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so being fairly new to WHFB, I came upon a peculiar moment recently, I have the Dwarf rune that grants a 5+ ward save versus shooting attacks, even magic missiles. My question being does this grant a ward save versus a war-machine shot such as a cannon or hell-blaster. I understand war machines to being a shooting attack, however my opponent who has much more experience than me says that it is specifically a war-machine attack there for not shooting and no save.


I they are right that fine I just want conformation, if it is the reverse can I get a bit of an explanation as to where this is proven.

Warmachines are all shooting attacks.
Hence the whole used during "the shooting phase" thing

That was basically my claim, however he said that he has some ward that gives him a save versus war-machines in particular therefore they were separate for everything.

Ironcurse Icon gives a ward save only to warmachines. 5 points it is fairly commonly used.

The ward save works against war machines. Wards typically save against all damaging attacks or attacks of a type.
When you have a specific ward like the iron curse icon it is specific in its usage because it is at a reduced points cost.
But I don't know dwarves so I could be mistaken

The only time you can't use Ward saves is when it's specifically said, like "with no saves of any kind allowed"
and yes, shots from warmachines-weapons are shooting attacks

Thank you for clearing that up for me

You also can't use a ward save when it says, "and no ward saves allowed." :p

So War machines are a small part of shooting attacks which can get a seperate ward save, which is cheap because it doesn't cover much.
Then you could get a ward against shooting (like yours) which covers all shooting attacks (shooting attacks can happen in movement, magic or shooting phases).
Then you get better wards which protect against everything that doesn't say no ward saves allowed.
Your friend's arguement would imply that your Lord, who has a 4+ ward against everything, wss not protected from war machines or any shooting, because you can take specific wards for them.