Improved Harness (1ss) - hoffman upgrade

[AK1979]

Played a game yesterday against Arcanist and came across a question:

 

The December Acolyte ability  (taken from Pull my finger):

 the Acolyte has a 1 AP tactical action to cause enemy models within aura 6 to lose Armor and Hard to Wound until the end of the turn. This aura allows you to put it up, and then have multiple models take advantage of it! It is particularly good against Arcanist Constructs with all their armor, and Ressers with all their Hard to Wound.

 

So how does this work with the upgrade, does it  remove the armor (upgrade states it can not be ignored)  or does the upgrade prevent it being removed. 

 

We ruled it so it was ignored but just want to make sure I got it correct.

 

Thanks

 

[Artiee]

While the enemy model is in 6 of the Acoylte, when attacked they lose the armor and hard to wound.    

They only lose it during a attack when they are 6” and Los of the Acoylite.  When not being attacked they have armor and hard to wound.  So other damage outside the action will be reduced by armor.  Example Explosive demise on Ice Golem. The armor will stop some of that damage. 

[Adran]

Ignoring an ability or condition is not the same as removing it. The improved harness does not stop you from removing the armour. 

[WWHSD]

2 hours ago, AK1979 said:

So how does this work with the upgrade, does it  remove the armor (upgrade states it can not be ignored)  or does the upgrade prevent it being removed. 

 

We ruled it so it was ignored but just want to make sure I got it correct.

It sounds like you played it correctly. The Acolyte's ability removes the Armor ability or condition from the target for the duration of the attack so there is no Armor on the model for Hoffman's ability to interact with.

[Erik1978]

Improved Harness says models in his aura may not have their armor ignored and may reduce damage regardless of ANY enemy effects that state otherwise.

I would say this includes the ability from the Acolyte.

[WWHSD]

On 6/22/2018 at 4:54 AM, Erik1978 said:

Improved Harness says models in his aura may not have their armor ignored and may reduce damage regardless of ANY enemy effects that state otherwise.

I would say this includes the ability from the Acolyte.

Enemy models that are in the area of effect of the Acolyte’s ability do not have armor while they are being attacked. Nothing is ignoring their armor or stopping them from reducing damage they just don’t have any armor to use to reduce damage.

 

If Hoffman had a Mobile Toolkit give a model in his crew the Armor +1 condition and an opponent’s Chiaki used her ability to remove that conditon, would Improved Harness stop her condition removal effect? That’s essentially what the Acolyte’s ability does.