The Lava Lamp

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Traits

Unit Traits

Commander

A Commander has one Command Point each turn which may be used by any other unit in the same force, anywhere on the board. See the Command Point rules for more information.

Squad Leader

A Squad Leader has one Command Point each turn which may be used by any other unit in the same squad, as long as they are within 6 spaces of the Squad Leader at that moment. See the Command Point rules for more information.

Agile

Some units, such as lightly armoured infantry, are better able to avoid incoming fire than others. Agile units are better at moving around while prone, and can dive to avoid incoming fire. Agile units have the following additional movement action:

Dive Prone: For 1 AP, an Agile unit may dive prone (see "Prone Units") into any adjacent space, as long as it would be able to move into that space. The unit may then adjust its facing by up to 45 degrees.

An Agile unit taking one of the following listed actions must take the Agile-specific version of the action rather than the normal version:

Drop Prone: For 1 AP, an Agile unit may drop prone (see "Prone Units") in its own space. The unit may then adjust its facing by up to 180 degrees.

Stand Up: For 1 AP, a prone Agile unit can stand up in the same space. The unit may then adjust its facing by up to 45 degrees.

Crawl: For 2 AP, a prone Agile unit can move one space in any direction. The unit may then alter its facing by up to 90 degrees.

Turn Prone: For 1 AP, a prone Agile unit can remain in its own space and adjust its facing by up to 180 degrees.

Stealthy

A unit with the Stealthy ability always uses its Cover Armour rating when attacked, except in close combat, or against attacks which always attack the Exposed Armour rating (such as Ignores Cover attacks).

Unmanoeuvrable

Some units are bulky or otherwise unable to turn quickly because of armour, unwieldly weaponry, or simply being massive. Unmanoeuvrable units (UMs) are more restricted in the way they can move and turn compared with normal units. A UM taking one of the following listed actions must take the UM-specific version of the action rather than the normal version:

Move: For 1 AP, a UM may move into any of the three spaces to its front. The unit may then adjust its facing by up to 45 degrees.

Move Back: For 2 AP, a UM may move backwards into any of the three spaces to its rear. The unit may then adjust its facing by up to 45 degrees.

Turn: For 1 AP, a UM may remain in its own space and adjust its facing by up to 90 degrees.

Move & Fire: For 1 AP, a UM may move into any of the three spaces to its front. The unit may then fire its ranged weapon (see "Shooting").

Move Back & Fire: For 2 AP, a UM may move backwards into any of the three spaces to its rear. The unit may then fire its ranged weapon (see "Shooting").

Turn & Fire: For 1 AP, a UM may may adjust its facing by up to 90 degrees. The unit may then fire its ranged weapon (see "Shooting").

Stand Up: For 3 APs, a prone UM can stand up in the same space. The unit's facing remains unchanged.

UMs cannot ever take the Drop Prone, Fire Prone, Turn Prone or Crawl actions.

Harmless

A unit which is Harmless cannot attack in any way, and cannot kill its opponent in close combat even if it rolls higher.

Large

Some units are larger than average and take up more space. A Large unit is a unit with the Large trait. Large units still occupy a single space on the board, but have several additional restrictions on movement.

A Large unit may not occupy a space which is vertically or horizontally adjacent to another Large unit. It may move through such a space, but cannot stop there. If it would be unable to move out, it cannot enter the space.

A Large unit may assault another Large unit standing two spaces away on the vertical or the horizontal.

A Large unit may never take the Take Cover or Break Cover actions. Large units which are prone do not count as being in cover.

Swarm

A Swarm unit actually comprises a mass of small creatures that move and fight together. A unit which makes an aimed shot at a Swarm uses the to hit roll for a snap shot rather than an aimed shot. Area attacks ignore this penalty (when they make aimed shots they use the aimed shot roll, although snap shots are still rolled as snap shots) and in addition may triple the number of dice they normally roll.

Example: A frag grenade normally rolls D6. Against a Swarm it rolls 3D6, though it would not roll extra dice against non-Swarm targets in other squares within the blast radius.

Huge

Some units are truly enormous, so large that they cannot even squeeze down some of the narrower tunnels riddling the hive ship. A Huge unit occupies four spaces, and any of those spaces can be used draw LOS and LOF to the unit. The Huge unit itself can only draw LOS and LOF from the frontmost two of the four spaces it occupis. Huge units have special definitions of front, back, left and right.

Huge units which are partially obscured or prone do not count as being in cover.

Actuators

Units with the Actuators ability either have specialised mechanical equipment or are immensely strong. Units with Actuators treat Very Heavy weapons as Heavy weapons, and Heavy weapons as normal weapons.

