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So i was playing a game today and a very strange situation came up.

there were 3 dreadnoughts (twin autocannon, plasmacannon) relatively close to each other, and another enemy squad behind it. I had an assault terminator squad inside with corbulo, and a reclusiarch

i multi-assault all of the dreads, but the only way i can do it is if my chaplain is the only one attacking a dreadnought. this also just so happens to be next to impassable terrain, so there is no way to move above the chaplain.
i blow up the bottom-most dread, and make the 2nd one a box, naturally, the chaplain doesn't do anything.

so on my opponents turn, he cunningly moves a squad within an inch of my chaplain, and surrounding the unharmed dread. in this close combat phase, i blow up his box-dread, but i can't pile in because there is an unengaged enemy unit in the way, but also, the impassable terrain makes it so i can't go the other way. my death squad stayed trapped in closecombat for the rest of the game, nullifying my chances of winning dramatically (kp mission btw)

my question is

A) is this maneouvre legal?

B) is there a way to engage that enemy unit that is surrounding the dread?

C) can attack through my chaplain as he is the sole model in BTB?

D) is there anything else i can do to get out of this situation?

your thoughts are appreciated. i understand that through careful planning and positioning, this situation would usually never come up, and this is the first time it's ever happened to me, but it bugs me thinking that my assault terminators would just sit there looking at the enemy squad while my chaplain battles in futility with a non-DCCW dread

EDIT: i did end up shooting at the squad with baal preds, but as it was through my own infantry, and he went to ground, he was getting 3+ cover saves against any rending shots. i could only do so much to this squad as the rest of my army was being attacked

I'm not entirely sure that I understand your example, so i'll try to explain the multi-assault in general terms.

- In the assault phase, you must declare your assault target

- If you have shot at ANY unit this turn, you MUSt assault that unit if you wish to make an assault move (the one exception to this is if you have destroyed a transport with shooting, and are now assaulting the occupants)

- You must move the FIRST assaulting model to the target unit. You may then move the rest of the squad in any way you wish up to 6 inches, as long as the squad remains in coherency.

- If you subsequently find your squad becomes locked in combat with more than one unit, then each squad memeber will attack the relevant target (i,e, usually the closest if it is in range)

- The whole unit remains locked in combat until it is in combat with NO enemy units

Now as for your specific query:

- I don't think your opponent is permitted to move so close to you while you are locked in combat (unless hes also assaulting). In that case, he shoudln't be able to prevent you making your subsequent pile in moves.

- About the flamers, you can't fire the baal predtor at him if its going to hit some of your own models

Sorry if this isnt more helpful, as I said I'm finding it difficult to understand your example, but feel free to point me in the right direction!

Yes, becoming engaged in combat wasn't difficult, it was getting my hitty stuff to hit the last dread

he moved his model 1" away from my chaplain, which is fine, terminator bases are bigger than 1" tho, so i couldn't get in

my baals have assault cannons and heavy bolters

Warboss Nidsplitta wrote:...there were 3 dreadnoughts (twin autocannon, plasmacannon) relatively close to each other, and another enemy squad behind it. I had an assault terminator squad inside with corbulo, and a reclusiarch...

Did the Reclusiarch, Corbulo, and the assault terminator squad assault as one unit?

Did it take longer than 1 assault phase to kill the dreads?

can we maybe get a diagram of what it looked like?

Its tough to tell just by the description of the layout.

This sounds possible. If the reclusiarch was a regular squad member, this couldn't happen (you could get guys near him for 'within 2"' attacks), but since he's an IC that doesn't work.

The one problem is that I'm not sure the movement can all be done. His guys can't move within 1" of any of your guys, and someone else in your unit has to be within 2" of the reclusiarch, so I'm not sure he could get close enough to actually stop you getting BtB with that guy, then chaining your powerfist (or whatever you use) attacks from others within 2" of him.

I had one model that could charge another dread close by, and my chaplain (that was stupidly in the front of the unit) was the only one to reach the last dreadnought, as i couldn't move through my own models.

if i had put my chaplain in back, then my assault terminators would be in the closecombat with all of the dreads, but i didn't foresee this sneaky tactic