A Mumak is allowed to have 12 warriors on the howdah and if I choose them to be all bow-armed, can they volley fire if I can manage manuever to squeeze 10 on the same howdah level after initial deployment and they are all in base contact? Does it even make sense? I tend to envision volley fire as a row of archers or multi rows of archer grouped together. The other part of the volley fire rule is that, if at least 1 figure can see the target then the rest of the bowmen in the volley group are able to. I would think that some archer's viewpoint would be obstructed by the Howdah itself or will he just shoot over the howdah somehow? Any thoughts will be appreciated. You can even tell me that this is such an insane idea!

You can't get 10 archers in B2B contact, so no volley fire, I really doubt that you will have the oppotunity to anyway as the Mumak will be heading at full speed towards the enemy.

You are only allowed to put 8 models on that level. See Mumak, deployment rules.

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"I am the Flying Spagetti Monster. Thou shall have no other monsters before me"
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I believe I said after intial deployement -- meaning I would have them jump down from the upper level as they are able to move around. I will have to wait another turn since I cannot shoot once moved around in the howda. The movement of the Mumak does not affect their ability to shoot (US book, page 53, Shooting from Mumak), but as Hithero pointed out, I may not be able to physically get 10 to fit on the same level. I will have to test it out -- my Mumak is in the trunk of my car at the moment. So say if I am lucky and can physically get 10 to fit on the same level, the second part of my post -- does it make sense?

Volley fire is innacurate and ineffective. Simply something to do if your elves or another heavily bow armed force and would rather sit and wait for your enemy to come to you (also makes for boring and frustrating games for your opponant). If you really want to volley, put the bowmen on the ground and hide them in the back somewhere, but don't waste your mumak

Direct fire on the other hand is effective. If your riding on a mumak that is really supposed to be spearheading your attack... I really doubt you would get the opportunity to even volley if you are playing it properly.

*edit: Just for fun, grab 10 die and roll them, and grab all your 6's (most likely 1) then try to wound a Warrior of Minastirith with a shield. See how many turns of volley you need to kill him, then decide if this idea is worth spending time and energy over

I interpret "Deployment" as "starting at position" and not fixed position for the the whole game. I must admit, English is my 3rd language so sorry about the misunderstanding of the word "deployment" and confusion on my part.

Is there a reason you would even want to volley?

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Ours is the fury!

I just like to know all my available options before taking action -- even crazy ones as long as it is allowable and sometime, just for the fun of it. I know volley fire is a 6 regardless of who you are -- I am not afraid to lose as long as I have fun playing.

there you have a point

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Ours is the fury!

I think volleyfire can be effective, certainly when you outnumber your opponent 2 to 1 or more. For exemple if I use my goblin army and my opponent High elves. If I have more then 20archers and he has only 12, I will keep volleyfiring. I only need to kill 3archers untill he can't volleyfire. In a situation like this, volleyfire is very effective.

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Volley fire can be really effective, not neccessarily the number of kills but what it can kill, namely Shaman and heroes horses and if you outshoot your opponant those few extra kills can be crucial, 1 kill could mean the difference as to whether a force breaks or not later in the game.

Indeed. I recall one tournament in which I managed to volley fire into an opponent's block of mounted Swan Knights. I got lucky and shot Imrahil's horse from underneath him; by the time he legged it to the battle line, I had already broken his force's back.

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Respectfully,
Jonathan

Do what is right, love mercy, and walk humbly

Battle Companies

If you can get them to touch..or reasonably touch (if you're playing a friendly game)..then yes its possible. Though I think its anyone on the battlefield needs to see them, not just someone in the archers group. In the military we call that "someone" a Forward Observer; calling in the coords for the volley fire to hit "x". Course its kind of a mote point; with the archers being 3 stories high, I'm sure they can see everything on the field. As for any visible obstruction that you may see blocking line of fire...don't worry about it, if the archer could, she would move to shot.

For me I don't worry about volleying anymore. I've come to the painful realization that I can't roll to save my life. So IF I do take archers, they're just warriors that couldn't get into base contact with the enemy and hopefully snipe the enemy support.

and yes...its insane but in a fun way. You can always place the beast on the far edge and take the turn to assemble the crew...then let loose!

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Free speech carries with it some freedom to listen. -B.M.

I agree. If you can get ten in base contact, I'd say they can volley fire.

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"There are few left in Middle Earth like Aragorn, son of Arathorn." - Gandalf, Many Meetings

But you can't, the model doesn't allow it. I find volley fire great with goblins or orcs. Twice the range, even with half the accuracy, gives an extra couple of turns of shooting, which will generally pick off one or two guys, but hey that that many fewer to fight in hand to hand. Of course once you get in direct fire range, just shoot straight at them.

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Just for closure, 10 figures do fit on the bottle level of the howdah; base to base contact without any warrior's base elevated in anyway. Due to the Mumak Deployment rule with "deployment" meaning not just initial starting position, but operation for the whole game, I will not be able to volley fire. Although it would have been fun to try out this tactic, I will be fair and play by SBG game rules. Thank you everyone for sharing your thoughts and clarifications.