If you have any questions for Andy Chambers, you can e-mail them to me or join the BFG List and ask him directly on the list.
Precisely how are blast markers placed when one firing ship gives multiple hits? The illustrated example seems to indicate that the first one is placed centered squarely on the LOS, the second being placed adjacent on the bearing most facing the firing ship. Is this the intent?
A: Place one BM on the firing line and then start to envelop the ships base, each BM being placed in edge contact to one already present. The firer can decide which way round to go (though it makes very little odds in most cases)
When a ship moves through blast markers and suffers possible damage, is it the stem or the base that must move through the marker? If it's base, that makes blast markers quite deadly, as it's virtually impossible to avoid doing so unless hit by an attack from abeam.
Of course the rules specify base with respect to movement deduction (on the last page of the rules book, I believe) and shields (in the blast marker section), but I've been stubbornly ruling that it's the stem with respect to damage to avoid dramatic effects.
A: Base. However only a ship with the shield collapse critical or a shield value of 0 (ie Eldar or ordnance) is vulnerable to damage
In the notes on the back page you mention that ships always lose 5cm movement moving away from blast markers in base contact. Does this also mean you will take damage on a roll of 6 if your shields are down or if they were reduced to zero in the previous turn by those same blast markers?
A: Blast markers will only damage you if you have a shield strength of 0 due to a shields collapse critical hit or because you're an Eldar ship.
In one of the illustrations regarding blast markers (p 25), they seem to overlap. Should this be done to keep them facing the firing ship, or should they begin to envelop the ship? (This may be moot based on the answer to 1) above.)
A: They should envelop the ship
My ship if fired upon from another ship directly ahead of it, leaving two blast markers to my front, in contact with the base. When it comes time to move my ship, I have no shields and must move through the blast markers. Do I take potential hits for an unshielded ship moving through blast markers? To put it another way, does a ship with no shields take hits when moving through blast markers the ship began in contact with?
A: No, only ships with a shield strength of 0 (ie due to shields collapse critical or being Eldar)
Blast Markers are placed along a line from the firing ship to the target ship, post to post. If a ship is struck 4 times in the side and takes 4 blast markers, are the four layered on top of each other, as the rules would seem to indicate, or spread in some manner?
A: Spread so that they touch on an edge, not stacked.
If a carrier with blast marker in contact, on its port and/or starboard sides, launches attack craft, they will be placed on the marker and need to make a check to see if they are destroyed, right?
A: I would say no, unless the base is surrounded by blasts they would be able to fly off between salvoes or what have you. It would cost them some of their movement to fly around the blast markers tho'