#6th ed

Doomsday Doopy Doo \ New ep!

I'm going to warn you right now: This post WILL NOT INTEREST YOU IF YOU ARE NOT A RULES GEEK.  Some of these are intricate and detailed arguments, others are just kinda wacky and cool.  

That aside, 40K's 6th Edition has a number of rules oddities worth talking about, especially rules that contradict rules that contradict rules.  

For example, it's a pretty basic rule that a model with multiple guns can only fire one at a time unless this model is some crazy-awesome vehicle.  However, badassery and awesomeness got an advantage over this logical system in the Gunslinger rule.  In case you haven't read the section on Pistol weapons carefully enough, Gunslinger says that a model with two pistols may choose to fire both in the shooting phase.  Fun times, no?  I decided to take advantage of this and throw together a Blood Angels Honor Guard squad with no fewer than EIGHT plasma pistols.  They come with a Sanguinary Novitiate, whose Feel No Pain buff will help them survive wounds coming from both the enemy and their own guns overheating.  Overcosted? Sure.  Worth it? Oh, yeah.  

Previously, Heavy weapons could only be fired at all if the unit didn't move at all; the Snap Shots rule changed this so that Heavy weapons can be fired on the move with reduced effectiveness.  Snap Shots are also used to fire Overwatch, letting you pour massive amounts of pain onto any enemy trying to charge your shooting squad.  The funny thing is, template weapons such as flamers can't fire Snap Shots (defined as part of the Snap Shots rule), but then if you pop over to the weapon rules, template weapons get a rule called Wall of Death which lets them fire Overwatch even though they can't fire Snap Shots.  Makes sense in a realistic way, but kinda funny from a rules lawyering perspective.  

Rage is worth mentioning just as a strange flip-flop.  Rage used to be a disadvantage, requiring the unit to move as fast as possible towards the nearest enemy unit and charge them if possible.  With 6th Edition, though, Rage has become one of the few things that make assault worthwhile, as instead of being a restriction it gives your Death Company an extra attack on the turn that they charge.  With all of the nerfs that close combat has gotten in 6E, this is a small but much-needed windfall.  

Here's the real doozie that inspired this post: Whether or not pistols that have fired can grant an additional attack in close combat.  This debate was raging for a while on the B&C, and I'm providing the details below.  

BRB (Big RuleBook) p.51: "Some weapons can be used in different ways, representing different power settings or types of ammo. Some weapons can be used in combat as well as shooting.  Where this is the case, there will be a separate line in the wepaon's profile for each, and you can choose which to use each turn."  

BRB p.52: "A Pistol also counts as a close combat in the Assault phase."  

BRB p.51: "A pistol can be used as a close combat weapon.  If this is done, use the  profile given above - the Strength, AP, and special rules of the pistol's Shooting profile are ignored."  The 'profile given above' is a generic, no-bonuses-provided close combat weapon profile.  

Therefore, a pistol that has been fired in the Shooting phase may not be used in the subsequent close-combat phase.  But:

BRB p.24: "Engaged models with two single-handed weapons (often a Melee weapon and/or pistol in each hand) get +1 Attack."  

This seems incongruous, but it is possible to not fire the pistol in the shooting phase before combat.  Still, that does seem odd, doesn't it?  The solution is actually in that last rule I quoted.  If you aren't an experienced rules lawyer, you'll need to read it at least once more.  Note that it doesn't specify that the relevant needs to use two close-combat weapons, only have them.  It isn't possible to use the pistol's profile for your close-combat weapon after having fired that pistol, but it still counts as a close-combat weapon that your model has and therefore provides the extra attack for dual-wielding!  

I have been pondering some things with Allies, and more and more I have realized that there are many things that one should keep in mind should you run allies who aren't buddy-buddy with your army. Some of these are generic, some of these are army specific. That being said, I'm sure that after I toss some of these out there, others will start cropping up for other armies, too. If anyone else has some that they've come across, toss them in here too.

Infiltrate: This rule specifies that if you deploy via Infiltration, you must be at least 18" away if enemies can see you, or at least 12" away if they do not have Line of Sight. Allies count towards this.

Imotekh: Non-Battle Brother Allies are Enemies that you can not Shoot, Assault, or target with Psychic Powers. The Storm Lord cares not for any of this, as his lightning is none of the above.

Writhing Worldscape: The terrain "down grade" applies to your allies as well.

Orikan: Temporal Snares gum up your allies as well.

Purifiers: Cleansing Flame will try to wound Non-Battle Brothers.

Rad Grenades: As currently worded, if they charged into a Non-Battle Brother tar pit to clean up, they would hit your allies. Same goes for if they and an allied squad got hit in a multi-assault.

Mindshackle Scarabs: If your ally is in base contact with your Scarab carrier, he may well turn on you, as aptly put in the rules wording "the victim strikes out at his allies".

Ether Crystal: Smacks allies hard if their Deep Strike scatters too close to the Cryptek. Lightning field's wording is somewhat vague, but it could plausibly go off in a multi-assault, or supporting assault.

Black Templar's Zeal: The successful Leadership test causes the squad to move d6 inches towards the closest enemy. With strategic deployment, you can actually use this to try to milk some free directed movement by having an allied unit half an inch closer than your opponent.

Callidus Assassin: Polymorphine, being not an attack, shot, or psychic power, could deep strike the assassin next to an allied unit.

Servo Skulls: Allies step on them.

Move 12"

Have Fleet

Ignore Terrain