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Warhammer 40k Rule Book pg. 179: Entry for Shooting Phase states the shooting sequence occurs as follows:

1. Choose unit to shoot with
2. Choose Targets
3. Choose Ranged Weapon
4. Resolve Attacks [A. Make hit roll, B. Make Wound roll, C. enemy allocates wound, D. enemy makes saving throw, E. inflict damage]

Under Section 4, Part C it clearly states that "...the player commanding the target unit allocates the wound to any model in the unit (the chosen model does not have to be within range or visible, etc.)..." This is important to note because it also continues further to state "If a model in the target unit has already lost any wounds, the damage must be allocated to that model." With that being said, it is technically possible to be considered WOUNDED but not having lost any wound points or whatever. Only when you are denoted as having been "wounded" - for the sake of the example - do you then take an armor save and continue down the logical chain represented by the Resolve Attacks.

Dilemma: Let us entertain a standoff. My Blood Angel Librarian Dreadnought [Character, Blood Angels, etc.] with 4 wounds left and my 2-man squad of Company Veterans with Jump Packs [Blood Angels, Infantry] immediately behind the Librarian Dread (less than 1-inch away) are marching up the board towards your Land Raider with Lascannons. You then decide during your shooting phase to try and knock the Librarian Dread out because he sure would love to tear into your Land Raider model. So you follow the shooting phase above and declare your Land Raider will shoot it's one Lascannon towards my Librarian Dread and roll a D6 to determine whether it hits or not.

You roll a 5 and it is a successful hit. Next, you roll a wound roll of 6 and determine that is a successful wound. Now, because you declared your target, made your hit roll, and made the corresponding wound roll, it is then up to me to allocate the wound because my model was declared as the target and is now considered to have been successfully wounded. Once the allocation takes place and we confirm that my Librarian Dread has been successfully wounded because of your roll of 6 and an AP of -4 on the Lascannon, I think ahead and decide to intervene with a Company Veteran because my Librarian Dread won't get an armor save versus such a strong weapon. I decide to let one of the two measly company veterans 1" behind the Librarian Dreadnought intervene.

Their special rule is as follows: "Command Squad Bodyguard: Roll a D6 each time a friendly BLOOD ANGELS CHARACTER loses a wound whilst they are within 3" of this unit; on a 2+ a model from this squad can intercept that hit - the character does not lose a wound but this unit suffers a mortal wound."

I declare I want to intervene and use their special rule as my next action before I take any armor save with my Librarian dread. As a result, the state of having been successfully wounded is ignored because my Company Veteran just intercepted the hit of the Lascannon.

My question is this: What happens? Does my Company Veteran block the entire 'single shot' hit as specified above? Do both of my Company Veterans have to roll a D6 to see how many of the respective 'Lascannon Damage Characteristic' seeps through my Company Veteran screen? What happens and why is this so confusing. It seems strange (and I understand it when argued from multiple sides) that a rule can be so difficult to discern because the bodyguard rule lets you intercept the hit. You can't intercept a hit after it's fired and considered a wound on the targeted model so the rule is worded in a way that requires something to be in a 'potentially wounded' state before the action of 'COMMAND SQUAD BODYGUARD' can come into effect by letting you body block the shot. It's really frustrating trying to juggle all of this crap and remember what essentially comes down to confusing rule interactions. Does anyone have any input into how this is played? Also, this rule is quite different than the Ogryn Bodyguard rule (on a 3+ the model suffers a mortal wound) and T'au Savior Protocols rule (on a 2+ you can allocate that wound to the drones instead of the target) but seems nearly identical to the Tyranid Shieldwall rule (on a 2+ a model from this unit can intercept that hit). I've never played Tyranid so I don't know how to interpret this. Any insight would be appreciated!

To my understanding you activate their bodyguard ability each time the character loses a wound. For the dread to lose a wound it needs to eat the full damage of the shot so say a lascannon that does 6 wounds will activate the bodyguard ability six times. As far as I know the marine bodyguard rule is among the weaker ones because you take a mortal wound for each wound lost and don't intercept the actual hit or damage itself. You don't really intercept anything. You more so redirect the loss of wounds to the bodyguard unit.

Marines get a worse version of a rule. Shocker

Actually, that is the version of the rule for all bodyguard units. Only Tau drones intercept the Hit rather than the Wound.

 alextroy wrote:
Actually, that is the version of the rule for all bodyguard units. Only Tau drones intercept the Hit rather than the Wound.

Deathshroud terminators also intercept the hit.

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
To my understanding you activate their bodyguard ability each time the character loses a wound. For the dread to lose a wound it needs to eat the full damage of the shot so say a lascannon that does 6 wounds will activate the bodyguard ability six times. As far as I know the marine bodyguard rule is among the weaker ones because you take a mortal wound for each wound lost and don't intercept the actual hit or damage itself. You don't really intercept anything. You more so redirect the loss of wounds to the bodyguard unit.

Marines get a worse version of a rule. Shocker

This is the correct answer. All bodyguard rules other than Tau Drones and Deathshroud Terminators work this way.

