Can I Declare Change facing even when I have LOF to declare a normal dodge? Normally you wouldn't want to do this, but Tohaa has this cool triad with 2x Makuals and a Sakiel with Nimbus-Plus grenades. The idea is you throw the nimbus grenade a a corner and then move a Makual up around the corner to see at least two models and then HFT B2 a whole link team. This trick is really cool because the nimbus zone gives -6 to ALL skills drawing LOF through the zone and -1B due to the saturation zone. The Makual ignores those -1B by splitting fire and what cares a HFT for -6BS, whilst the hapless team dodges on -6's. I got to thinking though, if that Makaul was in ZoC of a target or one of the models declared alert. Even though they could declare Dodge the models could declare Change Facing even if they had line of fire, and "only" suffer a -3 to PH instead of the -6 from the Nimbus. Sounds terrible since I like having a reason to use nimbus and nimbus +, but does it sound right?
Let me just try to focus on the single order, with out the lead up. So you're starting with this situation: Makual is standing in a nimbus zone, behind a corner. Inside ZoC of that corner (and/or ZoC of the Makual) are some enemy link team models you want to shoot with a direct template weapon. The Makual activates, does a Move to the corner and back, and then for its second skill it's going to shoot the flamer. The other player has been given secret intel and is going to make the perfect ARO decision. Can the enemy troopers in ZoC declare Change Facing if they have line of sight, and if so what's the modifier? There's this note in Change Facing: Any rules, Traits, Special Skills, etc. that would apply a MOD to a Dodge attempt also apply to this Common Skill. there's the matter of the FAQ for Poor Visibility which ends with: Any Dodge declared inside a Low/Poor Visibility Zone suffers the negative MOD, even in Close Combat or if the Dodge didn’t involve LoF. Any Dodge which LoF to the enemy trooper passes into/out/through a Low/Poor Visibility Zone suffers the penalty. So it seems to me that you can't get a better roll by choosing Change Facing instead of Dodge, because any modifiers that apply to the Dodge that you're trying to avoid would also apply to the Change Facing roll (in addition to Change Facing's regular -3).
Change Facing has a label that says the skill does not require LOF to the target and as such the penalty from Low Visibilty will not apply. It is true that it applies to Dodge, but this malus is not inherent from Dodge it is due to the skill declaration requires LOF when the Dodge or Engage skill is used.
If the trooper is inside the Visibility Zone, the MODs will still apply, because the MOD at that point is no longer based on needing LoF. Although it sounds from the OP's description that they're only looking at shooting through the Nimbus Plus Zone, rather than trying to get it on top of the enemy troopers.
I have yet to try with with a linked Nox followed up by a Sphinx, but this sounds... disgusting. And I like it.
That is correct. I would likely have to spec nimbus onto a group of models, or link, in order to them all in the cloud. So as complicated as it sounds, if I attempted this maneuver, my opponent should declare dodge change facing if they are outside the nimbus zone, but in zone of control of the makaul? I don't want to take credit for this idea. User RobertShepard came up with, or at lest promoted this style of play himself. Before that I only used nimbus to attack link team members from a long distance. It is worth mentioning that even if they are declaring change facing, the target of the attack is not going to have a good time, and if they decide to say screw it, and shoot back at you, the nimbus plus buffs are going to be brutal.
