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Hi,

Just played my first game of Warmachine today with the starter set, and whilst I enjoyed it, I've still got a couple of questions that the rulebook doesn't seem to answer (or it probably does, I just wasn't looking hard enough). Anyways, my question is in regards to distributing focus to other units, specifically warjacks, and what they're able to do with it. Just we were using the focus to end up with something like four AoE shots, three of which were boosted, decimating the others army. Just wondering if that was actually legal to do, and if so, how do you counter it?

Cheers,

Jangus

No, that is definitely not a legal thing to do.

For starters, you can only buy extra ranged shots up to the ROF of the weapon. So if a ranged weapon has a ROF of 1 it can only shoot 1 time.
Then, you can use a Focus point to boost a single roll to hit or to damage, not all of them.
And to end it, outside certain special rules (that no model in the starter set has), you can only attribute a maximum of 3 Focus points to a single warjack.

All of these rules are stated in the rulebook in pages 73, 74 and 75 of Warmachine: Prime.

Ah ok, well that clears that up!

Just the quick start rules said something along the lines of paying focus to gain and additional Ranged Attack. Guess we misinterpreted it.

Thanks for the answer.

I didn't realise that either, so no matter the RoF on a gun, you can only shoot once without using focus or fury? And then the RoF shows how many more you can buy?

 ImAGeek wrote:
I didn't realise that either, so no matter the RoF on a gun, you can only shoot once without using focus or fury? And then the RoF shows how many more you can buy?

No.

The RoF shows how many total shots the gun can have. A RoF 1 gun can only ever be shot once each turn, a RoF 2 gun will have its initial shot and you can then use Focus / Fury to buy a single additional shot. (again, with the usual provision for special rules that allow you to disregard this restriction)

Yeah, that's what I said...

Oh I see. That's what I meant, I didn't word it very well though.

 ImAGeek wrote:
I didn't realise that either, so no matter the RoF on a gun, you can only shoot once without using focus or fury? And then the RoF shows how many more you can buy?

This is true for models that manipulate focus or fury (i.e. Warmachines, Warbeasts, Warlocks, Warcasters and any lesser or apprentice variants of that list). Models which do not have focus or fury mechanics shoot up to their full ROF (i.e. normal infantrymen, cavalry, etc etc).

 Mahtamori wrote:
Models which do not have focus or fury mechanics shoot up to their full ROF (i.e. normal infantrymen, cavalry, etc etc).

No, sorry but you are wrong.

Models that don't use focus or fury will normally also only get a single shot each activation. They will need some type of special rule to allow them to fire more than once (see Cygnar Long Gunners for such an example).

PhantomViper wrote:

 Mahtamori wrote:
Models which do not have focus or fury mechanics shoot up to their full ROF (i.e. normal infantrymen, cavalry, etc etc).

No, sorry but you are wrong.

Models that don't use focus or fury will normally also only get a single shot each activation. They will need some type of special rule to allow them to fire more than once (see Cygnar Long Gunners for such an example).

I stand corrected. Our group has been misinterpreting this, although it has never been an issue (none in our group play Cygnar, do you have other examples?).

A borderline example, though, is the Destor Thane. Multi-fire (*Attack) allows him to exceed his rate of fire.

 Mahtamori wrote:

none in our group play Cygnar, do you have other examples?

Kell Bailoch and the Danguard Destors are the only other ones that spring to my mind. Both of them have special rules that allow them to take the second shot under some circumstances.

 Mahtamori wrote:

A borderline example, though, is the Destor Thane. Multi-fire (*Attack) allows him to exceed his rate of fire.

Yes, as usual special rules exist and will mention when they allow players to ignore these general rules.

Rate of fire is described on page 56 of Prime.

I had this same confusion starting out; I thought I could keep up an endless murder chain with the Lord of the Feast buying extra bird attacks after killing everyone in melee with him. Fortunately that's not the case.

I wish my Monitor could fire multiple times. That'd make fighting warbeasts much easier.

Isn't the Monitor RoF 2?

Or is that the Cipher?

 Grey Templar wrote:
Isn't the Monitor RoF 2?

Or is that the Cipher?

That's the Cipher's little mortar. The Monitor flings killer buzzsaws.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
Rate of fire is described on page 56 of Prime.

I had this same confusion starting out; I thought I could keep up an endless murder chain with the Lord of the Feast buying extra bird attacks after killing everyone in melee with him. Fortunately that's not the case.

The rules themselves on page 56 under the header of "Rate of Fire" are a bit poorly written when you look them up the first few times (unless you read the rules word by word, page by page). The second column under "Ranged Combat" tells you the critical necessary information. What the "Rate of Fire" section fails to tell you is that a model only makes one initial attack with each weapon - and I think this is where we, and others, went wrong since many other rules sets, such as Games Workshop, gives you permission to shoot up to rate of fire meaning most of the "Rate of Fire" sounds like an explanation for why something is a particular way rather than actually explaining that special rules or abilities are what "unlocks" the extra shots.