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Hey guys,

This may be a totally newb question, so bear with me.

I played a 600 point game tonight, my necrons vs. another newb's Space Marines (out of the Black Reach box set). This is the second full game I've played so far, so of course we spend half of the time thumbing through the rulebook.

At one point early in the game, a full squad of my necron warriors was assaulted by the opponet's dreadnought. So here comes the assault questions.

1. I know that if you initiate an assault, all models get +1 attack. But once you're locked in close combat, and it is your turn to assault, do you again get +1 attack? So that my assaulted necrons next turn themselves would get +1 Attack on their own assault phase? Or, after that initial assault from the person moving to assault, no one else gets that bonus?

2. That necron squad, foolishly not equipped with distruption fields, could not possibly damage the dreadnought under any circumstances (as far as I could tell). With a Ld of 10, they passed every leadership test as one by one my models were removed by it's power weapon, and I had to just sit there for 5 turns and take it, not even bother to roll assault attacks against it, as it was impossible to damage. Additionally, the opponent wanted to move his dreadnought out of that same assault so he could help defend another squad of marines instead of being tied up on the other end of a map uselessly hacking away at a squad that was absolutely no threat. In that situation, would there be any way for that walker or my squad to voluntarily fall back, or get out of being locked in combat?

1. No, you only get the +1 on the assault phase that you actually perform the assault move. After that, it's gone.
2. No voluntary fallback, and the Walker is locked, unable to mve away. The only way for it to end is for the Necrons to run or be totally destroyed.

Re your LD 10, don't forget that the Morale test is modified by the number of wounds you lost by, so if the Dread caused two unsaved wounds to your Warriors, your Morale test is at -2, so you would need an 8 to pass.

1. You only get the charge bonus on the turn that the assault is initiated. If you stay locked in combat, you only get the attacks on your profile plus any bonus attacks that may be applicable (such as having two CCW's)

2. You played it correctly, and is actually a tactic that is used quite often. It's called "tarpitting." You effectively removed his dread from the fight by sacrificing a unit of warriors. Unless your warriors or his dread have a special rule that allow you to break from combat (such as Hit and Run), then they stay locked until either the dread is destroyed or your necrons break or are wiped out.

Also, remember that in an assault, your Ld is reduced by the number you lost assault by. So, if you lost 2 warriors in an assault and he didn't take any glancing/penetrating hits, then your Ld is reduced by 2 for that morale check.

About the first question:
After the first round of close combat, where the assaulting unit gets its +1 bonus, no unit gets a bonus for charging in the following rounds. (Except for when a new, additional unit charges into combat, then they receive their bonus, of course.)

Second question:

You played it right. Unfortunately, without the ability to voluntarily fail LD tests, you cannot escape combat if you don't fail the test. And even the winning unit - the dreadnought - has no way of retreating from combat. It is a bit unflexible this way, but those are the rules. Ran into the same situation when an armored Sentinel attacked my Space Marine Tac Squad. I could only harm him with double 6's on krak grenades and he was too clumsy to kill a single Marines, so they were locked in eternal combat. (I actually WANTED him to kill a model so I could voluntarily fail my LD test via the "Combat Tactics" Sm rules, but even that did not happen.)

Alright, thanks. Perhaps that morale test modifier (which we did not know, but I seem to remember reading something about it) will save me next time. But it was extremely frustrating. Next time I'm coming in with something that has a decent ability to drop armored vehicles.

Get a monolith or bring a lord with a Veil of Darkness then you can get your models out of CC.

Also, all your guys have the ability to drop armored vehicles, just don't get into CC with anything at all. Ever.

Remember though that if you lose the assault and fail to beat him in an initiative test (d6 + I) he will sweep the whole squad and remove it from the board, no WBB saves.

Question about choosing to fall back with combat tactics. If you choose to fail a an assault moral check, does the unit that won assault get a chance to sweeping advance? This came up once and we decided that it did, but I wanted to make sure that we played it correctly.

s2ua7 wrote:Question about choosing to fall back with combat tactics. If you choose to fail a an assault moral check, does the unit that won assault get a chance to sweeping advance? This came up once and we decided that it did, but I wanted to make sure that we played it correctly.

Yes, they get a chance to Sweeping Advance. Just Remember that marines have ATSKNF, which alters what happens if they are caught,

Kevin949 wrote:Also, all your guys have the ability to drop armored vehicles, just don't get into CC with anything at all. Ever.

Without disruption fields equipped on my squads, how would I do that? Or do you mean *some* vehicles, shootiting them at rear armor, barely making it with a roll of a 6, ect?

All of your gauss weapons automatically glance on a 6 against any armour.

An immobilised result takes the dread right out of the fight.

You can glance any vehicle on a "6", Gauss weapon rule.

Gwar! wrote:

s2ua7 wrote:Question about choosing to fall back with combat tactics. If you choose to fail a an assault moral check, does the unit that won assault get a chance to sweeping advance? This came up once and we decided that it did, but I wanted to make sure that we played it correctly.

Yes, they get a chance to Sweeping Advance. Just Remember that marines have ATSKNF, which alters what happens if they are caught,

Thanks Gwar! Only one of my group of friends play Space Marines and so we always forget about that rule.