BTB - Corpse Bomb

Our Restless Dead player wanted to know whether experience should be given to the necromancer / liche if the zombie takes an enemy out of action. We are pretty much all saying 'no' but he requested that I ask here so I will.

Quote :

Corpse Bomb
Special magics and rituals can cause a Zombie to explode when they are near the enemy. Secretly nominate one Zombie at the beginning of the battle to be a Corpse Bomb. If the enemy charges or is charged by the Zombie, it immediately detonates. All models within D6 inches take D3 Strength 4 hits. The detonated Zombie may never be used again as it is splattered in a million pieces! Corpse bombs killed by shooting do not detonate. Only one Zombie at a time can be a corpse bomb although the skill can be taken by both the Necromancer and the Liche.

Also, we are ruling that the blast does not go around corners if the corpse bomb goes off near a corner (e.g. in Horrors of the Underground). The RAW obviously implies that *any* model within the radius is hit but realism dictates that walls would block the blast. Again I'm happy for thoughts on this. The explosion is also treated as a sphere for purposes of warriors above (or below (unlikely)) the zombie. These rules for the blast of the corpse bomb really are applicable to any weapon with a blast effect (e.g. pigeon bombs and hand-held mortars for Gunnery School of Nuln warbands).

Thanks in advance for your feedback.

1. I'd say no, simply because the Necromancer doesn't kill the enemy, the Zombie does. Next time, I'll argue my crossbowman's kill will grand my captain experience, cause he has hunch and the crossbowman was only able to make the kill due to the way he has placed at the beginning of the match. I know it is not the exact same situation, but for the sake of keeping it simple, I'd argue only direct kills count.

2. here I'll go with the blast also hits around corners, again due to the sake of keeping it simple. If it hits models around corners, it is easy to just say the model is in D6-inches or it is not. If it doesn't hit around corners, arguement might start about when a model actually counts as being "around the corner" or not, if a wooden wall blocks as well as a stone wall etc..

I made both judgements with two things in mind
1. it is the simple solution, less ways to argue, speeds things up
2. "realism" is not a good arguement in this game in my opinion.

I'm in agreement with Grimscull. No, the Necromancer does not get the kill. He's only made another warrior deadlier in some way. It's the zombie that does the actual killing.

And again, for simplicity's sake the 6" blast reaches around corners. Otherwise you get into argumetns about whether a fence is enough to block the blast, or a thin wall, or a ceiling. Keep it simple, and try to imagine that the concussive force is deadly at such close range, even with the corners.

Thanks for your responses.

We are all in agreement about who gets the experience. Our Restless Dead player was clutching at straws all along.

I will discuss what you have mentioned about the blast going around walls with my group. I like what you have said and do like simplicity and speed over strict realism.

Thanks!

Sorry about a bit of necromancy (pun intended ) but we need one more clarification.
Does the number of hits from a zombie blowing up is thrown for each model separately or just 1D3 for all?

For simplicity and speed I'd only role the D3 once and apply that to everyone. That is what we did. I don't think it matters though if you chose to role D3 for each warrior. That wouldn't break the balance at all.

I'd say definitely YES because it's necromancer who "made" this corpse bomb (not mentioning that he's also creator of a zombie). If bearjager get's his trap xp why not necromancer?
Of course in this way necromancer will get a lot of xp - but that's why i don't like player made warbands.

Using the logic that the necromancer created the zombie then shouldn't the necromancer from the standard Undead warband get the XP every time that any zombie takes a warrior OOA? Using your logic means that even standard warbands have the problems that you blame on player made warbands.

I didn't mean that necromancer should get xp for every zombie he created, but for one zombie that's additionally stuffed by him with explosives (like a living remote control bomb). Ok, so forget this "made a zombie" part go straight to bearjager analogy - Bearjager makes a trap and necromancer makes a trap. One gets xp - one does not?

Yeah I see your point. We'll continue playing 'no' to xp though.

However, I personally would think that it would not be too powerful if the necromancer got xp from the corpse bomb. (Of course in our campaign, the restless dead player had shocking success with the corpse bomb even when it went off near heaps of enemies. )

Yeah played straight by the rules would mean no exp for the necromancer. I would houserule itbthat he get one because he won't get many exp anyway with magic. We also houserule that if you send an enemy to the ground ( knocked or stunned) and he then fall from the building after failing his Ini test and die, that you also get the exp for OOA of an enemy warrior.

Nr. 2 i would also play that an explosion won't get through walls/ around corners. Played by the rules i think it would.

Quote :

Also, we are ruling that the blast does not go around corners if the corpse bomb goes off near a corner (e.g. in Horrors of the Underground).

This is how we play with powder kegs.... When you're dealing with multiple explosions causing Strength 6 something (ie, a wall) has got to give the warriors a chance at survival!