Celestial Fire Rocket

The Celestial Fire Rocket carries an explosive charge, but due to its unpredictable nature it does not always explode when the rocket lands. Sometimes the rocket will smash into the ground and simply bury itself without exploding- On other occasions the rocket will hit the ground and spin round madly before its propellant splutters into life once more carrying the rocket off in a new direction. A rocket that goes wild in this way can sometimes hop and skip across the battlefield, changing direction several times before it explodes.

The Celestial Fire Rocket's shots are worked out in the same way as shots from a stone thrower. First pivot the launcher so that it is pointing in the direction you wish to fire, then declare how far you want to fire the rocket, guessing the range as accurately as you can. The maximum range you are permitted to guess is 48". Once you have made your guess place the missile template directly over the spot you have guessed.

To see where the rocket lands roll both the scatter and artillery dice. If the scatter dice rolls, a HIT then the rocket Is where you have aimed it. If you roll an arrow then the rocket veers off course and lands in the direction indicated.

If the artillery dice rolls a MISFIRE then something has gone wrong - roll a D6 and consult the Celestial Fire Rocket fire Chart opposite. If you roll a number on the artillery dice then this is the distance in inches the shell veers off target as shown by the arrow on the scatter dice. Move the template the distance indicated in the direction shown by the arrow. If you roll a HIT on the scatter dice then a number score on the artillery dice is ignored (a number simply indicates that the shot has not misfired).

The rocket only causes damage when it explodes; it inflicts no damage if it merely strikes the ground and shoots off in another direction. Once you have established where the rocket explodes damage can be worked out. Any model that lies directly under the hole in the template is hit automatically. Note that only one model can lie within the hole and if there is any doubt it is the model which lies under the exact center which is hit. As with stone throwers models whose bases lie under the rest of the template are hit on the D6 roll of a 4+.

Once you have worked out which models have been struck by the exploding shell work out damage in the normal way. Roll for each target to determine if you have caused damage The exploding shell has a Strength of 5. A damaging hit from a Celestial Fire Rocket causes D3 wounds, but as most creatures have only one wound it is not always necessary to make this dice roll.

The rocket launcher itself is solidly built and difficult to damage. It has a profile as shown below and has 3 wounds. However, because of the explosive nature of the rockets, every time a wound is suffered roll a D6. On the score of a 6 the launcher explodes and is destroyed together with its crew.

A Celestial Fire Rocket launcher can be moved by its crew at 3" per turn so long as it has a full crew of two. If one crew member is slain movement is reduced proportionally (ie, halved). The Celestial Fire Rocket cannot move and fire during the same turn, other than to pivot on the spot to aim at its target.

If one crewman is slain the weapon may continue to fire normally. Should both crew be slain the weapon is useless and may not fire.

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Copyright (c) Thomas Setzer 1998.

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