Ranking Officers

In Burst of Fire, ranking officers represent senior leaders on the 2nd and 1st lieutenant level. Ranking officers are a vital part of the command structure. Each doctrine fields a ranking officer.  Ranking officers are not bought by the player but are assigned to every detachment. The abilities of each ranking officer can be found in the arsenal lists.

Every ranking officer may order several actions per turn. Orders will break up the alternating activation of units by each player. All orders will be performed in a coherent sequence and documented on the Action Point Counter.

This ranking infantry officer (marked with the red circle) has three soldiers in his command circle. He will most likely order his troops to engage in melee with the enemy that has taken position in the basement of a stone house that offers hard cover. This way the officer will spend three actions he commanded to his soldiers and another action for giving the order.

The number of actions a ranking officer can order depends on the doctrine that has been selected by the player. Some officers may be activated numerous times per turn and therefore may issue more orders per turn. Orders can be issued in the command radius. The radius may differ from doctrine to doctrine. Enemy players may only interrupt orders if they opted for covering fire.

Another key task of raning officers is to boost morale and attack levels. Also, ranking officers will strengthen the spirit of their troops, that are currently inside the command radius, and give them bonuses of +2 on all attacks and +2 on all morale checks.

Ranking support and infantry officers may rally all units in their command radius once per game. To make a successful rally the ranking officer has to pass a morale check. Rallied units loose all of their suppressed tokens.

Just like infantry, ranking officers may carry primary and side weapons.

Each officer has two actions per activation. Giving orders or rallying counts as one action not depending on the number of orders.

Death of ranking officers

When a ranking officer dies, the command structure takes a severe hit. The total of actions these officers may command is subtracted permanently from the Action Point Counter. To prevent ranking officers from dying way too easily, friendly soldiers present in a 5 cm / 2 in range may take the bullet instead of the ranking officer.