Reading 6th Edition - The shooting phase

Nick speaking,

Ok, so next to read in the book is the shooting phase, and we are now starting to see a few big changes. The rules follow the same format as we expect, but there is now a new 'Snap shots' rule. This basically means that any models with a ballistic skill are able to move and then shoot their guns (even heavy) at ballistic skill one. The only exception being blasts and templates or weapons that don't need a ballistic skill to shoot. The rule also points out that the Necron Monolith is unable to use it's Portal of Excile to Snap shot! The rest of the shooting rules are the same as before, including the run rule, but there has been some major changes to wound allocation.

Allocation of wounds are broken down into three sections, and there is a new 'Wound pool' rule to help GW explain it easier. The Wound pool is just gathering and remembering what wounds you have and what strength, AP they are etc. Then it tells you how to allocate wounds to units, when you have the same save on every model. You just pick up the dice, roll the saves, and then take one wound off the closest models to the firing unit. Ok, so now it gets interesting, you have to continues to allocate wounds to the closest model until it is removed! It then clarifies that you will have to roll a dice to see which models are the closest in a new 'Random allocation' rule for when you don't know who is the closest, using a Mawloc's terror from the deep as an example.

Next, is mixed saves. Where you have mixed saves in a unit you will need to allocate one wound at a time to the closest model and roll the saves individually, before moving onto the next save! I had to read this several times to make sure it was correct, as it sounds like this will take forever! Make sure you read the next page as well, as there is a new 'Fast dice' rule that makes this a bit easier. Fast dice lets you roll dice together, so if you had one guy with a 3+ save and five guys with a 4+ save, and you had to take seven wounds, all from the same type of gun. All you do is see how many of the same save guys are the closest, lets say four guys, you then roll four wounds, if two die take two off the front. Then roll another two dice, for those two, and keep going until the wound pool is empty.

Lastly is mixed saves, where you have to save different strength and AP wounds etc. In this case you roll each group of wounds separately. There is then an extra rule in here that says the shooting player is able to choose which order the various group of shots are rolled in! So if there are some dudes at the back of a unit that you want to kill, you might want to allocate a set of AP2 wounds to be taken last in hope that they will end up taking those wounds!

Running along side this, you are unable to kill any models that you cannot see, with the exception of a new 'Look out, sir' rule. This rule allows a Characters to allocate wounds and unsaved wounds it has to take onto another model in the unit within 6", before you can do this though, you have to roll a dice for each wound, on a 1-3 you can't, and on a 4+ you can.

  
This section then moves onto some stuff for cover. The only part of a model that can be shot at are its head, arms, torso and legs! So tails, wings, guns etc. don't count. To determine if your model is in cover when you allocate it a wound, at least 25% of the model has to be obscured from the point of view of at least one firer. There are no more unit cover saves, it is all done on individual models!

The types of cover mentioned in this section are:

Razor Wire 6+
Forests and Area Terrain 5+
Intervening Models 5+
Ruins, Ruined Buildings and Trenches 4+
Fortifications 3+

Lastly, is the new 'Focus fire rule. This is a bit of a read, but makes more sense when you look at the picture supplied. Basically, you can choose to focus fire your shots into a unit, which enables you to choose which models get hit when some are in cover and some are not. You can choose to hit only the models in the open so only these can die. Or you can focus fire and select a cover save value between 2+ and 6+. Only models with that cover save or worse can be allocated a wound and the rest will be allocated to the models without any cover.

Previous Posts:
6th Edition Rule Book Unboxing
Reading 6th Edition - The first few pages
Reading 6th Edition - The movement phase

Next up, the Assault phase...