Void Shields and hits.

[Nabterayl]

A single Leman Russ Punisher could do it, though admittedly it isn't very likely. A squadron of Punishers certainly could, though, or a single mob of lootaz. But it's a very likely scenario that a vehicle with multiple void shields gets hit more times than it has shields. As I said, I don't have my books with me at the moment, but intuitively it doesn't seem right that if I have three void shields and get hit by five lascannons from a single unit, the very worst that can happen is that I lose all three shields.

[This Dave]

A single Leman Russ Punisher could do it, though admittedly it isn't very likely. A squadron of Punishers certainly could, though, or a single mob of lootaz. But it's a very likely scenario that a vehicle with multiple void shields gets hit more times than it has shields. As I said, I don't have my books with me at the moment, but intuitively it doesn't seem right that if I have three void shields and get hit by five lascannons from a single unit, the very worst that can happen is that I lose all three shields.

Actually, unless it's a Punisher commanded by Pask it can't. A Punisher is only S5 so the best is can normally do is an 11 and it needs a 12 to drop a Void Shield. With Pask it gets Rending so that would probably do it unless the dice belong to me.

[Tyrendian]

Stormlord, or rather any Vulcan Mega Bolter that didn't move, can (with the right dice) easily pen 20 times. Completely beside the point though; even a humble Autocannon would be enough to provide the scenario we are discussing when there's only one Void Shield left.
Intuitively (no relevant books to hand) I'd say manage it similar to wound pools on units with different saves - roll to pen on the Void until it's gone, in batches of as many hits as shields are left, and then continue trying to wound/pen the unit/vehicle itself. Although that does feel weird for blast weapons...

[Nabterayl]

Intuitively (no relevant books to hand) I'd say manage it similar to wound pools on units with different saves - roll to pen on the Void until it's gone, in batches of as many hits as shields are left, and then continue trying to wound/pen the unit/vehicle itself. Although that does feel weird for blast weapons...

This is exactly my intuition as well, though I also can't prove it without books (and maybe not even then).

[Houghten]

"With the right dice" and "easily" aren't words that should go next to one another.

[Harley]

In that case, in the instance of 3 Basalisks scoring direct hits on a clump of 10 GeneStealers within a Void Shield, would we say that the blasts would resolve against the shield as a single hit and once it collapses, the hits would then apply to the Genestealers as normal, ei 1 blast gets a single hit, pens the shield and the remaining 20 hits from the 2 remaining blasts go through.

[Nabterayl]

That's my intuition, yeah.

[John Bower]

Strangely I did find myself pondering this today, a Triarch Stalker with its Heat Ray fires twice on a bunker with a Void shield. First hit collapses the shield but what about the 2nd? I assume a vehicle weapon like that is kind of like a 'double tap' weapon. So the first knocks the shield off, the 2nd penned the bunker for a kill. Forcing the Warp spiders therein to die en masse and the survivors to disembark rather hastily into the sights of a punisher. Ouch!

[Gleipnir]

So would a unit of say Basilisks all firing Barrages hit the Void Shield 3 times and nothing gets through, or would you do each hit separately and once the shield goes down apply the rest to whatever it was protecting? I'm leaning towards the former myself but I wonder what other people think.

The current wording on the rule is ambiguous "shocker" about exactly when you stop applying hits in a given shooting attack only telling you to apply further hits to the unit as normal once the shield is down, as the standard rules for shooting attacks resolve all rolls to hit from one unit at the same time, at which point they are all redirected to the Void Shield to roll for Armor Penetration, again something that is done all at the same time since the Void Shield has neither mixed saves or a character in the unit, meaning each shooting attack only applies to one instance of a Void Shield.

Stormlord, or rather any Vulcan Mega Bolter that didn't move, can (with the right dice) easily pen 20 times. Completely beside the point though; even a humble Autocannon would be enough to provide the scenario we are discussing when there's only one Void Shield left.
Intuitively (no relevant books to hand) I'd say manage it similar to wound pools on units with different saves - roll to pen on the Void until it's gone, in batches of as many hits as shields are left, and then continue trying to wound/pen the unit/vehicle itself. Although that does feel weird for blast weapons...

Personally this is how I would prefer it as well but the rule currently doesn't read this way see above. Currently as a standard shooting attack however each instance of a Void shield would be hit one at a time per shooting attack, which is where the ability to split fire or hit multiple units like Super-heavies or such as hitting units on top of battlements with blast or template weapons which hit both the unit and the building they are standing on come in handy for depleting Void Shields. Or in the case of projected void shields firing underneath the 12" coverage.

[Doones]

The current wording on the rule is ambiguous "shocker" about exactly when you stop applying hits in a given shooting attack only telling you to apply further hits to the unit as normal once the shield is down, as the standard rules for shooting attacks resolve all rolls to hit from one unit at the same time, at which point they are all redirected to the Void Shield to roll for Armor Penetration, again something that is done all at the same time since the Void Shield has neither mixed saves or a character in the unit, meaning each shooting attack only applies to one instance of a Void Shield.

Personally this is how I would prefer it as well but the rule currently doesn't read this way see above. Currently as a standard shooting attack however each instance of a Void shield would be hit one at a time per shooting attack, which is where the ability to split fire or hit multiple units like Super-heavies or such as hitting units on top of battlements with blast or template weapons which hit both the unit and the building they are standing on come in handy for depleting Void Shields. Or in the case of projected void shields firing underneath the 12" coverage.

I recently played a game in which this scenario came up. 4 x multi-melta marines firing at a fortification that was within a projected void shield zone. Since all the multi-meltas fire at the same time they hit the same void shield and thus could only drop one rather than all three.

I cannot agree more that the rules are definitely unclear as to the amount of shields a single unit can drop in a given turn when firing the same weapon. I have scoured the different forums looking for clarification, but the best I can come up with currently is found on page 31 of the core rule book. It states "All of the models in the unit that are firing the selected weapon shoot at the same time, regardless of whether or not all of the dice are rolled together".

It then follows up with an example of a space marine unit composed of a bolters, plasma gun, and missile launcher. The player selects which weapon he/she will use (bolters) and resolves it completely. The player then moves onto the next weapon (plasma gun) and resolves it, and finally the missile launcher.

Following this logic and the scenario I referred to above if the heavy weapons unit were equipped with different weapons (E.g. Lascannon, Multi-Melta, Plasma Cannon, and Missile Launcher) then each would resolve independently and could therefore bring down more than one shield.

I'm not sold on this as I do not believe this was the intention how void shields should work, but until I find a GW faq or someone else whom can point me at a rule that states how they work more clearly this is what I have to work with.

What do you all think?