Now I was reading a post started back in April, "Shields, weapon qualities and munchkinsim" started by Darth Smeg, just recently and it got me thinking, I was wondering if the Naval Shield (IH pg. 162) and Guard Shield (IH pg. 180) is considered primitive for the purposes of the amour points that you get for cover. So what I'm asking is if I have either of the two shields are they consider primitive cover/armour and there AP is cut in half against non-primitive attacks? Now I know if I use them for attacking with they are considered primitive but I don't use a shield to attack with I use it to parry incoming melee attacks and use it for cover against range attacks.

A good question. Seeing as they're in the "primitive" section (even though they're classfied as weapons, not armour), I would be inclined to treat them as Primitive armour. However, based on the descriptions, that doesn't really seem to make sense. I think I would go with tech level. These are not "primitive" devices at all, just shields (which are not designed to deal damage anyhow, for the most part).

So, I would say, not primitive. (no rules to back this up. Just my own sense of how it works best.)

They're only primitive if they have the "Primitive" trait. If they don't, they use their full AP.

Yeah I was thinking the same thing, but I guess you could use the mono upgrade on, but I was thinking because the shields are considered cover AP I didn't really think that you could consider cover as primitive in the first place. I mean look at the description of the Naval Shield is a huge plasteel that can be use as emergency hull or bulkhead sealer, I mean come on if it could be use to seal holes in hulls and bulkheads but a stub pistol could shot right through it though, that makes as much sense as giving a insane psyker a full pardon and being let out into the public.

Mono goes for primitive weapon, no armour. As it has been said, shield AP counts as primitive only if it has this statement (for ex. tower shield, mirror shield). Naval shield provides non primitive cover.

Actually, both of those shields DO list Primitive as a quality... which makes sense for damage potential, but not for protection. The fact that shields are treated as weapons is what complicates this. But yeah: not primitive armour is still my vote.

Macharias the Mendicant said:

Yeah, you're right. Almoust all shields are primitive as weapon. Their protective qualityes defined in description of each separate shield. Just look at description of Tower shield on IH and you'll get what i mean.

Wow that helps out a lot, I never even looked at the description of the Mirror and Tower Shields. So I take it that the Naval shield and the guard shield provide non-primitive cover AP. But I guess the shields now are subject to the rules for Damaging Cover on page 199 of the DH core rule book then. Thanks for the help guys.

I want to expand on this because I've run into the rule confusion. I would argue that you can give primitive shields mono, and it will remove the primitive quality. HOWEVER, their special rules state that they are primitive armor, and mono does not change that special rule.