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Can pistols fire into CC if they are not currently engaged in CC, assuming that the target unit is the closest viable target?

 Traditio wrote:
Can pistols fire into CC if they are not currently engaged in CC, assuming that the target unit is the closest viable target?

Nope. Pistols do precisely one thing (with an extra allowance to do that one thing):

They allow a unit to fire at an enemy unit that is within 1" of them.

And in order to do that, they're also allowed to ignore the fact that other friendly units might also be within 1" of that enemy unit (which would also prohibit them from targeting that enemy unit as well).

That's it. So in order to use that ability, they have to be within 1" of the enemy unit themselves, but once they are, they also have permission to ignore the fact that other friendly units are within 1" of that same enemy unit.

 Traditio wrote:
Can pistols fire into CC if they are not currently engaged in CC, assuming that the target unit is the closest viable target?

I looked very closely at the wording for this already. It says specifically that you can shoot the pistols at units within 1" of that unit. No double pistol back up squads.

 yakface wrote:

 Traditio wrote:
Can pistols fire into CC if they are not currently engaged in CC, assuming that the target unit is the closest viable target?

Nope. Pistols do precisely one thing (with an extra allowance to do that one thing):

They allow a unit to fire at an enemy unit that is within 1" of them.

And in order to do that, they're also allowed to ignore the fact that other friendly units might also be within 1" of that enemy unit (which would also prohibit them from targeting that enemy unit as well).

That's it. So in order to use that ability, they have to be within 1" of the enemy unit themselves, but once they are, they also have permission to ignore the fact that other friendly units are within 1" of that same enemy unit.

That was my suspicion, but I wanted to double check.

Thanks yakface!