falling damage

By vmi_raven, in Dust Warfare

Posted at

This situation came up in the last match I had (SSU v. Axis)…a situation that is not covered in the core rulebook (or any of the campaign books) and has not been discussed in the FAQ or the forums.

My SSU Aero Walker is on the roof of a two storie building delivering artillery fire indiscriminately throughout the battlefield. Before he knows it, a squad of Axis Zombies have maneuvered their way up to the roof. They end their movement more than 3 inches from the Aero Walker. My Aero Walker was near the center of the roof while teh Zombies were all gathered near one of the corners.

Start of the next round, the first turn goes to my SSU troops. It is a this point all I wanted to do was get these Zombies away from my walker since they were within the minimum range of its dual quad mortars and the odds of wiping them out with an indirect fire strike was slim to none. Then "crazy Ivan" whispered into my ear….overrun the zombies. The walker's base easily would touch all the zombie in the overrun and the rules state the Zombies would move 1 inch away from the overrunning vehicle……in this case it would be 1 inch off the edge fo the roof and straight down. But what happens to the Zombies after they fall two stories to the hard, hard ground below?

The rules are silent about falling damage, and neither I or my opponent could come to an agreement on the fate of the Zombies.

So instead of delaying the game, I decided to go with plan B…run away. I turned the walker away from the zombies and ran right off the roof. We agreed that despite their being no rules on falling damage that it was perfectly reasonable that a walker that's designed to heavy drop from high altitudes can easily jump off the side of the buiding without issue.

So the question for all, have anyone else run into the issue of falling? And if any of the FFG's official rules guru's are reading, what is the official word on "falling damage" if any?

Posted at

There are three ways this could be resolved.

1) Unable to move the 1" required the Zombies must react with movement to make the 3" movement to go down 1 story. Move zombies, give reactioon marker.

2) The zombies cannot flee the 1" required and therefore are removed from play (destroyed).

3) The walker cannot enforce the 1" distance move because of its location and therefore probably cannot overrun (lamps and chairs and holes in the floor slow its movement).

Alternatively, you could just rule that since they cannot move out of the way, instead of taking the damage in suppression (whcih doenst affect zombies or apes anyway) the models take a 1/1 attack per armor of the vehicle (in this case a 4/1 attack).

The rule is not focused on because normally walkers dont go into buildings, but with initial set up and aero-walker options I suppose it could come up.

I will send an official question to Zach as well.

Posted at

Movement is handled somewhat abstractly. If you were to Overrun them (which seems odd, since they can't be suppressed and would put them easily in your rear arc), you could move your movement and go up or down one level. So, pretty much, if you can't end the move legally, you can't do it (as in, hanging off the edge of the terrain).

Posted at

I think the key to this lies in the wording of the rule.

"If the vehicle would end its movement within 1” of any Soldier miniature, that miniature must move the minimum distance to be at least 1” away from the vehicle, by the shortest route possible."

This, to me, means that the miniatures being overrun could move more than 1" if they had to. So in your case they would have to move to either where the model is no longer at (so essentially you are just swapping space with the squad) or they would have to spend the movement to go down or up a floor.

It is probably a rule that needs rewritten or errata'd to a certain degree. I should cause a reaction marker IMHO and if the infantry cannot move (for whatever reason, already have a reaction/suppression marker, are trapped and so forth) the suppression roll should become and attack.

Lastly, the other option is if they models in question (the infantry) cannot move the required 1", stop the vehicle 1" away but resolve suppression anyway (moot point against zombies).

Posted at

Zach's official reply:

"Hi CS,

Your answer is as good as any, as there are no specific rules regarding falling damage or rooftop overruns.
With only the current rules to go by, I would probably rule that the zombies would be forced to move to within 1 inch of the walker, and if they are forced off the building in the process they would be placed onto the ground at the base of the building but would take no damage from the fall, regardless of how far they fall. They would still need to adhere to the rules for vertical movement if they decided to make a return to the rooftop, and if several stories were involved, it could potentially cost them more than a single activation to do so.
However, if I had my way with the rules on this one, I would probably also have any Soldier unit that is forced off a building suffer a */1 attack for every story/3" beyond the first that it falls. So, although a single story drop would cause no damage, falling two stories would result in the unit suffering a */1 attack, a fall of three stories would result in the unit suffering a **/1 attack, and so on."
Posted at

Didn't expect such a lively discussion on my question. Thanks to all who replied, very enlightning and helpful. Hopefully they put falling damage into the next campaign book. :)