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Hey folks,

In a recent club battle we had a problem with a unit of hormogaunts multicharging a unit of tau firewarriors and a unit of two suits at the same time.
I realise multi-charges are possible when the target units are close to eachother, in this case however the suits were 6-7 inch apart from eachother.
In order to maintain unit coherency the tyranid player (after moving hormo's into base contact) was to ' build a bridge' by placing new hormogaunts in base contact with engaged models, but also bridging the gap between them.

I tried to put it in an image (see below, red = starting position of the hormo's, purple is the place they ended their charge) small brown is fire warriors and large brown is suits).

Is this legal to do? can you actually build bridges this way between units you are charging? If not, can someone point to the exact rules that cover this? We tried to find it but so far unsuccesfull.



Edit: please assume the purple models are in base contact, my computer drawing skills arent great and i dont manage to place the whole thing correct :/ ).

You must move every model that you can into BtB.

I've seen people do it before, but it always irrtates me. Per RAW, I think you can only multi-assault if you happen to be touching in base to base contact with some other unit in addition to the primary one you declared your charge against. At any rate in your diagram below, the bridge units would not be able to be where they are due to the part in the rulebook citing that they can not "hold back" and that everything that can get into assault must, and anything that can not must get as close as possible. Forgive me, I don't have my rulebook with me, but I'm sure Gwar or someone will happily cite page numbers.

Right...but if moving a model into BtB will break coherency, you can't move it, yes? I've run into this problem before, myself. Basically, I think the question is this: If a model can possibly move into base contact with an opposing model but would break squad coherency in doing so, does it have to get in contact, or can it (must it?) move to that open kind of floating space shown above?

edit: Ninja'd! This:

Per RAW, I think you can only multi-assault if you happen to be touching in base to base contact with some other unit in addition to the primary one you declared your charge against.

would clear everything up. Coolness.

MilkmanAl, that is exactly my question, but worded better

Ok, move as many as you can into base with the unit you are charging. From there, as long as you maintain coherency (and can NOT get any more in base to base with the original unit charged), you can move them wherever you like, including into other units. As far as i can tell, he did nothing wrong as long as the "bridge" ones couldn't get in base contact with the original unit charged.

Starweaver wrote:Is this legal to do? can you actually build bridges this way between units you are charging?

Yes, you can build bridges.

How it works is you declare a charge on a unit, if some of your figures can't get into base to base contact with said unit, they can assault another unit if they're close enough. The key is, figures that can't get into base to base with either unit only need to hold coherency. These are the guys building the bridge.

I on purpose leave one or several models far enough away from the units I want to charge, so that they can move inbetween the units to hold coherency. You can also strategically place your assaulting figures to block your other guys, so that they can't reach into the combat and have to hold coherency inbetween the units.

It takes a bit of practice, but as I said, key is letting some of your guys linger so they just have to hold coherency.

Just did a multiple charge today in one of my games, works a treat, took out a hammerhead and a group of kroots with my 5 vanguards.

It can be possible if the assaulting unit is at or close to its maximum assault range, but is very difficult to pull off.

Since each model has to follow three basic rules:

1. Maintain coherency with a previously moved model

2. Achieve base to base if possible

3. End its move within 2" of a base-to-base model if base-to-base is not possible

Then the models that "build the bridge" are going to have to start the movement pretty significantly out of charge range of the initial unit.

It's possible... but extremely tricky to pull off, probably into the realm of "improbable."

@willy: Where did you get step 3 from? To my knowledge that's not how it's worded, though I could be off.

From the rulebook. I can get quotes later when I have my rules with me, but it is part of the assault process.

Wouldn't step 1 make the move impossible? the bridge is needed to maintain coherency, but can only be done after moving everything into base-to-base contact, so when he moves into btb with the second unit he will leave coherency will he not?

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:@willy: Where did you get step 3 from? To my knowledge that's not how it's worded, though I could be off.

If you cannot get into BTB with an unengaged enemy, cannot get into BTB with an Engaged Enemy nor get into BTB with a Friendly Model in BTB with an Enemy, then you must move as to keep coherency.

