30.PILLBOXES

30.1 A pillbox is a Fortification counter that can be set up only prior to the start of play, and only in Open Ground (including any road/shellholes but not bridges), brush, orchard, grain or woods. A Pillbox counter must be placed with the arrow pointing at a specific hexspine so as to define the CA (C3.2) of the pillbox. Except for its two CA hexsides, the pillbox hex itself is not in the pillbox CA. A pillbox may never change its CA or be placed in the same hex with another pillbox. A pillbox is a separate non-vertical-level Location inside its hex; i.e., units inside a pillbox are in a different Location than units outside the pillbox. [Note that new Pillbox counters are included in GUNG HO; although these bear different artwork, they are functionally equivalent to their original counterparts in all respects.]

30.11 A pillbox can vary in size and type of construction as defined by the Strength Factors on the counter. The factors (read from left to right) are as follows:

30.111 STACKING CAPACITY: This is the number of squad-equivalents (A5.5) that may occupy a pillbox. A pillbox may contain one (but not > one) Gun. The pillbox capacity is separate from (i.e., in addition to) hex stacking limits. No vehicle, PRC or animal may occupy a pillbox. Overstacking in a pillbox is NA (A5.6).

30.112 CA DEFENSE MODIFICATION: This is the TEM applied to non-Aerial Direct Fire attacks against the pillbox which originate from a hex within the CA of the pillbox [EXC: FT (A22.2); AP (30.35)]. Canister (C8.4) FP is halved vs the CA of a pillbox.

30.113 NCA DEFENSE MODIFICATION: This is the TEM applied to ordnance and FT attacks against the pillbox which do not originate from within the CA of the pillbox [EXC: AP; 30.35] or are made by Indirect or Aerial fire. CH are resolved normally [EXC: the NCA TEM is considered to be zero for CH resolution]. Canister, MG, IFE and Small Arms fire vs a pillbox, as well as WP NMC vs pillbox occupants (30.34), are NA through its NCA.

30.12 Units in a pillbox are placed beneath the Pillbox counter. Units on top of a pillbox are considered outside it and receive no benefit from the pillbox.

30.2 A pillbox is not an obstacle or Hindrance to LOS. However, LOS from inside a pillbox may be traced only within its CA [EXC: the pillbox Location and the same-level Location outside the pillbox are ADJACENT; 30.6]. Units in an adjacent, ground-level Location within a pillbox's CA are treated as being ADJACENT to units in the pillbox (and vice versa) for purposes of Point Blank Fire, FPF, DM, rout, and for DC Placement vs the pillbox. Fire from inside a pillbox into its own hex is limited to CC, or SMOKE grenade placement, or a Thrown DC (30.31), or to vertices of its CA, or to PBF vs units currently crossing the CA hexsides of its own hex. Mortar fire and fire vs an Aerial target are NA from inside a pillbox. Q&A

30.3 Pillbox TEM is not cumulative with any other +/-TEM [EXC: mud/deep-snow TEM, for certain HE attacks; see E3.62 and E3.731], but is cumulative with Hindrances and SMOKE. Q&A

30.31 DC: The Defense Modifier of a Placed/Thrown DC attack vs a pillbox/its-contents is determined by the hex occupied by the Placing/Throwing unit. If that unit occupies an adjacent hex in the CA of the pillbox or the pillbox hex itself, the attack is modified by the CA Defense Modification. If Placed/Thrown from any other adjacent hex it is modified by the NCA Defense Modification. A DC may not be Thrown into an adjacent hex from inside a pillbox. A DC may be Thrown from inside a pillbox into its own hex outside the pillbox, with both the +3 DRM for a Thrown DC and the NCA TEM of the pillbox applying to the Thrower. A DC cannot be Placed from inside to outside a pillbox. A DC may be Set vs a pillbox only by a unit in that pillbox's hex [EXC: not if in Crest status] or Location. Any DC that detonates inside (i.e., after being Set within, or Placed/Thrown from and to within) a pillbox is resolved as a Set DC. Q&A

30.32 Ordnance TH attempts vs a pillbox/its-contents are resolved on the Infantry (Other) or Area Target Type. There is no Target-Size TH DRM vs a unit/Gun inside a pillbox. Neither a pillbox nor its contents can be Encircled.

30.33 The MF expenditure to enter or exit a pillbox Location (30.4) is a separate action and cannot be combined with any other MF expenditure [EXC: during the RtPh; 30.41]. If a unit becomes pinned or broken outside the pillbox, it cannot enter the pillbox Location during the current MPh (or vice-versa). Once it expends the MF to enter or exit a pillbox Location, the unit is considered to be in the new Location before any attack prompted by that MF expenditure can be resolved.

30.34 Since a pillbox is a separate Location, each attack [EXC: Bombardment; Area Target Type; Aerial bomb; OBA] vs a pillbox hex can affect the pillbox/its-contents only if the pillbox is predesignated as a target Location. A predesignated attack vs the pillbox Location cannot affect another Location in that hex (or vice-versa) [EXC: Spraying Fire; Canister]. A pillbox Location may never contain SMOKE, but the contents of a pillbox can be affected in the normal manner (see A24.31 and C3.74) by a non-Indirect-Fire WP CH in the pillbox hex if the unit placing/firing the WP is ADJACENT-to/within-the-CA-of the pillbox. An OVR never affects a pillbox/its-contents.

30.35 AP: Neither the CA nor the NCA Defense Modification applies to an AP/APCR/APDS attack against a pillbox/its-contents, provided the Basic TK# of that ammo type being fired is > twice the Defense Modification that would otherwise apply. An AP/APCR/APDS hit on a pillbox is resolved using the normal HE-Equivalency rules (C8.31). Q&A

30.4 Infantry enter a pillbox Location in their hex at a cost of one MF. Infantry exit a pillbox Location by paying one MF to enter the pillbox hex [EXC: tunnel (8.6); bunker (30.8)].

