Ah. The Wiki isn't up to date. You're missing the second paragraph of the v1.6 FAQ entry: "The Roll will not count as a Critical against the other troops, instead counting as a success that can be beaten by higher Rolls."
One follow-up question here, because it came up: the shotgun shooter rolled a 4 on his attack, the main target rolled a 6, cancelling the attack. Will the secondary targets still suffer the damage from the Tamplate if they do not get to roll at all? My interpretation reads the Impact Template Weapons rules as requiring a successful attack role, which is canceled when the primary target wins the FtF and thereby nullifies the attack and the associated Template. I´d be grateful for a clarification in this regard.
Yes, the secondary targets still get hit, because the attack roll was a success. A Trooper only cancels an attack against itself by winning a FTF roll, not against others. This is one of the reasons impact templates are quite powerful, used well. Rules reference (under Effects for Impact Template Weapons): "The trooper who declared the Attack compares this Roll against each enemy trooper affected by the Template individually. Each enemy trooper affected by the template resolves his Face to Face Roll with the Template user independent of each other; the Face to Face Roll of one affected enemy trooper does not affect the Face to Face Rolls of the others (See the example below)." http://infinitythewiki.com/en/Template_Weapons_and_Equipment#Impact_Template_Weapons
Thank you for clarifying this to me. As a result, this means, that the wielder of a Light Shotgun can hit an unlimited number of targets (under the template) in ARO up to 24'' away and out of LoS without them having any roll whatsoever. Just because Phoenix´s target rolled a 4 and lost an FtF before being blown into little pieces? And Phoenix remains unaffected? It might be correct by the rules, but come on: That´s weird...
The Fireteam at least had the choice to Dodge, but chose not to. It's a weird interaction (though probably no weirder than AD troopers always scattering 16") but it does make template weapons very handy in ARO.
I´d like to object here: the link team, in active turn, chose to shoot the target with the perfect man for the job (and tons of bonusses on their side). So only Phoenix had the option to roll for anything, the others were not allowed to Dodge at all. Since the other team members had no LoS an Phoenix actively shot, the others were forced to idle and had no ARO on an ARO. As an SP players, it is not an uncommon interaction for me, since I have to maintain coherency in the link team. I´m glad to see, that you also consider it weird, but I face that quite often and consider it a too cheap counter to Fireteams overall.
This is one of the downsides of playing fireteams. Facing any kind of template, they become much more fidly. However, choosing to shoot was still a choice... a choice you shouldn't make against someone who has a template that can clip your FT if they activate.
Sabin76, you´re right. It was my mistake to make that choice. On the other hand: a guy with a light shotgun is a downside to my faction choice (when not playing links, I could play Vanilla ALEPH just as well) when facing off a linked Veteran Officer with a Heavy Rocket Launcher in perfect range? Yes, I´m pointlessly questioning if the correct rules make sense here. Sorry, I´m growing more and more frustrated from playing SP...
Well, I'm not saying that you shouldn't be shooting someone with a LSG with your HRL in good range (though if it's outside 24", the LSG shot is completely canceled), but you should be sure the LSG template can't hit the rest of your FT. Since impact templates have to be pointed along the straight line between silhouettes, it's not too hard to make sure that template doesn't cover your other FT troopers at that range, even if they are in the open (but then the enemy can choose to shoot someone else and perhaps clip even more on normal rolls). Basically, against templates, you want to be sure the rest of your FT is out of sight.
I mean yeah, templates can be very bad for your link teams health, with the caveat that careful dispersed placement can often mitigate that. On the other hand, Phoenix' HRL template can make pretty savage use of those rules itself so...
