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FOR THIS POLL, PLEASE ANSWER HOW YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY THE GAME, NOT NECESSARILY WHAT THE RULES AS WRITTEN (RAW) SAY.

Feel free to post how and why you voted, but please DO NOT ENGAGE OTHERS IN DISCUSSIONS/ARGUMENTS ABOUT WHAT YOU THINK THE RULES SAY. Please create a separate thread if you feel the urge to have this kind of discussion.



The rules for 'Independent Characters Joining & Leaving Units' say (rulebook, pg 48): "While an independent character is part of a unit, he must obey the usual coherency rules. The combined unit moves and assaults at the speed of the slowest model while they stay together."


and:

"An independent character can leave a unit during the Movement phase by moving out of coherency distance with it."


and:

"If an independent character moves and joins or leaves a unit that did not move, the character counts as having moved in the ensuing Shooting phase, but the unit does not."





QUESTION: When an Independent Character that has a higher movement rate than the rest of the models in the unit he is joined to decides to leave that unit, is the IC immediately able to benefit from his faster movement rate as he leaves the unit?

For example: When an IC that is jump infantry, bike, etc, is joined to an infantry unit and wants to leave that unit, are they able to use their increased movement rate with the move that causes them to leave the unit? Or similarly, can an IC joined to a unit that is in cover use his 'move through cover' special rule when leaving the unit (assuming they also don't have 'move through cover') to move faster than the unit?



OPTION A. Since an IC doesn't actually leave a unit until he moves out of coherency with it (which can only happen after he finishes his movement), I play that he cannot benefit from any increased speed with the move that takes him out of coherency (as until he finishes his move out of coherency he is still moving as part of the unit).


OPTION B. Since the rules specify the restriction against ICs having to move at the speed of the slowest model only applies 'while they stay together', I play that anytime the IC will end his movement out of coherency from his unit (i.e. he leaves the unit) he is able to immediately benefit from any increased speed he has.


OPTION C. Since a unit that doesn't move, besides an IC leaving it, doesn't count as having moved, I play that an IC leaving a unit is able to immediately benefit from any increased speed he has, but only if the rest of the unit doesn't move that phase (as if the unit also moves, then the IC would have to move at the same rate as the unit even if he does end up leaving the unit with his move)


OPTION D. Something else entirely: reply exactly what it is below.

B

I think that the rules regarding an IC leaving an embarked unit kind of lend some insight on how an IC can kinda leave any way he wants.

A is how I read the RAW, but I play B. More intuitive that way.

I also play B.

We play A. That's how we read the RAW, so that's how we play it. It almost never comes up though.

Agree with insaniak (RAW=A, play by B), but the rules for IC are pretty messy when read start to finish as RAW. Even in yak's post, it says "must obey coherency" and also "may move out of coherency". Must overrides may in any case I can think of, except this one.

B leads to situations though where you move the IC, move the unit, and find out they're still in coherency, but I just say "don't do that."

C is an interesting alternative (and illustrates another weird IC rule) but I'm not sure it holds enough weight by itself, without doing some thinking of your own, and who wants to do that?

Also, isn't it YMDC?

A) The IC doesn't leave the unit till the end of the movement phase when it is checked to see if he is part of the unit again or not.

I play A for myself, as it is RAW AND is the most restrictive - however i have no problems with pepole playing "B", as I find it is not usually something worth arguing over. I expect people to play B and plan around that fact, meaning im not surprised.