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Hi,

A quick question. Do you need to be able to draw line of sight for blood lance. the BA codex does not seem to mention it. but I feel that becaus it is a psychic shooting attack you would need to be able to eye ball your target. Or least the first one.

I ask because I have had a few tanks blown up as a result of librarian dread shooting through BLOS impassible terrain at them and it. So yeah is this correct?

cheers.

Yes you need LOS, as there is no exception given in the BL rules.

No you don't need LOS. The descritpion reads 'Extend a straight line, from the Libarians base in any direction 4d6 - this is the path taken by the Blood Lance'

Key word 'any'. Nothing about needing LOS, especially since you are aiming it in a direction not at a unit.

Sorry JB the Blood Lance rule is specific as you stated, however, the first step in shooting is 'Check Line of Sight' You cannot even attempt to shoot what you cannot see unless given special dispensation.

Does Blood Lance provide this dispensation?

Not to get into another one of these...

I just spend 10 minutes reading through a similar argument/debate/general throwdown on powers like this on whether or not JotWW, Lance and other fun powers need to roll to hit.

I fear I may have to just agree to disagree, as there are 2 camps beginning to form. I know which side I'm on.

Either way here is my rationale...

If I had to declare a unit to shoot at, I see your point. However it says the attack goes in any 'direction'. You hit everything in a straight line whether you see it or not.

Ex (actual game situation) - I fired Lance at a Rhino and directly behind it was a vindicator. I (libby) was on lower ground so there wansn't any way to see the vindi. However becuase the rule reads 'any enemy unit in the Lance's path', it had the distance and hit both. I stunned the Rhino, but blew up the vindi which I could not even see.

Now, I know what your're going to say "you had to see/aim at the Rhino". No, I only pointed it in a direction. I never aimed it at a unit. Otherwise I would have had to say, "I'm aiming at the Rhino and boy I sure hope it goes far enough to hit the vindi behind it". In which case I would have had to declare two units to shoot at.

Lastly, all of these points are taken from the BA Codex, which overrides the BRB and the FAQ. This is where I think most people split. Again, I don't want to debate an endless argument...it's just how I see it.

I am fine with you blowing up the Vindicator with the lance, I see it as no different than scattering a blast marker onto a vehicle and blowing it up in spite of it being out of LoS. Same for a template that gets model from two units, you only need to declare the single target.

Now, if you tried to assault a unit piling out of say a razorback behind the Vinidi with the one firing the lance, then we might have some issues.

Nothing in the codex overrides it being a shooting attack. It is just resolved in a unique manner after declaring the target.

I hope you gave the player a cover save (unless lance prohibits it, I do not recall).

To use Blood Lance an Assault-PSA, one must fist select an inital target (ref: SW Faq), and roll to hit this target as per the shooting sequence rules (Page 15). The Blood Lance rules allow it to hit each target along the line it has drawn an exception to the normal rule "To determine if the firing models have hit their target, roll a D6 for each shot that is in range. Normally troopers will only get to fire one shot each." Page 17, by stipulating 'any enemy unit in the lance's path suffers'.

Having just read the SW FAQ, there is precedent. I concede the point. The wording still says 'any' direction, but I think RAI may be that you need LOS.

You don't need to rolll to hit. Again, I don't want to resuscitate that argument.