Overwatch and Psychic Powers

[Will's on Fire]

This question came up when I was playing against a Grey Knight player and intended to assault a squad in which was a librarian, who knew the sunburst psychic power.

As an overwatch reaction is says that unit firs as per a normal shooting phase, so can he use sunburst in his overwatch? In fact, as a more generalised question, can you use a psychic shooting attack (as long as it isn't a blast) in overwatch?

Okay so, the way I read it, is pg69, says Witchfire powers are treated as psychic shooting attacks and are manifested in the shooting phase, and overwatch is treated as a normal shooting attack, albeit resolved in the assault phase. So, I don't think witchfire can be used.

But what about nova attacks? They don't target a model/unit but are still shooting attacks, so they are more of a grey area.

If it does work, does this mean, an Eldar Farseer could use mind war against a charging unit, sniping out one of the members of the unit? Because that would make charging a farseer slightly more risky!



Also, warp charge tokens, dos this mean a mastery level 2, can only use 2 psychic powers in both his, and the opponents set of phases? I'm pretty sure I'm reading it right anyway.

There is a lovely bit of wording on page xvi that says:

...in each turn, both players move, shoot and fight with all their warriors. Each players turn follow a specific pattern...

So in that one sentence they have given two different meaning of the term "turn".

And page 66 says:

A psyker generates his full allocation of Warp Charge points at the start of each turn.p

Do we follow the old tradition of unless it says game turn, it means player turn, or do we go with "accept first answer" from the rulebook saying that a turn is both player turns? It's lovely and clear...



Also, fun bit of trivia, pg69 top paragraph, at least in my copy has "are" spelt "aer".

Cheers,

- Will

[Matt1785]

Ugh, this one seems tricky to me but does seem like you are allowed to do it.  I was watching a game where a guy totally Blood Lanced his opponent to death because he forced him to funnel to him and then vaporized him... brutal tactic but I couldn't find anything in the BRB that said he wasn't allowed to do it.

This is something that seems fairly clear though since it says Overwatch is as regular shooting and it is a shooting attack I suppose.  Blood Lance is especially dangerous because you can't deny the witch because it doesn't target... wow, overwatch just got a lot more dangerous.

[Tom]

Okay so, the way I read it, is pg69, says Witchfire powers are treated as psychic shooting attacks and are manifested in the shooting phase, and overwatch is treated as a normal shooting attack, albeit resolved in the assault phase. So, I don't think witchfire can be used.

That's how I interpret the rule too. Witchfire powers are manifested during the shooting phase so can't be used in overwatch as that occurs during the assault phase.

But what about nova attacks? They don't target a model/unit but are still shooting attacks, so they are more of a grey area.

Nova attacks are a sub-type of Witchfire power along with Beam, Focussed Witchfire and Maelstrom. Note that their headings are smaller font than "Witchfire" on page 69 and that the last sentence of the last paragraph of the general witchfire entry refers to "the following subtypes".

Do we follow the old tradition of unless it says game turn, it means player turn, or do we go with "accept first answer" from the rulebook saying that a turn is both player turns? It's lovely and clear...

The former, on page 9 the rulebook says "Whenever a rule refers to 'a turn' it always means 'player turn' unless it specifically refers to a 'game turn'."

[Pottsey]

If you can overwatch psychic powers it would only powers that use a BS and are shooting attacks plus that would mean no psychic powers in CC like force weapon 1  wound kills as your overwatch would count for 1 psychic power per phase. Remember auto hit weapons like lance cannot be used for snapfire/overwatch or hitting flyers.