Ruleshammer Q&A Feedback: November 12th 2020

Q&A Feedback - Judiciar Changes

Another Space Marine codex means revisiting old questions that have changed. I’ve written about the Judiciar a few times, and the fight phase order at length. So what’s changed? The old ability said this:

At the start of each Fight phase, select one enemy unit within 6" of this model. That unit cannot fight until all other eligible units have done so that phase.

It’s gotten a pretty subtle update though,

At the start of the Fight Phase, you can select one enemy unit within 3” of this model. That unit is not eligible to fight this phase until after all eligible units from your army have done so. 

Previously this rule didn’t actually make the unit “not eligible”; eligible units are defined as any units that charged this turn or that are within Engagement Range of enemy models. Making the unit “not eligible” means that it can’t be targeted by the Counter Offensive stratagem any more.

Use this Stratagem after an enemy unit has fought in this turn. Select one of your own eligible units and fight with it next.

As the target need to be eligible.

Question 1 - Where to place resurrected models

The main thing I was looking out for in the Necron FAQ was a clarification on bringing models back when using reanimation protocols. When reading the rule, there's not a line stating specifically where they must be placed (such as in coherency) which means it could be interpreted quite extremely if you really wanted to abuse the rule. If I have 20 models in a warrior unit and 16 are killed, and I then roll 7 successful rolls, there's nothing to stop me placing these 7 models in a completely different location such as on an objective on the other side of the board… - Tom Merrick

There actually is an answer to this; it's just not in the Necron Codex. It’s actually found in the Unit Coherency section.

Some rules allow you to add models to a unit during the battle, such models must always be set up in unit coherency with the unit they are being added to. Sometimes there will be insufficient room to set up all models from a unit, or it will not be possible to set up all the models so that they are in unit coherency. When this is the case, any models that cannot be set up are considered to have been destroyed.

So when bringing them back you need to set them up in coherency. 

Question 2 - Character made some friends mid shooting, can I still shoot them?

During a game my friend chose to split his Tau Commander's Cyclic Ion Blasters between my Farseer and my Falcon carrying a unit of Banshees, he resolved the attacks against the Falcon first and destroyed it. When the Banshees disembarked from the Falcon I was able to put them within 3'' of my Farseer and closer to the Tau Commander, which would prevent him from targeting the Farseer via the "Look Out, Sir" rule. Would the Commander still be able to shoot the Farseer despite him no longer being a valid target? I ruled that since the Farseer was a valid target when he declared it he would still be able to shoot. - Angrytiki

You played this correctly here’s why though. The look out sir rule states:

Models cannot target a unit that contains any CHARACTER models with a Wounds characteristic of 9 or less with a ranged weapon while that CHARACTER unit is within 3" of any of the following:

 

• A friendly unit that contains 1 or more VEHICLE or MONSTER models with a wounds characteristic of 10 or more.

• A friendly non-CHARACTER unit that contains 1 or more VEHICLE or MONSTER models.

• A friendly non-CHARACTER unit that contains 3 or more models.

In all cases, if that CHARACTER unit is both visible to the firing model and it is the closest enemy unit to the firing model, it can be targeted normally. When determining if that CHARACTER unit is the closest enemy unit to the firing model, ignore other enemy units that contain any CHARACTER models with a Wounds characteristics of 9 or less.

This rule makes an important distinction, it only limits targeting. It doesn’t limit resolving attacks. The shooting phase has several key steps.

1. Select Targets
2. Determine the Number of Attacks
3. Make the actual attacks.

For the same reasons that you still resolve attacks against units you can no longer see, or why you don’t have to slow roll every rapid fire shot in case the unit gets more than half range away. Characters that were legal targets when in step 1, can still have attacks resolved against them by that unit. Once yout targets are decided and the number of attacks determined they remain “locked in” until you finish shooting with the unit.

 

Lightning Round!!!

Question 3 - Should Space Marine Inceptors slow roll their plasma attacks in case they die?

