Artillery shooting - simple question

[lowroller]

Rule 26.8 Artillery
"Artillery is dealt with differently than other distant weapons such as bows and handguns..."
Second bullet point "Any scores of 6 indicate an immediate kill..."

I read this as meaning ONLY rolls of 6 cause any hits and are immediate kills without saving throws (apart from the listed base types in the third bullet), but my regular gaming buddy reads it as meaning hits as per other shooting rules, but 5 has all the usual saving throws, while 6 is an immediate kill, with the listed exceptions.

Which reading is the intended rule?

Thanks.

[Sean Clark]

I appreciate this is a question from a long time ago but we have always played it that a 6 is an instant kill, rolls of 1-5 are misses.

[martin goddard]

Here is what i reckon , albeit i am often wrong with the amount of different rules in my head.

The 6=dead is there because quality of armour does not affect the impact of a cannon ball.
Thus
6=dead and squashed. A good helmet will not help. 6 is tough enough to get anyway!

There

[Colonel Kilgore]

So, just to be clear: a 6 is not good news?

[Sean Clark]

Depends. If I'm shooting it's good news. But then...its me shooting needing a 6 so I wouldn't worry!

[martin goddard]

If a 6 is scored it is a bad day to be in a battle facing artillery. You might hear it coming if the speed is less than the speed of sound too!