EPIC WARPATH: Shooting in an Epic Scaled Wargame

20th Dec 2023

Matt Gilbert

In this article we will take a look at the Overwatch Phase and Shooting.

This is the fifth in a series of EPIC WARPATH blogs heading into the Kickstarter Campaign.

You can catch up on the previous blogs here:

You can bookmark the campaign page HERE, and don’t forget to hit the ‘notify me’ button!

DISCLAIMER: The game is still in development and models are still being worked on, so some details might be different in the final product!

Rules Update

Since the blog post discussing the Movement Phase was published, we've realised in testing that we can streamline the Shoot and Assault tokens into a single Combat Token.

If a Unit with a Combat Token is not engaged with an enemy Unit, then it can spend that token to shoot. If it is engaged with the enemy, it can spend it to trigger the assault.

One less token type to worry about!

Shooting First

Units that were given an Overwatch Action Token will have been able to fire at an enemy unit that Assaulted them in the Movement Phase – but in doing so will already have (automatically!) spent their Overwatch Action Token.

In the Overwatch Phase, players can activate any Units that still have an Overwatch Action Token.

The player with the Initiative this Round chooses whether they will be the first player to act or not.

When a player choose to activate a Unit, they “spend” its Overwatch Action Token to do so. Firing in this Phase means that Units will get to fire before any Units that also moved.

Having an Overwatch Action Token is also mandatory for any Unit that wishes to fire Indirect weapons at a target the Unit cannot see.

Range and Line of Sight (LOS)

The weapons a Unit has are listed on their profile, and will show how far each weapon can shoot (in inches). A Unit can normally only select one enemy Unit as the target for a shooting attack, and the target must be in range of the shooting weapons. Only enemy Bases that are in LOS are eligible targets.

Shooting

The player shooting rolls a number of D8s equal to the number of firing bases multiplied by the Attack Dice (ADice) value of the weapon. So if six bases are firing and their weapons have an ADice value of 2, the player would roll 12 dice. The Unit’s SH (Shoot) value tells the player what result they need to count as a hit. For example, if the SH value is 5+, all dice that roll 5 or more will be a hit. Some modifiers to the results may apply – for example the target Unit may be in cover.

The player then takes all the dice that hit successfully, and rolls to equal or better the AR (Armour) value of the enemy Unit. For each successful roll, one eligible enemy Base in the target unit is removed!

Of course, there are things like keywords that offer re-rolls, saves, armour penetration etc., and different units will have different mixes of abilities. But put simply, you roll to hit, roll to damage and that’s it!

Vehicles with Primary weapons, can split their fire between two enemy units (Primary and Secondary weapons).

Barrage and Blast

Some weapons fire highly explosive ammunition that covers a large area. To represent this, EPIC WARPATH uses Blast Templates.

Blast Templates determine how many Bases in a Unit are hit. Units firing multiple Blast weapons will lay down multiple Blast Templates!

Blasts like this are great for representing artillery strikes, but the sometimes Indirect nature of these can mean the attack doesn’t always land where a player wants. To simulate this, Warpath uses a D8 scatter die. The results will either indicate the shot is on target, or a direction (and distance) the shot travels in and lands instead. Blasts can be fired directly (with good accuracy but in a smaller area) and indirectly (inaccurate, but potentially affecting a larger area).

So Blasts are a great way of covering multiple enemy Bases (or even units), but there’s a risk a player could hit their own Units too!

Assault Reactions

A unit with an Overwatch Token that has been Assaulted by an enemy Unit in the Movement Phase, must spend its token immediately to shoot at that Unit once it has completed its move, removing casualties before the Assault can happen. Putting a Unit on Overwatch is a great defence if you suspect you are going to be charged, but don’t want to give up the ground you hold. Of course, it means you can’t then fire in the Overwatch Phase too, so a canny enemy can throw cheap or expendable Units your way to prevent you getting your shots away!

Delaying Tactics

Finally, a unit with an Overwatch Token can, instead of firing, swap its Action Token for a Combat Token, deciding to delay firing until the Combat Phase.

Up Next

In the next article, I’ll look at shooting and assaulting in the Combat Phase.

Don’t forget to sign up to the EPIC WARPATH Kickstarter page below to get notified when the project goes live!