The Shooting rules are written from the point of view of units of troops firing upon other units of troops. A character moving around on his own is treated as a unit consisting of one model. In this respect, a character is a viable target just like a regiment of infantry.

However, in reality a lone individual would be likely to escape the notice of the enemy on the battlefield, being strewn as it is with stragglers from destroyed regiments making their way back to camp, and the inevitable confusion and debris of conflict. The following rules represent the fact that characters are harder to shoot at than larger units of troops.

A character model which is more than 5" from a friendly unit of five or more models can be shot at without any restrictions. Characters who are prone to jumping up and down right in front of the enemy are just asking to get killed, so it serves them right if they get shot!

A character model within 5" of a friendly unit of five or more models can only be picked out as a target if he is the closest target. This restriction enables characters to move around behind the battlelines without attracting an unrealistic and unreasonable amount of missile fire. Note that if the character is riding a horse or similar mount then he can still be singled out as a target if all the friendly units within 5" are infantry. The same applies if the character is riding a monster or is much larger than any friendly units within 5".

If a character is part of a unit which consists of at least five rank-and-file models of similar size in total then he cannot be shot at. Any shots against the unit will hit ordinary troopers and not the character. If the unit drops in size to less than five rank-and-file models, then further hits are allocated before rolling to wound. Divide the number of hits evenly between all the members of the unit (including the characters), and randomise any excess hits. If the number of hits the unit suffers is smaller than the number of models in a unit, randomise which models are hit.

So, for example, if a unit with three rank-and-file models and two characters suffered seven hits, then each model would suffer a single hit, and you would roll to wound and take saves immediately. Allocate the remaining two hits between any survivors randomly.

If a character is substantially larger than the troops he is with or near to, then he can be picked out as a target regardless of the rules just given. If a character rides a horse then he will stand out amongst a unit of infantry, if he rides a Dragon or is mounted in a chariot he will be an obvious target amongst a unit of cavalry, and so on.

When deliberately shooting at a man-sized character model on foot there is a -1 to hit penalty, as described in the Shooting section. This is because the normal chance of hitting assumes that the target is massed up in ranks. This is not the case when you are shooting at a single character, especially if there are other potential targets to distract the shooter's attention.

Note that this -1 does not apply if you are shooting at a character who is riding a steed or a monster, as described in the Monsters section. In such a case, the shooter does not suffer the -1 penalty and benefits from the +1 to hit modifier if the monster ridden by a character is defined as a large target.