Went over the assault rules in detail now, here goes:

* The most important one is that each model must end its assault move in coherency with another model in its own unit that has already moved.

* If possible, the model must move into base contact with any enemy model within reach that is not already in base contact with an assaulting model.

* If there are no such models in reach, the model must move into base contact with an enemy model that is already in base contact with an assaulting model.

* If a model cannot reach any enemy models, it must try to move within 2" of one of its own unit's models that is already in base contact with an enemy.

* If this is impossible, it must simply stay in coherency.

Ah, I took the one before the last to simply mean it must be in coherency, reinforcing what the paragraph before says. Either way, with any amount of eye-balling, it can be fairly easy to get off a multi-charge with a conga line arrangement in the movement phase.

yeah.. anyone can pull this off, you don't even need very large units to do this.

just get familiar with how to push your models into assault and you'll see how easy it is do pull off

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Ah, I took the one before the last to simply mean it must be in coherency, reinforcing what the paragraph before says. Either way, with any amount of eye-balling, it can be fairly easy to get off a multi-charge with a conga line arrangement in the movement phase.

Except if the models in the line could have moved to be within 2" of a friendly engaged model, they had to move to within that 2". It's actually pretty difficult to pull off if you're following all of the assault rules correctly.

I think this is a good diagram of multi-assault scenarious. I'm pretty sure it follows all the rules. Let me know if you have objections or questions.

Those both look pretty good to me, but it's hard to tell for certain without a 6" ruler.

jayjester - your first image looks about right.

The second isn't. Assuming you've drawn it to scale, the Nob is close enough to move across the front of the battlewagin, in behind the second row of Boyz on the left, putting him within 2" of an engaged model. So he would have to do this, rather than moving off to the Land Raider.

Keep in mind that the models aren't required to "bunch up" within 2'' of other models that are in base contact. You can leave a bit of space as long as it is actually within 2''. This can be used to keep other models out of 2'', allowing them to form the bridge.

I use this move a lot, sending my rank and file troops against the unit I shot at, and my Aspiring champ with powerfist against a (very) nearby tank.

I take the tank down or not, at the end of the move I should be able to consolidate into combat and not get shot at and or run over.

Works best in crowded areas - Against imperial guard in a city fight game its awesome when you can pull it off.

@ jayjester

I believe after the first model gets into base to base contact the warboss has to move next (and trying to stay in coherency with the first model) because he is an IC. If he is land locked and can't move he can't move later after you move some boys out of the way.

orkcommander wrote:I believe after the first model gets into base to base contact the warboss has to move next (and trying to stay in coherency with the first model) because he is an IC.

Nope, no such rule. You're possibly getting confused with the rules for reacting to an assault.

When you're assaulting, you can move the models in whichever order you want. When you're reacting to an assault, the IC has to be moved first if he's not already in BtB.

insaniak wrote:
Nope, no such rule. You're possibly getting confused with the rules for reacting to an assault.

Yep.
No rule book on hand right now.

Wow. Thanks for bringing this to my attention! This is one of those little skills I'll have to get honed for tourneys. ^.^

This has been pretty well covered at this point. The long and the short being that you CAN do it, as long as you’re following ALL of the rules for moving assaulting models, which Willy and Johnno have summarized clearly.

The biggie here is that IF a given assaulting model CAN get into base contact, or within 2” if a friendly model in base contact already, it MUST. If this prevents the assaulting unit from building the “bridge”, too bad. You don’t get your multi-assault unless all of the rules on moving the assaulting models are followed.

Yup it has become clear, thank you all for the replies
In hindsight he would have been able to make the charge, but not nearly with as many models on the suits (if that had mattered though due to combat resolution and the tau running like well.... tau from combat is the question though).

A note that may or may not be relevant is that Hormagaunts have Leaping, so despite the 2" Assault Move restriction, they can nominate a friendly engaged model within 3" and attack its target, unless they are in base as well.

Basically, more of them get to hit the secondary (tertiary, etc) target than most will expect.

/shrug

@Kirsanth: yes, but it is important to make the distinction that their special rule doesn't affect the requirement to get within 2" of a friendly engaged model if base to base is not possible.

Agreed - I was trying to be explicite about that as well.