[10.0 Direct Fire] M7s, Wespes and other nebulous vehicles

[tlangston28]

Hello all,

Going through the posts and re-reading the rules (both standard and annotated), I am quite sure I have grasped the AFV rules (what it is and what kind of leader).

For example, both the American M7 and the Wespe have a NATO symbol that designates it as self-propelled Artillery, but since both units have an Armor factor, that gives them "AFV" status with respect to Tank Leaders and Armor Efficiency (There was a thread in August of last year with FOF that covered this).

However, Another item has caught my eye that I am not sure how to interpret:

The Direct Fire chart has a column modifier that states: "+2 Target is Artillery". Now the question is, since the two vehicles mentioned above have armor values, they are unaffected by any DF result other than X or #X results. However, since they are Open-Top AFVs (as stated in the SSR in the scenario book) they are eligible to take a step loss if the X value is 2 or 3.

The question is, since these vehicles are artillery, Does the +2 column modifier apply, giving DF units a better chance of a result, even though most times, it will be an "M" check rather than a step-loss?