Having uncovered the mysteries of Close Assault in the first part of my ‘Space Hulk Rules: A Clarification’ series, we’re now going to look at yet another section of the rulebook that fails to fully explain itself:
Overlapping Overwatch
Overlapping - A Genestealer moves into LoS of two Overwatch Terminators
I’m hoping that this one will be a simple one to answer. In the rulebook, it states that if a Genestealer performs an action in the fire arc of more than one Terminator on Overwatch then:
…all of the Space Marines must take their shot at the Genestealer, and you must roll for them all, even if the Genestealer has been killed by an overwatch shot from another Space Marine!
That’s straightforward enough I suppose, but if you’re going to explicitly say that each Terminator must roll, why not just add a sentence to explain why?
As I understand it, you roll for everyone because there’s a chance that one of them could jam their gun and therefore have to spend an AP to unjam it, should another Genestealer happen to appear. Why not clarify this though? Is it possible for one Terminator to shoot a team mate by accident? If so, what are the engagement rules for that? If not, why not bloody say that then?!
Similarly, there is a question in the (frankly lacking) Space Hulk FAQ (PDF) about using the flamer on a map section that contains another Terminator:
Q. Can the Heavy Flamer target a section that contains a Space Marine?
A. As long as the target square is empty or contains a Genestealer, yes.
OK, so are there any repercussions for doing this? This issue did actually come up in the last game we played (or would have had I not lost so badly). Does the Terminator have to take some kind of defence roll? The Heavy Flamer is ridiculously powerful (Genestealers are killed by a +2 roll of a D6) so how can the Terminators be completely immune?
Why not just add one sentence to clarify the situation (e.g. “Terminators do not take damage from the Heavy Flamer, but cannot pass through map sections that are already on fire” or something similar)? The vagueness is so fucking FRUSTRATING!
Ahem. Sorry about that. So, what do you lot think?
Next time: The oft-discussed issue of miniature placement!
Right, first question first…
I think you’re right, you roll the die just to check if the bolter jams. There is nothing to say that a Space Marine can hit his Battle Brother. Seem simple to me but I guess it wouldn’t have harmed them to put an extra line in there!
2nd Question…
I’ve go no idea!! Sorry.
I guess they are immune as there is nowhere in the rules where it says they can be hit. They are wearing massive Terminator armor so a little bit of fire would be nothing to them!
Speaking from a 40k perspective, flamers are seen as the go to weapon for dealing with lightly armoured hordes, tyranids falling into this category. Hitting a Termie with one wouldn’t do much.
Consider them as automatically getting hit, but just shrugging it off.
All GW rulebooks are notoriously riddled with ambiguity though, hence the massive FAQ section on their website.
Cheers guys! This post was a lot more of just a rant than the previous one… I just find vague rulebooks incredibly frustrating! I think you’re right though: I don’t think the Terminators can hurt each other…
Testing for a jam IS the reason they have to roll and that seems thematically correct to me.
Sorry to be mr contrary but I believe that termies caught in a flames section DO die on a 2+ like the stealers. I may be thinking of a 1st or 2nd edition rule again though.
WTF?
“Then roll a dice for each model or blip in the section including the target model; the piece is destroyed on a roll of 2 or higher”
That’s not vague.
I guess you’re right. It just annoys me that they didn’t put in a specific comment in about it, especially having not mentioned whether it’s possible for Terminators to hurt each other (by accident) elsewhere.