Fire Attacks

Fire can be wielded in the form of torches, flaming oil, chemically based Greek fire, and possibly magic. Fire, or a fiery object, can be delivered to its target by dropping it from a height, launching it from a catapult, or lashing it to an arrow.

Fire inflicts damage against living creatures and wooden structures, but not against stone. Also, certain creatures (such as fire giants) may be designated as immune to fire attacks. Fire attacks are generally only usable if a scenario specifies that they are available; a player cannot arbitrarily decide that his troops have access to Greek fire, for instance. However, players might come to a mutual agreement that certain types of fire attacks (particularly torches and flaming arrows) are available whenever a player elects to use them.

Forms of Fire

Greek fire is a caustic, flame-producing liquid chemical that has AD of 2d12 per attack in the turn when it hits a target—and 1d12 for each of the next two turns, when the target is a figure or a unit (unless the liquid is somehow washed off or neutralized). The damage suffered on later turns is determined at the start of the Melee Combat Step (after the affected target has had an opportunity to move). Canisters of the substance— which are assumed to break on contact, whether or not they hit their target— can be launched from a catapult or dropped off the top of a wall or the roof of a building.

Torches have AD 4 per attack. They must be carried (and thus used as a melee combat weapon) or dropped.

Flaming oil has AD 12 per attack, and also AD 12 on the turn following the attack when the target is a figure or a unit (resolved as for Greek fire; see above). Containers of flaming oil can be launched from a catapult or dropped.

Burning arrows act essentially as torches used as missile weapons. Because they don't fly as fast as normal arows, they have AD 4 per attack (instead of the usual AD 6 for normal arrows). And they can't be propelled as far as normal arrows can; the upper limit of each range category is halved (after the elevation range bonus, if any, is taken into account).

Magical fire has various effects, depending on how the fire is produced and how potentially damaging it is. See the rules on magic (Chapter 8) for details.

Igniting Targets

Figures hit by fire attacks are not allowed to make armor checks; every hit scored does damage. Most of the time, the same is true of a structure or substance that is hit by fire. However, there are two types of exceptions to that rule:

1. Green or freshly wet wood that is hit by nonmagical fire makes armor checks as though the substance or structure has an AR of 6.
2. Soaked hides or a steadily watered surface hit by nonmagical fire makes armor checks as though the substance has an AR of 2.

A wooden structure hit by a fire attack continues to suffer damage on subsequent turns and may eventually be consumed by flames. At the start of the Melee Combat Step of the turn following the original attack, the attacking player rolls AD 6 for each hit that was scored by the original attack, and damage is added to what the wooden structure had already suffered. During the next turn, AD 6 rolls are made for each hit scored on the previous turn, and that damage is added to the total. The process is repeated until the wooden structure has suffered all of its hits in damage, or until the AD 6 rolls made during a turn result in no additional damage, which means that the fire has gone out.

Each figure spending a turn within 1" of a fire can fight the blaze. Each firefighter changes an AD 6 fire damage roll for that turn to a roll of AD 4, which increases the chance that the fire will be extinguished (score no hits during a Melee Combat Step) before it has consumed the structure. Firefighting figures cannot move, attack, or be in contact with enemy figures during a turn when they fight the fire.