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Ok, quick question for the community. I'm not sure of the answer, I think it will have to be FAQ'd before everyone will agree about this.

With the special sweep attack the barge can make it says that it moves over an enemy unit. Can it therefore attack enemy units who are already locked in combat? I asked at my local gaming club and everyone said "it doesn't say you can't, so yeah". I still don't feel quite right about it though (I missed with all three attacks anyway so it didn't really matter in the end).

Can you give reasons for your answers to help me get my head around this one please.

Well first you need permission to make the attack in the first place, which is given to you by the rules of the command barge. Next you need to see if there is anything that overides that permission. The only thing that could stop you is BRB pg 40 says you can not shoot into close combat, however the sweep attack is not a shooting attack (it's not even really a CC attack) so you are free to sweep engaged units to your heart's content...at least until GW rules against it in a FAQ, or something changes in 6th that disallows it.

As above.

You have permission to hit ANY ENEMY UNIT

You have no restriction saying you cant attack a unit engaged in close combat, therefore you can.

Orks have something similar to this with ... hmm I think it was the boarding ramp where they can basically have a powerclaw on a nob in a vehicle hang 2 inches 'over the side' so to speak punching out the lights of models in CC without any of it actually counting as part of CC itself.

They are closer to assault strikes, and definitely not shooting attacks.

There has never been a restriction on making melee swings on units engaged in an assault. You just normally would also join the assault.

The only place the "engaged" rule shows up is in the list of disallowed shooting, and since the CCB is most certainly not shooting and has no specific restriction...