Tibs Ironblood wrote:To my understanding you activate their bodyguard ability each time the character loses a wound. For the dread to lose a wound it needs to eat the full damage of the shot so say a lascannon that does 6 wounds will activate the bodyguard ability six times. As far as I know the marine bodyguard rule is among the weaker ones because you take a mortal wound for each wound lost and don't intercept the actual hit or damage itself. You don't really intercept anything. You more so redirect the loss of wounds to the bodyguard unit.

Marines get a worse version of a rule. Shocker

Haha, that's okay that it might be a worse version of the rule. So it's confusing to me because I don't understand that at all. If you activate their bodyguard ability each time the character loses a wound from one single shot, then why does their rule reference being able to 'Intercept the hit' verbatim instead of reading like the Ogryn ability or something to that extent. I understand the analogy that you reference the Dread losing 6 wounds and needing 6 2+'s to save himself but I guess that's where it's confusing. Maybe a comment from GW will help. I mean, I don't know any bodyguard that would merely stick out there arm in front of automatic weapons fire and say "There, Boss, I blocked one of the 5 hits coming at you!" (I know this is a stupid example, but still :p)

alextroy wrote:Actually, that is the version of the rule for all bodyguard units. Only Tau drones intercept the Hit rather than the Wound.

That's weird. Tau are more similar to Ogryn in their wording of the rule. They're no where close to Tyranid or Blood Angels which SPECIFICALLY state that they may 'intercept the hit'. Maybe it's being played wrong for T'au?

Thanks for the input! Might have to email GW.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

gwarsh41 wrote:

 alextroy wrote:
Actually, that is the version of the rule for all bodyguard units. Only Tau drones intercept the Hit rather than the Wound.

Deathshroud terminators also intercept the hit.

Deathshround Terminators rule states "On a 2+ one of the Deathshroud Intercepts that hit" - the wording matches the exact same wording that the blood angels rule does. It just has a different first part because Death Guard states "when characters are hit by a ranged or melee weapon" whereas Blood Angels states "When a friendly Character loses a wound". I guess that is what is confusing me...

cebe wrote:
Deathshround Terminators rule states "On a 2+ one of the Deathshroud Intercepts that hit" - the wording matches the exact same wording that the blood angels rule does. It just has a different first part because Death Guard states "when characters are hit by a ranged or melee weapon" whereas Blood Angels states "When a friendly Character loses a wound". I guess that is what is confusing me...

Nice of you to quote the completely wrong part of the rule. I will now quote both the DG and BA versions of the rule.

Command Squad Bodyguard: Roll a D6 each time a friendly BLOOD ANGELS CHARACTER loses a wound whilst they are within 3" of this unit; on a 2+ a model from this squad can intercept that hit – the character does not lose a wound but this unit suffers a mortal wound.

Silent Bodyguard: Roll a dice each time a friendly DEATH GUARD CHARACTER is hit by a ranged or melee weapon whilst he is within 3" of this unit. On a 2+ one of the Deathshroud intercepts that hit – the character is not hit by that attack but this unit is instead.

Do you see how they are in no way similar? Just because the second line is somewhat similar doesn't make them the same rule. The Deathshroud one works on hits, the BA one works when you lose a wound. The Deathshroud one just changes where the hit goes, the BA one converts it to a mortal wound.

cebe wrote:
Maybe it's being played wrong for T'au?

No, it isn't. It's explicitly worded the way it is for a reason. The Tau Drone rule happens after the target unit is wounded but before you roll to save. You then roll to see if the drone snags the wound, and if so it converts it to a single mortal wound. A Blood Angel Command Squad does it after rolling to save. A Tau drone can take a 6 damage weapon and convert it to a single mortal wound, a BA command squad will be forced to take 6 checks to take mortal wounds.

cebe wrote:
Thanks for the input! Might have to email GW.

Email them asking what? "Does this rule do what it says it does?" You're doing nothing but wasting time. And even if you did email them, they either won't reply or will get it wrong anyway.

Whoa, easy tiger. I clarified what I typed. I think I got what I needed. Thanks for rustling your own jimmies.

I know it's an old thread, but I was just reading the rule, and wanted to ask a similar question, and saw this was already here. The rule DOES say the Veteran intercepts the hit. "...on a 2+ a model from this squad can intercept that hit..."

 Tibs Ironblood wrote:
To my understanding you activate their bodyguard ability each time the character loses a wound. For the dread to lose a wound it needs to eat the full damage of the shot so say a lascannon that does 6 wounds will activate the bodyguard ability six times. As far as I know the marine bodyguard rule is among the weaker ones because you take a mortal wound for each wound lost and don't intercept the actual hit or damage itself. You don't really intercept anything. You more so redirect the loss of wounds to the bodyguard unit.

Marines get a worse version of a rule. Shocker

I know it's an old thread, but I was just reading the rule, and wanted to ask a similar question, and saw this was already here. The rule DOES say the Veteran intercepts the hit. "...on a 2+ a model from this squad can intercept that hit..." Was this FAQ'ed and I have an updated rule in my ebook codex?

It's sloppy wording, but it's clear you have to roll for each individual wound.

 Stux wrote:
It's sloppy wording, but it's clear you have to roll for each individual wound.

I'd disagree either is way is clear, and it is sloppy wording. Not spilling a drop means zero drops, not suffering a wound could mean zero wounds from "the hit". But the wording hasn't changed, so rehashing it doesn't make a lot of sense. Thanks