With your other examples they are not army book special rules ...
Actually, just to narrow it down, yes, Smiting is Army Book specific and a Tomb Gaurd in the second rank cannot make two Attacks with Smiting. Remember, the Supporting Attack limit is not just applied to Special Rules - in encompasses all the ways to get extra Attacks, including a spell from a particular book such as Smiting.
(Added note: Take a look at VC Red Fury. It's remarkably similar to PF, is an army book-specific rule, and still won't allow a Vamp in the second rank to make an additional attack.)
This leads me to a different way to approach my position -
I believe we are all being distracted by the page 11 AB>BRB rule. It's a red herring. It doesn't matter where the source of the extra Attack is printed because the main rule itself tell us that there is no possible way to get another Attack from any Special Rule (or how many Attacks are on the profile or if it comes from an "unusual source"). If the Special Rule appeared in the main rules, in an army book, or in a scenario somewhere, you still would not get to make that Attack...
unless!
....
The rule granting the Attack specifically called out that it was an exception to the limits put forth under Supporting Attacks.
I'm at a loss as to how to better say it - A model having access to additional attacks, regardless of the source does not equate to being able to make said Attack when prohibited from doing so!
It doesn't matter how the model is getting an extra Attack if he is not allowed to actually make that Attack.
To bring it to a different context-
- A person may not legally drive a car unless he has a license to do do.
- A father tells his son that unless a law is made forcing him to allow it, he will not permit his son to drive the family car, even after the son gets his licence.
- The son gets a license from a different state.
The son now has the legal right to drive, but that does not mean he can drive every car out there since his father has said he is not allowed to drive the family car unless the law forces him to allow it.
The out-of-state license grants the ability to drive, but just because the kid can drive now it doesn't mean he gets to force his dad to let him. He needs a state law to force his dad to allow him to drive the family car.
Yes, the roll of a 6 for the PF attacker in rank number two grants him an addition Attack.
There is still no conflict with the rulebook's limit on how many Attacks that model can make and thus his extra Attack goes unused.
I truly do get that it's a hard distinction to see, but it's there. The PF rule simply generates more Attacks - nothing more, nothing less. It does
not contain any language to conflict with the main rule that disallows the USE of that Attack.
EDIT: Just adding some thoughts-
As we know, Monstrous Infantry can make up to three Attacks from a Supporting Attacks position. Ho ho! What have we here? Why/how is this possible, you might ask, if I am so adamant that there is no way to get more than one Attack in Support? Well, the answer is right there on page 11 again. It tells us that there are advanced rules that apply to certain models later in the book that might contradict what we are told before encountering those models' rules.
We then get to the MI rules on page 81 that tell us
MONSTROUS SUPPORT
A monstrous infantry model can make as many supporting attacks as are on its profile, up to a maximum of three, rather than the usual one supporting attack.
Well, this is pretty interesting stuff!
Why are MI allowed to make more than one supporting attack even though the earlier rules say they cannot? Because page 11 tells us that later rules may create contradictions, and that the advanced rule should be followed. The basic rule for Supporting Attacks is not that a model in a support position cannot have more than 1 Attack. Not at all. The rule is that they may not
make more than 1 Attack. A supporting model may have 2, 3 or even 6+ Attacks and there would be no conflict with the Supporting Attacks rule since the Supporting Attacks rule is about
how many Attacks a supporting model can make! Boy, after all this writing, I think I've finally found the right way to make the point:
The reason there is no conflict between PF and Supporting Attacks is because PF determines the number of Attacks a model
has and SA determines how many of a model's Attacks it can actually
use.
Let that sink in.
In order for a rule (Special, spell, "unusual" or whatever) to conflict with SA, it has to say something about how many Attacks the model is allowed to [/i]make[/i], not how many Attacks it
has. Gosh, just like Monstrous Support does!
It should be pointed out that I had already been doing this with Smiting on my Necropolis Knights. The riders (who are eligible to make supporting attacks whereas the mounts are not) have a base 2 attacks. With Smiting, they go up to 3 Attacks and can make all 3 because of the Monstrous Support rules apply here (per the FAQ).