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If a unit of Sternguard Veterans are firing overwatch, can they choose to use their special issue ammo or must they fire standard bolter rounds?

 Luusormi wrote:
If a unit of Sternguard Veterans are firing overwatch, can they choose to use their special issue ammo or must they fire standard bolter rounds?

they can use whatever ammo they want, because Overwatch is performed just like a normal shooting attack.

It depends on if it is whenever they fire or only in the shooting phase like "In the shooting phase..."

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
It depends on if it is whenever they fire or only in the shooting phase like "In the shooting phase..."

not true at all, an overwatch attack/response is treated in all ways as a normal shooting attack with the exception of not causing moral or pinning tests.

 nutty_nutter wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
It depends on if it is whenever they fire or only in the shooting phase like "In the shooting phase..."

not true at all, an overwatch attack/response is treated in all ways as a normal shooting attack with the exception of not causing moral or pinning tests.

That's not true as far as I know. The cadre fireblade's Volly Fire ability says "..in the Shooting phase." so it only affects the shooting phase. Thes Multi-Tracker says "..in each Shooting phase." so you can't fire two weapons in the over-watch phase. Thus, if sterngard say "..in the Shooting phase." it only works in the shooting phase.

If "in the Shooting phase" is sufficient to disqualify a rule from applying to overwatch, then overwatch shooting won't function at all. Even if you interpret overwatch as overriding the basic rules but not other rules, then you get weirdness like the fact that the restriction to only fire one weapon is keyed to the Shooting phase.

This was actually discussed at length at Feast of Blades.

They eventually went with only one weapon could fire over watch, but said that they went that way just because that's the way they felt it should work and that there was not a RaW reason you couldn't shoot more than one weapon.

Now I would say the volley fire ability would not work in over watch as it's an ability, and most abilities are not allowed in iver watch.

But the more than one weapon bit is hard to argue against because the rule that says you can't shoot more than one also says "in the shooting phase".

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 nutty_nutter wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
It depends on if it is whenever they fire or only in the shooting phase like "In the shooting phase..."

not true at all, an overwatch attack/response is treated in all ways as a normal shooting attack with the exception of not causing moral or pinning tests.

That's not true as far as I know. The cadre fireblade's Volly Fire ability says "..in the Shooting phase." so it only affects the shooting phase. Thes Multi-Tracker says "..in each Shooting phase." so you can't fire two weapons in the over-watch phase. Thus, if sterngard say "..in the Shooting phase." it only works in the shooting phase.

Then you are allowing marines to fire bolter,, bolt pistol and grenades with every model then? Becauae the restriction of only firing one weapon is ONLY FOUND IN THE SHOOTING PHASE.

nosferatu1001 wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:

 nutty_nutter wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
It depends on if it is whenever they fire or only in the shooting phase like "In the shooting phase..."

not true at all, an overwatch attack/response is treated in all ways as a normal shooting attack with the exception of not causing moral or pinning tests.

That's not true as far as I know. The cadre fireblade's Volly Fire ability says "..in the Shooting phase." so it only affects the shooting phase. Thes Multi-Tracker says "..in each Shooting phase." so you can't fire two weapons in the over-watch phase. Thus, if sterngard say "..in the Shooting phase." it only works in the shooting phase.

Then you are allowing marines to fire bolter,, bolt pistol and grenades with every model then? Becauae the restriction of only firing one weapon is ONLY FOUND IN THE SHOOTING PHASE.

Well there is the statement in overwatch rules "An Overwatch attack is resolved like a normal shooting attack (albeit one resolved in the enemy's Assault phase) and uses all the normal rules for range, line of sight, cover saves, ans so on."

Emphasis mine


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Created this thread, so we can argue about this and not get yelled at for being off topic.

Yes; it is a NORMAL SHOOTING ATTACK, with a different point at which it is resolved.

Normaly, how many weapons can a marine fire? Answer: 1. If you claim that this is not true, a marine can fire his bolter, bolt pistol AND throw a grenade, as the limit on firing only one weapon is found in the shooting phase.

If a model in a unit has 2 pistols, can he not fire both in overwatch just as he could in the shooting phase ?

Yes, of course - Gunslinger would work as normal on overwatch

One day I sat down, imbued a little too much, and ranted a little over this very topic... it is probably in the archives somewhere if someone wants to find it. I won't do that again for a while, so this thread is going to be spared turning into a small novel, but I do want to take a moment to explain the core of the problem here: Never write a rule using as vague instructions as 'and so on.' Because the writers have given us a very open ended list, it will always come down to each persons interpenetration of what is needed to resolve a 'normal shooting attack.' For this reason all I can recommend, for our Tau players, is to discuss this with your opponents ahead of time.