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Alright, so I am absolutely exhausted, and can't think right now.

Having a conversation over texts with a friend of mine and we are talking about reserve rolls. Now, here is the question that for the life of me I can't manage the answer to find in the BRB, and I'm sure I must be missing it.

When rolling for reserves, do you have to designate which units are rolling when, or can you just roll a mass amount of dice and pick and choose?

Example: Do I -

A) Have three skimmers in reserve and a jetbike squad and it's turn two.. I roll a 4+ for the first skimmer, a 3+ for the second skimmer, a 2+ for the third skimmer and a 3+ for the jetbike squad. Only that first skimmer gets to come in.

Or

B) Have three skimmers in reserve and a jetbike squad and it's turn two.. I roll four dice and get: 4, 3, 2, 3. I elect to bring my Jetbike council on the board.

If you could cite page numbers that would help a ton.

Thanks in advance, and sorry for the brainfart question!

I don't have the Book to hand, but I know you have to specify which unit are rolling for. Ie I'm rolling for Death Company- I roll 5. Yes, they come on. Now I roll for the Assault Marines. I roll a one. Damn, they don't come on. You can roll them together, but you have to specify which dice is which unit.

It makes reserves a more worrying thing and means you have to think strategically about putting things in reserve as the likelyhood of a key unit coming on is lessened.

I don't have the rule book with me at work, but it is option A. I'm sure somebody else will be able to cite you the rule

At least I'm not the only one. That's what I thought, but like I said, for the life of me I can't figure out where it says that. I think it's the 4:30 in the morning talking on that one. Maybe I'll take another crack at it after some sleep.


My buddy seems quite certain he read somewhere that you don't have to designate. So... yeah. If anyone else finds a page number, or something that does in fact state otherwise, please feel free to chime in!

It says you roll for each unit in turn. You cant roll and then assign.

Yes you have to state what your rolling for, then roll for it. The only instance when it doesn't matter is when your reserves are all the exact same thing, such as 3 units of 2 obliterators.

Amanax wrote:My buddy seems quite certain he read somewhere that you don't have to designate. So... yeah. If anyone else finds a page number, or something that does in fact state otherwise, please feel free to chime in!

He would have to show the rule that specifically says you don't have to designate the roll for each unit.

Page 94 says that "...the player must roll a dice for each of his units in eserve." not that you may roll a number of dice equal to the number of units in reserve.

So whether you roll one at a time or roll different colored dice for the reserve units (designating which is for which reserve unit before rolling) you still must roll a single dice for each single unit.

This isn't a rules debate between us, so I'm not demanding page numbers and neither is he. I only asked because I wanted to be able to further cement my side with the rulebook wording.

However, with the wording of "the player must roll a dice for each of his units in reserve" I can see where he would get that idea, and I am unsure if we have actually been playing it correctly as a whole.

That wording does not say, in any way, shape, or form, that they need to be designated. In both scenarios you roll dice for each unit in reserve. So that statement doesn't help =/


Maybe this wasn't such a stupid question after all...

Amanax wrote:This isn't a rules debate between us, so I'm not demanding page numbers and neither is he. I only asked because I wanted to be able to further cement my side with the rulebook wording.

Sorry, I thought that you had asked for the relevant page number.
There is no page or rule that gives any further clarification than this, except perhaps further on in the rolling for reserves section, the third paragraph that tells you that you must roll for the reserves as soon as possible and bring them on as soon as they are available. It also says you cannot keep reserves hanging around off the table until you decide you need them.

If you roll all your reserves at one time, and then assign which units are going to arrive based on the successful rolls, you are deciding which units to bring on and which to keep out of play. The rules say you can't do this.

So the proper mechanic that complies with the rule is to select a unit in reserve, roll a die for it, and if it rolls a high enough number based on the reserves table, that unit will arrive from resserve that movement phase. You then select the next unit in reserve and so on until you have rolled for all the units in reserve.

Sorry Time Wizard, I wasn't referring to your page number citation, rather the comment of him needing to find a page number to disprove what I was saying. You are correct, I was asking for a page number myself, so thank you for providing it

I am honestly shocked by the lack of clarification on this rule. Even with all of that, I can still see both sides.

With his argument, that still applies as well -

Same scenario:

I have three skimmers in reserve and a jetbike squad and it's turn two.. I roll four dice and get: 4, 3, 2, 3. I elect to bring my Jetbike council. The rules could be interpreted as simply stating that I would not be able to hold him back, and must not place that model. Same as though I had rolled for him separately.

