Nightshields and Melta

Here's a scenario that occured during my last game.

My opponent fired on a raider with his Multi-Melta. The Raider had the Nightshields upgrade.
While we agreed that the Multi-Melta's full range was reduced to 18", we couldn't quite agree on the Melta rule. The rule states that when fired at a target up to half the range, you roll an extra d6 penetration.

My question is, how does Nightshields effect the 2d6 range of a meltaweapon, in this case, a multi-melta.

Option 1: The full range is reduced to 18", the Half Range point is still calculated from the original stat, and is thus unchanged at 12"

Option 2: The full range is reduced to 18", the Half Range point is then re-calculated at 18", wich drops it to 9" (half of 18")

Option 3: THe full range is reduced to 18", the half range is still calculated from the original stat, but is also affected by Nightshields, and thus reduced from 12" to 6".

Does anyone know if there's an FAQ on this that I've missed? If not, how do you play this at your clubs?

"This has the effect of reducing the range of the weapons of enemy units wishing to fire at the vehicle by 6" (...) The extra distance is also counted for working out if the vehicle is in rapid fire range, half range for a melta shot, and so on." (DE_C p.63 modified by Errata)

"They roll an extra D6 when rolling to penetrate a vehicle’s Armour Value at half range or less. If the weapon is more than half its maximum range away, a single D6 is rolled as normal." (BRB p.32)

So option 1 is ruled out by the second part of the Nightshield rules. Option 3 is ruled out by a combination of both paragraphs. Nightshields reduce weapon ranges and meltas deduce their 2d6 bonus range off their full range.
That leaves us with option 2: Nightshields reduce the maximum range of any Melta weapon and the extra D6 is derived off the maximum distance.
So the Multimelta range is reduced to 18" and the resulting half range is 9".

That's certainly something I shouldn't have missed....

Just so I'm clear on another point, this doesn't change that Rapid Fire is always 6" instead of always 12", right?

Tiri Rana wrote:

"This has the effect of reducing the range of the weapons of enemy units wishing to fire at the vehicle by 6" (...) The extra distance is also counted for working out if the vehicle is in rapid fire range, half range for a melta shot, and so on." (DE_C p.63 modified by Errata)

This definitely changes rapid fire range, because rapid fire has a maximum range specified by the rapid fire rule: "Models armed with a rapid fire weapon can move and fire two shots at targets up to 12" away." (BRB p.28) This range of 12" is reduced by 6" because the Nightshields rule tell us to do so. (se bold part)

The melta 2d6 range is not reduced by 6" because it is no max range, but only derived off the actual range.

That's what I thought.

Oh sorry, I missed the not.

Yes, rapid-fire becomes "within 6'' "

Yes, standard 12'' Melta weapons become 6'' range, with 3'' for 2d6 Armor Penetration.