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Are all of the rolls for lightning made simultaneously? i.e. are their targets all determined at once, are all the number of hits they cause determined before rolling them?

Interesting sub-questions:
How does this relate to the chronometron?
How does this relate to units forced to disembark from transports?

It isnt shooting, so nothing saying it has to be simultaneous. So yes you can blow a transport and the now disembarked unit could be rolled against.

The roll made to hurt vehicles is not "his" roll (imotekh) so no reroll. Possibly - GW could fundamentally change rules via FAQ aagin.

The issue is how you splice the sentence and whether it applies only to all unengaged models on the table at the beginning of the shooting phase, or whether you roll at the beginning of the shooting phase and it affects each enemy unit that is exposed. I am interested to see what people have to say, and trying to formulate an opinion myself.

You roll 1D6 for each unit that is unengaged, and nothing says all rolls occur simultaneously - so they dont. In 40k things are simultaneous only when explicitly stated

From page 55 of Codex Necrons:

... roll a D6 for each unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield at the start of each Necron Shooting phase.

Wouldn't that make all of the lightning simultaneous?

Ghaz wrote:From page 55 of Codex Necrons:

... roll a D6 for each unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield at the start of each Necron Shooting phase.

Wouldn't that make all of the lightning simultaneous?

Yes, similar to how you figure out what models are eligible to fight in Assault at the start of that phase, you determine what units are eligible to be struck by the lightning at the start of the shooting phase. So while it doesn't explicitly say simultaneous, I don't see how it works out any other way.

-Yad

Yad wrote:

Ghaz wrote:From page 55 of Codex Necrons:

... roll a D6 for each unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield at the start of each Necron Shooting phase.

Wouldn't that make all of the lightning simultaneous?

Yes, similar to how you figure out what models are eligible to fight in Assault at the start of that phase, you determine what units are eligible to be struck by the lightning at the start of the shooting phase. So while it doesn't explicitly say simultaneous, I don't see how it works out any other way.

-Yad

An argument against this would be, that when a transport is destroyed and a unit inside is forced to disembark, it is now an "unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield at the start of the shooting phase" so you would roll for it too.

Once you've started rolling dice, I would have a hard time believing it is still the start of the shooting phase. You could make various arguments, but it would be poor sportsmanship in my opinion. Imotekh is scary enough without trying to bend the rules for a few more 1/6 chance rolls.

Nemesor Dave wrote:

Yad wrote:

Ghaz wrote:From page 55 of Codex Necrons:

... roll a D6 for each unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield at the start of each Necron Shooting phase.

Wouldn't that make all of the lightning simultaneous?

Yes, similar to how you figure out what models are eligible to fight in Assault at the start of that phase, you determine what units are eligible to be struck by the lightning at the start of the shooting phase. So while it doesn't explicitly say simultaneous, I don't see how it works out any other way.

-Yad

An argument against this would be, that when a transport is destroyed and a unit inside is forced to disembark, it is now an "unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield at the start of the shooting phase" so you would roll for it too.

Hmm, that doesn't quite pass the sniff test in my opinion If, as you are directed to do at the start of the shooting phase, you examine the board and pick out all the unengaged models you have at the point satisfied the Lightning rule. There is nothing in the rule to suggest that you re-evaluate that judgement as you roll the dice.

-Yad

Its really simple. Who gets hit? "each unengaged enemy unit on the battlefield", When do they get hit? "at the start of each Necron Shooting phase"..

Just played this out last week (and lost 5 units on turn 1...that guys dice were on FIIIRE).
It only hits the units that were unengaged at the START of the shooting phase. So any troops blown out of exploding Chimera's can not be targetted in that round of lightning (but they could be shot at by other units durring the rest of the shooting phase).

It can't hit the unit that was in the Chimera because by that time all of the lightning for that turn has been resolved.