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Had a situation come up last night where the shortest distance possible to move my doomsday ark was off the board, but there was space to move in other directions but it was longer than the direction to the board edge. My opponent said since the rule says shortest distance that the vehicle would be destroyed. My argument was that since it said to move the shortest possible it would be another direction because you aren't allowed to move off the board unless a rule or scenario specifically says to do so. There is a relevant faq about tank shocking and then I also brought up that if that was case then you could lash people of the board which I believe is also not allowed. Anyway, we searched around and couldn't find anything so i'm sorry if this had been covered already.

In that case the shortest distance to move the unit was one of the other directions. Off the board is not really a shortest distance to legally place the model, which is what you are after.

You can not move off the board as per the FaQ.

You would have to move the vehicle to a place that is not an illegal move.

He didnt read far enough, the "shortest route" means the shortest route to a safe position, however if there is nowhere safe to go the tank is destroyed.

Here's an example of Terror by table edge equaling Death for tank.

@@@ = Land Raider

***** = Genestealer Sorround

| & _ = Table Edge

| *************
| @@@@ ***
| @@@@ ***
|__________

Say Mawloc pops up under the Land Raider, since it cant move through the genestealers legally and obviously cant exist in the same space as the Mawloc or off the table, the tank would be destroyed.

So if your tank was surrounded, then yes it was off the table otherwise if there was enough space on the table to get out of the mawlocs way you should live.

Karnac wrote:He didnt read far enough, the "shortest route" means the shortest route to a safe position, however if there is nowhere safe to go the tank is destroyed.

I don't recall their being a callout for a "safe position", only one that was a) not under the large blast marker, b) not over impassable terrain, and c) not on top of enemy models. Off the board and somewhere safe are not mentioned.

You dont have permission to move off the board, so that isnt a legal place to move

So what if said vehicle was completely trapped? How is it destroyed if there actually isn't a place to move?

Kitzz wrote:So what if said vehicle was completely trapped? How is it destroyed if there actually isn't a place to move?

Because the rules say that "Any models that cannot be moved out of the way are destroyed." P.51 Tyranid Codex

Kitzz wrote:So what if said vehicle was completely trapped? How is it destroyed if there actually isn't a place to move?

That's a different situation though to what happened.

So, imagine the @ is the general position of the doomsday Ark. The mawloc arrived with the blast marker centered (M=Center of marker) on the third gun of the gauss flayer array. Technically the shortest distance is the board edge (and with how large the marker and mawloc are, there was no room between it and the board edge) but as evidenced above, there was plenty of room in multiple directions to place it. I left out the 4 crypteks that were in the ruins as well but they got caught in the blast of the mawloc and had to be repositioned as well.

Just so you all have a slightly better idea of the layout of the board at the time of the situation.

it would move straight to its left in geneally the same facing, untill its away from the mawlocs marker and more then 1" away from it or any enemy model as per the rules. the reason i say left is becasue going to the right would move through the mawloc, as would forward, and backwards would take it off the table.

plus, from a physics viewpoint, depending on the force of the mawloc 'uprising' and the relative speed of the ark it would actually move left from the impact, and probally spin left on its center axis. ending up parrelel to the table edge with its front facing its previous left. and not move directly backwards.

DarthSpader wrote:it would move straight to its left in geneally the same facing, untill its away from the mawlocs marker and more then 1" away from it or any enemy model as per the rules. the reason i say left is becasue going to the right would move through the mawloc, as would forward, and backwards would take it off the table.

plus, from a physics viewpoint, depending on the force of the mawloc 'uprising' and the relative speed of the ark it would actually move left from the impact, and probally spin left on its center axis. ending up parrelel to the table edge with its front facing its previous left. and not move directly backwards.

I didn't think about that that way, actually. When I moved my vehicle I moved it to the right as that was the next shortest distance, but I didn't think about not moving through the mawloc. Also, we ended rolling on this during the game in the interest of continuing on.

DarthSpader wrote:... the reason i say left is becasue going to the right would move through the mawloc, as would forward, and backwards would take it off the table.

Well the mawloc is not there yet, so it is perfectly fine to move the vehicle to the right in the situation above, provided that was the shortest distance it needed to go to get clear.

not really... as i understand it you have to move away from the center of the marker. in the above picture the shortest path would be to the left or backwards, as moving to the right, or forwards would take the barge through the marker first, before it moves clear, whereas moving left or back would simply be moving away from the marker.

and really... if the mawlocs impact hits the barge on its right side, this will cause the barge to move to its left, not back through the mawloc and out the other side. (although it may go straight up then drift down... depending on point of impact etc etc... /end tanget)

DeathReaper wrote:

Kitzz wrote:So what if said vehicle was completely trapped? How is it destroyed if there actually isn't a place to move?

Because the rules say that "Any models that cannot be moved out of the way are destroyed." P.51 Tyranid Codex

Perhaps I phrased my question poorly:

In what way is it destroyed if there actually isn't a place to move?

So if they cannot move, they cannot move out the way. Meaning they are destroyed.

Darth - nothing says the shortest route is constrained by the centre of the blast markers position.

zeshin wrote:

Karnac wrote:He didnt read far enough, the "shortest route" means the shortest route to a safe position, however if there is nowhere safe to go the tank is destroyed.

I don't recall their being a callout for a "safe position", only one that was a) not under the large blast marker, b) not over impassable terrain, and c) not on top of enemy models. Off the board and somewhere safe are not mentioned.

safe = not in Impassable terrain or on top of enemy model or space already taken up by friendly models. "legal position" may have been better wording.

Kitzz wrote:Perhaps I phrased my question poorly:

In what way is it destroyed if there actually isn't a place to move?

I would say wrecked, but they do not specifically mention if it is Destroyed-Wrecked or Destroyed-Explodes.

More interestingly, what if said vehicle is a transport and is carrying a unit?

Wrecked, so you try to disembark from the vehicle. This may not work...

DarthSpader wrote:not really... as i understand it you have to move away from the center of the marker. in the above picture the shortest path would be to the left or backwards, as moving to the right, or forwards would take the barge through the marker first, before it moves clear, whereas moving left or back would simply be moving away from the marker.

That understanding has no basis in what the rule actually says. It says "the minimum distance" and doesn't say anything at all about not being allowed to cross the center of the template, so "the minimum distance" means as far as it needs to go, but no further than absolutely necessary. If the minimum distance to clear the template involves going across the template, then you go across the template. If the minimum distance involved driving to GW headquarters and smacking the writer up the head, you'd have to go to GW and make an appointment.

and really... if the mawlocs impact hits the barge on its right side, this will cause the barge to move to its left, not back through the mawloc and out the other side. (although it may go straight up then drift down... depending on point of impact etc etc... /end tanget)

You're presenting an argument based on fluff, not game mechanics. Who cares which side the "impact" is on? The Mawloc is not yet on the board yet, it's not there to get in the way.