with a B* leader and two 2nd line German squads vs. an American HS. My units were all killed while the HS suffered no damage [:(].

The AI sometimes does attempt to enter CC, but nos as often as a human player does. I noticed it is quite fond of attacking AFVs in CC.

Let me clarify.
I have a stack in melee and I attack the stack with another unit.
Let's say two squads are in melee with a enemy tank. I attack the tank in melee with one of my tanks, destroying the tank in melee and doing no damage to my units in melee.
I have done it multiple times and have never got any damage to my units. I have also attacked opposing squads in melee with units outside of the melee and broken or reduced the enemy with are then eliminated in the rout phase.
Is this within the rules?

I misunderstood your first statement.

If you attack an AFV with an AT round, I think the other units in the hex shouldn't be affected. Should you fire a HE round, the units in the hex should be affected, but ToTH does not allow firing HE at an AFV, so the issue is pointless. I think OBA affects all the units in a hex regardless of their side (I saw the AI kill most of its units by calling OBA in a urban setting [:D]).

I very rarely fired small arms or HE into a hex, usually to free some units from a CC and allow them to move away. I do not remember the effects of such fire, but I always assumed my units would be affected. I'm going to make some tests and I will report the results.

(Incidentally, entering CC is a favorite tactic of mine when dealing with Panthers, Tigers and the like: when the AFV is engaged in CC it cannot fire out of its hex. This way, I can move my AFVs where they can fire at the rear of the big cat [:D]. This is how I killed a Tiger I with a SU-76M in "Dzherzinsky Square" [:D]).

I concocted one of my test scenarios: I set up 6 German conscripts and 6 US Green intended as CC guinea pigs and 6 US airborne armed with .50 cal HMG to be sure to pour some effective fire (7+8=15*2= 30 FP) into the CC hexes.

I fired 5 times on the 4 Melee hexes, with the results shown in the 5 windows on the left: the fire affected both GE and US squads.

Since this was a German turn, the German units routed first: the AI didn't route, so the GE units were eliminated for a variety of reasons (being in the same hex with US units, being in normal range of other US units). US units broken by friendly fire were able to rout because there were no more GE units preventing them from doing so (this could not happen in a real scenario).

Anyway, this test proves that both friendly and enemy units are affected by friendly fire in a CC/melee hex.

Thanks UP!
Sorry, I should have tried that test myself.