Is there really no where that actually states that you MUST roll individually, or is it only the socially excepted norm for reasons unknown? (Perhaps it was established in an earlier edition?)

Amanax wrote: Sorry Time Wizard, I wasn't referring to your page number citation, rather the comment of him needing to find a page number to disprove what I was saying. You are correct, I was asking for a page number myself, so thank you for providing it

You're welcome! No offense taken!

Amanax wrote:Is there really no where that actually states that you MUST roll individually, or is it only the socially excepted norm for reasons unknown? (Perhaps it was established in an earlier edition?)

In 4th edition, the reserves rule section did state that each selection from the FOC was to be diced for separately, and probably with 5th edition since reserves were now allowed for every mission everyone interpreted the reserve rule to be similar to the last edition, with each unit being dice for individually.
It seems to be within the intent of the rule as well, because the rule says to roll a dice for each unit, not to roll a number of dice equal to the number of units in reserve.
I have always played by rolling a dice for each unit in reserve in turn as do all the people I have ever played against.
If you and your friend want to roll all the dice at the same time and then assign successful and unsuccessful results as you choose, that's between you.
There is no hard and fast step by step ruling on rolling for reserves.
Best I can do for the rules question.

This is really important. If this hasn't been EXPLICITLY clarified then the drawbacks of reserving units can be considered much less dangerous. In some cases this is almost a boon for reserves.

Huh. It actually doesn't specify that each die be for a given unit. It just says, "At the start of each of his Movement phases except the first, before moving any unit, the player must roll a dice for each of his units in reserve".

That's an interesting reading of the rule.

Exactly my point Foo. We'll probably continue playing it that we roll for each unit individually, however this is something that might need some looking at. Especially given that depending on the way you choose to interpret it completely changes the game for reserving your army.

/dumbfounded

Very curious to see how this plays out. Putting 5 man scout squads into reserve would be a great idea (given the possible RAW problem here) if you also had a squad of 10 Terminators.

I think the question now is... Did I just break reserves? O_o

Hmm, well, the second paragrpah in Rolling for reserves on page 94 says"

"Once all of the units have been rolled for, the player picks any one of the units arriving and deploys it..."

This seems to imply that the units being selected have already been designated as arriving or not. Otherwise, it would have read more like "Once all reserve dice have been rolled, select an amount of your units equal to the number of successful reserve rolls, and deploy them"

I know there are RAW for why we all play it the way we do... just curious where they are and what they actually say

I agree, omerakk. Between rolling and placing, you would have to select which is arriving but doesn't give you the time to do so in this reading.

-cgmckenzie

You roll a die for each unit to determine if that unit arrives. You aren't told to just roll a total number of dice equal to the number of units in reserve, and then move whichever units you want onto the table equal to the number of results equal to or above the target number. There's no choice involved. As Omerakk pointed out, the context of the next bit makes it even clearer.

That statement could easily be viewed in the reverse though. You pick the units arriving, and deploy them. It even states there, that you roll, and then pick any of the units arriving.

This isn't near as cut and dry as we all once thought.

It doesn't say at any point that you DO need to roll individually.

As I stated, I have played it that same way, as that was what I was taught. But, there is no clear definition as that is the way it is done.

Amanax wrote:That statement could easily be viewed in the reverse though. You pick the units arriving, and deploy them.

That's just it though you aren't putting the context of the statement in by leaving out the word "any". It doesn't tell you to pick the units arriving, it says to pick any of the units arriving. That one word changes the whole meaning of the statement from "decide which units arrive" to "select from the units arriving". You can't pick from the units arriving unless you know which ones are arriving and you can't know that unless the selection process was already done.

Amanax wrote: It even states there, that you roll, and then pick any of the units arriving.

Yes it does, and that's why you have to select the units as you roll for them as stated above

Each unit is subject to an individual roll and this does not concern the later step of actually deploying them. The second sentence of the first paragraph in 'Rolling for Reserves' refers to a singular unit concerning the relation between the dice roll and the state of 'arriving', and this clarifies the first sentence.

You roll a dice for each unit.

This dice here? This dice is FOR this unit - it is being rolled FOR this unit.

If you use the dice roll FOR another unit, you have broken that rule.

Yup. And as Omerakk and Arctik have observed, the second sentence makes that more clear, by indicating that you are choosing to move any of the specific units which succeeded on their Reserve rolls. Not just whatever units you want.