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Skull taker is 3'' away from a group of 5 grey knight termies. 3 of the termies have atleast part of their base in cover. I fully understand that the squad is considered in cover. Skull taker assaults and attacks one of the models. Skull taker never touches cover himself,nor does any part of his base. First question is is this asaulting INTO cover? Second question is does skull takers initative go down to 1? Does he have to roll a difficult terrain test to see if he can assault? (The cover was difficult terain)

I believe that as Skulltaker hasn't himself entered cover then no difficult terrain test is necessary and he will attack at his normal I level. The termies are now forced to leave the cover to mob in.

Thats how I see it anyway.

You appear to believe that assaulting into cover is what drops your I to 1; it isnt.

Taking a difficult or dangerour terrain test lowers your I to 1. I f you can assault without taking the terrain test (the shortest path, closest to closest, does not pass through terrain OR you ignore Diff / Dang terrain) then your initiative does not drop to 1

Ok so if skulltaker himself never has to enter the difficult terain then he does not have to roll a difficlt terain test right? Even if the termies are considered in cover? So in the above situation skull taker will assault as normal?

Yes. The qualifier for striking at Initiative 1 is 'forced to take a difficult and/or dangerous terrain test' not 'the enemy is in cover.'

shade1986 wrote:Ok so if skulltaker himself never has to enter the difficult terain then he does not have to roll a difficlt terain test right? Even if the termies are considered in cover? So in the above situation skull taker will assault as normal?

Yes, just as nosferatu and corrode said.
For reference look at the main rulebook page 36, top right column, first sentence.

It depends on if the closest model to the Skull Taker is in terrain. If the nearest model is 3" away and in cover (even if part of it's base is) it would have to roll DT even if one of the ones that isn't in cover is 4" away since you have to move to the closest model.

Boss GreenNutz wrote:It depends on if the closest model to the Skull Taker is in terrain. If the nearest model is 3" away and in cover (even if part of it's base is) it would have to roll DT even if one of the ones that isn't in cover is 4" away since you have to move to the closest model.

That's incorrect. Look again at the page I referenced. What matters is if "...any model in an assaulting unit will have to go through difficult or dangerous terrain as part of its assault move." {Emphasis mine}

It matters not whether any model in the unit being assaulted is in cover or not, what matters is if you have to move through the terrain.

Here's another example. Your unit is in clear terrain. Mine is at the edge of area (difficult) terrain, all of my models have a part of their base in the terrain.
Before the assault phase I am in cover, you are not. Now I assault you.
I have to take a difficult terrain test and I will assault at I1 unless I have assault grenades because my unit had to move through difficult terrain and take the test.

The key point to the whole situation here: It's not assaulting INTO cover, it's assaulting THROUGH it. if you've got a little strip of terrain that you pass through to get to a squad in open terrain on the other side, they still get their defensive bonuses.

No, the key bit is you must take a Difficult or Dangerous terrain check.
NOTHING ELSE MATTERS

If you ignore difficult and dangerous terrain, you never take a check and the unit could be 24" into cover and it wouldnt matter - you would still strike at normal I

Whoa, throwing CAPS at each other when you both seem to be coming to the same conclusion, that's actually pretty entertaining .
Anyway, I think its been made clear; Your Initiative only gets nerfed if your model(s) have to move through difficult/dangerous terrain and are forced to make a test of some sort as a result.

Not really, as under Dronzes stipulation a Harlie squad, who ignore terrain checks, would still have their I lowered.

Under the rules this does not happen.

nosferatu1001 wrote:Not really, as under Dronzes stipulation a Harlie squad, who ignore terrain checks, would still have their I lowered.

Under the rules this does not happen.

Out of curiosity, nos, do you have a page number? I haven't had a chance to double check the finer nuances, and the caps were more for emphasis with these people who think that grenades only matter when assaulting a unit that is in cover.

Top of page 36 under assaulting through cover, the assaulting model must take the relevant terrain test.
Harlies have flip belts and ignore difficult terrain so there is no relevant difficult terrain test for them to take.
Same would go for Necron Wraiths.
Probably a good deal more model types out there as well that ignore difficult and/or dangerous terrain.

yeah, initiative is lowered to 1 if the assaulting unit had to take a terrain test during it's assault moves. Basically, if you have to roll to move.