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I haven't been able to find any discussions on this but other than the slight reword i see another potential change. The rule was boxed off in the shooting section previously but now it reads as a standalone rule. Does that mean the restrictions now apply for all phases?

The original wording wasn't simply boxed in the Shooting Phase portion of the rules, it stated "In the Shooting Phase".

The CA rule is somehow worse than the original. I expect basically nobody is going to use it.

The new rule is in addition to the Core Rules and states 'the firer' a couple of times, so is clearly still a Shooting Phase rule. It's a modification of the existing rule.

That's an interesting theory, but since it's in CA and not a reprint of the entire Core Rules, I wouldn't put too much weight on it's location/boxed-nature.

It's an official change to the BRB character targeting rules published by Games workshop. You can house rule it however you want, but expect to use it as it is at any tournament or in games with people outside of your personal gaming group.

The only contention with it atm is whether or not they meant to take the "wounds characteristic" out and just mean current wounds (pretty sure its just a mistake on their part).

Other than this its pretty straight forward. You can now no longer target 9 wound or less characters with shooting unless they are the closest model in any phase.

 Eihnlazer wrote:
It's an official change to the BRB character targeting rules published by Games workshop. You can house rule it however you want, but expect to use it as it is at any tournament or in games with people outside of your personal gaming group.

The only contention with it atm is whether or not they meant to take the "wounds characteristic" out and just mean current wounds (pretty sure its just a mistake on their part).

Other than this its pretty straight forward. You can now no longer target 9 wound or less characters with shooting unless they are the closest model in any phase.

Regardless of LoS. So a single model that is closer but behind a wall and not visible will prevent you from shooting a character that is visible and otherwise the closest.

There is exactly 0% chance anyone I have ever played with will be using that rule.

Well it will become a rule in tournaments, so unless you only play casual then you will have to learn to play around it.

I'm not sure I like it, but we'll see.

Page 67 – Matched Play Mission Rules,
Targeting Characters
Change the first sentence to read:
‘An enemy Character with a Wounds characteristic
of less than 10 can only be chosen as a target in the
Shooting phase if it is both visible to the firer and it is
the closest enemy model to the firer.’

Fixed in the new Chapter Approved FAQ. Thank the gods no-one wasted any time claiming it was based on remaining Wounds, eh?

https://whc-cdn.games-workshop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/warhammer_40000_chapter_approved_2017_en-1.pdf

Clarity is key!

Jacksmiles wrote:
Clarity is key!

Agreed!

Also, the character targeting doesent exactly replace anything, it supplements it. It's not an errata, or a rewrite, it's an additional rule with more detailing. And it might be matched play only (at work without book).

 Nightlord1987 wrote:
Also, the character targeting doesent exactly replace anything, it supplements it. It's not an errata, or a rewrite, it's an additional rule with more detailing. And it might be matched play only (at work without book).

It is as you describe. But apparently that kind of logical assessment gets you called names round here. ;-) Be careful lest you be burnt as a heretic!

I didn't comment on it but I didn't actually catch where it said it was an addition and not a replacement in CA. Where is that? I ask because I'm doing all my books digital (Ipad enhanced versions) this edition and didn't see it, but I've only done one read-through on my ipad and I'm noticing that I'm missing more one first reads digitally than I do if I have a physical copy, so I have to look harder at some stuff I guess lol

Jacksmiles wrote:
I didn't comment on it but I didn't actually catch where it said it was an addition and not a replacement in CA. Where is that? I ask because I'm doing all my books digital (Ipad enhanced versions) this edition and didn't see it, but I've only done one read-through on my ipad and I'm noticing that I'm missing more one first reads digitally than I do if I have a physical copy, so I have to look harder at some stuff I guess lol

It says in CA the new CA rules are additions for Matched Play.

 JohnnyHell wrote:

Jacksmiles wrote:
I didn't comment on it but I didn't actually catch where it said it was an addition and not a replacement in CA. Where is that? I ask because I'm doing all my books digital (Ipad enhanced versions) this edition and didn't see it, but I've only done one read-through on my ipad and I'm noticing that I'm missing more one first reads digitally than I do if I have a physical copy, so I have to look harder at some stuff I guess lol

It says in CA the new CA rules are additions for Matched Play.

Cool, thanks, I'll look for it when I get home at the start of the Matched Play section.

As per "Beta rules"
"An enemy character with a Wounds characteristic of less than 10 can only be chosen as a target in the Shooting phase if it is both visible to the firing model and it is the closest enemy unit to the firing model. Ignore other enemy characters with a Wounds characteristics of less than 10 when determining if the target is the closest enemy unit to the firing model. This means that if any other enemy units (other than other characters with a Wounds characteristics of less than 10) are closer, whether they are visible or not, then the enemy character cannot be targeted"

Still doesn't address the CA rule issue with LOS'ed non-characters units prohibiting shots made to the closest visible model that is a character.

