More Than One Weapon Clariffication

[BlacKnight]

So I was just reviewing rules as I was trying to figure out if it mattered what weapon you paired with a pistol to get the +1 Attack bonus and I had a revelation and a question that was brought to my attention.

 

Revelation: If you have a powerfist and a pistol you would still get the +1 Attack bonus during combat. "More Than One Weapon (pg 51): Unless otherwise stated, if a model has more than one Shooting weapon, he must choose which one to shoot - he cannot fire both in the same Shooting phase. If a model has more than one Melee weapon, he must choose which one to attack with when he comes to strike blows - he cannot mix and match the abilities of several different Melee weapons. However, it's worth remembering that if a model has two or more Melee weapons he gains +1 Attack in close combat (see pg 24)"

 

Question: Due to the rule stated above, you choose which weapon to attack with when it comes time to strike blows. I'm not quite sure when you'd want to do this, but if you wanted to strike at higher initiative rather than wait until In 1 to pound the enemy with your powerfist, you could elect to make all of your attacks with your pistol. Not great, but it would be possible to get in attacks if you thought you'd surely die before you'd get to fight otherwise.

 

Am I reading this correctly? Or is there something in the rulebook that I'm missing? I looked at the power weapon and powerfist rules and there is nothing that says a pistol does not give you +1 Attack or that you must choose to fight with this weapon during combats. I know that in 5th, the only way to get additional attacks with a powerfist was to have another powerfist, but that looks like it no longer applies in 6th. I haven't seen anything on the internet on this, and have a feeling it might have just been overlooked (like a lot of rules are).

[Jacinda]

Specialist Weapon

[BlacKnight]

BAM! There it is! Thanks Jacinda!

[dswanick]

As Jacinda succinctly stated - a Power Fist is a Specialist weapon. It can only gain the +1A bonus when paired with another Specialist Weapon not with a normal Melee weapon or Pistol.

It is worth noting that your hypothetical model could have a Power Fist and a Lightning Claw, could choose to hit with either (S User / AP 3 / Shred or S UserX2 / AP 2 / Unwieldy), and will gain the +1A on either choice.

[maturin]

Or for the low-cost version, have a model with a power sword and a power axe, and choose which one to use (depending on your foe's stats). The FW special character Pellas Mir'san got me thinking about this as he's armed with 2 PW's, one of which is mastercrafted.