Tall

A Tall unit ignores other units that are not Tall when drawing Line of Sight and Line of Fire.

Units firing at Tall units ignore other units that are not Tall when drawing Line of Sight and Line of Fire to the Tall unit.

Low

A Low unit is ignored by other units that are not Low when drawing Line of Sight and Line of Fire.

Weapon Traits

Assault Weapon

Assault Weapons are either melee weapons, pistols or otherwise designed for close combat. A unit with more than one Assault Weapon they can bring to bear during an assault rolls an extra die for each one.

Assault Item

Any bonuses provided by an Assault Item can only be used during an assault, either as the attacker or the defender. Assault Items can only be used during an assault if they can be brought to bear.

Assault Bonus X

A weapon with an Assault Bonus number allows the user to add that number to his assault total during an assault as long as the weapon can be brought to bear. A unit with multiple weapons with Assault Bonuses only adds the highest of those bonuses to his total, not all of them.

Example: A terminator with two lightning claws (Assault Bonus +1, base roll 1D6) rolls 2D+1, not 2D+2.

Pierce X

When a unit wins an assault, it adds the highest Pierce number among the weapons it used during the assault to its assault total before comparing the total with the opponent's armour rating. Pierce does not improve the unit's total for the purposes of deciding who wins the assault.

Example: A genestealer wins an assault against a marine with an assault total of 5. Normally 5 would not kill the marine as it is not equal to or higher than the marine’s exposed armour rating of 6. However the genestealer’s Pierce 2 is added to the total, bringing it to 7 which is sufficient to kill him. The marine is removed.

Area

Area weapons strike a target space rather than a target unit. Area weapons attack all units in that space (in the case of multiple units taking cover into or out of the square). Area weapons have a special effect on Swarm units (see Swarm for more details). Area weapons do not necessarily affect more than one space.

Ignores Cover

A weapon which ignores cover always uses the Exposed Cover rating of the target.

Gets Hot!

A weapon which Gets Hot is dangerous to fire. Whenever the weapon is used and rolls a 1 to hit, the wielder is immediately struck with 1D+1, ignoring Cover. A Blast Radius weapon only strikes the wielder if the first attack roll is a 1. Weapons which Get Hot and are also Assault Weapons only Get Hot when fired as ranged weapons.

Single Shot

A weapon which is Single Shot has a very low rate of fire, perhaps because of a time consuming reloading or recharging period. A Single Shot weapon may never be fired more than once during a unit's activation. When a Single Shot weapon is fired from overwatch, it may only snap fire, and the unit immediately loses overwatch after making the shot.

Slow-firing

A Slow-firing weapon takes a long time to charge up, which may give the target time to escape. When a unit with a Slow-firing weapon attacks and other units react to that attack, the reacting units get to react before the shot is made. If the firing unit is killed during these reactions then it never actually gets to fire. If the target unit is no longer in LOS or LOF then the attacker may choose a new legal target for the shot. If no new target is available, the shot (and the action points spent firing) are wasted.

Example: A tyranid warrior fires its deathspitter at a group of three space marine scouts. All three scouts elect to dive prone as a reaction, removing themselves from the tyranid's LOF. With nothing else in LOF, the tyranid warrior does not roll the attack.

Blast Radius X

A weapon with a Blast Radius strikes all units within X spaces of the target space, including diagonals. A Blast Radius attack may be targeted at an empty space if desired. Each shot only strikes a given unit once, even if they are occupying multiple spaces (such as by being in cover, or being Huge). Roll separately for each unit affected.

Blast Radius weapons are always Area weapons.

Depreciating Blast Radius X

A Depreciating Blast Radius weapon is a Blast Radius weapon, but for each space between the target space and the unit being affected, subtract 1 from the to hit roll.

Heavy

Units armed with weapons that have the Heavy trait have special restrictions on firing. If the unit is armed with with weapons that are Heavy and weapons that are not, these rules only apply if the model wishes to fire the Heavy weapon.

A unit may never fire a Heavy weapon during the Move & Fire, Move Back & Fire or Turn & Fire actions. The unit cannot fire at all without first bracing the weapon:

Brace: For 1 AP, a unit armed with a Heavy weapon may brace it.

A braced weapon can be fired for the rest of the unit's activation using the Fire action. A Heavy weapon is no longer braced at the end of the unit's activation, or if the unit moves or adjusts its facing for any reason. A Heavy weapon must be braced before the unit can take an Aim action. A Heavy weapon does not have to be braced for the unit to take the Set Overwatch action, and a Heavy weapon may be fired normally from overwatch. A Heavy weapon may not be snap fired as a reaction by a unit not in overwatch.

