Shooting at Monstrous Creatures behind a friendly unit? Cover saves?
Just a quick question, was wondering if monstrous creatures get a cover save while they're behind a friendly unit. Specific example, say I have a Tervigon behind a unit of Termagants, and the marines across the table are trying to shoot it to death. Do the Termagants, because they're between the Tervigon and the marines, grant the Tervigon a cover safe? (Presume my Venomthrope is dead so his shrouded save is a non-issue. Rest in peace little buddy. ;_; )
And speaking of Venomthropes, do you think it's worth it to drop 11 or so 'gants to bring two in a 1k point game?
Posted Nov 22, 2016, 12:11 PM UTC
319
Yep. Percent obscured doesn't matter for intervening models. To paraphrase the book, if you're firing through a friendly unit, you're afraid of hitting your own dudes. If you're firing through an enemy unit, you're distracted by the more immediate threat. The little bugs will tear you apart long before the big ones get to you.
The only exception for this is if models are in an elevated position or firing over the little bugs. Marines standing on the tabletop firing through Termagants would give a Carnifex a cover save, while marines standing on top of an Imperial Bastion would ignore the Termagants. Similarly, a Leman Russ' main turret is high enough that it can fire over most man-sized infantry without giving the enemy a cover save, even when it's hull and sponson guns aren't.
Can't speak for the venomthrope, though. I'm a Guard/GSC player.
Careful, they just changed all the wordings in the FAQ.
Yeah. Everything I said is wrong about percent obscured is wrong with the release of the official FAQ. MCs must be 25% obscured now.
What about when the firing model is taller than intervening models? Such as a Wraithlord firing above Guardians at something else.
To quote the book, the intervening cover save does not apply "...if shots go over the unit, either because the firer is in an elevated position or is firing a Barrage weapon, rather than through it."
It's not totally clear. Is a tall model an "elevated position?" I could see it both ways. Unfortunately, I can't check the FAQs at work, so I can't double check to see if this was clarified.
The way I tend to resolve this is to measure from the guns on the model straight to the bases of the target unit. If that line would intersect with models from a third unit at any point, they're obscured, even if it's a little bit. I don't think it's unreasonable for a Wraithknight to fire over a unit of Gretchin, but firing over a Land Raider might be a bit of a tall order and I don't think it's fair to measure from the top of his pointy, pointy head to check for line of sight for firing.
I realize this doesn't always work super well, as the Wraithknight is often posed with guns facing down. Still, a little bit of judgement can pretty easily extrapolate where it'd be firing from, either hip or shoulder height. Again, it just takes a bit of judgement.