I've been playing Beastmen since they came out, and one of my favorite builds is a Khazrak ambush-heavy list. After a recent game, someone told my opponent that I was ambushing incorrectly.
If we carefully read the ambush rule, the wording is: nominate a point on the table edge. If the unit passes a leadership test, "every model in the unit moves on from the marked point, in the same way as if they had pursued an enemy off the table in the previous turn".
They way I play it, when the herd comes on the table, I place them as close to the nominated point as possible, ranked up on movement trays for convenience.
My friends focused on in the same way as if they had pursued an enemy off the table in the previous turn.
Looking in the BRB, on p. 43, we see that when a pursuing unit returns to the table, it is placed back as close as possible to the point at which it left the table, in the same formation, facing directly toward the battelfield, with the rear rank touching the board edge.
The interpretation is that, since the herd is a skirmish unit, it has no formation, and must be placed in a single long rank right against the table edge. If it is a unit of 20, that is 20 inches of table edge that gets used up.
Personally, I think this is flawed from the get-go. If indeed I have no formation, then it seems just as valid for me to place a single model touching the table edge, and spread all the others out from him- even placing models more than 5 inches away from the nominated point, as long as the unit maintains a valid skirmish formation. (Note: Beastmen have a MV of 5".)
I think the important part is, every model in the unit moves on from the marked point, which means that no model in the herd should be more than 5 inches from the nominated spot on the table edge. That's the wording in the army book, and so overrides the BRB.
I am curious to hear your thoughts. Especially since these interpretations raise a couple more questions.
1) If I am correct: Beastmen come on 25mm bases. You can rank up a 25-man unit, and you should be able to get the entire unit on the table so that each model is no more than 5" from the nominated point. What about larger units, say a 30-man unit? How would you handle that?
2) If they are correct, do you think that skirmish units that happen to pursue off the table should come back on in a single rank, touching the table edge? Does anyone play it that way already?
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