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Hi all, this is my first post in this forum and I would like to ask a question that we recently had in our gaming group about Space Marine company formation.

The quesiton is if this formation need to enter the game as a whole unit, or they can enter separately.

My point is that since it is a formation, it should count as one unit, even the formation has careful planning asset, it is still one unit, so if they are going to enter or deploy, they need to enter as one unit. This is how I understood the rule of formation in page 100 of Apocalypse.

But there is an opposite opinion as careful planning (one of the assets that the formation has) specifies: "..The player that choose this asset may bring on up the half of his units in strategic reserve in the first turn. In the second turn he must then bring of the units he has in strategic reserve". So the opposite opinion understand this as the formation can be deploy half in the first turn and half in the second.

I would like to know if we are using the formation correctly.

Thanks in advance for the replies and sorry for my english (not my first language).

It's my understanding that the 'formation' is one (single) unit.

So it may be brought on as part of the half in the first turn, or part of the half in the second turn.

It can't be "split" because it counts as 1 unit.

One big unit composed of many units, but it's still 1 unit.

I agree with Stelek. Formation means it's an all at once deal.

Good question though and you're English is more than adequate to understand.

Not bad, coming from a drunk Scotsman.

A formation is not a unit; nothing about Apocalypse makes the units in a formation have to act together, or enter play together. A prime example was the battle report when Apocalypse came out, where the Devastators were deployed in the deployment zone and the Assaults and Tacticals came on by Flank March and blew heck out of a Chaos baneblade (and themselves, as a side effect). I'm sure I can find other examples in the Apocalypse book, if I was near it.

lord_sutekh wrote:A formation is not a unit; nothing about Apocalypse makes the units in a formation have to act together, or enter play together. A prime example was the battle report when Apocalypse came out, where the Devastators were deployed in the deployment zone and the Assaults and Tacticals came on by Flank March and blew heck out of a Chaos baneblade (and themselves, as a side effect). I'm sure I can find other examples in the Apocalypse book, if I was near it.

P101 of the Apoc rulebook states that Formations are counted as a single unit for deployment and strategic reserves. It spells out pretty clearly that a whole formation has to be deployed at once.

Though one could read a little too far into this and claim that all models in a formation have to be deployed in coherency, it seems a little far-fetched since many datasheets have the "Strike Force" rule (or similar) that would become redundant.

Doh, well silly me.

Considering that Apoc is supposed to be the "play with all your crap" version, not a tournament system, I can see that restriction being relaxed.