A weekly post regarding the Rules of Our Game is something I am still testing out to see whether or not I should keep doing this. I run across tons of rules questions each week, and I think almost every person in our hobby should keep an eye out for things like these. It helps us when we finally come across such problems or weak spots in the rules of the game.
So if this series does OK, with decent positive feedback, you can expect to see it stay as a weekly post. Last week was the first post in this series, and it went exceptionally well.
I am going to cover a couple of minor issues first before I deal with Warp Quake, as these came up at a game shop yesterday.
Mulit-Assaults
Lets deal with the first one. Two units are engaged in combat from a previous round. A third unit comes from behind to assault it. The question is that since the two units were already engaged, can the enemy unit turn and attack newly assaulting unit that came in from behind?
The answer is yes. While the rulebook says
Models engaged with more than one enemy unit at the beginning of combat (before any model attacked), must attack that unit.
The FAQ answers this one.
ERRATA
Page 41 – Multiple Combats, Attacking.
A third bullet point should be added, as follows:
• Models that at the beginning of the combat (before any model attacked) were engaged with more than one enemy unit, but were in base contact with just one of the enemy units, must attack that unit.
Page 41 – Multiple Combats, Attacking.
In all three bullet points, the word ‘combat’ will be changed to ‘round of combat’.
Fast Skimmers
A skimmer moving flat out is shot at during the enemy's shooting phase, and is immobilized as a result. Is the vehicle destroyed?
The answer is a simple yes
A skimmer that is immobilized immediately crashes and wrecks if it moved flat out during its last turn.
The key here is last turn. Since the rulebook defined turn to mean player turn, it does not effect this rule, as it clearly states last turn.
So while these came up last night they were easily solved issues. Yes I was wrong on the first, and right on the second. The first one being some throwback from previous editions and a bad interpretation by others that I just listened to. The FAQ's errata clearly fixes anyone's ideas on what beginning of Combat means.
Warp Quake
This one comes originally from Fearspect. This one is also in my opinion a pretty easy rule to clarify, but lets dig into the all mighty "why"?
Warp Quake
.. lasts until the start of your next movement phase. If the psychic test is successful, all enemy teleport homers and other items of wargear that prevent deepstrike scatter cease to function whilst within 12" of the squad while this power is in effect. Furthermore, any enemy unit deploying by deep strike within 12" of the squad (after scattering), will automatically suffer a deep strike mishap.
A 3 or 4 is rolled on the mishap table.
Your opponent can deploy the unit anywhere on teh table (excluding impassable terrain, but including difficult terrain, which of course counts as dangerous for deepstriking units!), in a valid deep strike formation, but without rolling to scatter.
So can you place the misshaping unit into another warp quake zone? and would this cause another mishap? This one is a yes you can, and no it would not. Here is why.
While you can place the mishapped unit anywhere (legal) on the table, technically it is not deploying via deepstrike anymore. It is being deployed by a mishap.
While the misplaced result mirrors the functions of a deepstrike for how to place them and on how to they interact with difficult terrain, it does not say place them anywhere on the table and as per deepstrike rules. Or deep strike them anywhere on the table in a legal location of your choice.
Comments and "Your Wrong!" are very appreciated with this series, as navigating the rules of our game can be quite treacherous.