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So a character can only be targeted if they are the closest enemy. My question came up during our game.

I ran a chorus of 5 primaris psykers and they were all next to each other. My opponent landed in front of them with a storm-raven. Obviously one was closer than the others. His stormraven goes into the shooting phase but can only declare against the closest character. So, he declares 2 hurricane bolters into it...this is USUALLY enough to kill it but he cannot then declare his twin autocannon or his missile launcher into the other ones as he knocks my psykers out.

Is this how it works? It seems powerful that you have to basically declare mega-overkill on one target because you allocate all shots before the first. Not complaining...Just observing.

Obviously he put the other shots into different targets but he would have, he said, rather shoot all the psykers as on my turn...after he killed the 1, the other 4 took off 8 wounds with smite.

That's correct, you allocate shots before rolling any dice.

yes, targets for all weapons are declared before dice rolls (no waiting to see what happens with your first few guns) in this case the stormraven could only target the closest of the characters at that point (though it should mean a VERY dead character)

Well, also remember everyone can split fire, declared before shooting also. So maybe it would be wise to target something other than a character with the rest of the shooting.

Three games in already and I keep forgetting my Bolter armed Bullet Catchers can actually shoot somewhere else while the Heavy Weapons go off on vehicles.