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I was wondering, say a unit of space marines assaults my orks, he hits and wounds me and causes enough casualties to enable me to remove my enitre front rank so now no models are in base to base contact with his models. does this end combat so that i can shoot and assault him next turn?

No, you will have to move you guys up back to base to base. Only way to leave combat is to be killed or have the speacial rule hit and run.

Draigo wrote:No, you will have to move you guys up back to base to base. Only way to leave combat is to be killed or have the speacial rule hit and run.

OR you can lose the combat fail your LD test, not get caught in a Sweeping Advance, and fall back.

That is the other way to get out of combat without being killed, hit and run, or wiping out your opponent.

OP the rules you are looking for are called "Pile In" on Page 40 of the brb.

I would assume its ork boys and theyd still be fearless from squad size but I could has assumed too much lol

Draigo wrote:I would assume its ork boys and theyd still be fearless from squad size but I could has assumed too much lol

I was just giving the other options, for clarity.

The weird exception is found on pages 40-41, PILE-IN!, paragraph 3. After all casualties are removed, the player whose turn it is has to make an attempt to move all of his remaining models into base to base contact with the opposing unit, even if none of them can. Then the other player moves his models. If, before pile in moves were started, the closest remaining enemy models are more than 12" away from each other, then the Assault comes to an end and both units consolidate.

Ghenghis Jon wrote:The weird exception is found on pages 40-41, PILE-IN!, paragraph 3. After all casualties are removed, the player whose turn it is has to make an attempt to move all of his remaining models into base to base contact with the opposing unit, even if none of them can. Then the other player moves his models. If, before pile in moves were started, the closest remaining enemy models are more than 12" away from each other, then the Assault comes to an end and both units consolidate.

That is an extreme situation. It tells me that the rules are meant so that the Pile In pretty much assures that combat isn't broken.

However, I have a similar situation, but with a different effect. Say, one squad has mixed initiative, with the majority being low initiative, such as power Fist or Power Klaws.

What if someone took the few wounds from the high initiative models, and took the wounds off the front line, in order to "dodge" the low initiative power weapons? I know such tactics would only delay combat, as, assuming no one fails moral test, combat stays locked. But could such a said strategy be used as a delay tactic? Just an idea.

You check to see who can attack at the beginning of the assault phase, so even though the low initiative models aren't in b2b anymore, they would still get their attacks.

Thanks Happyjew. I always assumed it was at begining of the initiative turn.

However, some models may not be able to strike if you have a mixed initiative unit, with the majority being low initiative, such as power Fist or Power Klaws.

I will set the scenario out.

Lets say you have 3 orks 2 of which have power klaws, they are fighting Marine A and Independent Character Tim(IC Tim). IC Tim only has 2 wounds because he is a librarian.

So you have IC Tim only in B2B with the regular ork boy and Power Klaw 1, and the ork boy and Power Klaw 1 are only in B2B with Tim.

Marine A from the unit is only in BtB with Power Klaw 2 and PK2 is only in B2B with Marine A

At Init 4, Marine A kills Power Klaw 2, and IC Tim misses. The Ork boy swings at IC Tim, at Init 2 and wounds twice, Tim fails both his saves and dies. Power Klaw 1 now has no one to attack, since he had to attack IC Tim as determined at the beginning of the round of combat. Power Klaw 1 can not kill Marine A, since he was only in B2B with IC Tim, which was determined who he could only attack at the beginning of the round of combat.

Good point DR, I was assuming that the unit being attacked was 1 unit, and not a mixed unit/multi-assault.

Thanks for the info guys

I thought you removed casulties from the rear of the unit (including those not in combat (more than 2" away from friendly model in unit in combat)). Don't have a rule book on me but sure this is in there in assault section.

This ensures you stay in combat unless you run away and don't get sweeping advanced (except in a few extreme situations of course)

So...

0000000 enemy
1111111 Friendly able to assault
1111111 Friendly able to assault
2222222 Friendly not able to assault but must be removed as casulties before any other friendly model

Please correct me if I'm wrong, I might have this mixed up with taking ranged attacks (although I'm pretty sure you can choose whoever when taking ranged attacks, only single wounds taken into account here).

You can remove casualties from anywhere in the unit - just like from shooting.

"All of the rules for removing shooting casualties apply to close combat" (p39).

"Any model in the target unit can be hit, wounded or taken off as a casualty..." (p24, shooting/Remove casualties).

Cool, I think I assumed my preference was the rule!

I can't see a situation where if your mostly going last (as an ork player I mostly am ) you would choose to remove a model in the assaulting unit that can take part in the assault over one that can't.

Thankyou for clearing that up though

Most people remove from the back, to make sure they get all their attacks in. However as chromedog pointed out, you are not required to.

DeathReaper wrote:However, some models may not be able to strike if you have a mixed initiative unit, with the majority being low initiative, such as power Fist or Power Klaws.

I will set the scenario out.

Lets say you have 3 orks 2 of which have power klaws, they are fighting Marine A and Independent Character Tim(IC Tim). IC Tim only has 2 wounds because he is a librarian.

So you have IC Tim only in B2B with the regular ork boy and Power Klaw 1, and the ork boy and Power Klaw 1 are only in B2B with Tim.

Marine A from the unit is only in BtB with Power Klaw 2 and PK2 is only in B2B with Marine A

At Init 4, Marine A kills Power Klaw 2, and IC Tim misses. The Ork boy swings at IC Tim, at Init 2 and wounds twice, Tim fails both his saves and dies. Power Klaw 1 now has no one to attack, since he had to attack IC Tim as determined at the beginning of the round of combat. Power Klaw 1 can not kill Marine A, since he was only in B2B with IC Tim, which was determined who he could only attack at the beginning of the round of combat.

But isn't that specifically allocated to the character at the beginning of combat? If there was Marine A and B, With A in base contact with PK2, and Marine B in base contact with the boy and PK1, If Marine a kills PK 2, then the boy kills Marine B, wouldn't the PK still get attacks against the unit he WAS in base contact with?

Yes LM, but in the case I outlined PK 1 was in combat with IC Tim, and IC Tim is now dead. Since IC Tim is an Independent Character, PK1 can not attack since at the beginning of combat the only unit he WAS able to attack was IC Tim, which is no longer there, so he cant attack the unit because it is no longer there. and he looses his attacks.

However, in my experience, this is a rare case and does not happen often.