When shooting with a sniper rifle who gets to choose wounded target?

The sniper doesn’t have any special rules in that regard. As with any attack, the defender chooses which mini(s) receive the wounds.

Page 54 of the rules reference

A mini with at least one wound token assigned to it is wounded. When assigning wound tokens, wounded minis must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens . If the unit leader is wounded, it must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens. If two or more minis in the same unit are wounded, the unit with more wounds must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis with fewer wounds.

6 minutes ago, Steelgolem said:

Page 54 of the rules reference

A mini with at least one wound token assigned to it is wounded. When assigning wound tokens, wounded minis must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens . If the unit leader is wounded, it must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens. If two or more minis in the same unit are wounded, the unit with more wounds must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis with fewer wounds.

So how does that work with multi-wound model units when the model with the wound is not in LoS of the shooting unit and therefore, cannot be wounded?

4 minutes ago, NeonWolf said:

So how does that work with multi-wound model units when the model with the wound is not in LoS of the shooting unit and therefore, cannot be wounded?

In that case, you would pick one of the visible models. This is one the edge cases where you can end up with multiple wounded models. In a subsequent attack, if both wounded models are visible then the defender has a choice between those two, but it must be those two first.

On 10/24/2018 at 1:59 PM, nashjaee said:

In that case, you would pick one of the visible models. This is one the edge cases where you can end up with multiple wounded models. In a subsequent attack, if both wounded models are visible then the defender has a choice between those two, but it must be those two first.

So here you've got two competing ideas:

1) Units not in LOS cannot get wounds

2) Multi-model units where the models have multiple hit points cannot be assigned wounds in such a way as to keep one of the models alive longer.

3) Leaders die last

I think in this case the more important, rule is rule number 2. I would have the damage spill over to the non-lead speeder bike.

Caveat, if the sniper did a full three damage to the visible bike (which is presumably the leader for purposes of this example) then I would just swap minis so that the leader was now in the follower position with however many wound tokens the follow had before the shot.

14 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

1   ) Units not in LOS cannot get wounds

2  ) Multi-model units where the models have multiple hit points cannot be assigned wounds in such a way as to keep one of the mode  ls alive longer.

 3) Leaders die last 

I think in this case  t  he mo  re important, rule is rule number 2. I would have the damage spill over to the non-lead speeder bike. 

I think number 1 is actually the most important because it has absolutely no exceptions. Numbers 2 and 3 do have various exceptions (related to LOS mostly). But I may be misunderstanding what you mean. Is the non-leader in LOS in your example? If it isn’t, you shouldn’t be spilling any damage over to it.

14 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

Caveat, if the sniper did a full three damage to the visible bike (which is presumably the leader for purposes of this example) then I would just swap minis so that the leader was now in the follower position with however many wound tokens the follow had before the shot.

Yeah, I agree. That’s the correct way to deal with that.

Here's a photo reference for set up.

In this case I would say that any damage done to the lead bike should spill over to the follow bike (the one that it not in LOS).

I'ts easier, it satisfies the varying requirements of when the leader has to be assigned wounds over it's subordinate more elegantly and achieves the fairest outcome in spirit with the overwhelmingly common situations in the game. I think it is pretty clear that the designers did not want or envision a pack of speeder bikes with 4 wounds split between two bikes roaming the field.

Also, I regularly run multiple bike units in my army so while it is incredibly appealing to be able to cheese the terrain to keep my 6 die attack pool for an extra round, I also think it's well out of the spirit of the game.

This interpretation is very specific to one unit type and very limited edge cases. Hopefully other units that have multiple minis with multiple wounds have more than two minis to cut the confusion down. Basically you have to break at least one of the rules to assign damage. I think this is just the easiest one to break in this case.

Also, for my highly specific interpretation to apply the follow unit has to already be wounded. If the follow is not already wounded the the leader unit is going to bear all the brunt.

16 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

Here's a photo reference for set up.

In this case I would say that any damage done to the lead bike should spill over to the follow bike (the one that it not in LOS).

I'ts easier, it satisfies the varying requirements of when the leader has to be assigned wounds over it's subordinate more elegantly and achieves the fairest outcome in spirit with the overwhelmingly common situations in the game. I think it is pretty clear that the designers did not want or envision a pack of speeder bikes with 4 wounds split between two bikes roaming the field.

Also, I regularly run multiple bike units in my army so while it is incredibly appealing to be able to cheese the terrain to keep my 6 die attack pool for an extra round, I also think it's well out of the spirit of the game.

This interpretation is very specific to one unit type and very limited edge cases. Hopefully other units that have multiple minis with multiple wounds have more than two minis to cut the confusion down. Basically you have to break at least one of the rules to assign damage. I think this is just the easiest one to break in this case.

Also, for my highly specific interpretation to apply the follow unit has to already be wounded. If the follow is not already wounded the the leader unit is going to bear all the brunt.

Ah ok, that’s what I figured you were saying. Unfortunately, it’s just not correct. Minis out of LOS cannot receive wounds from an attack. No matter how you end up dealing out wounds (whether it involves leaders, wounded minis, or whatever) this part cannot be violated since it says “cannot”.