EX: A squad moving into a pillbox hex in Open Ground must expend one MF to enter the hex and is placed on top of the pillbox. After pausing to undergo any Defensive First Fire, it may then expend one MF to enter the pillbox Location. Similarly, a unit inside a pillbox must pay one MF to move Out of that pillbox Location and into the pillbox hex, where it could be subject to Defensive First Fire. Any SMOKE at ground-level in the pillbox hex would add one MF to the squad's cost to enter the hex.

30.41 RtPh: Interdiction possibilities depend on the MF expended in the pillbox hex (A10.531) in exactly the same fashion as is applicable to entrenchments (27.41).

30.42 A unit may not move/rout/advance/Withdraw-from-CC into a pillbox Location if an enemy ground unit [EXC: Disrupted; subterranean; Unarmed; unarmored vehicle with no PRC] exists in the same hex outside the pillbox [EXC: MPh/RtPh exit via a tunnel (8.6)]. See also 30.44 and 30.6.

30.43 A pillbox (and any units inside it) does not affect entry/exit of the pillbox hex [EXC: during the RtPh; 30.7].

30.44 Infantry (even if berserk) may never enter a pillbox Location that contains enemy Infantry, not even via Infantry OVR. A berserk unit must remain in the pillbox hex and attack any enemy unit(s) in that hex until it eliminates them or is eliminated (A15.43; A15.46). Pillbox occupants may fire at occupants of their own hex only as per 30.2, and, because enemy units never co-exist in the same Location with a friendly-occupied pillbox, TPBF and Target Selection limits (A7.211-.212; A8.312) do not apply. Q&A

30.45 GUNS: No ⅝" counter may enter or leave a pillbox during play except as a dm SW. A Gun may set up using HIP in a pillbox (see 30.7).

30.5 ROUT & RALLY: A pillbox is equivalent to a building for both rout [EXC: Known enemy units; see 30.7] and rally purposes - except that a broken unit inside a pillbox is never forced to rout (even though it can be made DM in the normal manner).

30.6 SAME HEX: Same-level units inside and outside a pillbox in the same hex are ADJACENT [EXC: they cannot form a FG with each other; A7.5]. A unit inside a pillbox may not move/rout/Withdraw-from-CC out of the pillbox if there is an enemy ground unit [EXC: Disrupted; subterranean; Unarmed; unarmored vehicle with no PRC] in the same hex; it can only advance out of the pillbox and must halt in the pillbox hex [EXC: MPh/RtPh exit via a tunnel (8.61-.62)]. CC is resolved in the normal manner between Infantry units in and outside of a pillbox [EXC: Hand-to-Hand CC is NA; no Melee results (30.1; A11.15)]. CC is NA between a vehicle(s)/PRC and a unit(s) in a pillbox. A unit in a pillbox cannot be attacked (nor attack) in CC if there is any friendly ground unit(s) [EXC: Disrupted; subterranean; Unarmed; unarmored vehicle with no PRC] in the hex outside the pillbox. Q&A

30.7 CONCEALMENT: A pillbox Location is Concealment Terrain; however, "?"/HIP in a pillbox neither halves the FP of, nor adds a TH DRM to, an attack on it/its-contents. The contents of a pillbox cannot be inspected by an opposing player except to verify the details of an announced attack (or successful SMOKE placement) from that pillbox. Once an attack has been made (or SMOKE has been placed) from within a pillbox, all units therein (even if they entered-subsequently/did-not-fire-originally) are considered Known to all other units (even those outside the pillbox's CA) within 16 hexes that have/gain a LOS to that pillbox. If a pillbox sets up hidden, so do its contents. Q&A

30.8 BUNKERS: A Pillbox counter in the same hex with a trench and/or in a hex Accessible to a Trench counter's hex is considered a bunker. A bunker is treated as a pillbox in all respects except that a unit may move/rout/advance/Withdraw-from-CC between a bunker and such a trench as if the bunker were also a trench [EXC: the entry/exit restrictions given in 30.42, 30.44 and 30.6 still apply]. Q&A

30.9 Pillboxes are Controlled/eliminated as follows:

30.91 CONTROL: In order to Control a pillbox Location, a unit must actually enter that Location. In order to gain Control of a hex, a player must also Control any pillbox Location in that hex. Q&A

30.92 ELIMINATION: A pillbox is eliminated by any DC, or non-Area-Target-Type ordnance, attack whose IFT Original DR [EXC: Final DR, for a Set DC] vs it/its-contents is a KIA, provided that KIA's # is ≥ the pillbox TEM that applied to the DC-IFT or ordnance-TH DR. For pillbox-elimination purposes only, the KIA's # is increased by two if the KIA was caused by a Placed/Set DC. A pillbox is also eliminated by an Indirect-Fire CH from any Gun, or OBA, of ≥ 70mm [EXC: of ≥ 100mm, vs a "gray" pillbox]. When a pillbox is eliminated, all of its contents are also eliminated, along with any tunnel entrance in that pillbox Location. A pillbox may also be eliminated by Falling Rubble (B24.121), Bombardment (C1.822) or a dozer (G15.21).

EX: An Original 1KIA result caused by a Placed-DC attack vs a pillbox/its-occupants) becomes a 3KIA, but only for the determination of whether or not that pillbox (and its contents) is eliminated.

A 150mm Gun within the CA of a "brown" pillbox fires HE at it using the Infantry Target Type, and achieves a hit. If the Original IFT DR is ≤ 3 (i.e., a 3 KIA or better on the 30 FP column), that pillbox and its contents are eliminated.