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Noob question but I have never really thought of nor used focus fire before nor has anyone really used it on me. Had a discussion the other day about it in regards to character sniping.

My character was around 5 models away from a shooter, those 5 models and character were in the open the rest of the squad was in 3plus cover from ruins and objective (scatterfield). If my opponent had focused fire then even though the models in the cover still could have taken their armour save I cannot assign the wounds to them correct?. Also Look out sir doesnt override this? it does for out of range and out of sight.

The models in cover cannot be killed from that shooting attack either can they?

Just wanted to make sure I am thinking of it correctly

Focus fire requires that only models with a specific cover save can be hurt; there is no requirement for them to be actually USING that cover save.

You have this completely correct. In your example, the only reason for focussing fire would be to prevent Look out Sir! - the5 models between would be removed first anyway.

Where it gets useful is if a unit would only normally get cover saves against your attack. Character sniping opportunities using it are rare to say the least, most people putting a unit in cover will try and put the most valuable models in there out of habit anyway.

Look Out Sir does allow the wound to be RE-allocated to a model it couldn't normally be allocated to. It does have to be a model within 6" of the character, of course.

 Mannahnin wrote:
Look Out Sir does allow the wound to be RE-allocated to a model it couldn't normally be allocated to. It does have to be a model within 6" of the character, of course.

I disagree. Page 16 says you can reallocate Look Out Sir! wounds to models that are out of range or line of sight. It gives no permission to allocate to a model that you can't allocate wounds to outside of those two. Meanwhile, page 18 very specifically states that restricting who you can allocate wounds to is how Focus Fire works.
The Look Out Sir! wording on page 26 - 'pick a model within 6"' - was of course overridden by FAQ to be the nearest model within 6" instead. That still doesn't specifically allow you to allocate to anything you couldn't allocate to before (besides range and line of sight).

 Super Ready wrote:

 Mannahnin wrote:
Look Out Sir does allow the wound to be RE-allocated to a model it couldn't normally be allocated to. It does have to be a model within 6" of the character, of course.

I disagree. Page 16 says you can reallocate Look Out Sir! wounds to models that are out of range or line of sight. It gives no permission to allocate to a model that you can't allocate wounds to outside of those two. Meanwhile, page 18 very specifically states that restricting who you can allocate wounds to is how Focus Fire works.
The Look Out Sir! wording on page 26 - 'pick a model within 6"' - was of course overridden by FAQ to be the nearest model within 6" instead. That still doesn't specifically allow you to allocate to anything you couldn't allocate to before (besides range and line of sight).

I tend to agree with SR on this, one of the reason why I wanted to check the process for focus fire, it would enable you to more effectively character snipe as LOS is restricted by the focus fire rule (in that only models out of LOS or range can be look out sir'ed.

LOS does not allocate wounds. Its a rule that allows a different model to be effected by the wound instead of the character, after the wound has been allocated. But nowhere does it say that the wound is "reallocated", its simply applying its effects to a different model.

Its one of those rules like FNP that would be a save if the rules had specifically told you it was, but because they didn't it is not.

 Azrell wrote:
LOS does not allocate wounds. Its a rule that allows a different model to be effected by the wound instead of the character, after the wound has been allocated. But nowhere does it say that the wound is "reallocated", its simply applying its effects to a different model.

Its one of those rules like FNP that would be a save if the rules had specifically told you it was, but because they didn't it is not.

Actually it does re-allocate the wound. Re-read the very last sentence of Look Out, Sir on page 16.

 Azrell wrote:
its simply applying its effects to a different model.

This is exactly what allocating a wound does. Regardless, whatever term you use for it, you still don't have permission to apply/reallocate/shift/transfer the wound/effects to a model outside the Focus Fire group. Lastly - page 16 DOES infer that the wound is reallocated. The last line says "no further attempts to reallocate" (emphasis mine).