You won't be able to target a character that is visible, 3" away if you have a non-character 2" away without LOS.

 skchsan wrote:
As per "Beta rules"
"An enemy character with a Wounds characteristic of less than 10 can only be chosen as a target in the Shooting phase if it is both visible to the firing model and it is the closest enemy unit to the firing model. Ignore other enemy characters with a Wounds characteristics of less than 10 when determining if the target is the closest enemy unit to the firing model. This means that if any other enemy units (other than other characters with a Wounds characteristics of less than 10) are closer, whether they are visible or not, then the enemy character cannot be targeted"

Still doesn't address the CA rule issue with LOS'ed non-characters units prohibiting shots made to the closest visible model that is a character.

Guess that would be an intended change then.

 skchsan wrote:
As per "Beta rules"
"An enemy character with a Wounds characteristic of less than 10 can only be chosen as a target in the Shooting phase if it is both visible to the firing model and it is the closest enemy unit to the firing model. Ignore other enemy characters with a Wounds characteristics of less than 10 when determining if the target is the closest enemy unit to the firing model. This means that if any other enemy units (other than other characters with a Wounds characteristics of less than 10) are closer, whether they are visible or not, then the enemy character cannot be targeted"

Still doesn't address the CA rule issue with LOS'ed non-characters units prohibiting shots made to the closest visible model that is a character.

You won't be able to target a character that is visible, 3" away if you have a non-character 2" away without LOS.

The discussions were about previous wording, now completely clarified. Discussing the beta rule is a new discussion and should have a new thread.

Glad they fixed the wording as expected. Also glad it was an errata, not an FAQ entry *winks at Johnny*

nekooni wrote:
Glad they fixed the wording as expected. Also glad it was an errata, not an FAQ entry *winks at Johnny*

Hey, it was blatantly obvious before and it's inescapably obvious now. Incidentally, I hear they have a special on Humble Pie in Bugman's today...

Wounds characteristic means the wounds the model starts with not most current.

 JohnnyHell wrote:

nekooni wrote:
Glad they fixed the wording as expected. Also glad it was an errata, not an FAQ entry *winks at Johnny*

Hey, it was blatantly obvious before and it's inescapably obvious now. Incidentally, I hear they have a special on Humble Pie in Bugman's today...

Hey, i never claimed it was intentionally changed or should be played that way, just that it was changed and that the changed rule worked differently than the rule before, and apparently GW thought the same or it would've been just an FAQ

I still say they need to scrap the whole rule in favour of something like:
In the Shooting Phase, CHARACTERS that are within 6" of a friendly non-CHARACTER unit may not be chosen as that target of any of a units shooting attacks unless the unit is also within 6" of the character.

Minimises the stupidity of a character being 12" away on the far side of your unit from the nearest other enemy which is 11" away, with the shooting unit between them and the character.

Or something like:
CHARACTERS can only be the target of shooting attacks if the distance between them and the shooting unit is less than the distance between them and any friendly unit within LoS and range of the shooting unit.

Nearly the same as the original rule with no arbitrary range limit but makes it impossible to hide behind enemies the opponent can’t see and also eliminates the “polar opposition” scenario.

 Mr_Rose wrote:
I still say they need to scrap the whole rule in favour of something like:
In the Shooting Phase, CHARACTERS that are within 6" of a friendly non-CHARACTER unit may not be chosen as that target of any of a units shooting attacks unless the unit is also within 6" of the character.

Minimises the stupidity of a character being 12" away on the far side of your unit from the nearest other enemy which is 11" away, with the shooting unit between them and the character.

Or something like:
CHARACTERS can only be the target of shooting attacks if the distance between them and the shooting unit is less than the distance between them and any friendly unit within LoS and range of the shooting unit.

Nearly the same as the original rule with no arbitrary range limit but makes it impossible to hide behind enemies the opponent can’t see and also eliminates the “polar opposition” scenario.

Send it to the new FAQ email address so GW can consider it.

 Mr_Rose wrote:
I still say they need to scrap the whole rule in favour of something like:
In the Shooting Phase, CHARACTERS that are within 6" of a friendly non-CHARACTER unit may not be chosen as that target of any of a units shooting attacks unless the unit is also within 6" of the character.

Minimises the stupidity of a character being 12" away on the far side of your unit from the nearest other enemy which is 11" away, with the shooting unit between them and the character.

This is almost exactly what I was going to suggest, except I was going to suggest 2" instead of 6". This makes it more like they have 'joined' the unit without actually being part of it.