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Old 10-11-2020, 10:04 AM   #1
madhopper50
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Lasers

12.03 A Laser Tower can fire over any type of terrain, "but cannot attack a unit that is actually in a town, swamp, forest, or rubble hex". This rule is not stated in 12.02 Standard Lasers. Is it safe to assume this rule applies to both types of Lasers?
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Old 10-11-2020, 01:37 PM   #2
GEVJockey
 
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Warrenton, VA
Default Re: Lasers

A standard laser turret is blocked by and cannot fire into or over the blocking terrain listed. A laser tower can fire over any terrain, but not into the blocking terrain.

So, a well positioned turret can control approach avenues out to 30 hexes, but a tower can fire at any unit not in blocking terrain out to 60 hexes regardless of intervening terrain.
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Old 10-11-2020, 02:37 PM   #3
madhopper50
 
Join Date: Aug 2018
Default Re: Lasers

Quote:
Originally Posted by GEVJockey View Post
A standard laser turret is blocked by and cannot fire into or over the blocking terrain listed. A laser tower can fire over any terrain, but not into the blocking terrain.

So, a well positioned turret can control approach avenues out to 30 hexes, but a tower can fire at any unit not in blocking terrain out to 60 hexes regardless of intervening terrain.
Thanks for the reply, the rule is slightly confusing, the rule states:

12.02 Standard Lasers. A standard Laser turret has a range of 30 hexes. Its line of fire is blocked by ridge hexsides or any raised terrain – i.e., forest, swamp (assumed to contain trees), towns, or rubble.

To determine Laser line of sight, place a straightedge between the centers of the Laser hex and target hex. If the line enters or crosses any forbidden terrain, or runs along a line between two hexes of forbidden terrain, the Laser cannot fire. Otherwise, it can fire".

The rule doesn't state you can't fire at a target in blocking terrain as it does for a laser tower. A laser is a laser so if one can't fire then both can't fire.
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Old 10-11-2020, 02:45 PM   #4
Anthony
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
Default Re: Lasers

Quote:
Originally Posted by madhopper50 View Post
The rule doesn't state you can't fire at a target in blocking terrain as it does for a laser tower. A laser is a laser so if one can't fire then both can't fire.
It actually does say you can't fire at a target in blocking terrain (if the line enters or crosses any forbidden terrain), just not as clearly as it could.
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Old 10-15-2020, 12:06 PM   #5
GranitePenguin
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Plainfield, IL
Default Re: Lasers

The reason for the wording in 12.03 explicitly stating can't fire into a hex is because Laser towers can otherwise fire over intervening terrain. Turrets can't hit targets inside blocking terrain by inference based on the LOS rules (ie, the laser stops at the edge of the terrain).

We won't talk about the idea that a Laser tower _can_ hit something in a clear hex on the other side of blocking terrain... ;-)
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Old 10-15-2020, 04:40 PM   #6
sparky00
 
Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Parma, OH
Default Re: Lasers

I just want laser turret & tower minis.

Resin 3D prints would be fine.
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Old 11-25-2021, 09:11 PM   #7
Tim Kauffman
 
Join Date: Jul 2014
Location: Pennsylvania
Default Re: Lasers

A powerful enough Laser could cut through trees...

Take this demonstration and add a few decades of hard-core military development to the project and what do we get appearing on the Tac-Nuke battlefields of The LAST WAR?

https://youtu.be/mcS_sTiLHr0
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Old 12-27-2021, 06:45 PM   #8
Shostak
 
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Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: New England
Default Re: Lasers

I just played my first game with a Laser Tower in it. It strikes me that for at least a minimal nod to realism, towns and forests should create "shadows" for a hex or two on the side opposite a laser tower that would be invisible to the tower. Does anyone play with a house rule similar to this?
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Old 12-28-2021, 03:27 PM   #9
HeatDeath
 
Join Date: May 2012
Default Re: Lasers

A far less cognitively intensive nod to realism would be to dramatically cut the effective range of laser towers.

Realistically speaking, laser towers would have to be somewhere in the range of the Burj Khalifa in height to manage a 60 mile effective range, due to the curvature of the earth.
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Old 12-29-2021, 07:52 AM   #10
Failure16
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: Bradenton, FL
Default Re: Lasers

Assuming a flat plain, yes: a 70 foot tall laser tower (or at least the laser aperture per the line drawing in The Ogre Book) would have a line-of-sight of approximately 16.5 klicks. Say, 11 hexes actual, variable up or down as game design would allow given the specified granularity of the game engine...
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