Rules question: New Tau Hunter Contingent

Just want to see what people think about this around here. The Tau FB group is incredibly biased and only a handful of us think it works the conservative way.

Coordinated Firepower: Whenever a unit from a Hunter Contingent selects a target in the shooting phase, any number of other units from the same Detachment who can still shoot, can add their firepower to the attack. These units must shoot the same target, resolving their shots as if they were single unit - This includes the use of markerlight abilities. When 3 or more units combine their firepower, the firing models add 1 to their ballistic skill.

The part in bold is the only contentious point I believe as everything else in the rule seems straightforward.

1st interpretation - When you select three units to fire for example, those units can all gain markerlight abilities if there are tokens in the target unit already. They gain +1 BS. That's all fine. The hot point is, say there is a Commander with the wargear that twin-links and allows ignores cover for his unit in one of those three units you picked. Do they all now gain those special abilities and USR's because they "count as" a single unit?

2nd interpretation - When you select units, you get the aforementioned marker lights and +1BS. That's it.

I think that guy on Bols made good arguments for the conservative ruling.

I was reading about this on bols the other day. My feeling is the second interpretation is best. I have a reason for that, but would need to look up something to clarify why i think the specific wording supports that.

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Originally Posted by Caldera02

Just want to see what people think about this around here. The Tau FB group is incredibly biased and only a handful of us think it works the conservative way.

Coordinated Firepower: Whenever a unit from a Hunter Contingent selects a target in the shooting phase, any number of other units from the same Detachment who can still shoot, can add their firepower to the attack. These units must shoot the same target, resolving their shots as if they were single unit - This includes the use of markerlight abilities. When 3 or more units combine their firepower, the firing models add 1 to their ballistic skill.

The part in bold is the only contentious point I believe as everything else in the rule seems straightforward.

1st interpretation - When you select three units to fire for example, those units can all gain markerlight abilities if there are tokens in the target unit already. They gain +1 BS. That's all fine. The hot point is, say there is a Commander with the wargear that twin-links and allows ignores cover for his unit in one of those three units you picked. Do they all now gain those special abilities and USR's because they "count as" a single unit?

2nd interpretation - When you select units, you get the aforementioned marker lights and +1BS. That's it.

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2nd makes more sense, especially since markerlights are called out in the example

Except the bols guys are idiots.http://s2.postimg.org/hfcaeag3d/Hunt...wer_firing.jpg

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Originally Posted by noodlers

2nd makes more sense, especially since markerlights are called out in the example

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I think this was my reasoning. Also, I believe the way it is worded, the resolving their shots makes me think of order, like weapons, etc. - if they had wanted it to function like the first, it should have said that the units function as a single unit for all purposes during this attack or some such. Granted, GW writing etc., but still seems like they would have chosen more specific wording if they meant abilities to confer. From my understanding, markerlights are something on the target unit right? So it makes sense those apply for the full attack, but not the other stuff.

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Originally Posted by ccrraazzyyman

Except the bols guys are idiots.http://s2.postimg.org/hfcaeag3d/Hunt...wer_firing.jpg

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Except the rule DOESN'T state that it counts as one unit, it says shots are resolved as if it were - I know the BOLS article had a long comments section debating the semantics, which frankly I quit reading soon in. I need to check the BRB to see what it says about shooting resolution though, as I could be totally wrong.

I get that this supposedly comes via a GW rules guy, but from past rulings like these (via email), it seems they are notoriously inconsistent in responses thru CS.

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Originally Posted by morella888

I think this was my reasoning. Also, I believe the way it is worded, the resolving their shots makes me think of order, like weapons, etc. - if they had wanted it to function like the first, it should have said that the units function as a single unit for all purposes during this attack or some such. Granted, GW writing etc., but still seems like they would have chosen more specific wording if they meant abilities to confer. From my understanding, markerlights are something on the target unit right? So it makes sense those apply for the full attack, but not the other stuff.

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This is exactly my thoughts. They call out markerlights, why do that instead of saying any special abilities.

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Originally Posted by Caldera02

This is exactly my thoughts. They call out markerlights, why do that instead of saying any special abilities.

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Probably because 90% of the time this is going to be a reason to combine fire, especially when only combining two units. All the fuss is over combining the commander, which they didn't specifically call out in the rule.

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Originally Posted by ccrraazzyyman

Except the bols guys are idiots.http://s2.postimg.org/hfcaeag3d/Hunt...wer_firing.jpg

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Lol, this guy think the team at white dwarf has any idea how the game works....