Fire and Dice: Fighting the Guns

'Fighting a gun' refers to the term used by artillerymen in operating artillery in combat. In Fire and Dice, a single artillery model is considered an independent element, played as its own unit. They may also be combined into a larger unit: the battery. I strongly recommend batteries comprise no more than two guns.

Each gun model and crew have their own observation (OB) which is a standard attribute for artillery (includes ATG and AA guns). Concealment (CONC) values depend on gun size and all ATGs have a healthy D8 CONC value due to their typically low profile. 

Morale (ML) for all guns is derived from the strength in crew numbers rounded up with Capability (CAP) and Confidence (CONF) optional modifiers. Fire and Dice has capped the larger calibre guns to crews of six, even though historically they could be much greater. Generally, guns will range from crew strengths of 4, 5 and 6 providing ML values of D4 and D6 before CAP and CONF are taken into account.

Duck & Cover values are taken from the Infantry & Crew Duck & Cover table and are affected by the quality of the soldiers crewing them.

As many guns have protective shields, crews gain -2 against their attacker's to-hit roll, 180 degrees to their front. I suggest larger guns would still provide cover without a shield but at -1.

Guns have a damage score required to knock them out and will continue to function (providing they can pass their ML rolls) until reaching that limit. Guns have a damage rating derived from an approximate crew number +1 (for the gun).  You will only find these damage values in the unit cards for guns but guidance on the means to do so are found in the core rules and national Vehicle and Gun Charts.

Please note that the way Morale works in this game, you don't have to completely destroy a gun to effectively neutralise it - just inflict sufficient casualties on the crew to compromise its ability to act. 

As an option, there are six categories of guns (HE value) divided by calibres which could be arbitrarily given a crew calculation for each two. For example; D4 and D6 guns would have 3 crew, D8 and D10 guns 4 crew and D12 and 2D8 guns a crew of 5 when assigning damage. Generally, the larger the gun the more crew they required to operate.

On the other hand, you might want to assign historically accurate crew numbers and high damage ratings to the larger guns. For example, a Soviet ML-20 152mm artillery gun had a crew of 8 but I strongly recommend limiting the crew to 6 for ML calculation.

I have used historical crew calculations for my gun strengths on the charts but cap it at 6 in the rules. As an aside, I rarely consider larger guns when building my armies due to scale - it makes little sense to me having a 155mm howitzer in 20mm scale popping shells across a 5' table. I generally leave those calibre guns for off-table artillery.

On the surface, this might look strange that an artillery piece has greater damage than a tank (3) but consider that the artillery element is susceptible to small arms fire from infantry units, aerial strafing (both WD) as well as HE-fire. Taking casualties will affect ML rolls and the ability to operate. 

The gun crews are listed historically (in the main) on the Vehicle and Gun Charts for your reference.

The advantage of this gun damage method is that guns and crew can be modelled as one piece and you don't need to fiddle about with figure removal attempting to calculate if this gun or that one is capable of operating. It makes for a far better looking and more acurate model.

If a gun crew fails morale sufficiently, it will require limbering and a retreat move (with limbering penalties applied) or abandoning the gun with a rout result - in which case you can remove the model from the game. How you keep track of casualties is your own choice, but we use number counters placed on the table-top next to the models to avoid written record-keeping.

Vehicle mounted guns like 2pdr Portee ATGs or AA guns mounted on trucks have three damage points (2 for the vehicle +1 for the gun) and cannot operate as batteries. This might seem to be a penalty when compared to a deployed gun with crew with damage up to 5 or greater. The rationale for this is that if the vehicle is severely damaged/destroyed, the platform is compromised and the gun, if not also ruined is at the very least unable to lay-on target.

An assumption in Fire and Dice for ease of play is that AP cannot be used against guns and crew. If an AFV only has AP capability, they can only engage guns with MG fire. Effective fire against guns is WD or HE.

When towing a gun, the gun is assumed to be wrecked if the vehicle towing it is destroyed. This keeps it nice and simple in the spirit of a fast-play approach.

Most guns have limitless ranges, relying on line-of-sight. Some smaller calibre AA guns; however, have a 36 range as well as low-altitude limitation. For example, a 20mm AA cannon will be limited to low-altitude firing against aircraft and a range of 36 whereas a large calibre AA gun like the 88mm Flak has unlimited range but can only target high-altitude aircraft.