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One issue that has always bugged me about 40k is the inflexibility of mixed weapons in most squads.

Having a squad of marines sitting around spectating an oncoming wave of orks instead of shooting, whilst their squadmate fires a missile at a trukk, has never made sense to me.

Has anybody ever played a houserule that allows all special/heavy weapons to pick different targets to the rest of the squad?

I think it would be nice to see more special and heavy weapons mixed throughout an army, instead of being forced to group them into specialized units if you wish for them to be successful.

Thoughts?

I may be remembering this wrong, but back in 2nd edition, this was the rule. Any model with a different weapon that the rest of the unit could fire at a different target than the rest of the unit.

So, a 5-man Tac squad could fire bolters at one target, and the Missile Launcher at another.

Each Ork in my Heavy Weapons Squad could fire at a different target.

It was nice.

I felt this would be appropriate. I think the easiest way to implement it would be if certain weapons had "Split Fire" as part of their profile.

ziggurattt wrote:
I may be remembering this wrong, but back in 2nd edition, this was the rule. Any model with a different weapon that the rest of the unit could fire at a different target than the rest of the unit.

So, a 5-man Tac squad could fire bolters at one target, and the Missile Launcher at another.

Each Ork in my Heavy Weapons Squad could fire at a different target.

It was nice.

No particular reason that you couldn't implement this in 7th. Just make it so when you reach the "select another weapon" step in the shooting phase, you can also select a new target unit.

One additional effect this have is that it creates multiple potential target units that can be charged during the assault phase, but I think that's a positive if anything. I think this would be a good house rule to try out.

Some kind of Pro/Con would be a nice alt, if you shoot at the same target as your own squad they lit the enemy up and ballistic improved for the special/heavy but you can split fire at normal skill.

Split Fire has a problem, though, for units which comprise of a high mix of weapons like Havoks or Devastators. It can also be a problem for larger Guardian Squads, too. Split Fire only allows one model to fire at a different target.

So, either a different rule or expanding Split Fire would need to be addressed.

DanielBeaver wrote:No particular reason that you couldn't implement this in 7th. Just make it so when you reach the "select another weapon" step in the shooting phase, you can also select a new target unit.

It's not the only thing that needs it. PotMS and Super-Heavies/Gargantuans need to have this addressed properly.

DanielBeaver wrote:One additional effect this have is that it creates multiple potential target units that can be charged during the assault phase, but I think that's a positive if anything. I think this would be a good house rule to try out.

That's something for the Rules forum, but also does need to be addressed for all versions of multi-targeting.

Bishop F Gantry wrote:Some kind of Pro/Con would be a nice alt, if you shoot at the same target as your own squad they lit the enemy up and ballistic improved for the special/heavy but you can split fire at normal skill.

For shooting at the same target: reduced Cover Saves, perhaps? Reroll 1's, or if already, then reroll 2's?

We have that exact house rule at my local store - Specials can fire at different targets - it makes the game more interesting and flexible.

This is a house rule I like. Mostly I see it being effective where you have an infantry unit that is close to a vehicle and another infantry unit and you want to use your melta/plasma/rokkit/etc on the vehicle and then shoot everything else/assault the infantry unit.

The last time we play tested 'split fire'. as standard.
We just limited it by restricting the units 'split fire' between 2 enemy units .

it stops units with 3 or 4 heavy weapons taking 'pot shots' all over the battle field. Which is a bit OP.IMO.

So you modified Split Fire to affect more than one model, too?

IIRC in 2nd Ed. you were required to fire on the closest squad or vehicle,and later MC's were also added, this allowed the bolters from the squad of SM to fire on the orks and the heavy or special weapon to fire on the truck. only IC's were allowed to select any target (not the closest). There were exceptions to this targeting for situations where the closest squad was broken but then you could only select the next closest squad as an alternative.

I would modify Split Fire to be,"A unit containing at least one model with the Split Fire Special rule may select two units to target in the shooting phase. Models in the unit without Split Fire must all target the same enemy unit. Each model with Split Fire may target either one of the selected enemy units."