Some rules seem dumb

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**mucker973**

We all the rules are not explained the best - there's been many times I've read a rule and thought I understood it, only to find it works a different way after speaking to someone else. However, some rules are just dumb and unintuitive. Take the Look out Sir rule for example. If read the rule for this it says:

LOOK OUT, SIR
Models cannot target a unit that contains any Character models with a Wounds characteristic of 9 or less with a ranged weapon while that unit is within 3" of any other friendly Vehicle or Monster unit, or while it is within 3" of any other friendly units that have 3 or more models, unless that Character unit is both visible to the firing model and it
is the closest enemy unit to the firing model – the maelstrom of battle makes it difficult to pick out such individuals. Ignore other enemy Character models with a Wounds characteristics of 9 or less when determining if the target is the closest enemy unit to the firing model.

GW has made the effort to even add some flavour text and name it appropriately so you can see what it is meant to do. It's called Look out Sir to simulate an officer amongst his plebians and that they try to protect him in a hail of bullets shouting “look out sir”. This is even backed up by the flavour text at the end saying “the maelstrom of battle makes it difficult to pick out such individuals”.

But let’s look at a scenario (which imo) is just dumb and doesn’t fit the lore (not the rule, but the lore). Assume a simple setup where I have one unit only and the enemy has 2 units and character. My unit is in the middle of the board and one of his units is to my left at 10” and the other unit is 12” to my right with his character on the right as well but is in front of the right-hand unit from my perspective, say 11” from me. Now according to the rules, I cannot “pick him out due to the maelstrom of battle” simply because he is not the closest to me. From an intuitive perspective this is just dumb – he is in plain sight and has no cover whatsoever around him – in terms of LOS there is not a single thing blocking it in the slightest. The rule works well and makes perfect sense if the right-hand unit was in front of the character from my view, as this would fit the above lore and simulate a real battle.

Imo GW are clearly trying to create rules which seem as close to the real world as possible, but I can’t help but feel they didn’t plan this out correctly; wouldn’t be surprised if it gets amended in the future Any thoughts?

**DeathReaper**

Spoiler:

mucker973 wrote:
We all the rules are not explained the best - there's been many times I've read a rule and thought I understood it, only to find it works a different way after speaking to someone else. However, some rules are just dumb and unintuitive. Take the Look out Sir rule for example. If read the rule for this it says:

LOOK OUT, SIR
Models cannot target a unit that contains any Character models with a Wounds characteristic of 9 or less with a ranged weapon while that unit is within 3" of any other friendly Vehicle or Monster unit, or while it is within 3" of any other friendly units that have 3 or more models, unless that Character unit is both visible to the firing model and it
is the closest enemy unit to the firing model – the maelstrom of battle makes it difficult to pick out such individuals. Ignore other enemy Character models with a Wounds characteristics of 9 or less when determining if the target is the closest enemy unit to the firing model.

GW has made the effort to even add some flavour text and name it appropriately so you can see what it is meant to do. It's called Look out Sir to simulate an officer amongst his plebians and that they try to protect him in a hail of bullets shouting “look out sir”. This is even backed up by the flavour text at the end saying “the maelstrom of battle makes it difficult to pick out such individuals”.

But let’s look at a scenario (which imo) is just dumb and doesn’t fit the lore (not the rule, but the lore). Assume a simple setup where I have one unit only and the enemy has 2 units and character. My unit is in the middle of the board and one of his units is to my left at 10” and the other unit is 12” to my right with his character on the right as well but is in front of the right-hand unit from my perspective, say 11” from me. Now according to the rules, I cannot “pick him out due to the maelstrom of battle” simply because he is not the closest to me. From an intuitive perspective this is just dumb – he is in plain sight and has no cover whatsoever around him – in terms of LOS there is not a single thing blocking it in the slightest. The rule works well and makes perfect sense if the right-hand unit was in front of the character from my view, as this would fit the above lore and simulate a real battle.

Imo GW are clearly trying to create rules which seem as close to the real world as possible, but I can’t help but feel they didn’t plan this out correctly; wouldn’t be surprised if it gets amended in the future Any thoughts?

I may have missed it, but did you have a question about a rule that was unclear to you? (In your scenario, it seems you understand the "LOOK OUT, SIR" rule quite clearly).

So wrong forum, maybe?

P.S. Never mix rules for a fantasy/Sci Fi game and realism, it never ends well.

The game is not at all based on real life, and the rules were not written to be "Real world" logical. It is a rules system, an abstract system used to play a game.

What would happen in the real world has nothing to do with the rules.

**mucker973**

maybe wrong forum then. I suppose I wasn't clear, I was kinda asking for verification too. I was re-iterating the rule in a particular scenario and you didn't say I was wrong so that confirmed it for me. But I was just saying that intuitively it seems wrong. I know 100% what you mean that it's not real life, of course it's not, it's about orks and stuff. But my point was that it seems to me GW is trying to make it as realistic as possible, and the way I described it lore wise would make more sense. I've found that some of their rules are quite close to their real life counterparts, but then others are not like this, so it's kind of inconsistent.

Anyways, thanks for clarifying it.

**Cheex**

But my point was that it seems to me GW is trying to make it as realistic as possible

That's the thing; they aren't. They're making a game that isn't much more than a glorified version of holding toy soldiers and shouting "pew pew!".