I do not think we got indisputable confirmation; When I declare a Speculative Fire, do I a) pick a point close to the main target before placing the template, and if the template is not touching main target the Speculative Fire declaration fails and becomes Idle or b) place template first to confirm that the target is under the template, then confirm the template's position?
The template is placed such that the Target is under it, you cant place it otherwise. You do not choose a point on the ground like you do for smoke (Which is targetless) You place the Template touching the target model, thats it, the center is irrelevant. " With the speculative fire, you must designate a target and then the template is placed, but this does not have to be focused on the target." The focus is not the issue, you dont choose the focus you choose the target and the template must touch the target.
Yeah, I agree with Daboarder, it's a different issue to the one with smoke. You don't ever have to nominate a central point for the spec shot.
The sense of the other answer I got was that you nominate a target by placing the template. In the case of a model being the target, the centre point of the template determines the target by being placed over the centre of the targets base. In the case of spec fire you have to place the template so it touches the target. In the case of smoke where a point on the table is the target, you place the centre of the template over that point when you declare the attack, and see what it affects. That squares with a literal reading of the rules, i.e. "Place the Template down when you declare the Attack to determine who is affected by that Attack, as that might influence the possible second Short Skill and AROs." http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Template_Weapons_and_Equipment
That's definitely not the sense I got, I felt like Helllois' answer still clearly dictated a timeline of "nominate -> put template". They seemed at most maybe simultaneous but that the latter couldn't happen without completing the former and the former seemed always independent of the latter. I'm pretty sure you can't just pull out templates and start shifting them around without a formal target declared.
"Place the Template down when you declare the Attack to determine who is affected by that Attack, as that might influence the possible second Short Skill and AROs."
@Mahtamori I agree the answer was a bit vague. Hopefully @HellLois can make the time to clarify it a bit because it seems like he was contradicting the way smoke is commonly played by alot of people.
