Attack Clarification

[ArcBlade]

I've referenced this a few times and I could swear I saw it posted here but can't find it now. But haven't I read that when attacking the defender rolls all of his defense first and then the attacker rolls his attacks and choses which defense roll to apply which of his attacks to? Except of course with Mimring's fire line attack which hits each target in order.

But here is my concern I've seen quotes that seem to counter this. For example the AE and Zetians are said to resolve each assault before the next. If the AE use grenades they have to resolve each throw before the next . This extends to the rule book I got with the master set which says
1.) Announce attacker and defender
2.)Check card and roll attack dice with height and bonus augmentations, then defender rolls his dice.

Then it says with AE grenade attack
"A1 attacks: A1 lobs a grenade at S2. S1 and S3 are also affected since they're adjacent to S2.
You roll 2 attack dice once for all three affected figures. You get 1 skull.
Your opponent rolls 6 defense dice for S2 (...)He gets 2 shields, so S2 is safe. He the rolls 3 shields for S1 so S1 is safe: and 0 shields for S3 so S3 is destroyed."

With attackers' choice wouldn't I get to pick which one is destroyed? This seems to matter because if S3 is also adjacent to another potential target and S2 isn't it would be advantageous for me to kill S2 and not S3 because I'll get another shot at him.

[OmniMoose]

Ummmmm..... That would be defenders choice, but he/she needs to choose who he's/she's rolling for BEFORE He/She rolls.

[Aldin]

The only choice the attacker gets is the order in which splash damage is resolved. Grenades are a good example. Imagine tossing a grenade at some adjacent Roman Legionnaires. The first one to roll defense will always be the one you targeted. But for the rest of the adjacent units, the attacker gets to pick in what order they will roll their defensive dice. If one of them is protected by two adjacent Legos, you might want to have them roll after you've forced their lower defensed neighbors to go first (and potentially die lowering the defense of the next Lego).

~Aldin, who makes Raelin roll first

[ArcBlade]

From the Heroscape FAQ site

http://www.hasbro.com/heroscape/default.cfm?page=faq

When an Airborne Elite uses his Grenade Special Attack into a crowded area, who gets hit first?
The target always rolls defense first. Then the attacker determines the order in which the other figures roll defense dice.

And...

Who decides what order the adjacent figures get hit when Deathwalker 9000 uses its Explosion Special Attack?
The target always rolls defense first. Then the attacker chooses the order in which the other figures are hit.

And..

Mimring uses his Fire Line Special Attack into a crowd. Who gets hit first?
Mimring causes an exception to the "attacker decides" rule. The breath moves from the figure out - so closest to furthest is the order of hit.


All of this seems to be at odds with the rule book descriptions I quoted earlier.

[ChaosChild]

Attacker's choice means you get to choose which order the defender rolls for each figure when multiple figures are hit.

Let's say you have an AE lobbing a grenade at three opposing figures (T1=target, A1=adjacent to target, A2=adjacent to target).

You roll attack dice.
Opponent rolls for target figure (target always rolls first). If you score a hit, assign wounds.
Now you get to choose which adjacent figure that your opponent rolls for next. Let's say you choose A1.
Opponent rolls for A1. If you score a hit, assign wounds.
Opponent rolls for A2. If you score a hit, assign wounds.

[Will T]

I don't see a conflict.

[Will T]

Originally Posted by ArcBlade

With attackers' choice wouldn't I get to pick which one is destroyed? This seems to matter because if S3 is also adjacent to another potential target and S2 isn't it would be advantageous for me to kill S2 and not S3 because I'll get another shot at him.

The attacker doesn't pick who is destroyed. He picks the order in which the defender rolls his dice. The dice decide whether each individual defending figure is wounded/killed.

[tsukifu]

Just to clarify, the attacker always rolls dice first, no matter what kind of attack it is. Then the defender rolls.

ChaosChild has it right, and maybe part of the confusion comes from the FAQ's use of the word "target." "Target" means individual figure, not the defender (the player, that is). What it means is that when making several separate defense dice rolls against a single attack dice roll that's already been made, the figure that was actually the target of the attack must make the first defense roll (see ChaosChild's example above). Then other affected figures (in DW9K's case, any figures adjacent to the actual "target" figure) make their defense rolls in an order chosen by the attacker.

But basically, to answer this:

Originally Posted by ArcBlade

But haven't I read that when attacking the defender rolls all of his defense first and then the attacker rolls his attacks and choses which defense roll to apply which of his attacks to?

If you read that somewhere, it was wrong.