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If I have 12 genestealers in combat with 5 plaguemarines from the previous round. And after that round, and due to the placement of the terrain, we have 3 genestealers that still aren't in base contact.... AND On this round of combat I have a demon prince and a defiler charge into the combat. I was informed that the genestealers are only allowed to fight the plaguemarines and not the new combatants per some faq. I thought that as long as you are in base contact you can attack whomever you want.

Do the deamon prince or the defiler make it into base-to-base with one or more of the three previously mentioned genestealers?

Sazzlefrats wrote:If I have 12 genestealers in combat with 5 plaguemarines from the previous round. And after that round, and due to the placement of the terrain, we have 3 genestealers that still aren't in base contact.... AND On this round of combat I have a demon prince and a defiler charge into the combat. I was informed that the genestealers are only allowed to fight the plaguemarines and not the new combatants per some faq. I thought that as long as you are in base contact you can attack whomever you want.

No, there is no FAQ that states this. There is the rulebook FAQ which actually clarifies that those 3 Stealers are forced to attack the new combatants in this circumstance.

However, it is a common misunderstanding about the wording of this rule that has resulted in your opponent's false idea and this same misconception is carried over onto the FAQ because the rule in question is re-printed there. The section of the rules that has been given an errata in the rulebook FAQ is 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."


What some people fail to realize is that the "beginning of combat" (as defined on page 33 of the rules) occurs after all charges have been completed for that phase.

The only thing that was fixed in the FAQ was wording that made the rules not match the diagram presented on page 41 of the rulebook, so they changed the wording to fix that issue.

So after all charges have been completed for the turn, but before a particular combat is resolved if a model is in base contact with only a single enemy unit he *must* direct his attacks towards that unit when he finally attacks.

So in the case of those three Stealers, they would *have* to attack the unit that charges them because that is the only unit they are in base contact with.

Actually odd as it sounds, my demon prince and the defiler managed to attack the same genestealer (weird huh?) it was the closest one to both of them. Anyhow that one genestealer was in base contact with a plaguemarine. The 3 genestealers that were engaged but not in base contact were on the other side of the combat. (see my diagram below)


GGG
GGGG Defiler
GP PPGDemon Prince
xxxxG

Thats how the combat looked, with the plaguemarines and genestealers having already been engaged on the previous turn. Oh and behind the plaguemarines was a undamaged building (represented by the xxxxx) , so the genestealers had wrapped around as best as they could. On the next turn the Demon Prince and the Defiler attacked.

I was under the impression that the one genestealer in base with all 3 units could attack whomever it wanted and the 3 genestealers that were engaged but unable to reach base contact could support anyone in base contact with an enemy model, (i.e. any of the 3 units now that the demon prince and defiler charged in) The FAQ on the GW site, now that I looked at it, is pretty confusing, it seems to indicate you can't even if you wanted to. But sounds like you guys say that you fight anyone that you are in base with, reguardless of which round or how many rounds of combat has passed, and I guess if you are engaged but not in base, you assist anyone who is in base with an enemy model? Right? (thats the way I've been playing since ever)

I find it funny now that rending is nerfed, that there's so much to know about combat, back then, when harlequins attacked, they were first, they killed everything, and the combat was over. Now I'm playing chaos and combat is funky.

Sazzlefrats wrote:
I was under the impression that the one genestealer in base with all 3 units could attack whomever it wanted and the 3 genestealers that were engaged but unable to reach base contact could support anyone in base contact with an enemy model, (i.e. any of the 3 units now that the demon prince and defiler charged in) The FAQ on the GW site, now that I looked at it, is pretty confusing, it seems to indicate you can't even if you wanted to. But sounds like you guys say that you fight anyone that you are in base with, reguardless of which round or how many rounds of combat has passed, and I guess if you are engaged but not in base, you assist anyone who is in base with an enemy model? Right? (thats the way I've been playing since ever)

I find it funny now that rending is nerfed, that there's so much to know about combat, back then, when harlequins attacked, they were first, they killed everything, and the combat was over. Now I'm playing chaos and combat is funky.

Combat is not funky and your impression is absolutely correct.


Just slow down and read page 33 of the rulebook. Step 1, move assaulting units. Step 2, defenders react. Now, finally you move onto step 3: "resolve combats".

This is the point (when you choose a combat to resolve) that, if fighting a multiple combat, you look at who the models are engaged/in base contact with and determine who they are going to have to fight.

At this point if a model is in base contact with only a single unit it will have to direct its attacks against that unit, even if the enemy model it is in base contact is killed before your model gets to strike (which is the point of the FAQ).

However, if at this point your model isn't in base contact with an enemy model (but is still engaged) or is in base contact with models from multiple units it will be able to choose from either of these enemy units to attack.