Quote:
Originally Posted by weswood
I think I see where I've been confused. The weapon can fire direct fire but also indirect fire mode for plunging fire. Somehow I had the idea that it had to be indirect fire to get the round to travel that far as with a bow & arrow.
Dohhhh!
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I think I see where that particular confusion has come from - the idea that you would need to elevate the weapon higher for indirect fire than you would if you were engaging a target at closer ranges? I think this line of thinking has come about because some of the weapons that are listed in the rules as having indirect fire, typically use a lobbing or plunging trajectory to facilitate indirect fire but it pays to remember that
any weapon is capable of indirect fire. Direct and indirect fire are not specifically a function of the range of the weapon nor it's most commonly used trajectory.
As stated before,
direct fire is any type of fire where you can personally observe the target - if you can see it, it's direct fire (because you can personally observe the fall of shot and make corrections as needed to hit the target etc. etc.).
It's indirect fire only when the person aiming the weapon cannot personally see the target, that is, they are relying on a grid co-ordinate or on someone else giving target corrections and so on.
For example if you fire your shotgun at a rabbit 50m away, it's direct fire but if the rabbit was in some brush 10m away and you
couldn't directly see it, you will fire
where you think the rabbit is and even though the trajectory is reasonably flat, this is indirect fire.
If you throw a rock at someone, it's a straight flight path to the target but it's only because you can see the target that this is direct fire. If you tossed that rock over a high wall in the hopes of hitting someone you thought was on the other side, that would be indirect fire because you don't know specifically where the target is.