Pistols (Again!)

Sorry, I know pistols have been done to death, but we are still confused.

1) With a brace of pistols, and say three attacks, can you fire a pistol and use your other attacks with an axe for example in the first round, then switch to a second pistol and use your axe for the remaining attacks in the second round? I am thinking not as somewhere there appears to be a rule that pistols can only be used in the first round of H2H (?), though I am not finding that rule anywhere I look.

2) Is it possible to reload during H2H, so you could then effectively fire every turn in H2H with a brace? I am guessing not but in the base book under prepare shot it says you can fire every turn if you have a brace, and doesn't say only when ranged... Or is reloading in H2H listed as just not possible somewhere else?

We are thinking there is little point to having a brace of pistols if you have 3+ attacks, as if you use them both in the first round of combat you would actually lose attacks (though you would get the -2 armour save which could be handy in some circumstances).

My guesses are (in case it saves time to say you are right/completely wrong!);
#1 You cannot switch TO a pistol after the first round of combat
#2 You can't reload during H2H
#3 You would lose attacks if you fired both pistols in H2H but gain the armour save mod

Pistols are a bit complicated. You're not allowed to switch weapons during a combat so you can't pull out a second pistol after the first round but people seem to play it in a way that lets you replace fired pistols with other weapons. Perhaps there's an FAQ about that.

Anyway, you can't reload in combat. In the "hand-to-hand" box for pistols it says "This
bonus attack can be used only once per combat."

In short I'll say that you are right on all 3 points.

#1 Correct, pistols are first round only. This applies even if the model can't attack in the first round, say because they were charged and knocked down before they got to strike, but then later got up

#2 No rule preventing you from reloading during hth, but it seems to be a common house rule

#3 Even if you had 2 attacks you'd still lose attacks by using a brace of pistols. Each pistol gets one hand, which equates to 2 attacks. If you had a pistol and another weapon you could take 2 attacks with the main hand and the pistol in the off-hand

Thanks a lot both of you.

Noisy, yes you are right of course, you lose another attack even if you only have 2 attacks if you use a brace of pistols, seems to make buying a second one a bit pointless, though there is still ranged where you can fire every turn, and the previously mentioned armor save mod which might be handy sometimes.

With regard to your #2, there seems little point in house ruling about whether you can reload in H2H if you can't use a pistol after the first round anyway. Unless thats for when combat is over...?

Yep, for when combat is over. I'd say in general a brace of normal pistols will seldom be worth the cost, but a brace of dueling or warplock pistols is downright deadly, especially if you take the pistolier skill, allowing you to fire both in a single turn.