A Rule to Remember 1. Ordnance Weapons.

Preface 

A Rule to Remember is a post themed towards teaching how rules should be played, followed by my own and common misconceptions about the rule, and why we have those misconceptions. Note these are not going to be rules that are up to debate, for example, it will not include such rules arguments as Infiltrate because of a Character and Corbulo gaining a 1+ FNP. Today, we will be reviewing the Ordnance Weapon Type. If this is well received, it may become a common feature. 

I will try to structure the A Rule To Remember Posts in such a way that they give a detailed understanding of the rule so that it is easier to remember. This will be achieved (or rather, attempted) by breaking up individual statements within the rule's paragraph, and then stating why they are important. If any other rules become important, they will be paraphrased to only include what is needed to communicate the correct method of play.

The Rule 

1. When Shooting a model with an ordnance weapon fires the number of times indicated in its profile after its type. 2. A non-vehicle Model carrying an Ordnance weapon cannot fire it in the shooting phase if he moved in the preceding movement phase and cannot fire it as snap shots. 3. Furthermore, If a non-vehicle model fires an ordnance weapon then the massive recoil from the ordnance weapon means the model cannot fire other weapons that phase, nor will it be able to charge in the proceeding Assault phase. 4. Ordnance Weapons hit with such force that when you roll to penetrate a vehicle's armour with an ordnance weapon, roll two dice instead of one and pick the highest result!

The Misconception 

So, what's the issue here? Mostly, it has to deal with Vehicles who carry Ordnance. The misconception being that players believe a Leman russ or a vindicator for example, can only fire the one weapon when firing ordnance, because, y'know, it's ordnance. However, the current rule does not say this.  Let's Break it down to the pertinent parts. 

1. When Shooting a model with an ordnance weapon fires the number of times indicated in its profile after its type. 2. A non-vehicle Model carrying an Ordnance weapon cannot fire it in the shooting phase if he moved in the preceding movement phase and cannot fire it as snap shots. 3. Furthermore, If a non-vehicle model fires an ordnance weapon then the massive recoil from the ordnance weapon means the model cannot fire other weapons that phase, nor will it be able to charge in the proceeding Assault phase. 4. Ordnance Weapons hit with such force that when you roll to penetrate a vehicle's armour with an ordnance weapon, roll two dice instead of one and pick the highest result!

So, you can see only Statement Two and Three matter here, since the First is obvious and the fourth isn't a part of this misconception, nor is it a misconception. So, then let's have a look at the Second statement.

This new development gives new meaning to the
phrase "Your Vindicator's on fire!"

2. A non-vehicle Model carrying an Ordnance weapon cannot fire it in the shooting phase if he moved in the preceding movement phase and cannot fire it as snap shots. 

So this Rule immediately Excludes any Vehicle. For Simplicity, A vehicle is Defined as any unit that would draw rules from the Vehicle Section, so for clarity, that's any unit with an armour value. This therefore includes Walkers (the Defiler, we're looking at your godawful silhouette) and more importantly, Leman Russ. A side note is that this means Ordnance weapons can never be fired in overwatch (except on walkers, who are specifically allowed to fire overwatch), nor can they be fired at Flyers or FMC if the user is not a vehicle (although, most ordnance weapons are blasts or large blasts. With that understood, let's have a look at Statement Three.

Shame the one rule you didn't get wasn't more impactful.

3. Furthermore, If a non-vehicle model fires an ordnance weapon then the massive recoil from the ordnance weapon means the model cannot fire other weapons that phase, nor will it be able to charge in the proceeding Assault phase.

So this is the crucial point here. This rule is directly targeted at Non Vehicle Models can potentially fire more than one weapon and have an ordnance weapon. At mind, the only example I can think of is a nova Charging Riptide with an ion accelerator, so this isn't huge. Most importantly, Vehicles are clearly excluded from being affected by this rule. Also worth of note is that, a Vehicle Model does not need the Relentless rule to be allowed to fire his Ordnance weapon and assault, given that he is not included in this set of rules.

Edit: 
As Sam Moershel Pointed out very correctly, The Rules that impact Vehicles Models when firing ordnance are listed on page 71, under "Vehicles and Ordnance Weapons". Here it makes it clear that such weapons can be fired in addition to other weapons, but that the other weapons must snap fire to do so. I thought about simply deleting this post given that this is the case, but for integrity's sake I'll leave it up.

It's worth noting still, that only a tank may fire an Ordnance round as a snap shot (assuming such a round is not blast or large blast, or template.), although this may be cause for a HYWPI argument. 

Where did it come from?

So now we have a look at why this problem exists. Firstly, it's worth noting last edition, there didn't exist a unit that had access to an ordnance weapon. The Rule for Ordnance in the shooting phase was so set on this being the case that ordnance weapon rules were relegated to the Vehicles section in the fifth edition rule book. So, what did Page 58 of the 5th ed rulebook read?

Vehicles: Vehicles Shooting: Ordnance Weapons "Firing a massive ordnance weapons requires the attention of all the gunners of the vehicle, so no other weapons may be fired that turn (not even defensive weapons!) In return, they are better at penetrating armour (see page 60) Unless their Profile specified otherwise, all Ordnance blast weapons use the large blast marker."

Page 60, if you're curious, just told us to roll 2D6 and pick the highest. So, what was pertinent here? Firstly, Ordnance weapons were only available to Vehicles, meaning all Ordnance rules had to affect vehicles with ordnance weapons. When we cut the fat from the rule, we're left with this:

Vehicles: Vehicles Shooting: Ordnance Weapons "Firing a massive ordnance weapons requires the attention of all the gunners of the vehicle, so no other weapons may be fired that turn (not even defensive weapons!) In return, they are better at penetrating armour (see page 60) Unless their Profile specified otherwise, all Ordnance blast weapons use the large blast marker."

So you can see here, clear as daylight, that ordnance did have the affect in fifth edition, but not anymore, as sixth edition shows us.

This has been my First A Rule To Remember. If you've got any criticism of the structure, be sure to talk comment or send me an email. If you'd like me to review a specific rule, be sure to email it to me so I can get started on an article for it!

References'

Fifth Edition Ordnance: P. 29, First Column Last paragraph - Weapons: Weapon Types: Ordnance Weapons.