Hey, so I've been going over the rules a bit recently, and I came across a bit of a puzzle. Why do the Temple Guard have a shield if a halberd has to be used with two hands. If someone knows the answer, please enlighten me.
It's simple though genius: missile attacks. A shield still provides an extra +1 to armour save vs ranged attacks. The Hunted
No they don't a hand is required to use a shield you don't have one free. Otherwise nurgle warriors would become damn near unkillable.
I must be missing something. The rules on shields seems pretty clear on p43 (complemented by rules on hand weapons and shield on p88). I can not find any rule stating that you need a free hand to carry the shield to get the +1 armour in close combat, nor can i see nothing even remotely saying anything about the +1 armour only counting for shooting. In fact, I can not find anything that would even hint that the +1 armour does not count in close combat. Can you please point me to rules clarifying this?
Ah, I see what I'm missing now. The "requires two hands" rule clarifies this. And its also very explicit in the FAQ: "Close Combat Q: Does a model with a shield get the armour save bonus in combat if it can’t use it? For example it is using a weapon that requires two hands? (p43)" My misstake! Now I learned something new!