Question about Focus Fire and weapons that ignore cover

[Wildcard]

So can a unit firing with (or only with) weapons that ignore cover still opt to use focus fire to target stuff that would be in cover x or worse?

and if it does so, are those models that would be in a better cover, but "ruled out because of focus fire" still eligible for those wounds caused by weapons that ignore cover?

[Nabterayl]

Yes, they can. Focus fire cares only what cover save a model has, not whether it can use that cover save. The models excluded thereby would still be ineligible for the same reason - although they couldn't use their cover save against the incoming Ignores Cover fire, they still have a cover save that the focus firing unit declared it would not shoot at.

[Tynskel]

Focus fire + ignores cover weapons is precisely the correct application of your firepower. You could imagine a Sgt. telling the flamethrower to roast the opponents that are in the hardened cover! That's what the weapon was designed for!

[Daemonette666]

If you go with the " the flamer can not target the part of my unit in cover because the bolters are focus firing on my troops in the open" option, then you could always choose to target those who get say the 5+ cover save (lets say the models nearest to your squad), and the ones in the open, but not the ones further away with the 4+ cover save as they in a theoretical example (which is in my head, but you will get the picture once you read further on as I explain it) they are out of the flamers template range. This way you could allocate wounds from the flamer first forcing your opponent to remove casualties from the models in cover (thus no save), then he would then allocate the rest to his models in the open. In this example, say the target enemy unit is Imperial guard with a 5+ save.

How would you handle allocating wounds taking armour or cover saves and removing models if you had template weapons placed over a unit in cover, but the template weapon did not have a direct line of site to some of the models, but other weapons like bolters did have line of site, and some models were hidden from your entire unit, but were covered by the flamer template who could not see them, but could see the model next to them?

[Nabterayl]

Focus fire + ignores cover weapons is precisely the correct application of your firepower. You could imagine a Sgt. telling the flamethrower to roast the opponents that are in the hardened cover! That's what the weapon was designed for!

While I think there should be an option for this, there isn't. Focus fire lets you target people in worse cover than X, but not better cover than X.

How would you handle allocating wounds taking armour or cover saves and removing models if you had template weapons placed over a unit in cover, but the template weapon did not have a direct line of site to some of the models, but other weapons like bolters did have line of site, and some models were hidden from your entire unit, but were covered by the flamer template who could not see them, but could see the model next to them?

This is totally fine. Remember that in order to be ineligible for having a Wound allocated to it, it must be true that "no models in the firing unit can see a particular model" (p 16). So you place the template to find out how many hits it scores, then (when it comes time to roll to wound) roll to find out how many Wounds it contributes to the Wound Pool. Then you start allocating Wounds from the Wound Pool, in any order you wish, to the nearest eligible model. A model is eligible as long as (i) he is in range of the firing unit (not necessarily any particular weapon in the unit)*, (ii) is visible to at least one model in the firing unit (not necessarily the model who generated the Wound we're allocating right now), and (iii) is not ineligible due to Focus Fire restrictions (see below re: template weapons and Focus Fire).

So it is possible, and absolutely fine, for a template weapon to generate hits and wounds because guys A and B were under the template, but for those wounds to be allocated to and kill guys C and D, who are out of template range - as long as guys A and B were killed by other fire first.

By the way, note that while Ignores Cover weapons can Focus Fire, template weapons cannot. As page 52 says, "If a unit chooses to Focus Fire at an enemy, any Template weapons in that unit ignore the targeting and Wound allocation restrictions from Focus Fire. The template is placed, and their hits are resolved, as if the unit is not focusing its fire." Thus, an eradicator nova cannon can Focus Fire (obeying the normal Focus Fire restrictions on blast marker templates), because it is an Ignores Cover weapon that is not a template weapon. A flamer cannot Focus Fire, not because it Ignores Cover, but because it is a template.

* "As long as a model was in range of the enemy when To Hit rolls were made, he is considered to be in range for the duration of the Shooting attack" (p 16).