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I ran into an interesting scenario in a game last week. There was a Warboss attached to a unit of boyz (only 2 boys left in the unit) locked in close combat. Because of some very unique terrain placement a charging squad was only able to get into base to base with the 2 boyz, and there was not room for the warboss to consolidate into base to base. The charging unit of SM ended up inflicting some 15-20 wounds but could only allocate the wounds to the unit of boyz and not the IC. Is this correct?

you can only inflict wounds onto units that you are in B2B with.

IC's count as different units for melee attacks.

however you have to take a fall back test with the IC since he was a part of the unit.

CageUF - yep, this was correct. Ics are treated as a separate unit in CC (page 49) and therefore only models in btb, or those from the same unit within 2" of a model from their unit in btb and NOT themselves in btb with another unit are able to attack the IC.

Wounds can only be allocated within the unit, therefore the warboss could not be wounded, however will be testing at (presumably) Ld - 2 to see if he runs away

As a side note concerning the situation that led to this, the FAQ has recently ruled that if an IC can not physically move into base contact in an assault because of his own unit being in the way, that unit will make room.

While it's possibly that it wouldn't have mattered, I imagine in that situation you could have moved one Boy out of the way and put the Warboss in his place, and the Boy who moved would just need to be within 2" of the other one in order to attack (and be attacked).

As for the actual rules question, it has been answered correctly.

somerandomdude wrote:As a side note concerning the situation that led to this, the FAQ has recently ruled that if an IC can not physically move into base contact in an assault because of his own unit being in the way, that unit will make room.

While it's possibly that it wouldn't have mattered, I imagine in that situation you could have moved one Boy out of the way and put the Warboss in his place, and the Boy who moved would just need to be within 2" of the other one in order to attack (and be attacked).

well that is kind of correct but you cant move boys out of the way just to get the IC into combat, you have to follow normal movement rules.

You must move blocking models first to attempt to get the IC into combat.

however he still can be stranded outside of combat.

An example: A Chaos SM player has a unit of terminators with IC attached in terminator armor and they are deployed in a straight line. they get flanked by 2 rhinos, and the rhinos form an impassible corridor then the attacking SM unit assaults one end of the corridor, the IC on the far end of the line would not be able to get into Close Combat.

diagram to help visualize: this is what the models will look like after the SM assault move

R = Rhino, T=Terminator, C = Independent Character with Terminator Armor, S= Space marines, X= one inch required gap between unfriendly models

.......C
RRR XTX RRR
RRR XTX RRR
RRR XTX RRR
.....S S S
......S S

In this case the C can not move at all since there is no room to move since he needs to stay in coherency with his unit.


Q: An Independent Character attached to a unit that is
reacting to being assaulted, or making a pile-in move,
must move before other friendly models to attempt to get
in base contact with an enemy. What happens if the
Independent Character is blocked from getting to enemy
models by friendly models around him? (p49)
A: If it is possible to move friendly models out of the way
to make space for the Independent Character then they
must move first. Followed by the Independent Character
and finally the rest of the unit can move. If the
Independent Character is still unable to make it into base
contact he must move as close to the enemy as possible

DeathReaper wrote:well that is kind of correct but you cant move boys out of the way just to get the IC into combat

And then you say:

Q: An Independent Character attached to a unit that is
reacting to being assaulted, or making a pile-in move,
must move before other friendly models to attempt to get
in base contact with an enemy. What happens if the
Independent Character is blocked from getting to enemy
models by friendly models around him? (p49)
A: If it is possible to move friendly models out of the way
to make space for the Independent Character then they
must move first. Followed by the Independent Character
and finally the rest of the unit can move. If the
Independent Character is still unable to make it into base
contact he must move as close to the enemy as possible

If the FAQ says that you can move them out of the way, why do you say that you can't? It doesn't say that those models you move out of the way have to follow the assault rules, it says you "must move them first [out of the way, as that is the context set by the sentence]." Am I misreading this and, if so, how?

Note also in my first post I said it was possible (misspelt, but that's what I meant) to have the situation that was presented in the OP, but I imagined that it could work the way I presented. Your example is correct as presented, because there's no where else to place the Terminator (due to the proximity of the Rhinos), unless of course you believe that the rule saying you can get within 1" in assault means that you can also move within 1" of unengaged models, but then we're looking at all sorts of other problems. However, to analyze that example even further, you're cheating by not moving your SM squad into base contact with the terminators further in (1" base means they can fit if you're legally an inch away from the rhinos) as they most move into base contact if possible. However, we can assume that you did a DT test and could only move 1" anyway.

I'm way overthinking this.

somerandomdude wrote:

DeathReaper wrote:well that is kind of correct but you cant move boys out of the way just to get the IC into combat

And then you say:

Q: An Independent Character attached to a unit that is
reacting to being assaulted, or making a pile-in move,
must move before other friendly models to attempt to get
in base contact with an enemy. What happens if the
Independent Character is blocked from getting to enemy
models by friendly models around him? (p49)
A: If it is possible to move friendly models out of the way
to make space for the Independent Character then they
must move first. Followed by the Independent Character
and finally the rest of the unit can move. If the
Independent Character is still unable to make it into base
contact he must move as close to the enemy as possible

If the FAQ says that you can move them out of the way, why do you say that you can't? It doesn't say that those models you move out of the way have to follow the assault rules, it says you "must move them first [out of the way, as that is the context set by the sentence]." Am I misreading this and, if so, how?

Note also in my first post I said it was possible (misspelt, but that's what I meant) to have the situation that was presented in the OP, but I imagined that it could work the way I presented. Your example is correct as presented, because there's no where else to place the Terminator (due to the proximity of the Rhinos), unless of course you believe that the rule saying you can get within 1" in assault means that you can also move within 1" of unengaged models, but then we're looking at all sorts of other problems. However, to analyze that example even further, you're cheating by not moving your SM squad into base contact with the terminators further in (1" base means they can fit if you're legally an inch away from the rhinos) as they most move into base contact if possible. However, we can assume that you did a DT test and could only move 1" anyway.

I'm way overthinking this.

you can move them out of the way "If it is possible" but you have to follow the movement rules to do so, nowhere in the FAQ does it say you can disregard the normal movement rules.

To move them willy nilly not following the assault rules is not possible, rules wise.


so if you have a unit of guys like this:

X= guy, C = IC



X X X X X
X X X X X
X X C X X

you would have to legally move both the X's first. I.E. move friendly models out of the way
to make space for the Independent Character and remember the FAQ states If it is possible

so you still have to legally move them out of the way

somerandomdude wrote:It doesn't say that those models you move out of the way have to follow the assault rules,...

It does, by adding the 'If possible' caveat.

It doesn't tell you that you can ignore any rules in order to move them out of the way, and specifically tells you to move them 'if possible'... so when you attempt to move them, you can not break any rules to do so.