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Hi all,

Just a question on Tau marker lights firing at assassins. Marker lights can increase BS etc but what hapens when shooting at a callidus assassin on the first turn? The callidus rule is as follows:

during the first game turn, or during the game turn in which the Callidus Assassin arrives from Reserves, enemy units can only fire Snap Shots when targeting her.

So would marker lights negate that rule and increase the bs so they are not snap firing (a bit like in overwatch their bs can be increased) or does the assassin rule take precedence because it says enemy units can only snap fire?

Also what about when shooting at the cullexus?

Whenever enemy units target a Culexus Assassin with shooting or close combat attacks, the shots/attacks are always resolved as if the attacking unit had Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill 1.

if marker lights were fired and the opponent wanted to use those marker lights would they increase the BS or would the assassins rule that the enemy is always BS when shooting take precedence?

My guess is that the enemy fires Marker lights at BS1 and lets say 2 hit and the tau player then decides to use those marker lights to increase the BS of the unit the unit would still be BS 1 because the assaassins rule states enemy shots are always resolved at BS1.

help please.

For the Snap Shot rule, Markerlights have permission to modify the Snap Shot BS.

I'm unsure on the second one as I don't have access to the Assassin rules.

The Assasins rule doesn't state the shots are always resolved at BS1, it says they are always Snap Shots. Now, Snap Shots are normally resolved at BS1, however Tau Markerlights can improve the BS of a Snap Shot as explicitly stated in their rules; this is the same effect as firing at a zooming Flyer without the Skyfire special rule. This means that the Tau player can fire Snap Shot markerlights at the assassin and then use any markerlight hits to improve the BS of another unit's Snap Shots at the assassin, however since this is still a Snap Shot the Tau player cannot fire template or blast weapons, like the Riptide's Ion Accelerator overcharge shot, at the assassin.

rigeld2 wrote:
For the Snap Shot rule, Markerlights have permission to modify the Snap Shot BS.

I'm unsure on the second one as I don't have access to the Assassin rules.

this is the seconds one rule

Whenever enemy units target a Culexus Assassin with shooting or close combat attacks, the shots/attacks are always resolved as if the attacking unit had Ballistic Skill and Weapon Skill 1.

so woul marker lights change that? the rule states the shots are always resolved at BS 1 so even after the marker lights increase the BS the rule states the enemy shots are ALWAYS resolved at BS1

The first question is pretty clear. You can fire snap shots and marker lights allow for the increase in BS for snap shots because that is specifically stated by the marker light rule..

The second question is not so clear. as the BS is a set modifier. Maybe dice off on it.

I hate dice off.

I would argue that the assassins rule would take effect. tau marker lights increase BS but the assassins rule sttes that the firing unit always fires at BS1 so no matter what BS the marker lights make that unit they are still BS 1 when firing at the assassin.

tau player fires and lands 2 marker light. The next tau unit then declares he wants to fire at the assassin and decides to use 2 marker lights to increase his BS to 5 for eg. However the assassins rule states that the firing unit is ALWAYS BS1 so the tau unit is BS1.

another scenario is that the unit wants to fire at the assassin so goes down to bs1 however he declares he is using 2 marker lights to go up to bs3 however the assassin rule states that the shooting unit is ALWAYS bs1 so this then reduces their bs to 1 again.

Only reason i wouls say dice off is that snap firing is worded very similiar and has the BS set to 1 regardless of the BS of the firer. So there is a precedence that they can modify it. I just can't remember the wording of Snap fire but i think it is worded exactly the same.

I would need to see the rule in full, but it looks like first turn you could boost the BS since it is only a snap shot, but after that you wouldn't be able to since you are forced to resolve at BS1.

In which case, just throw pie plates at it.

I say this so many times...
Ballistic Score 1 is not snap-shooting
Snap Shooting is not Ballistic Score 1

Snap shots are a specific Rule within the book itself, informing us how to proceed anytime another Rule forces a Model to 'snap shot.' This procedure is resolved very much like a shooting attack, but with a few key pieces of additional instruction. While one of these instructions is 'resolve at Ballistic Score 1,' that is a vastly different thing from 'Set Ballistic Score to 1.' This is why things do not modify the Snap Shot Ballistic Score unless they specifically mention that they can, we ignore what the actual score is and simply 'resolve at Ballistic Score 1.'

Bad news for the Markerlight Rule in the second situation
Good news for Templates and Blast Markers