The "Fireteams in the Active Turn" rule states that fireteams can only perform skill combinations set out in a table as follows: Movement Skill Movement Skill + Movement Skill Movement Skill + Evasion Skill / Evasion Skill + Movement Skill Movement Skill + Support Skill / Support Skill + Movement Skill Evasion Skill Support Skill The rule also states that Discover is a Support Skill, not a Movement Skill. It would appear that a fireteam can't perform Discover+Shoot. (Or Discover+Discover, Discover+Dodge, etc.) Pointed out by a local player. Surprising, but the rule seems clear. Am I missing anything?
Well, in N3 they had to FAQ it in to allow fireteams to perform Discover+Shoot. We’re basically right back to before the FAQ.
Discover is a short movement skill - it's also a Support Skill as defined in the fireteam rules in the rules annex. As written it looks like the fireteam can't Discover and Shoot as shown in Queen's Gambits post above. The rules for fireteams are found in an annex to the rules here: https://assets.infinitythegame.net/downloads/annexn4/en/v1.1/annexn4.pdf It describes Support Skills like this: This classification includes the Skills not specified in the previous classifications. Basically, this includes the Short Movement Skill Discover, all Short Skills except those stated in the Evasion classification, and all Entire Order Skills that do not have the Movement Label. This category also includes scenario Short Skills, such as “Activate Console” or “Deploy and Activate Beacon”. When declaring Support Skills, only the Team Leader performs the Roll and applies its effects. The rest of the Fireteam members do not perform any Roll or apply any effects, but they give the Team Leader certain bonuses determined by the number of Fireteam members.
Huh, I didn't remember that from N3. That explains what happened, anyway. I guess fireteams can't Discover+Shoot until the next FAQ.
For reference, the old wiki page: http://wiki.infinitythegame.com/en/Fireteams_in_the_Active_Turn According to that, they settled the matter in the 1.2 FAQ. I thought I remembered rules discussions about the issue, but I could only find threads like this one mentioning the issue: #3 So, as someone who is adamantly opposed to simple constructionism when there are better alternatives available, this appears to be another case of "Yep, they made the same mistake in the same situation two editions in a row. So you may as well assume they're going to apply the same correction the second time."
Nice, yeah you're right, the wording is identical. At the start of N4, I tended towards the view that "if the wording of a rule is the same as it was in N3, and ijw or CB ruled on the correct interpretation of that rule in N3, then the same interpretation should apply in N4." This would be a good example of a case where that logic would make sense. Definitely, for simplicity and consistency I think it is preferable if fireteams can declare Discover+Shoot. Otherwise it's just a needless exception for players to remember. But, the majority doesn't seem to have adopted that approach. The forum consensus on interpretative rules seems to be "N4 is a clean slate. N3 rulings don't apply." I can see the appeal of that approach, too (the main justification seems to be that the game will appear pretty cabalistic to new players if, to understand the N4 rules, you need to have been an N3 expert.) Guess it's one of those cases where the RAW is clear, but the TO might reasonably decide the RAI is otherwise. Not my favourite situation to have to check with the TO, but it's what we've got until they update the fireteam rules.
