The Long March and Artillery

[Sheesh Mode]

The Long March grants infantry units with the Legiones Astartes (Sons of Horus) relentless at the beginning of the owning player's player turn if the majority of their unit is within the friendly deployment zone. Artillery do not have the Legion Astartes rule, but their operators do. The wording of the Long March is such that the operators of the artillery models gain relentless inside their friendly deployment zone while the artillery pieces do not. Thus it is unclear whether or not an artillery model will snap shoot after moving if an infantry model with relentless operates them as, largely, the firing model treats them as a weapon.

How do relentless operators (as in models with the relentless special rule operating artillery) effect the artillery they control? 

[Athrawes]

Relentless is not a conferable special rule like slow and purposeful.

 

SO in the case of artillery, the crew gains relentless, but the artillery does not. 

 

The operators may appear to use artillery just as a weapon, but in game terms the Artillery is a separate model in the unit with it's own wounds, and unit type.

[1ncarnadine]

The Long March can grant Relentless to Infantry units with LA(SoH). Rapier teams are an Artillery unit, where the crew are Infantry models for interactions like being charged in close combat, movement, etc, so I'd argue that they don't gain Relentless to begin with. Compare with stuff like the RG's Wing and Talon, where all models of a certain type with LA(RG) gain special rules.

 

Also compare the BRB's definition of a unit on p9, vs its description of Infantry units on p62 and Artillery units on p64 and let me know if that makes sense or if I'm talking crazy.

[Brofist]

This is a good one.

 

I'd argue that they can be fired at full BS provided the infantry have relentless. In the heavy weapon description it's specifically called out that if a model with a heavy weapon moves, then that specific model (and only that specific model) must snap fire. It does not carry over to the unit. If it did things like tactical squads with heavy bolters would be snap firing their bolt guns whenever they moved.

 

In this case, the model that's doing the shooting is not the rapier carriage. It's an infantry model with relentless, which we all know allows it to fire heavy weapons after moving. I know this might not be 'as intended', but the crew model doing the firing is what makes it possible here.

[Terminus]

Basically all three responses are correct. :P

 

Post 1: Relentless is not conferred, so it wouldn't extend to the rapier platform.

Post 3: The rapier platform isn't firing itself, but rather being fired by one of the crew, so if they have relentless, they can move and fire.

Post 2: Long March only affects infantry units, while rapier batteries are artillery units, so they don't gain relentless.

 

The best use of this rule I can see are Tactical Support Squads with Calivers or Heavy Support Squads with whatever. 

[Cry Wolf]

EDIT  Post irrelevant