After re-reading the rules for the Shoot Phase and making several clarifications, it dawned on me that when I've been playing against other players they tend to over simplify the Shoot Phase and calculate the number of dice based upon a formation as a whole rather than on a company-by-company basis.
For example, here is a formation comprised of 4 companies of Minas Tirith Archers in 3x2 Configuration. When they measure out the distances for shooting their Bows (with a Maximum Range of 24"), they basically think of it as follows...
Anything within 12" is considered "Short Range" and can be fired at Strength 2 and anything between 12-24" is considered "Long Range" and must receive the -1 penalty. There's usually no problem with determining Direct vs Support when calculating the number of dice to roll ... either way, they typically roll 28 total dice to determine hits. Again, the typical problem is that they are considering the Formation as a whole ... which usually means they are rolling more dice then they should - and effectively cheating!
So, here is how it actually looks:
It's actually a lot more complicated then you thought, huh?!? Also, notice that the full 28 dice at Strength 2 is actually a very small window directly in front of the formation!
Is this making you dislike the Shoot Phase, now? It did for me for a long time ... because I started to realize that this means that Archery Based Armies are a lot less effective then one would initially suppose (sorry Elves). However, at the same time, with low strength, ballistics was never really a game changer, anyway - everyone knows that it's in Hand-to-hand combat with modifiers where the real bodies hit the floor!
The other problem is determining where the enemy falls within one of the zones above. To remedy this, we assume that the shooter gets to choose the "best condition" for shooting the enemy (usually the closest company). Then the "location" of the target is determined by where the target company's center point lands.
Look at the following example:
Well, there you go - like I said, are you doing it right? It really is a lot more complicated then you would initially think, huh ...
Get ready to have a prolonged discussion now at your next game during the Shooting Phase!
