Can you need a negative number to hit?

[Forlorn Hope]

In a recent game I played for the first time with a Rhino, who came out fairly late in the game and ended up shooting at a lot of injured models (with correspondingly low DVs). The combination of this somewhat lucky use of him (didn't really plan it) and my seeming to roll at least one 9 or 10 every time he fired meant that he did some serious damage. I didn't talk about this with Sergeant Crunch (my opponent) at the time, but here is the way we were doing it (IIRC):

 

Rhino DV 11 vs hard, Target DV 9, so need a -2 to hit

roll and score a critical, then roll a 3, the critical does 5 extra hits?

 

Does this seem right, or is there some kind of bottom that the to hit number won't drop below for calculating criticals?

[Sergeant_Crunch]

Technically the math would (11+3)-9 or (mods + 1d10)-target DV. But the result is five. It didn't really come up because the die rolls were obviously more than enough to take out the models so we didn't crunch the numbers.

[MattyFoe]

SuccessorLord and I have had this come up before. (Well, he has had it come up. I merely was on the recieving end.) It made sense to us that, lacking any known language in the rule-book to the contrary, there is no ceiling/basement to a target for critical damage rolls.

 

Trust me, it is unpleasant when your shielding/3 only pushes the target number to a 2.

[papabees]

Trust me, it is unpleasant when your shielding/3 only pushes the target number to a 2.

 

Can you explain this sentence in more detail?

[Forlorn Hope]

Trust me, it is unpleasant when your shielding/3 only pushes the target number to a 2.

 

Can you explain this sentence in more detail?

 

I think they are doing the math like I did, and then using shielding to push the target number back up, so that, in my example, the Rhino at RAV 11 would need a -2 to hit the target at DV 9 and shielding/3. The hit then is automatic, but if a critical is rolled then the target number for the critical is reduced (opr raised) by the shielding number -- so if a crit is rolled, then the new target number to determine crit damage would be -2 plus 3 for shielding = 1, so extra damage would start on a roll of 2+. Is this right Mattyfoe?

 

This is pretty harsh, though. As I mentioned, the Rhino came out when a lot of models already had some hits on them, and then I was quite lucky rolling crits, but that kind of high-RAV Blaster really changes the game - I am used to smaller models that really have to plink away, advance, hide, plink away again. The Rhino (esp. with a fresh Puma running ECM in his wake - DV 17) felt a little bit like bringing a Maxim machinegun team to an Old West minis game...

[Sergeant_Crunch]

Well, the GRCs on the Rhino are called Maxims....

[Spartan6]

Me and Shaun always played "0" to hit as an auto hit but roled to see if it was a crit or not.

[EntilZha]

Me and Shaun always played "0" to hit as an auto hit but roled to see if it was a crit or not.

 

That's how I've played it with the local CAV players.

[Sergeant_Crunch]

That's what we were doing as well. He's referring to the roll for extra damage.

[MattyFoe]

Trust me, it is unpleasant when your shielding/3 only pushes the target number to a 2.

 

Can you explain this sentence in more detail?

 

I think Forlorn Hope got it fairly well. Edd and I calculate the number needed to score a hit of the d10 roll. I.e., we add all of the bonuses and penalties (RAV, cover, etc.) and then subtract this value from the target's DV. The result is the roll needed. For a critical, we add one + any shielding value to arrive at a critical damage target.

 

Since the big guns can put out such high mods, sometimes shielding cannot actually stop you from taking automatic critical damage. Such as when something can put up a ten-plus against something damaged down to a six or seven.

 

Spartan,

We also see a 1 as an auto-hit with only a polite roll to determine if the hit is a crit. possibility. I have found this to be painfully relevant with the Rhino and that Blaster SA.