Blocked Fire (Rule 10.1)

[KirkH]

The rules say an HMG, AFV or AA gun can trace direct fire thru friendly occupied hexes but no mention is made of other crewed weapons with direct fire capability.  I'm trying to understand why if a hex contains an AFV and a 75mm Infantry gun why the AFV would be able to fire through friendly units while the infantry gun can't.

[KirkH]

I can understand why small arms can't do it, but an infantry gun is similar to an AA gun or an AFV - which can both fire through friendly occupied hexes.  Might be time for a house rule allowing IG's the same privilege as AA guns and AFV's.

[goosebrown]

I have to agree. The very purpose of an IG is to support an infantry company. You have to think that they would ideally be deployed to lend fire to as many of the platoons as they could. They are not just heavy, inconvenient machine guns and they fire shells, they aren't shotguns. I see no reason at all why they cannot fire over/through other units. In fact I would think there would be more danger firing a 20mm AA gun over troops than an IG. 

[KirkH]

I'm thinking maybe when the rules were originally written the infantry gun was simply forgotten.  It's one of the rare crewed weapons that has a direct fire attack value instead of a bombardment attack value.