Ranged AOE Attacks

[stormbringer]

This question came up in my first game of Warmachine last week. If I attack with an AOE Ranged Attack and score a direct hit on my target, do I need to "Hit" the other targets under the AOE template? The rulebook says "Every other model with any part of it's base covered by the AOE template is hit, but not directly hit, by the attack and suffers a blast damage roll of 2D6 + 1/2 POW."

Let's say there are three enemy models in a cluster and one has a low DEF (or even better is knocked down) and the others have a high DEF. If I go for the easy hit on the low DEF enemy do I then get automatic 2D6+1/2 POW on the other two?

Jeff

[khornedog]

If you hit your target you do not need to roll to hit with the rest of the models under the AOE. They are automatically hit with 1/2 POW. Its what makes AOE so good against high DEF/Low ARM infantry. I feel the game does try to balance itself in that way.

[wminsing]

Yep, all models under an AOE are 'hit' after it lands- blast away!

-Will