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Have recently built and have started playing with an Imperial Guard army, 1500pts (the list is at http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/270534.page)

My Heavy Support is made up of two Basilisks, in separate squadrons. I've been reading the unit reviews by Polonius (very good job btw) and have discovered that Basilisks have a minimum range of 36" , so my question is: can the Earthshaker cannon only fire indirectly at anything between 36" and 240" and cannot direct fire at anything within 36" (with its main gun)?

On a 6'x4' board, if a Basilisk is deployed in a corner, it can't hit (Pi x [36x36]) 1018 square inches out of 3456 (72 x 48).

That's just under 1/3 of the board that cannot be hit.

I can offset this by deploying a Basilisk in each corner, but it still means that they have a large dead zone, which they can only fire at with their heavy bolters, providing they can see a target.

I would like other players to confirm this please, because this is a major flaw in non-Apocalypse games.

unfortunatly that is the case for basilisks

the way your deploying is the only way of minimising your disadvantage in that situation. If you play an army that can get inside your minimum distance quickly(eldar, bike armies, T'au in certain situations) i would suggest not taking basilisks, they are meant for looooong range bombardment and even though it messes with the codex and standard table sizes it probably won't change. get lots of Lemen Russ's to cover the hole they leave.

Wait, what.

You can always fire directly, no matter the minimum range. You just lose the advantage of ignoring directional cover and hitting vehicles' side armor.

Of course, you can't fire indirectly within 36".

Also, I recommend that you swap those H bolters for H flamers - you can't fire the same turn you fire the main gun anyway, but the flamer can be useful if deepstrikers or outflanks come up next to the basilisk.

WB - the minimum range ONLY applies to Indirect fire, it has no minmum range in direct fire.

And the basilisk CAN fire directly (Unlike the Colossus for example).

page 53 of the IG codex, basilisks can also fire directly, while Colossus and Griffons may not.

Cheers guys, hate to bit picky Barthonis but the direct fire is only in the background description, not the actual rules bit.
But Basilisks direct firing DO make sense, just it cannot ignore terrain etc.

To clarify for myself and anyone else (i doubt it, but you never know) the Basilisk shooting its Earthshaker cannon:

-Can fire indirectly from 36"-240"
-Can fire DIRECTLY up to 240", but must have LOS

Thanks guys

Minimum ranges only apply to barrage shooting. By default all ordnance barrage weapons have the ability to fire directly as regular ordnance weapons unless forbidden by special rules. This distinction only matters for a very small number of units, so it's no surprise that lots of people get confused.

WhiteBishop wrote:Cheers guys, hate to bit picky Barthonis but the direct fire is only in the background description, not the actual rules bit.

Actually, it is in the rules. In the main rulebook. Page 58:
Ordnance Barrage weapons
Differently from other unit types, vehicles carrying ordnance barrage weapons can choose to fire them either directly or as a barrage – declare before you fire.

So as long as the Ordnance Barrage weapon/platform does not have a rule saying otherwise (as the Colossus does), then it can Direct Fire.

Thanks don_mondo, when Barthonis said the page no. i though he meant in the IG codex.
Have also discovered this from another forum discussion about Basilisk shooting;

By grankobot

Firing directly - ignore minimum range, target must be in LoS, 2d6 - BS for scatter, the vehicle firing is the point of origin no matter where the marker scatters.

Firing indirectly WITHIN LoS - auto-misses if outside of minimum range, 2d6 - BS for scatter, the CENTER of the blast marker is treated as the point of origin. IE, drop a template on somebody behind a wall, he gets no cover.

Firing indirectly OUTSIDE of LoS - auto-misses if outside of minimum range, 2d6 for scatter, same deal with the blast origin shenanigans.

That solves it methinks. Thank you all