One of our players in confused - is their actually any significance to the AND in the Wraithguard profile?
The FAQ on GW website just confuses the situation as it makes it out that the weapon can be fired in BOTH modes (he believes it means he can shoot his gun in an assault and also use his FF value - getting, effectivly, 4 MW attacks in a FF) but this is not apparent in the rules and surely it would take more than a stray AND in the datasheet if they changed the rules this much...

The AND means that the weapon can be used for ranged shooting AND for firefights.

In ranged shooting the wraithguard gets 2xMW5+ shots.

In an assault, the wraithguard gets 1xFF4+, and 1xFF4+ MW.

You certainly don't get the ranged shots in an assault.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

Thats what I thought. Then the FAQ just confuses the matter as there is no real difference between the terms AND and OR...

That's correct, there is no "action" one can select for a formation that allows them to use both Shooting and Firefight attacks at the same time.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

There is a difference when the AND or OR refers to the same type of shooting (FF or ranged).

for example:



This would give the unit both shots, AP and AT each turn, whereas if it was OR the unit would have to choose one or the other.

However, in the case of wraithguard, where the two firing modes are of different types (ranged and small arms), AND and OR are effectively the same thing.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

People just like to make things complicated for the hell of it, there is no reason to include that extra AND in the profile...

Thanks for the replies.

Yeah, but the FAQ confuses the situation:


1.1.3 Unit Datasheets
Q: AND/OR designations are
frequently used for weapons that have
a ranged fire and an assault mode.
What is the difference between the
two?
A: Some weapon systems are capable of
being used in multiple ways. A weapon
designated as “ORâ€Â

"Epic is designed for experienced wargamers, not experienced rules-lawyers" - Jervis Johnson

This sort of word-wangling is unneccesary in epic, you know how it should be played, so play it that way, regardless of whether it could be wilfully misinterpreted.

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http://www.troublemakergames.co.uk/
Epic: Hive Development Thread

Of course.

But there is no need to muddy the waters with that strange FAQ entry, surely? FAQs are meant to clarify - this just causes confusion amongst new players (which we are). There is no 'word wangling' going on here, I assure you. Just general confusion.

No offence taken, btw  

Since the vast majority of AND/OR weapons are split between ranged and assault attacks which cannot be used at the same time, they probably should have been listed as OR rather than AND for ease of understanding.  They are functionally the same, as you noted.  Unfortunately, no one considered the difference until after the book was in print.

On a side note, OR causes its own set of problems, too.  People ask things like "If the weapon says OR does that mean we have to choose which way it's used when we build an army, or when we deploy, or any time it fires?"

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Neal