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So, attacker declares a charge form 9" out. Defender fires overwatch, before anything moves. Can the defender fire with weapons that only have a 8" range? Things like the deathwatch shotgun flamer round, grenades etc?

Overwatch rules P. 20 of the PDF rules:

" Overwatch is resolved like a normal shooting attack..."

In a "normal shooting attack" can you fire with weapons that only have a 8" range at a target that is 9" out?

You need to be in range as normal.

As above, you follow the normal rules for a shooting attack, so you need to be in range. Note that you also need to be in LOS.

Why would overwatch allow you to shoot beyond the maximum range of a weapon? What is confusing about this?

 Toofast wrote:
Why would overwatch allow you to shoot beyond the maximum range of a weapon? What is confusing about this?

I kind of get it intuitively. Think about it: you have a flame thrower. Someone is running at you with a chainsword. If they're running at you from further away, you should have more time to react if anything and so have a better chance of readying your flamer and toasting them. But in 40k, if they run at you from further then your flamer suddenly doesn't work.

Its a game, these things happen. But I totally understand why these things trip up new players.

 Toofast wrote:
Why would overwatch allow you to shoot beyond the maximum range of a weapon? What is confusing about this?

The fact that the enemy is charging the unit, so will have to move INTO range on its way?

 Slinky wrote:

 Toofast wrote:
Why would overwatch allow you to shoot beyond the maximum range of a weapon? What is confusing about this?

The fact that the enemy is charging the unit, so will have to move INTO range on its way?

But selecting targets happens before they move and that's when you check range

 Toofast wrote:

 Slinky wrote:

 Toofast wrote:
Why would overwatch allow you to shoot beyond the maximum range of a weapon? What is confusing about this?

The fact that the enemy is charging the unit, so will have to move INTO range on its way?

But selecting targets happens before they move and that's when you check range

Rules vs realism. I houserule that everything can fire overwatch regardless of range so long as you can see the target when they declare a charge. If you've got a flamer, you're not going to not shoot it just because the guy started running at you when he was further away than you could actually hit him at.

 Tawnis wrote:

 Toofast wrote:

 Slinky wrote:

 Toofast wrote:
Why would overwatch allow you to shoot beyond the maximum range of a weapon? What is confusing about this?

The fact that the enemy is charging the unit, so will have to move INTO range on its way?

But selecting targets happens before they move and that's when you check range

Rules vs realism. I houserule that everything can fire overwatch regardless of range so long as you can see the target when they declare a charge. If you've got a flamer, you're not going to not shoot it just because the guy started running at you when he was further away than you could actually hit him at.

If I wanted realism, I wouldn't be playing 40k

 Tawnis wrote:
Rules vs realism.

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.

Do we have to do this dance in every other thread?

Oh for sure. I just meant that our frame of reference is our world, so it's easy to think "oh yeah, that makes sense" if you're not a rules expert.

 Tawnis wrote:
Oh for sure. I just meant that our frame of reference is our world, so it's easy to think "oh yeah, that makes sense" if you're not a rules expert.

I guess my counter argument to "Well they would just shoot them as they charged" would be that them charging out of range would be them charging up and because they made a greater then 9" charge then are just blitzing up to them so they cant react as fast.