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Okay dakka, to settle a dispute of mine between my brother and I, give me the RAW how Immotekh's lightning interacts in regardes to convering cover saves. We've been all over the internet trying to find an answer, with no luck. I'm of the oppinion thta the lightning strikes are not considered as shootign attacks, ergo do not draw line of sight sight, ergo do not conver a cover save. It is not Immotekh himself shooting the bolts, so you do not draw LOS to the unit struck. He's of the opinion that because his units are behind a battlement wall or however scenario that has came up that he automatically recieves a cover save. This not being area terrain, which I am iffy on how that works regarding the strikes, but I let him take them anyways.

I am not sure, but I think this also applies to the Cryptek Harbringer of the Storm wargears that automatically strike the appropriate units with lightning when deepstriking/assaulting them. Not shooting attacks = no cover saves if they happen to be behind a wall between the cryptek and the deepstriking unit.

Anyhoo, I'd be estatic if ya'll lovely sirs and ladies would clear this up for us. Thank you in advance.

In my area, the general consensus is that saves may only be taken from area terrain or abilities that grant a save. No LOS saves allowed. There are other abilities not considered shooting attacks "Doom of Malan'tais spirit leech for example" that still confer a cover save. For friendly games talk it out with your opponent. For tournament the TO. At least until a proper faq is released.

official statement given

My advice is to allow the area terrain saves, for friendly games whats the harm really? Your already hitting everything on the board and watching him scramble for some cover first turn. Is that amusement not an adequate payment for a 5+ cover save?

The only thing I can find on it is in the FAQ:

Q: Do units hit by lightning as a result of Imotekh’s Lord of the Storm
special rule benefit from the Stealth or Shrouded special rules due to
Night Fighting? (p55).
A: No.

Now, if Immo's lightning just ignored cover, I'm sure that they would flat-out say that it ignores cover. So if we're not using Immo as a reference point for stealth/shrouded, and the lightning always strikes the side armour of vehicles, HIWPI would work out cover saves in the same way as a Barrage weapon (only without a blast template obv.), so area terrain (without discussing the RL implications of standing next to a tree during a lightning storm...) or special cover rules (Eldar Warlocks with Conceal for example) would still work.

Saying that they don't count as shooting attacks is a bit vague. We are only given two ways of resolving hits/wounds in the rule book, shooting or assault, there is no category for "special rules wounds" so unless it states it counts as a shooting attack or counts as wounds caused in combat we're left to our own devices / guesswork.

You have no "firing" model, so anything that requires you to determine LOS from the firing model cannot work

Area terrain, KFF et al grant a cover save, and nothing in the lightning rules remove this cover save, therefore you may take the save

nosferatu1001 wrote:
You have no "firing" model, so anything that requires you to determine LOS from the firing model cannot work

Area terrain, KFF et al grant a cover save, and nothing in the lightning rules remove this cover save, therefore you may take the save

This.

so something like the jink special rule grants a cover save or being inside area terrain, but if the model(s) are, say, behind a wall (not area terrain) they don't get the save as im not drawing line of sight. Got it, so I was correct in my assumption of the rule? Thanks Dakka, you saved my fluff list from the garbage can.