Do the rules make any allowances for a character, standing around a corner to pop out, shoot, and then duck behind the corner again?
Rules as written, this is explicitly disallowed. (ACKS Core page 101: “After attacking, a combatant may not move again until the next round.”)
I personally would probably allow it with a -4 penalty to the attack throw. (Just my opinion, I am not an Autarch.)
if you have the corner and your foes are coming up a long hallway, you still have a bit of an edge. You'll have cover and they won't when you fire. In other games where moving and attacking can happen in either order, you can duck completely out of line-of-sight every other round, but as you mentioned, ACKs always has attacking happen last.
It is not possible, in ACKS rules, for an attacker to expose himself to fire against an enemy that is ready for him without being exposed to at least one attack by the enemy. This is by design.
The rules do make an allowance for "shoot-and-scoot" in situations where the enemy is not ready to counter-attack, if the attacker has good initiative. They rely on these two mechanics:
- After attacking, a combatant may not move again until the next round.
- Initiative is determined fresh each round.
Consider the following:
- At the start of combat, Archer is hidden around a corner while Defender is engaged in other activities.
- Archer (with Combat Reflexes and 16 DEX) rolls a 7 for initiative. Defender rolls a 4.
- Archer holds his initiative.
- Defender acts on initiative count 4. (Assume he attempts to Hear Noise because he suspects an intruder is nearby).
- On initiative count 3, Archer pops out and fires at Defender. He cannot hide behind the corner again because you cannot move after attacking.
- The combat round ends. Initiative is rolled for the second round. Archer rolls a 6. Defender rolls a 2.
- Archer retreats behind the corner. He cannot fire.
Contrast with:
- At the start of combat, Archer is hidden around a corner while Defender is engaged in other activities.
- Archer (with Combat Reflexes and 16 DEX) rolls a 7 for initiative. Defender rolls a 4.
- Archer holds his initiative.
- Defender acts on initiative count 4. Knowing Archer is nearby, he declares that he is ready to fire as soon as he sees an enemy.
- On initiative count 3, Archer pops out and fires at Defender. He cannot hide behind the corner again because you cannot move after attacking. Simultaneously, Defender fires at Archer.
- The combat round ends. Initiative is rolled for the second round. Archer rolls a 6. Defender rolls a 2.
- Archer retreats behind the corner. He cannot fire.
And with:
- At the start of combat, Archer is hidden around a corner while Defender is engaged in other activities.
- Archer (with Combat Reflexes and 16 DEX) rolls a 7 for initiative. Defender rolls a 4.
- Archer holds his initiative.
- Defender acts on initiative count 4. (Assume he attempts to Hear Noise because he suspects an intruder is nearby).
- On initiative count 3, Archer pops out and fires at Defender. He cannot hide behind the corner again because you cannot move after attacking.
- The combat round ends. Initiative is rolled for the second round. Archer rolls a 4. Defender rolls a 6.
- Defender fires at Archer on initiative count 6.
- Archer retreats behind the corner on initiative count 4. He cannot fire.
So here we have three different possible outcomes: the archer may pop out, shoot, and retreat behind the corner again without counter-fire; the archer may pop out and shoot, but suffer counter-fire simultaneously; or the archer may pop out, shoot, suffer a counter-attack thereafter, and then retreat behind the corner. (There's a fourth outcome also possible, where the archer pops out, shoots but is simultaneously shot, then gets shot again, and then retreats behind the corner. That is likely if the defender is both ready and has a better initiative.)
Thanks for breaking that down for me.
That seems way too fiddly for the level of abstraction in ACKS/BX combat. We're using taking turns to allow our brains to simulate a bunch of actions happening continuously over a period of 10 seconds, not trying to imagine a weird universe where only one being can take action at a time. I'd rule that the archer popping out to shoot has cover, and give his attackers a -3 cover penalty on their attack throws: better than standing behind a bench, but not as good as an arrow slit. If one of the defenders noticed the archer, beat the archer's initiative, and waited to shoot until the archer popped out, I'd drop his cover penalty to -1. I'd also rule that the archer suffers a -1 cover penalty on his attack throws, since his targets will be hidden from view for part of the round.
This is about how I’d run it too I think.
What's fiddly about it? It's just a straight application of the initiative and movement rules as written, no extra fiddly bits at all.
If the character was in partial cover while being shot at I'd certainly impose a to-hit penalty, but it seemed evident to me that the original poster was actually asking about a case where you pop from 100% cover to out of cover back to 100% cover. And that's just handled with the initiative rules.
In play, it's not fiddly. We've got an Elven Ranger in the group with a ridiculous initiative bonus who virtually always goes first, and can do this kind of stuff. He has done exactly what you describe. I think the objection is in the inability of enemies to "return fire" (hope I'm not putting words in anyone's mouth), if the archer wins initiative repeatedly. If he doesn't win initiative, opponents can simply hold their attack.
Right. He has to be willing to cut his rate of fire in half (move-fire, move, move-fire, move) AND always win the initiative for it to work.
And, actually, with a half-rate of fire, his targets could begin moving up, seeking cover as they close the distance. Alternatively, they could fall back to cover, or retreat all together.
Exactly. It's not like it's all-powerful or anything. In fact, being able to consistently win Initiative is far more potent, especially when you can Cleave. Speaking of the Elven Ranger in our group again, he has slaughtered large numbers of grouped opponents before they can even draw their weapons by dint of having a +3 bonus to Initiative.
One of my players has an Explorer with 18 DEX. There is pretty much no chance of anyone else going first.
Yeah, our Elven Ranger has a Dexterity of 16. We make fun of him when he doesn't go first. Our Fighter just took Combat Reflexes just because he got sick of the elf always going first.