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KoW Armada: Visibility Breakdown

KoW Armada: Visibility Breakdown

Ahoy Sailors! As you know I am most and foremost a passionate hobbyist. That being said I am also a pirate, a scoundrel and a fanatical enthusiast of Mantic Games Kings of War: Armada – a naval strategy game set in a rich world of Pannithor, pitting multiple wonderfully crafted and strongly themed factions against one another. Today I’m here to share some of my maritime experience.


Visibility

Visibility rules in Armada are pretty straightforward, still every now and then I meet new players that get confused. In this article I would like to provide a little breakdown with solid examples. Hopefully this will help everyone to understand how Visibility and Partial Visibility works in Armada.


Visibility, Rulebook p.23

“A target must be at least Partially Visible in order to fire upon it.

Taking a bird’s eye view, if no line can be drawn in the Fire Arc from anywhere on the base of the shooting ship to any part of the target’s base without crossing another ship, model or terrain feature, then visibility to the target is Blocked and the ship may not shoot it.

When shooting, if either or both the following conditions are true, the target is Partially Visible to the weapons firing from a position/Fire Arc. The target may be fired upon, but it will be more difficult.

  • If a clear, unobstructed line can be drawn to some, but not more than half the target’s base (from any part of the shooting ship’s base in that weapon position).
  • If less than half the target’s base is within the fire arc.

When checking Partial Visibility in other situations (e.g. Nerve Tests, see page 29), only consider the first condition above.
In all other cases, there is Full Visibility to the target.”


Right off the batt the Visibility rules focus on Partial Visibility and when it occurs, rather than the other way around. Allow me to provide a different approach to explain the rules.

If you CAN’T draw an unobscured line from any point of your ships base to any point of enemy ships base there is NO visibility.

If you CAN draw an unobscured line from any point of your ships base to any point of enemy ships base there is PARTIAL visibility.

Furthermore, if you CAN draw an unobscured line from any point of your ships base to MORE THAN HALF enemy ships base AND MORE THAN HALF enemy ships base is WITHIN your ships Fire Arc, there is FULL visibility.

In short: In order to achieve Full Visibility you have to be able to ‘see’ more than half enemy ships base and more than half of enemy ships base must be within Fire Arc of your ship. For anything else than Shooting you only need to ‘see’ more than half enemy ships base to achieve Full Visibility.

Take note that in order to shoot at an enemy ship, it must first be within the Weapon Position’s Fire Arc at least partially.


Examples

Now’s time for some in-game examples.

Example A: Monolith vs Boomboat
One condition met.

  • MORE than half of Boomboats base is within the Monoliths Arc of Fire.
  • The Monolith CANNOT draw a line from any point of its base to more than half the Boomboats base.

Result: Partial Visibility.


Example B: Monolith vs Boomboat
Both conditions met.

  • MORE than half of Boomboats base is within the Monoliths Arc of Fire.
  • The Monolith CAN draw a line from any point of its base to more than half the Boomboats base.

Result: Full Visibility.


Example C: Monolith vs Boomboat

One condition met.

  • LESS than half of Boomboats base is within the Monoliths Arc of Fire.
  • The Monolith CAN draw a line from any point of its base to more than half the Boomboats base.

Result: Partial Visibility.


Example D: Boomboat vs Monolith

One condition met.

  • LESS than half of Monoliths base is within the Boomboats Arc of Fire.
  • The Boomboat CAN draw a line from any point of its base to more than half the Monoliths base.

Partial Visibility.

Example D might seem a bit counterintuitive. Both ships are broadside to broadside and it might feel odd for the Boomboat to be shooting at a -1 To-Hit, but this is how the rules work. In the other hand this approach simplifies things for general gameplay and works well within the core game mechanics.

I hope you find this article interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments below or via Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional Warhammer miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.

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