One of the hottest debates right now in the 40k online community is whether or not the Doom of Malantai's aura effect affects units inside transports. I'm on the side that it doesn't, and I don't really want to get in on the debate but a thought occurred to me that I have not seen elsewhere, and figured I should point it out.
One point of contention for the whole debate is that there are no rules for if a unit in a transport has to take a morale check. What I'd like to bring up, and this is a case of neglectful rules writing on GW's part, is that the 40k rules allow models inside an AV to take casualties.
If your group uses the Buildings rules towards the end of the rulebook (they're not optional, your group should be using them) you'll know that flame template weapons can affect the guys inside. Yet there are absolutely no rules for what happens if they take enough casualties to take a morale check. This is a big problem in Planetstrike.
My gaming group simply assumes units inside a building are Fearless to avoid this problem. We usually have two to three buildings per game, so this situation has come up plenty of times before.
As for the DooM himself, I don't think he can affect units in transports. However, this does go to show that there are certain effects that can harm a unit inside, lending some credence to that argument.
I also had thought something similar for damage to units firing from a vehicle that suffer from Gets Hot! Same sort of situation I believe.
ReplyDeletePsykers failing perils of the warp is another one.
ReplyDeleteWhat about this. Psychic Hood can prevent units in a transport from casting powers. How is this different from the DoM? It is difficult to be sure.
What about the DoM next to a building? Is the enemy unit inside affected by DoM's power?
ReplyDeleteIt's important to note that the Doom doesn't force a morale check, but rather a leadership check. It's a subtle difference, but it means that even fearless units are affected by his ability (As they're only immune to Morale and Pinning tests).
ReplyDeleteAssuming units in a building are Fearless makes no sense to me, if someone sprayed the interior of a building with a Heavy Flamer and half my squad died I'd get the hell out of there. As soon as possible.
ReplyDeleteYeah I would think it would make more sense to make them subject to the No Retreat rule if they fail a moral save. Because they can't get out, more potentially die.
ReplyDeletelitlamzetiv: Right, I know the difference, they obviously can take leadership checks but there's no rules for morale. I wasn't very clear on that in my writing.
ReplyDeletetahrikmili: Hmm, I didn't think of it that way. That complicates the situation further. Perhaps we need to reconsider that. If I were in a transport and my friends suddenly started getting their souls sucked out, I'd probably panic and want to bail out as well.
I don't think I'll even use this model until the rules get cleared up.