Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is one of those rules that I assumed was clear cut, but when it came up in a game yesterday I found the actual wording to be a bit more ambiguous than I expected.

The specific instance was Abaddon taking 2 mortal wounds from a single Smite.

The basic question is does Abaddon suffer 1 or 2 wounds in this circumstance?

Most people interpret this in discussions I've found as each mortal wound doing a separate 1 damage, which can't be halved, and so Abaddon takes 2 damage total still.

However in the rule book all it says is that a mortal wound causes one damage. It doesn't explicitly say these are applied one by one though, so the interpretation that an affect that causes 2 mortal wound causes 2 damage, and therefore can be halved, actually sounds kind of reasonable.

What say you Dakka? Is there an FAQ to clarify this, or am I misunderstanding the ability fundamentally?

In the actual game, the opponent who controlled Abaddon was gracious enough to take the 2 mortal wounds and we carried on the game.

Stux wrote:
This is one of those rules that I assumed was clear cut, but when it came up in a game yesterday I found the actual wording to be a bit more ambiguous than I expected.

The specific instance was Abaddon taking 2 mortal wounds from a single Smite.

The basic question is does Abaddon suffer 1 or 2 wounds in this circumstance?

Most people interpret this in discussions I've found as each mortal wound doing a separate 1 damage, which can't be halved, and so Abaddon takes 2 damage total still.

However in the rule book all it says is that a mortal wound causes one damage. It doesn't explicitly say these are applied one by one though, so the interpretation that an affect that causes 2 mortal wound causes 2 damage, and therefore can be halved, actually sounds kind of reasonable.

What say you Dakka? Is there an FAQ to clarify this, or am I misunderstanding the ability fundamentally?

In the actual game, the opponent who controlled Abaddon was gracious enough to take the 2 mortal wounds and we carried on the game.

Mortal wounds are always 1 damage each. You would take 2 damage. If I hit you with 2 bolter wounds and you failed your saves, how much damage would you take? Same situation with mortal wounds, they just skip the "to wound" and "to save" portion.

The Index: Xenos 1 FAQ has something to say about it:

Q: Can Quantum Shielding be used to prevent damage caused by mortal wounds?
A: No. Mortal wounds are inflicted one at a time, and as quantum shielding can never prevent a single point of damage from being suffered, it cannot prevent mortal wounds.

I suggest you read the MW sidebar in the core rules again. Each MW inflicts 1 point of damage on the target unit. Abandon does suffer 2 wounds.

A mortal wound is not itself damage. Its a wound roll that automatically succeeds and cannot be saved that inflicts 1 damage. A ability that causes multiple mw is like a gun that shoots several times, all hit, all wound, all cant be saved, all deal 1 damage.