Rapid Fire range

[Jorre]

I have been playing 40k on and off for 13 years, as such sometimes my interpritation of even the simple rules can get a little warped with the different versions of the game!

 

Last night when playing kill team I was shown the rapid fire rule in the rule book through the eyes of a first time player. Now I think I may have been playing it wrong all this time so I thought I'd ask here.

 

If a marine with a bolter moves 6 inch can he fire a single shot upto 24 inches (this is how I have always played it). After re-reading the section on rapid fire in the rule book I seem to get the impression that if you move you can only fire a rapid fire weapon upto 12 inches even if only firing one shot. I could not find anything to contradict this in the rule book

[Erasmus of Baal]

If a Marine moves 6", he can shoot twice at 12".

If a Marine stands still, he can shoot either one shot at 24" or two shots at 12".

 

I'm not sure that permission is implicitly given to fire fewer shots than the weapon profile permits, but I certainly wouldn't deny you that.

[Jorre]

I see, so I think I have been doing it wrong.

 

A marine cannot move 6 and fire 24 with a bolter ?

[thade]

I see, so I think I have been doing it wrong.

 

A marine cannot move 6 and fire 24 with a bolter ?

 

Correct.

 

Also, you can't choose to fire less than two shots with a Rapid Fire weapon. However, almost every space marine gets a bolt pistol which is a single shot at 12"...so taking a single shot at 12" in and of itself is still okay for you. :P (Check the Wargear on a marine to see if he's got a bolt pistol as well as his boltgun; I don't think any marines with boltguns - at least in the 5E codexes - don't also have pistols.)

[SeattleDV8]

I see, so I think I have been doing it wrong.

 

A marine cannot move 6 and fire 24 with a bolter ?

Yes , this is incorrect.

Any model with a rapid fire weapon may not move and fire the weapon over 12"

12" and under you may fire but you always take two shots.

Read the BRB pg 29 RAPID fire Weapons.

[Legatus]

Essentially, you have been playing wrong ever since 3rd Edition (1998). Back in 2nd Edition (1993) Bolters were pretty much 'Assault 1' weapons and could be fired once at targets within 24", no matter whether the model moved or not. Space Marines had a special rule that allowed them to fire Boltguns twice at 24" if they remained stationary.

 

In 3rd Edition that rule was removed, but the rules for Boltguns were changed. Now a Boltgun could only be fired once at 24" if the model had remained stationary, or twice at targets within 12". If the model had moved, it was only allowed to shoot once at a target within12". There was even a nice grafic in the 3rd Edition rulebook and the rule summary sheet to explain this new mechanic.

 

In 4th Edition (2004) the rapid fire rules were changed to allow moving models to fire two shots at 12", as only being able to fire a single shot at 12" was deemed to make Marines too stationary and lose too much if they wanted to move. The rapid fire rules in 5th Edition are the same as in 4th.

[BearersOfSalvation]

If a marine with a bolter moves 6 inch can he fire a single shot upto 24 inches (this is how I have always played it). After re-reading the section on rapid fire in the rule book I seem to get the impression that if you move you can only fire a rapid fire weapon upto 12 inches even if only firing one shot. I could not find anything to contradict this in the rule book

 

Thinking of it as 'can fire' and 'only firing one shot' is all wrong. When you fire a rapid fire weapon, you get 2 shots at 12" range if you moved, if you don't move you get 2 shots at 12" range or 1 shot 12-24", that's all there is to it. You don't choose to fire twice or not, or say you're going to fire twice then check range and get nothing if it's over 12" range, or any other combination like that, the weapon simply always follows those rules, and you don't have an option to fire once at 12" range. Normal marines also have a bolt pistol with the same damage characteristics, but 12" assault 1 for the stats, so people often get confused and think that you're making a choice between 'fire bolter twice and stand or fire bolter once and charge', but you're really choosing between bolter and bolt pistol - guardsmen with just a lasgun, for example, don't have that option.

 

P 27 of the base rulebook is where the rule that you have to fire a weapon at full effect.

[Acebaur]

Also keep in mind that rapid fire range is 12" no matter the max range of the weapon. So the Tau Pulse Rifle and the SM Vengence/Kraken rounds still rapid fire at 12" not half range.

[Legatus]

You are right, my bad.