How do you think Celestant Prime’s sceptre works?

[Django]

I’ve always played the Celestant Prime’s comet spectre to mean I pick a point on the battlefield and roll a die, and if the result is say a 3, I measure whatever units are within 3” and then I roll 1 die PER UNIT, to determine how many mortal wounds each unit takes. 

Then I played a game last weekend, where my opponent (who is from what I know very experianced) told me that this is incorrect: according to her, I can pick a point and then I just roll 1 die for the entire area, and whatever the result is is the amount of mortals wounds suffered by each unit. This is obviously better for the Prime, since I could use the magical dice ability to change that to a 6 and deal 3 mw:s in whatever area. 

Then a guy asked in a facebook group about this and I told him how I was taught it was supposed to be played. But in that thread there really were two camps: the ones who said you roll seperately for each unit, and the ones who said you only roll once. Seeing as it was about a 50/50 split, I just couldn’t figure out what was correct. I can’t find a faq on the subject. 

So: How do you guys play it? 

The warscroll states: ”In your shooting phase, you can pick a point on the battlefield within 24” of this model that is visible to them. Each unit within D6” of that point suffers D3 mortal wounds”. 

My gut tells me I have to roll seperately, but the warscroll isn’t exactly clear. 

 

[Marcvs]

37 minutes ago, Django said:

I’ve always played the Celestant Prime’s comet spectre to mean I pick a point on the battlefield and roll a die, and if the result is say a 3, I measure whatever units are within 3” and then I roll 1 die PER UNIT, to determine how many mortal wounds each unit takes. 

Then I played a game last weekend, where my opponent (who is from what I know very experianced) told me that this is incorrect: according to her, I can pick a point and then I just roll 1 die for the entire area, and whatever the result is is the amount of mortals wounds suffered by each unit. This is obviously better for the Prime, since I could use the magical dice ability to change that to a 6 and deal 3 mw:s in whatever area. 

Then a guy asked in a facebook group about this and I told him how I was taught it was supposed to be played. But in that thread there really were two camps: the ones who said you roll seperately for each unit, and the ones who said you only roll once. Seeing as it was about a 50/50 split, I just couldn’t figure out what was correct. I can’t find a faq on the subject. 

So: How do you guys play it? 

The warscroll states: ”In your shooting phase, you can pick a point on the battlefield within 24” of this model that is visible to them. Each unit within D6” of that point suffers D3 mortal wounds”. 

My gut tells me I have to roll seperately, but the warscroll isn’t exactly clear. 

 

I have always played it rolling for each unit. The formulation seems the same as similar abilities (see the Heraldor for instance) which I have never seen played rolling only once for the damage for all units in range.

Apart from using orrery on the damage result, both scenarios are relatively similar in any case, with rolling once being more swingy and rolling for each unit closer to the average (if enough units are in range)

[schwabbele]

You roll a D3 for each unit.

Each , every , any , google it and show the details to your opponent:) grammar 

[Django]

Thanks guys, it felt right to roll for each But i gotta say its weird when a lot of scrolls explicetly states ”roll seperately for each” and This One doesnt. 

[Gusthal]

I think it might have been my post you saw on FB. I really wasn't more certain after the post since, like you said, it was about a 50/50 split.

However I asked the question in my AoS group in Sweden, with alot of tournament active players discuss AoS and they were all suggesting you roll one D3 for the comet and that each unit then suffered that amount of damage.

I wrote an email to gw's rules department with this question and hope it'll be brought up in the next faq. I you do the same it'll probably be more tempting for them to clear it up.

I am untill the next faq playing it as one roll for all the units, since it makes him a pretty fun artillery piece with orrery.

Edited October 4, 2020 by Gusthal
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[macrake]

I lean toward rolling one dice. Because usually the wording is "... roll a dice for each enemy unit.. " and in this case, it is not.