at the moment i guess it only auto hits the first rank, after that you have to roll to wound again. but still , it ensures you that you really kill, instead of rolling that popular 1!
From the way it is read directly, it would seem that the poison goes through the entire rank if you get a 6. My local GW staff members agreed that is how it looks, really a 6 to hit and automatic wound, you have hit the entire rank so as long as the first model dies (armour save) it will auto wound the next and so on. Of course, we all know this is quite powerful (even though a 6 is fairly unlikely) so it is likely to get errataed so only the first model is poisoned. Until then, it is up to interpretation, discuss it with your opponent before the battle starts, and if you can't agree then roll a dice for it.
LoL its not that unlikely. if you shoot it every turn in a game you should get at least one auto-rank-poison-kebab and thats only if you've got one steg
If you shoot it every turn in a game then it is never in combat... If I was facing one, I would be much happier with it shooting a single bolt that could miss entirely with the risk of poison every turn rather than seeing it in combat. It is going to kill faaar more in combat.
Very true its not in the job description of one of the angriest things in the jungle to sit about while skinks line up the money shot !
a natural six on that thing will poison and kill the first _model_ it hits, not the entire first rank, right? I am still a bit fuzzy on how this works.
There is no "first model" qualifier in the rules. Its poison, so on a 6 to hit it automatically wounds (no to wound roll). It penetrates ranks like a bolt thrower and allows no armor save. So the RAW says that it skewers the entire rank, allowing of course for non-armor type saves to stop it. People assume of course that it is going to be FAQ'd or Errata'd to only effect the first model, although I do not see why they should do that.
reading the brb it seemed to me that it was a single bolt that would penetrate depending on the angle it was entering... XXXOXX - s6 OOOOOO XXXOXX - s5 or XXXXXX XXXOXX - s4 XXXXXX XXXOXX - s3 XXXXXX First would be head on, second would be flank based...I was under the impression a single bolt would go through a line, either the of the O's above.. So the argument here is that on a 6 to hit roll, poison kicks in and you don't have to roll for wounds so on the first example, you go through a column without having to roll wounds, and then the second you would go through the entire first rank from the side. I think the usage of rank has been confusing me.. but this is the question right? that if you hit on a 6 then you don't need to roll for wounds for the path of that bolt, or that the first one is auto-wounded and then you have to roll as normal for the rest of them...
fer- As it stands if it hits one one 6 it goes through the whole unit autohitting the entire ranks. So if there was a unit 5 x 4 wide it would kill all 4 on a 6. Because the rule of poison wounds automatically if you hit on a 6 and you only have to roll to hit once with a bolt thrower.
right, so on a 5x4 unit it would autowound 4 troops, not all 20 troops the use of the work ranks previously was confusing to me as that way it sounded like it would take out all 20 which seemed ridiculous
Yea but the lizard book only says it counts as a bolt thrower for the purposes of rank piercing - thats what we have been talking about in the "BS 5 Stegadon" thread anyway. and the bolt thrower does d3 wounds so this is going to be devastating against both brets( big ranks of expensive knights) and ogres (multi-wound expensive units)
i talked to the local GWS near me and they told me that yes 1 roll of a 6 will pierce through all the ranks no it can't stand and shoot since treating the giant bow like a bolt thrower to them is the same as calling it a bolt thrower but the twin blowguns can stand and shoot was the information they told me
LOL its not a bolt thrower and is treated like a bolt thrower in one way and one way only, That is that the bolt (or arrow) from the giant bow penetrates ranks. Again it doesn't say either may not stand and shoot, this is in contrast to the salamanders weapon (pg 56 lizard book) that "may not make a stand and shoot charge reaction" So why no stand and shoot for bolt thrower?