So question. If I understand the rules correct, an inceptor would have to slow roll his plasma shots, since he dies after overcharging and rolling a one. Meaning he wouldn't be able to shoot his second gun? Or do all the attacks still go through? - ReneG8

Yes he wouldn’t be able to shoot the second gun. At least it seems so to me though there’s room for debate unfortunately. This is likely quite a rare occurrence in the rules as most models with several overheating weapons aren’t outright killed by them when they overheat, they usually only inflict a number of mortal wounds.

if any unmodified hit rolls of 1 are made for attacks with this weapon profile, the bearer is destroyed after shooting with this weapon.

There’s two ways to go on this. I personally favour the first one.

1. Models not on the board can’t make attacks. I think this because the “make attacks” steps starts “When a model makes an attack, make one hit roll for that attack by rolling one D6” implying the need for a model. This also gives you a baseline for things like what auras are affecting the model (both positive and negative) would be debatable once the model is removed should the first weapon kill it before the second. It also establishes which stats such as BS to use as it’s “the model” making the attacks, rather than an empty space.
2. The other way to go though, is that the number of attacks step has already happened and it determines the total to be resolved. We already continue to shoot at units that are no longer visible and whilst this section does not call out the attacker dying mid shooting it’s arguably applicable.

I think this situation needs a general FAQ to be 100% resolved, the middle ground is that Inceptors should at the very least be slow rolling per model but I think that’s generally being done already.

Question 4 - Reinforcements in Detachments?

Do units starting the battle set up somewhere else other than on the battlefield (e.g. Terminators, Inceptors) lose their detachment abilities, because they count as reinforcements, and are therefore not part of any detachment? This seems to be what the rules say, but when I suggested this on a forum, people were pretty unhappy about it! Thanks. - Daniel Wright

If you want to include a unit of Terminators in your army they should fill the appropriate Elite slot in one of your detachments, and they are still considered part of that detachment if you set them up off the battlefield to teleport in later. So they do get any detachment abilities the other units would. I asked around here at Goonhammer HQ to try and find where this confusion might be originating and we found this section.

REINFORCEMENT UNIT If a unit is ever added to a Battle-forged army during the battle, it is never considered part of a Detachment. This means that it never costs CPs to include them in your army but they will never benefit from any Detachment abilities. [Core Book Pg246]

So first things first this is not referring to all reinforcements, units like Terminators or Inceptors. It’s talking just about units you add to your army mid battle. These are units that were not part of your roster but you instead kept reinforcement points for to use mid battle. The two main examples of this that I can think of are Summoning Daemons, and spawning a new unit which armies like the Tyranids can. Those units would not have any detachment abilities. So if your Tervigon spawned a new unit of Gaunts, they would not have any of the abilities their hive fleet provides for being battle-forged. They would still have the <Hive Fleet> keywords for stratagems and auras though.

Question 5 - Defensible and Overwatch

So defensible terrain says: If a unit Holds Steady, any Overwatch attacks made by that unit this phase will score hits on rolls of 5+. Am I supposed to read that as a 5+ that can be modified? The overwatch rules very clearly says unmodified 6 irrespective of BS or modifiers. The terrain rule does not. Are we supposed to infer backwards that all overwatches can not be modified?

I’m actually not sure. The overwatch rules make things super clear about the normal kind of overwatch hit roll.

Overwatch is resolved like a normal shooting attack (albeit one resolved in the Charge phase) and uses all the normal rules, except that an unmodified hit roll of 6 is always required for a successful hit roll, irrespective of the firing model’s Ballistic Skill or any hit roll modifiers. In addition, when a model fires Overwatch, it does so at the charging unit. 

But then as you have pointed out Hold Steady is just.

If a unit Holds Steady, any Overwatch attacks made by that unit this phase will score hits on rolls of 5+.

No mention of being unmodified, or ignoring any modifiers. So RAW yes I would say these can be modified, but like all surprising finds I think this interpretation is with discussing with your opponent pregame.

That’s it for this week. If you have any questions or feedback, or a rules question you want answered, then drop us a note in the comments below, ask a question in our Ruleshammer form, or head over to r/ruleshammer to discuss.

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