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Hi!

My question for you all is this. Can I use a successful 'Divine Guidance' Act of Faith to make a shooting attack against a Character with less than 10 wounds, even if the <10 wound Character is not the closest unit to the shooting unit that succeeded on the 'Divine Guidance' Act of Faith?

From what I can read of the Index Rules and in the FAQ's (copied below), since the Act of Faith is at the beginning of the turn (i.e. the Movement Phase), and not during the actual Shooting Phase, then it would be allowed. Meaning I could use a 4 Heavy Bolter armed Retributor Squad of Sisters to turn a Cheese Character into Swiss Cheese Character from 36" away. Am I wrong?

From Index: Imperium 2.

Roll a D6 at the start of each of your turns. On a roll of 2+, one unit
from your army with the Acts of Faith ability can perform an Act of
Faith chosen from the following list. Some abilities may allow you
to use more than one Act of Faith in the same turn; when this is the
case, a different unit must be chosen to perform each Act of Faith.

Divine Guidance: The unit can immediately shoot as if it were the
Shooting phase.

From Stepping Into A New Edition Of Warhammer 40k FAQ:
https://whc-cdn.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Warhammer_40000_Stepping_into_a_New_Edition_of_Warhammer_40000.pdf

Q: When can I target an enemy Character that has a Wounds characteristic of less than 10?
A: Such a Character can only be targeted in the Shooting phase if it is the nearest visible model to the firing model. You can target enemy Characters without restriction in the Psychic phase*, Charge phase, Fight phase, etc. You may also make shooting attacks at enemy Characters which occur outside the Shooting phase (i.e. when resolving Overwatch in the Charge phase).

*Note, however, that some psychic powers, such as Smite, do not target units but instead affect the nearest enemy unit.

From page 90 of Imperium 2, emphasis added:

Divine Guidance: The unit can immediately shoot as if it were the Shooting phase.

This indicates that you follow the rules for the Shooting phase, including which units are an eligible target.

It's the same as Warp Time. Unit has to act as if it were the phase in question, not as an "out of phase" action - thus all relevant restrictions apply (shooting characters, moving units arrived from reserves, etc).

Well, shoot! (Or no shoot, in this case!)

Thanks for the quick replies you two! Have a +1.

Understandable where the confusion might come from, and want to rant on it a tiny bit so you can safely ignore this post if you desire.


First, just for completeness, the below is why they reference Overwatch... it is the most common 'out of phase' shooting we encounter:
Overwatch is resolved like a normal shooting attack (albeit one resolved in the enemy’s Charge phase) and uses all the normal rules except that a 6 is
always required for a successful hit roll, irrespective of the firing model’s Ballistic Skill or any modifiers
- Overwatch

Now some history, mostly because I despise the bold part of that quote....
The issue has always been the use of some very, very, very poor wording within Over-watch itself: 'Resolved like a normal shooting attack ... and uses all the normal rules except....' In previous editions this was used to justify applying Special Rules that specified 'the shooting phase' to Overwatch shots, on a wide range of Units across multiple Codex's. It was further cemented by the Authors informing us that these 'during the shooting phase' Special Rules do indeed apply to Overwatch, again at the time as this is history and things have changed. One clear example would be Monstrous Creatures using two weapons during Overwatch, and this one also shows why a lot of this is a non-issue. Many of these 'shooting phase Special Rules' have been bundled into the default shooting sequence, or have become phased along the lines of 'whenever this model fires a weapon...' to ensure it is irreverent when the Model shoots, only that it does shoot.

Still; the inclusion of the 'as if it was the shooting phase' could easily be overlooked if one is still thinking along the line of previous editions... where these words where common and more or less meaningless.

 JinxDragon wrote:
Understandable where the confusion might come from.....the inclusion of the 'as if it was the shooting phase' could easily be overlooked if one is still thinking along the line of previous editions... where these words where common and more or less meaningless.

I think you've nailed it exactly, I can't +1 your post enough!