DE Night Shield Question

[Necron_Lord]

In my last game, a Wolf Scout unit outflanked and hit one of my ravagers with night shields with a melta.

The night shields upgrade in the codex states - The vehicle's deck is covered by a broad-spectrum displacement field, enveloping the vehicle in cold and inky darkness. This has the effect of reducing the range by 6". For instance, a unit armed with bolters would be treated as having a range of 18" when firing at a vehicle with a night shield. This adjustment may put the vehicle out of range from an enemy shooting attack, in which case the shooting automatically misses. The extra distance is also counted for working out if the vehicle is in rapid fire range, half range for a melta shot, and so on. Night shields have on effect on template or barrage weapons, as well as weapons with a maximum range of 6" or less. (p. 63)

To use some examples:

Bolter/Astartes Grenade Launcher (Normal 24" range, 12" rapid fire; Firing at vehicle with NS range 18", 6" rapid fire)
Heat Lance/Firepike (Normal 18" range, 9" roll 2d6 for armor pen; firing at vehicle with NS 12" range, 3" roll 2d6 for armor pen)
Fusion pistol (range 6", 3" roll 2d6 for armor pen in all cases)
Multi-melta (Normal 24", 12" roll 2d6 for armor pen; firing at vehicle with NS 18" range, 6" for 2d6 armor pen)

but the next one is the real puzzling one(s):

Meltagun/Fusion Gun (Normal 12" range, 6" roll 2d6 for armor pen; firing at vehicle with NS 6" range, no roll of 2d6 for armor pen?)

RAW - The 6" subtraction applies if the max range is over 6", and the 6" reduction applies to rapid fire and half range for melta shots. Therefore, meltaguns and fusion guns get 6" subtracted from their half range giving them nothing. However, fusion pistols, because its maximum range is shorter, still gets melta.

I gave the melta rule to my opponent to be sporting, but on greater reflection, I don't know if I should have. Do Fire Dragons and drop pod/outflanking marines with meltaguns not get an extra d6 for armor pen against DE vehicles with NS?

[DrLove42]

No they don't

So melta is reduced against us...yes its still S8 but no extra dice...
What range is a melta pistol? Cos if its only 6" doesn't matter about half ranges etc...it just can't see it!

Models have to be 1" inch apart so the closest you can be is 1 inch away...the shileds effectivly add 6" to that...puts you at 7" range...

Applies for melta as well...have to be under half range, which 99% of the time is 6". This is the same thing, 6" range, 1" inch apart...puts them at 7". And therefore over half distance, and out of bonus dice territory

[Archon Charybdis]

Being as "melta range" isn't an actual range in a weapon profile, it doesn't seem to me that it would be covered under the weapons with 6'' ranges being unaffected.

[VulkansApprentice]

I think everyone is missing the key line at the end of the rule; it has NO EFFECT on weapons with 6" range or less. RAW or RAI there's no difference....NO EFFECT. So a normal meltagun with 12" range is affected; it's range is reduced to 6", meaning it needs to be with in 3" for an extra die. The infernus already has a range of 6", so NO EFFECT; meaning that it still has 6" range and needs 3" for melta. So basically a multimelta gets reduced to 18"(9" melta), and a meltagun basically becomes an infernus (6" range, 3" melta). The infernus is not affected, so no change.

[Drew da Destroya]

Yeah, since Melta Range is just Half of the guns range, a Meltagun would have a 6" range, with a 3" melta range.

[UltramarineFan]

Agreed with the others who've posted, you don't minus from the melta range, melta is just half og the gun's normal range so the melta gun would have a 6" range and a 3" melta range. The infernus wouldn't be affected because of the rule that states that night shields don't affect weapons with a max range of 6" or less.

[Necron_Lord]

Thanks for the feedback, guys.

So to sum up, rapid fire range is 6" when firing at vehicles with NS, because rapid fire range is explicitly mentioned in BRB (p. 28). Regarding melta, the max range is reduced by 6", and melta range is half the new max range. Weapons whose max range were 6" in the first place are unaffected.

Is this correct?

[steelmage99]

Yes, that is correct.

[somerandomdude]

For the record, the old codex said something along the lines of "add 6" to the range measured." This made it where you used your tape to measure, then added 6" to that total to determine if you were in range. For instance, a meltagun 3 inches away would actually be considered 9 inches away in the old codex, putting it out of 2d6 range. With this new wording however (subtraction from the weapon instead of addition to the measurement) you are in melta range.

I'm not sure if you used the old codex, or even read it, but this was a difficult transition for me personally, because I had assumed it was the same wording.

[UltramarineFan]

I'm not sure if you used the old codex, or even read it, but this was a difficult transition for me personally, because I had assumed it was the same wording.

That's why it's always a good idea to read a codex from cover to cover, even with stuff that you would assume would be the same. Eg. I have the SW, SM and BA codexes but when I got the BA one I still made sure to read through all the descriptions and rules of bolters, meltas, plasma weapons, thunder hammers, storm shields etc. to make sure that it really hadn't changed.