A few questions

[cherrystone]

Just played my second game and a few questions came up,

1. Can the Ice Wall Foci be destroyed by RA and CA or is it only removed from melting?

2. What is the use of Crack Shot with Lucky as her weapons fire Blasts which ignore the Targeting priority rules?

3. Can a unit / squad only gain a maximum of one Fear counter form the same enemy even when you failed your initial fear test and remain within 10cm in following activations?

4. Is the Lack of Support penalty immediate or only applies at the end of the fighters next activation (like OOC)?

5. If a squad is reduced to one fighter in one turn, in the following activation does he suffer a -2 penalty because of Lack of Support on its panic PS test?

6. Can a unit be panicked and be effected by Fear at the same time so yuo would have -1 to rally PS tests?

7. (not realy a rules question). Is there any plans of a mechanic to 'Pass an activation' as the player with the most activations seems to have a huge advantage?

ta

[Galyn]

Just played my second game and a few questions came up,

1. Can the Ice Wall Foci be destroyed by RA and CA or is it only removed from melting?

ATM Ice Wall's pretty much just melt.
(Notice the "ATM" - The next book will offer a significant caveat to this)

2. What is the use of Crack Shot with Lucky as her weapons fire Blasts which ignore the Targeting priority rules?

This is similar to the Raze question, last week. How do you guys know to start asking questions that relate to cool new stuff in new books. Grrr!
ATM - No effect
(Again, notice the "ATM")

3. Can a unit / squad only gain a maximum of one Fear counter form the same enemy even when you failed your initial fear test and remain within 10cm in following activations?

The Unit does not have to make any more
Fear tests caused by the same Unit. Fear effects are not cumulative
from multiple Units that cause Fear or from repeated effects from
the same Unit. However, a Unit that passes a Fear Test may have
to roll additional tests if within the radius of more than one Fear
causing Unit.

NOTE: The text in Genesis (pg 39) is nearly identical

You can end up with multiple Fear counters on a Unit only be encountering multiple Fear causing enemies. Even if you have multiple counters, you only receive a single -1TN adjustment. But, you have to pass a Fear test for each counter.

4. Is the Lack of Support penalty immediate or only applies at the end of the fighters next activation (like OOC)?

Lack of Support is a sub-condition of Coherency (and the lack there of). It is pretty much just establishing that you are not in Coherency with yourself (unless initially deployed as a single Unit Squad).

Check for Coherency at the end of the entire Squad's Activation.

The Unit may be suffering from Lack of Support when all his mates die. But, you only check the status of Coherency (and thus feel the effects of "Lack of Support") after the Squad completes its normal activation. There are instances (Forsaken healing) where a Squad could be reduced to a single Unit and by time it activates again, it may be completely whole.

5. If a squad is reduced to one fighter in one turn, in the following activation does he suffer a -2 penalty because of Lack of Support on its panic PS test?

No. Again, the Squad doesn't know its out of Cohesion until the end of its activation. The Panic test is taken as the Squad is activated, but before any Action Points are spend. The Coherency Check is after the Squad had activated, before control pass to the next Player.
Note: If the Squad was flagged as Out of Coherency on the previous turn for whatever reason, then were reduced to 1/2 for Panic, the -2 would apply to the Panic check as normal.

6. Can a unit be panicked and be effected by Fear at the same time so yuo would have -1 to rally PS tests?

Absolutely. Charge a Squad with an Ice Elemental, causing the Fear Test as you enter 10cm (assuming failure) then proceede to kill 1/2 the Squad and watch the fun.
Note: Out of Cohesion (since you asked about them too) also counts. These two effects would even be cumulative with each other.

7. (not realy a rules question). Is there any plans of a mechanic to 'Pass an activation' as the player with the most activations seems to have a huge advantage?

Ahh. You see, this is the crux. Dark Age as a good little "Meta-Game" when you army build -- the endless delima is Activations or Large Squads. Large Squads greatly increase the hitting power in a single activation. Small Squads/Individuals have more activations, and pool up at the end of the turn. Its the trade off. You can get burned either way.

There are no plans to change this. Its great fun! Seriously. Tactically, it is flexibility and stacking the end of the Turn with a lot of activations or ... having large squads with a little less flexibility but dominating the first part of the Turn.

Also don't forget you can go "On-Hold" to mitigate this somewhat.

[DA_Grafter]

7. (not realy a rules question). Is there any plans of a mechanic to 'Pass an activation' as the player with the most activations seems to have a huge advantage?

Just to add to Galyn's answer. On the surface, more activations does seem like an advantage, but if you add to the fact that bigger units' take longer to go to 1/2 strength and have to face a panic test, running the risk of "cowardace will not be tolerated", it is a toss up. In many many games, this max/min scenario's been discussed to death. Most people seem to choose to max out their units to avoid panic tests.

[cherrystone]

Thankyou for the detailed response. I look forward to many more games (with a clearer understanding of what im doing). ta