A model can shoot at an unengaged enemy unit that is at least partially within its forward arc, and to which it has an unblocked line of sight. The enemy must also lie within range of the weapon being used.
Now you've chosen the unit that will make the shooting attack, you need to choose a target for it to shoot at. All models in the same unit must shoot at the same target, so choose carefully.
Check That The Shooter Can See The Target
As you might expect, to shoot at an enemy your warriors need to be able to see it. We use two straightforward rules to determine whether or not an enemy can be seen. Firstly, the target enemy unit must lie at least partially within the shooting model's forward arc, just as it would if your shooting model wished to declare a charge (if you need to refresh your memory about forward arcs, see Unit Facing, earlier).
Secondly, the shooting model must be able to trace a line of sight to the target (information on line of sight can be found in
General Principles).
Fire In Two Ranks
The rules given so far allow front rank models to shoot, but we also want to allow models in the second rank to shoot (they take aim over crouched or stooping fellows in the front rank). Therefore, models in the second rank can use the line of sight and forward arc of the model directly in front of them for the purposes of all shooting attacks (including
stand and shoot reactions). In simple terms, this allows units to fire in two ranks.
Models further back than the second rank of a unit are assumed to have their line of sight blocked by models further forward, and so will not normally be able to shoot.
Check Target Range
All missile weapons have a maximum range that indicates the furthest distance they can shoot with any accuracy. A detailed summary of shooting weapons and their ranges can be found in the
Weapons section.
A model can normally only shoot at a target if it lies within the maximum range of the weapon it is shooting with. This is measured per-model, not for the unit as a whole. The one exception to this is when a unit
Stands and Shoots – here we assume that the charging enemy has entered the weapons' range before the unit shoots.
Somes Not All Models Can Fire
All models in a unit have to shoot at the same target. Due to the relative positions of the shooting unit and the target, it might happen that some models in a firing unit can shoot the target while other models in the unit cannot (the target may be out of their forward arc or completely obscured by terrain or other models).
Sometimes, some models in the shooting unit will be out of range. In these situations, you're free to continue with the shot, but only those models permitted to shoot the target (and that have it within their weapons' range) will fire.
Such circumstances, we assume that disciplined troops such as Elves simply do not fire at all and conserve their ammunition. On the other hand, it's easy to imagine that more boisterous warriors, such as Goblins, loose their arrows in an impressive looking (but hopeless and impossibly inaccurate) volley.
In either case, for gaming purposes, these models do not shoot.
If no models can shoot their intended target (whether because of range, line of sight, or whatever), the unit either must choose a different target or does not count as having shot this turn.
Shooting Into Combat
Models are not permitted to shoot at enemies that are engaged in melee combat, for the simple reason that there's too much danger of hitting a friend! Remember that while a fight may look like two separate blocks of troops fighting head-to-head, it's actually a swirling melee where no one stays still long enough to offer a safe shot!
Some war machine weapons, particularly those that use templates, can accidentally hit friends whilst aiming at the enemy. The key word here is 'accidentally' – you cannot purposefully aim a template so that some of your models will be hit. See the
War Machines section for more details on these weapons.
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