A weekly post regarding the Rules of Our Game is something I am testing out to see whether or not I should start 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 feedback, you can expect to see it turn into a weekly post.
Todays big Question comes down to a conflict between the two armies I own and love to play, Dark Eldar and Grey Knights. Imagine this, your Grey Knights just charged in to kill Urien Rakarth and his minions. Being the bold Grey Knight player you are, you sent in Castellan Crowe into the mess, but he gets struck down while in base to base with Urien.
Crowe uses Heroic Sacrifice, and successfully passes his psychic test and hits Urien. Urien has not used his d3 negated from his clonefield. Can a clonefield negate a successful Heroic Sacrifice?
Lets look at both rules:
Heroic Sacrfice
If the psychic test is successful, the brotherhood champion immediately makes a single attack against one enemy model that was in base contact when he died. If this attacks hits, both models are removed as casualties with no saves of any kind allowed.
Clone Field
When the bearer is combat, roll a D3 at the beginning of each round of combat to represent how many clone images are in effect. The result is the number of hits upon the bearer that he may completely nullify that round, just before the roll to the wound. The bearer may choose which attacks are nullified. Once the roll to wound is made, though, there's no going back, so choose which attacks to nullify carefully!
At first glance, it seems very simple and straight forward. Clone field negates the attack, so the Heroic Sacrifice is nullified. However this is not the case with this conflict in the rules. The key is in how the Clone Field works.
The result is the number of hits upon the bearer that he may completely nullify that round, just before the roll to the wound.
Heroic Sacrifice just requires a hit to remove its opponent from play. There is no to wound roll, and literally because we never get have a to wound roll, clone field never gets a chance to take its effect. Heroic Sacrifice takes place right after the hit, clone field takes place just before the roll to wound.
So according to RAW, the clone field never gets a chance to prevent this attack. Heroic Sacrifice works and removes Urien from play.
Now do I think a clone field should work against this? yes. Can you imagine Uriens evil cackle as the mighty brotherhood champion lashes out for one last deadly strike and finds nothing but air. But until we see a FAQ that changes this, we are stuck with the blade piercing Urien Rakarth and removing him from play.
Comments and "Your Wrong!" are very appreciated with this series, as navigating the rules of our game can be quite treacherous.