If you're shooting into combat, which only the evil side can do, you always have to take in the way rolls.

The ring does not make one invulnerable to arrows. Just ask Isildur.

Edit: This is a point that's been made a few times, but I feel the need to draw attention to it again. The combatants are not stationary. Battle is a wild flurry of blows, parries, etc. Both fighters are moving constantly. Therefore, when an evil model shoots into combat, there is always a risk of shooting their own.

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Soon the Dark Lord Knighty shall have all he needs to cover the lands in an eevee-related darkness...

Gollum can't be the target, that's not the same as 'can't be hit'. If he's the closest evil model in the fight then he's hit on a 1-3, ring or not.

The special 'In the way' for fights says on a 1-3 the closest evil model is hit (this can be Gollum), on a 4-6 the original target is hit (this can't be Bilbo if he's wearing the ring as he can't be the original target).

This situation is highly unlikely though as if Gollum is in a fight and wearing the ring he stands a much better chance of wounding his opponent than any evil archer would. You just wouldn't shoot into this fight.

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Titans Wargames Club

http://s10.zetaboards.com/The_Titans/index/

I know off topic but just had to make the correction. When Isildur was shot by the Orcs it was because the ring had left his finger and the light of the Elendilmir frightened the Orcs into firing their bows at him as they fled. Thus he wasn't invisible to the Orcs at the time either... (I'm taking this from The Unfinished Tales)

Regardless of Isildur being shot wearing the ring etc, I refer back to my other post -

The in the way roll is for the combat, not the model. The Ring therefore doesn't negate this roll. If you get a 1, 2 or 3, then it happens to hit the Ringbearer, yes, but the In the Way roll is for the combat.

The rule that you don't have to take in-the-way rolls in base contact with a friend implies that he is free to step to the side/duck (in line with old shooting tactics: first rank, fire. Second rank, fire type-thing). In base contact with a foe, the guy in front of you is spinning around, too busy fighting for his life to step aside so you can shoot.

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See my WIP thread here. viewtopic.php?f=50&t=25624

No, it really doesn't! They are fighting each other and ducking to allow the passage of friendly fire is not a consideration when fighting for your life!

A Ringbearer can't be hit if in combat , as he ignores ALL In The Way rolls. When randomising which model is hit in a Duel is an In The Way roll.

That's exactly what he said.

However, couldn't the exact same thing be said about spears or pikes? Seems pretty hard to me to stab a guy with a 10 foot pole without hitting your own friend if he's dancing in circles.

Thrusting range is only a couple feet max, so you can't have your weapon behind your friend, the spear head is already out in front. Same with pikes, all the points are ahead of the guy in front. If you've trained together you would know how to leverage this and the guy in front would know what to expect from his friend.

I do wish there were rules preventing cross-army spear support, as you should only really benefit from spears held by people you've trained with...but that's another topic.

Training aside, if a pike is long enough to to support your friend from behind another pike user supporting your friend, it is clearly long enough to injure your friend on the other side if you are supporting him by yourself, so at the very least it'd make sense that a friendly unit on the other side of the fight could get injured if you stab and miss your intended target.

That said, realistically speaking, you would know what to expect if there's a ranged weapon guy behind you as well. For starters they wouldn't loose their arrow/bullet/whatever they shoot until they are certain they won't hit you (although they could very well hit the guy on the other side of the fight who suddenly appears when the intended target ducks or what have you), and generally speaking soldiers do not fire without at least some form of warning to others. They are trained to wait for orders to fire, it'd be more than reasonable to assume that the guy in front of them tells informs them when they have a chance to fire.

The tercio formation was actually a pretty good example of a strategy that combines a melee front with a ranged support, breaking not only the "can't shoot into melee combat" rule as well as the far less confusing base-contact rule by shooting into melee combat from behind several ranks of spearwielders.


However, interesting historical facts alike, thanks for the answers. =)


Seems like the general consensus is that the in-the-way roll from the fight overwrites the never-in-the-way rule from being in base combat. Cheers!

the only one person in the whole game that can shoot in combat with out risking a ally in legolas since of he has a auto hit rule with 1 of his shots instead of his normal 3. every other shooting has to take in the way base contact or not.