I've never though to shooting like that but, now that you mention it and after reading the rules, I see where the confusion lies. In the rules, in the first paragraph of Picking targets, the bracketed example is ranged attacks. The second paragraph of Picking Targets talks about splitting attacks, so one might think that you can split attacks within the unit. However, the second paragraph also states "If the model has more than one attack". This confuses it even more (naturally). If the wording was "If the model or unit" then the meaning would be clear. I think the way I would play it is that you should be able to split your shooting attacks as well. This is because it is clear in the rules that you can split melee attacks, and also the fact that the rules define all attacking in the same way. Hope this helps
So if I have Skinks in melee combat I could essentially shoot another unit within range then make my melee attacks with the blowpipes and clubs to the unit I'm in melee combat with?
I'm so glad I spotted this thread, as well as the one that meant inked you could shoot whilst in combat. Whilst playing a game my skinks got locked in combat for a turn, and because I didn't realise you could shoot whilst in combat they quickly got destroyed by the other guy's unit of chaos warriors. I'm so glad for this forum xD
They can't be soooooo bad lol. I'll admit I'm totally new too the game so I've nothing to base it off of, but skinks being able to take out a bigger enemy unit on their own isn't too bad I'd think. Yes your opponents can do the same but that's where the tactics come in to play! Plus makes all of your units valuable in contributing to your win!
The best thing about it is that it means no shooting units can be tar pitted, unlike in 40k where I just shove a bunch of chaos cultists into combat with the enemy's heavy weapons unit and tie them up for the game.
This is great news for our shooting units but not so good news when our Lizards fight a shooting army. One of my regular adversaries is Chaos Dwarves and a lot of their units shoot. I feel like in the movie “300”.