HawaiiMatt wrote:Hijacking your thread.
Maugan Ra's Whirlwind of death says he can fire twice, and can fire at different targets.
He also has split fire.
How do these two rules interact?
Here's the situation.
Maugan Ra has joined a unit of dark reapers, with an exarch.
A unit of scout marines and near, as is a rhino full of tactical marines is more distant.
According to split fire, that must take place first.
Maugan Ra direct the exarch to barrage the scouts, firing 3 blasts (S4 AP3).
Now Maugan Ra would like to fire his 4 S6 shots at the transport, and then fire again at the marines inside (should he pop it).
What are the rest of the reapers forced to target? Can they also target the marines inside, or are they forced to fire with Maugan Ra's first volley at the rhino itself?
Split fire actually makes Maugan Ra pretty good. Joined to fire dragons, he can have the exarch pop off a shot at one target, the dragons and him shoot a 2nd target, and then he fires on a 3rd target, to give them something else to assault. Good way to get use out of all those melta bombs.
That's a very interesting scenario.
Split Fire specifically states that you cannot use it to blow up a transport, and then target the disembarking occupants.
Maugan Ra's Whirlwind of Death rule simply states he may fire his weapon twice each shooting phase... "either at the same target or at two different targets."
I think you have to start out asking the question, "What is the target of the Dark Reaper unit" (let's assume he's attached to a squad of Dark Reapers with an Exarch). But it takes us a couple steps to get there.
First of all, you must resolve the Split Fire attack which says it must be done first, and "then resolve the shooting attacks of the rest of the unit". Let's call that unit A. The Exarch shoots that unit. Because of the Split Fire special rule, the "Unit" (including Maugin Ra) cannot target unit A.
Next you can resolve Maugin Ra's Whirlwind attack (or you could resolve the Dark Reaper attack). Maugin Ra shoots at unit B and unit C (he specifically cannot shoot at unit A).
The thing you have to be careful of is that I don't think Maugin Ra's Whirlwind ability lets him Split Fire AGAIN. That means that ONE of the targets Maugin Ra shoots HAS to be the primary target of the Dark Reapers. The phrasing of his special rule is VERY badly worded. When you get right down to it, it means Maugin Ra targets a unit and fires at it. He can then fire at that unit again, or he can fire at a different unit. However it doesn't say what ORDER that has to happen in, leaving you with the conundrum of whether the Dark Reapers can fire at unit C if unit C disembarked from a transport.
I believe they can, but I think it's pretty beardy. There's nothing in Whirlwind Attack telling you which target of Maugin Ra is the "different" target and which is the "main" target". Basic logic would seem to tell us that the SECOND time he fires the weapon, he's shooting at the second target. This is why I think it'd be beardy to allow the Dark Reapers to shoot a disembarked marine squad.
By the rules, I'd say the Exarch hits A, and Maugin Ra and the Dark Reapers have to fire at B and/or C, even if C was unit embarked inside B.
How I'd Play It is that the Exarch hits A, and Maugin Ra and the Dark Reapers fire at B, and Maugin Ra gets a second attack against C.
I think the situation becomes clearer if you imagine which unit the Dark Reapers could assault afterwards.