Who brings a knife to a gun-fight?

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Anders

Granted, but don't we remember all these because they were exceptions? You don't hear about the times they charged with bayonets and were cut down by machine gun fire before they had moved ten yards.

Unless you read about the Western Front 1914–18

[Anders]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Unless you read about the Western Front 1914–18

Right. Now, if the British had fielded Emus instead... (they were apparently very resistant to machine gun fire)

[Whyte]

The Japanese Banzai charges didn't do too well in the Pacific during WWII, either.

[Tomsdad]

Originally Posted by Whyte

The Japanese Banzai charges didn't do too well in the Pacific during WWII, either.

Yep problem with banzai charges and bayonet charge etc in the modern day (include WW2), is that it's high risk.

It might surprise the enemy who stand there while you do it, or it might not and they'll shoot you. Circumstance will effect which is more likely of course!

either way it's a last ditch thing, unless you think you'll gain some specific benefit form it due to who you are who the enemy is (which was partly the justification for the banzai charges)

The recent instances i.e Goose Green and in Afghanistan wasn't done through choice

In both cases The British had I believe run out of ammunition, and the one in Goose Green was at night.

[borithan]

Originally Posted by Tomsdad

I take the abstraction point, but I thought 1" = 2 yards was still canon?

Really? it's been a long time I'll have to pull my old books out tonight!

No, or at least I am not aware of it being so. Every book since has failed to mention any solid range rule explicitly to avoid it, as they realised 1"=2 yards was... well, a bit dumb, but didn't want to change the rules or tie themselves down to anything like they did initially. I think the little "learning to play" rulebook in the 4th edition starter set (with Tyranids and Space Marines) had some throw away line about a "sliding scale", ala Flames of War (where 16" is "effective small arms range" and artillery then has a range of 48"), but I haven't seen anything like that since. They have realised tying themselves down to a scale leads to daft things (like the 90m range Battletech machine guns, which, while now stated to be a game abstraction, apparently featured in in-canon novels before they formalised it into "the weapon ranges are purely a convention for playability, not their actual ranges"), yet they like the rules they have... or at least are too scared to kill the golden goose that they are unwilling to drastically change the core of the rules.

And yes, there is an optional rule somewhere in the 1st edition ruleset for longer ranged shots. First you needed a 6 "to hit" and then make another BS check. Think it is towards the end of the combat section, but I am not totally sure. Going to admit I am not 100% certain on the range multipliers (it might be x5 for projectile weapons and x2 for energy weapons), but I am pretty sure it was x10 and x5.