Q1: Enemy trooper is affected by smoke ammo. Does the trooper make a guts roll? Q2: Friendly trooper is affected by smoke ammo. Does the trooper make a guts roll?
Guts roll is done after making a Saving Roll. Smoke causes no saving roll so there is no guts roll for friendly or unfriendly troops.
Stupid English language ambiguity... So model affected Forward Observer or Spotlight can‘t guts to safety? This has huge implications.
Guts Rolls have these conditions: The condition is not having taken a saving roll, but having suffered a successfull attack. - Forward Observer is an attack - Spotlight is a (comms) attack Smoke is a bit weird, as it is targetless but still considered an attack. If you cannot target any specific unit with smoke, however, I'd conclude that no unit can suffer a successful attack from it.
Maybe we should read the manual, before... Guts Roll requirement (pag. 45) The Trooper had suffered one or more successful Attacks—even if all the attackers are in a Null State. Forward observer is a BS Attack. Spotlight is a Comms Attack. Smoke is an Ammo used with a weapon (grenade or launcher) that uses a BS Attack. How Targetless and Non-Lethal interfere with Guts Roll, i still don't now... Edit: almost the same words!!!
@Knauf @tox @WillJoeBeck was arguing that guts roll is made after any (read: more than zero) saving rolls. Smoke, spotlight and Forward observer cause zero saving rolls, so no guts rolls are made. Personally I think is a bad argument, but I can see where he is coming from.
The part about the saving rolls is there to explain at what point in time guts rolls happen. Saving rolls are not a requirement, otherwise they would be listed under "Requirements".
This is a ruleset were you have REQUIREMENTS. If you don't fulfill requirements, you do not apply the rule/skill/equip
Back to original question. Everyone probably knows that the game breaks if Q2 answer is “yes”. Even Q1 “yes” might cause some issues. So how we resolve this issue? Ignore rules and play like you have always played.
I'd say the answer to both is "no", since neither can be the target of smoke ammo and hence not suffer a successful attack from it.
@Knauf AROs and guts roll doesn’t require targeting. Term “affect” is used throughout the rulebook. CB simply made a mistake here. I mean the same issue was also in N3. Perhaps they get it right in N5?
Guts rolls require the trooper to have suffered a successful attack, whatever "suffer" entails. Smoke is also designated as a "non-offensive" ammo, so I'm not sure to what extend a trooper could "suffer" an attack from it. I agree, it's tricky in the case of smoke, but the other two examples are clear.