Very Heavy

A unit with Actuators treats a Very Heavy weapon as a Heavy weapon (the Actuators trait does not then reduce this to to not Heavy afterwards, of course!). A unit without Actuators cannot fire a Very Heavy weapon at all.

Parry

During an assault, a unit with a weapon that can Parry can force his opponent to reroll one of his dice while they are rolling assault values, as long as the weapon can be brought to bear. A unit with multiple parries can force multiple dice to be rerolled during the same assault, but cannot force the same die to be rerolled more than once.

Grenade

Grenade weapons must be thrown by a unit. A Grenade cannot be fired normally, and can only be fired using the following action:

Throw Grenade: For 2 AP, a unit armed with a Grenade weapon may fire it.

Grenade weapons cannot be fired from grenade launchers. Grenade launchers have their own specific ammunition types, represented by their different fire modes.

Placed Explosive

A Placed Explosive is a heavy, powerful explosive device which is used for large-scale demolition. The boarding party forces carry placed explosives to destroy the resilient organs aboard the hive ship. A placed explosive cannot be fired normally, but a unit armed with them can make the following actions:

Place Charge: For 1 AP, a unit armed with Placed Explosives may place an explosive charge on a space containing an obstacle in one of its front spaces.

Configure Charge: For 1 AP, a unit armed with Placed Explosives may configure an explosive charge in one of its front spaces.

Detonate Charge (4+): For 1 AP, a unit armed with Placed Explosives may detonate an explosive charge in one of its front spaces.

Only when the explosive is detonated do you make the to hit roll to attack the obstacle. Add 1 to the to hit roll for each action that was previously spent configuring the charge. Configuring does not have to be continuous, or all performed by the same unit, and may be performed over several turns.

Railgun

Smart

A Smart weapon does not require LOS or LOF to fire at an enemy unit. However, you must be able to trace an unobstructed movement path to the target from the firing unit.

Enemy-specific

Enemy-specific weapons only affect the opponent's units.

Stuns

Splatter

Streaming

Streaming weapons emit a continuous barrage of fire which the wielder can gradually walk between targets while firing. A Streaming weapon may be used in either normal mode or stream mode. In either mode, a Streaming weapon always counts as an Area weapon.

A Streaming weapon which is fired as a reaction, or when taking a Move & Fire, Move Back & Fire or Turn & Fire action must be fired in normal mode. Streaming weapons fired in normal mode act as Single Shot weapons.

A unit can only fire in stream mode during its own activation. All of the shots fired during a single activation are referred to as a single stream. When firing a stream, a unit must take Fire actions one after another. As soon as it takes an action other than Fire, the stream is over and the weapon cannot be fired again for the rest of the activation.

The first shot in a stream is targeted normally. Subsequent shots during the same stream can only target either the same space as the previous shot, or an adjacent space to the previous shot. Streaming shots can be targeted at empty spaces in order to "walk" across to a more distant unit. Streaming shots may ignore units when tracing Line of Fire, as long as that unit is in a space which has been targeted by at least one shot during the same stream.

When a Streaming weapon is fired in stream mode and enemy units wish to react, when specifying his action the active unit's player must declare the first space to be targeted, but does not have to decide anything else until the action is resolved.

Example: A space marine with a flamer is facing a corridor with two hormagaunts in front of a genestealer. The unit takes a Fire action, and since only one of the hormagaunts is in LOF, the marine shoots at its space, and kills it. The marine takes another Fire action, and this shot can only target either the now-empty space the hormagaunt was in, or one of the adjacent spaces. The marine targets the space behind, which contains the other hormagaunt. The shot fails to kill it. The marine takes another Fire action, and this shot can ignore the space with the living hormagaunt in it for LOF because that space has already been targeted at least once during this stream. The marine fires the next shot at the adjacent space behind the hormagaunt, which is empty. For his last shot, the marine targets the square adjacent to the empty square containing the genestealer, and kills it.

Lingers

A weapon which Lingers leaves a dangerous but short-lived area behind when it fires, such as a patch of fire. Only Area weapons can be Lingering weapons. When a Lingering weapon is fired, place a marker in the targeted space. Until the end of the opponent's next turn, any unit entering that suffers one immediate attack as if the Lingering weapon had snap fired at them. Each space can only be marked once at a time. Ignore any additional Lingering counters that would be placed in a space that already has one. At the end of the opponent's turn, all markers on the board are removed.
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"Now I'm really confused. You're looking for someone who has a flaming head but also doesn't have a flaming head?"