Page 54:

During an attack, if line of sight to a mini in the defender
is blocked from all minis in the attacker, that mini in the
defender cannot suffer wounds.

So in that image, the unwounded leader mini would take all the wounds and the other mini would take nothing. I certainly wouldn’t call it cheesing as you are probably limiting your own damage output by taking this formation. But that’s a completely separate conversation.

1 minute ago, nashjaee said:

Ah ok, that’s what I figured you were saying....

If you're going to do them, lets do them all.

» The unit leader cannot be chosen to suffer wounds unless it is the only mini in the unit that is in line of sight of the attack , if it is the only wounded mini in the unit, or if it is the last mini in the unit. • During an attack, if line of sight to a mini in the defender is blocked from all minis in the attacker, that mini in the defender cannot suffer wounds . • A mini with at least one wound token assigned to it is wounded. When assigning wound tokens, wounded minis must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens. If the unit leader is wounded, it must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens. If two or more minis in the same unit are wounded, the unit with more wounds must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis with fewer wounds.

So the italicized rules support your position and the boldface support mine. In the end some rule in all of this gets broken. I think my solution is more elegant because it conforms with the expected outcome of the vast majority of other attacks against a speeder bike unit. In this case without a rule from FFG I see it as preference on what gets ignored. It would also come up incredibly rarely.

Royal Guards and Wookiees are going to press the issue though so hopefully FFG will say something to clarify.

1 minute ago, Zrob314 said:

If you're going to do them, lets do them all.

» The unit leader cannot be chosen to suffer wounds unless it is the only mini in the unit that is in line of sight of the attack , if it is the only wounded mini in the unit, or if it is the last mini in the unit. • During an attack, if line of sight to a mini in the defender is blocked from all minis in the attacker, that mini in the defender cannot suffer wounds . • A mini with at least one wound token assigned to it is wounded. When assigning wound tokens, wounded minis must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens. If the unit leader is wounded, it must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis that do not have wound tokens. If two or more minis in the same unit are wounded, the unit with more wounds must be chosen to suffer wounds before minis with fewer wounds.

So the italicized rules support your position and the boldface support mine. In the end some rule in all of this gets broken. I think my solution is more elegant because it conforms with the expected outcome of the vast majority of other attacks against a speeder bike unit. In this case without a rule from FFG I see it as preference on what gets ignored. It would also come up incredibly rarely.

Royal Guards and Wookiees are going to press the issue though so hopefully FFG will say something to clarify.

Yes, but the kicker is the word “cannot”. Remember the Golden Rule. So the LOS portion should trump anything else.

8 minutes ago, nashjaee said:

Yes, but the kicker is the word “cannot”. Remember the Golden Rule. So the LOS portion should trump anything else.

RRG Page 4: " If a card effect uses the word “cannot,” that effect is absolute and cannot be overridden by other game effects."

This is not a card effect.

19 minutes ago, Zrob314 said:

RRG Page 4: " If a card effect uses the word “cannot,” that effect is absolute and cannot be overridden by other game effects."

This is not a card effect.

Fair point. I forgot it made that distinction...

I still stand by my interpretation. The way these passages read to me is that LOS comes first, and then you determine priority between wounded vs unwounded minis. But would be good to have clarification (I could’ve sworn we went through this in an email already, but I can’t find it so maybe not...).

I agree with @nashjaee , if line of sight is blocked from all attacking minis, the defending mini cannot suffer wounds no matter what. It's also mentioned under the "Line of sight" part of the rules.
The rules you're mentioning from the "wounded" section are not contradicting themselves, first they tell you that a mini which is not in line of sight of the attacker cannot be assigned wounds, and then how to assign the wounds. I think that by that part it is implicit that even though you must assign wounds first to wounded minis, you cannot assign them if that mini is not in line of sight of the attackers.

7 hours ago, nashjaee said:

I still stand by my interpretation. The way these passages read to me is that LOS comes first, and then you determine priority between wounded vs unwounded minis. But would be good to have clarification (I could’ve sworn we went through this in an email already, but I can’t find it so maybe not...).

That's cool. I think your interpretation has as much validity as mine, absent official clarification. If we were playing a match and we had to roll a red die over it I wouldn't be sore.

7 hours ago, nashjaee said:

The way these passages read to me is that LOS comes first, and then you determine priority between wounded vs unwounded minis

Agreed. It tells you that you must choose to continue wounding a unit that already has wounds, but a unit out of LoS can not be chosen.

I 's not complicated.

Only attackers who see defenders can add weapons.

(I'll skip dice rolling, cover and so)

When wounds are dealt, follow this:

1- Only defenders in LOS of attackers can be dealt wounds.

2- Wounded non-leader models in LOS get wounds.

3- Wounded leader models in LOS get wounds.

4- Non-leader models in LOS get wounds.

5- Leader models in LOS get wounds.

Stop dealing wounds until A) all wounds have been dealt or B) everyone in LOS is dead.

There is even an example of this somewhere in the books that says that this is the one example when the leader can be taken out of the unit, meaning you have to promote another mini to being leader, this will become more important when the leader specialist comes into play as you would lose that specialist in favour of a generic leader

A good article on how to leverage cohesion and LOS is here

https://swlegionodds.com/2018/10/20/fundamentals-cohesion/