Can Models in hidden Deployment declare ARO? I'm quite confused about the sentence "Until a Trooper's Hidden Deployment State is cancelled, that Trooper is considered not to be on the game table at all. "
Yes, the model is deployed on the table, as per the first bullet point - The Hidden Deployment State is a special form of deployment that allows the user to deploy during the Deployment Phase without placing a Model or Marker on the battlefield. When you react with an ARO, that meets one of the cancellation criteria. If you check the wording that you quoted regarding the model "not being on the table", it specifies that the model is considered to not be there until the state is cancelled. The model is there, it's just considered to not be there until revealed. If you check out the cancellation section of that page, you'll see the cancellation criteria. In that section, there's this snippet specifying the ability to use AROs: The Hidden Deployment State is automatically cancelled whenever the Trooper declares any Short Skill, Entire Order or ARO. The Trooper's Model or Marker will be placed on the game table, in the position you wrote down, facing in the direction of your choice. I hope this helps.
That's super cool, thanks. Just a couple of question, i'm quite shure but i was arguing with my pal about this. • When i reveal it i can decide his facing, without have it written before. • I can Reveal it as a Camo Marker, and then declare my ARO if i want, right?
Yeah you got it, under the cancellation bullet point it specifies that the model "will be placed on the game table, in the position you wrote down, facing in the direction of your choice" There are some stipulations as to keeping your camo state, however: If the Trooper has a Skill that allows them to deploy in Marker State (for example Camouflage), they will be able to keep that State as long as: They declare Cautious Movement or any Short Movement Skill that does not require to make a Roll (except Look Out!), or they Mount or Dismount from a TAG, Motorcycle... They delay their ARO against a Marker. They prevent an Enemy Trooper from entering a Marker State.
I'm gonna posit something that sounds kind of absurd here. Hidden Deployment units do not have a Line of Fire. This is not much of an issue in and of itself, since you can nearly always just declare an ARO and 'lo and behold, you're on the table and have a LOF when we check for it! The issue is against Stealth units who won't be granting the Hidden Deployment unit any ARO as long as all the Stealth unit does is move - even if in plain sight of where you put the Hidden Deployment unit on the table. Rule that causes this (note how a Hidden Deployment trooper is not a Model, Token, Marker nor a valid target!): https://infinitythewiki.com/Line_of_Fire Line of Fire (LoF) is the criterion by which players determine whether a Trooper can see its target. The Line of Fire (LoF) is an imaginary straight line that joins any point of the volume of a Model, Token, Marker or valid target to any point of the volume of another. (The other time it'd come up is during Cautious Movement, but the rules just up and tells you that Hidden Deployment doesn't work against Cautious Moving units)
The problem is, wouldn't that logic also apply even if the active trooper doesn't have stealth? Active trooper (no stealth) declares their first short skill. Check whether the HD trooper is allowed to declare an ARO. Does it have LoF to the active trooper? No, because it's not on the table. Since it can't declare an ARO in the first place, you're not allowed to place the model on the table, therefore no LoF can be created. So a trooper in HD would only ever be able to ARO if the active trooper was inside their ZoC. Which we can probably agree isn't intended :-)
Hmm, that's true. They wouldn't have a ZoC, either, by the way, for the same reasons. AROs are also explicitly generated for miniatures and markers. Kinda makes me wonder if LoL due to "trooper not deployed" when in HD isn't the one that's actually inconsistent... Seems like a way too strong advantage
Also, the Remember box that calls out HD "troopers" in Cautious Move, seems to call out exactly that they DO have LoF: "Troopers in Hidden Deployment are neither Models nor Markers, so they cannot react to a Cautious Movement even if they have LoF." Which seems to imply, in some sense, that HD can be treated as a camo marker with a 360 LoF... although it is not.
