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I was on another forum and someone was claiming "So, this actually came up today.
We decided that as the squad was in a bunker [fully enclosed, needed to go through the door] that they'd get a cover save from it as the lightning would have to blast through the ceiling."

They are arguing that being off the table is not the same as being off the battlefield and so things inside buildings(actual buildings not ruins) would still be attacked by the lord of the storm lightning strikes.
The claim was also made that you could only get a cover save from being on the lower floor(with something above them) of a ruins or in area terrain.

I disagreed but the other necron players disagree and I was hopping to get a better(less bias) answer here.

Intact buildings are treated as stationary transport vehicles.
You CANNOT target a unit INSIDE a transport.
They do not NEED a cover save as you can't shoot at them, period.

Ruins are a different story and page of rules. You can shoot at them and they get a cover save (if the weapon permits it).

I'd agree with chromedog. Buildings are usually associated with an AV if I remember correctly, so the lightning could damage the building but not the unit inside. Also Imotekh's lightning does not ignore cover, so units in ruins and area terrain get cover saves.

Lightning crashing through a building or coming down from the sky and striking a unit in ruins that have no ceiling is cute fluff wise but I do not think there are any rules to support that.

Thats what I believed but their claims are that since the rules say that entering a building only removes you from the board and doesn't say they aren't removed from the battlefield that they get hit anyway. They were claiming at one point that since its not a shooting attack models shouldn't get cover saves at all for a while.


For a full look at the argument take a look:
http://necrontyronline.freeforums.org/imotekh-storm-rule-t783.html

It doesn't matter what your friends say.
The rules do not agree with them, and the rules have right-of-way (unless you have agreed to throw the rules out and just play "pew pew you're dead - no I'm not!", in which case, YMDC cannot help you).

Models in an intact building are treated as being embarked in a vehicle.
You cannot shoot them - that's all the rules you need to know. They can shoot out (if it has firepoints) but you CANNOT shoot them. What with is irrelevant. You CANNOT shoot at them. ONLY the building may be targeted.

Logic and 40k do not get on. It has fungus people and elves with guns that shoot ninja stars. Logic has no place in this.

Their first point you listed is just pure crap, to put it nicely. If you have a unit in a transport then the lightning hits the transport, not the unit inside. Based on the actual rules and not speculation the unit inside would be safe until they left said building or it was destroyed. And while their second point could be argued, Imotekh's lightning attacks occur during the shooting phase IIRC, and so you could argue that that alone constitutes them as a shooting attack. Just ignore the babble and go with rules as written. Nothing says that cover saves can not be taken against it, I'd just leave it at that.

I was hopping I would be able to show some examples in the rules that could be used to help persuade the people who are believing incorrectly, because unfortunately just telling someone they are wrong isn't a good way to help show them the flaws in their argument.

"Buildings of all types use aspects of the transport vehicle rules." Pg. 78 BRB

"When shooting at a building, roll to hit and for armour penetration normally (in close combat they are hit automatically, just like stationary vehicles). Buildings treat stunned, immobilised and weapon destroyed results as shaken results instead (weapon destroyed may work as normal if you have agreed to use the weapons mounted on the building, of course). Wrecked buildings are treated in the same way as a wrecked vehicle, and therefore become difficult and dangerous terrain. If one is available, players may like to put down a ruin in its place. Buildings that explode can be replaced with an area of rubble or a crater."
Pg. 79 BRB

As for the cover saves, as I said earlier an attack of any type must specify that it ignores cover in order to do so. That is just simple knowledge and if they can't understand that they should play xbox or something else that does not require critical thinking.

Technically you can shoot at units embarked in Buildings, however ONLY with template weapons.

However as the above says - the lightning strikes cannot affect models in actual buildings or transport vehicles, as they are not on the battlefield.

You gain cover saves that are not based on Line of Sight, as there is no firing model for the strikes. So area terrain, KFF, SoS etc

p80 BRB gives the Template vs models in a building rules

This brings up an interesting point. The building should have had the possibility of getting hit and destroyed by the lighting. So you wouldn't roll for the unit embarked in the building, but you would roll for the building.

This also bring up a related question: Do building that are not occupied by enemy troops get rolled for to be hit by Imotekhs's lighting?

Per the main rulebook FAQ you cannot attack a building which isn't occupied by the enemy,

Mannahnin wrote:Per the main rulebook FAQ you cannot attack a building which isn't occupied by the enemy,

Agreed, but I think the underlying question from ND (correct me if I'm wrong) is that Imotekh's lightning only affects unengaged enemy unit's. It's obvious that you can't target the unit inside of the building, but is the building now considered an enemy unit for the purpose of being affected by the lightning? Personally, I don't think so.

-Yad

A unit in a building cannot be attacked, as it's in a transport (exception: template weapons).

The building itself is NOT an "enemy unit", so it is not rolled for to see if it is attacked.

chromedog wrote:
Logic and 40k do not get on. It has fungus people and elves with guns that shoot ninja stars. Logic has no place in this.

Don't forget that the ninja stars are mono-molecular ninja stars which are 'shaved' off a solid blank of metal......