WOIN NOW: How many actions does Suppressive Fire use?

[TheHirumaChico]

Interestingly, there is no description of what Suppressive Fire does in the NOW Core Rulebook. It's obliquely referenced in a few places, but what it does and how to do it seems to have been left out inadvertently. Thankfully, the WRRD has some of the missing info. However, it doesn't say if Suppressive Fire requires one or two actions. When reviewing somewhat related actions, any auto weapon can be used to attack a 30' cone, for example, and this requires two actions. The Spray Universal Exploit also requires two actions, but Strafe only requires one action. So for my game session this afternoon, I'm going to say that Suppressive Fire only requires one action since usually things that require two actions are called out. But I'd be curious to hear if there is an official ruling, or in the absence of that, at least hear what my fellow WOIN NOW GMs and players think.

 

[Shaun Palmer]

Spray & Strafe are attacks, but Suppressive Fire is a defensive buff. A chosen ally is automatically granted COVER, giving a -2d6 penalty to any attacker (the COVER penalty is increase by 1d6 if an "auto" weapon is used). It also makes the ally immune to Overwatch, as overwatch is only triggered when a target leaves COVER.

Suppressive Fire and Overwatch are implemented in a similar way. They use a single action, but they both end a players turn, so they're best used as the last action in a turn. In effect you are swapping the rest of your turn in exchange to react to enemy actions.

Page 168-169 of NEW v2.1 give a description of how it works, but I couldn't find any description in NOW v2.1

 

[TheHirumaChico]

Spray & Strafe are attacks, but Suppressive Fire is a defensive buff. A chosen ally is automatically granted COVER, giving a -2d6 penalty to any attacker (the COVER penalty is increase by 1d6 if an "auto" weapon is used). It also makes the ally immune to Overwatch, as overwatch is only triggered when a target leaves COVER.

Suppressive Fire and Overwatch are implemented in a similar way. They use a single action, but they both end a players turn, so they're best used as the last action in a turn. In effect you are swapping the rest of your turn in exchange to react to enemy actions.

Page 168-169 of NEW v2.1 give a description of how it works, but I couldn't find any description in NOW v2.1

Thanks Shaun! I normally do a double-check of the WRRD plus the NEW and OLD core rulebooks to cross-reference any rules in NOW that I find unclear, but in this case I failed to check the NEW rulebook. That was a good suggestion and a very well reasoned interpretation, IMHO.