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Hey guys, I'm new to the forums (and Warhammer Fantasy Battles) so I apologize if this was answered elsewhere or I missed it in the rules.

I was playing a game as Bretonnians against my friends Lizardmen army. I had charged a unit of his Lizardmen containing the Slan in the middle of the unit. He had four guys in the front rank, the Slann taking up the middle two spaces of the second and third ranks, and then one guy on either side of the Slann in both the second and third ranks. I was in full base contact with most of the first rank after the charge. However, when I attacked and rolled successfully on my to hit and wound rolls he decided to take the hits on the Slan (because he had some type of regeneration move) rather than the other warriors.

However, my question or belief was that when I attack I can only hit models in base contact with mine. Was he allowed to take hits on his Slann even though none of my units were actually touching him? Thanks ahead of time!

Grimnoc wrote:take the hits on the Slan (because he had some type of regeneration move) rather than the Slann.

Think I know what you're asking, but you might need a bit of an edit here.

In combat, you allocate where you are attacking, and may only allocate against models you are in base to base contact with. There are some odd-ball exceptions that are distributed as shooting (impact hits, stomps, thunderstomps) but as a Bretonnian player, you almost certainly didn't have these.

In short, he shouldn't have been able to take the hits on his Slann unless you a) could legally do so, and b) chose to do so yourself. It sounded like neither was the case.

Well, all attacks are distributed as per shooting sorta. Meaning that you simply take from the back of the unit of the same type so they step-up. But you are attacking the MODELS that are in base-to-base contact in the UNIT. And you allocate hits against those same model-types, taking casualties who fail their saves from the back.

If you are in base-to-base contact with multiple unit profiles, the attacker decides who he is attacking. Such as being next to a champion or hero and the rest of the unit. But it's the attacker's choice.

The situation you're talking about would be akin to giving the entire unit a ward save or regen or an extremely high armor save simply because a hero/lord existed with those abilities within the unit. Imagine the crush of 50 guys fighting 50 guys. How is a hero way on the left flank going to block the attacks of someone clear across the battle? That fat Slann isn't going to reach his dinky little arms in front of his lizardmen (who are guarding HIM, not the other way around, btw).

So no, it wasn't legal.

Thanks so much guys. I hadn't thought that it was correct but wasn't sure due to only having read the rules once.

It was my thinking that 'he shouldn't have been able to take the hits on his Slann unless you a) could legally do so, and b) chose to do so yourself.'

Additionally, as you mentioned Duke, it resulted in one guy using his extremely high wounds/abilities to effectively nullify the attacks of an entire unit!

Thanks again guys, I"m sure I'll be posting more stupid questions in the future.

~Grimnoc

As a LM player myself i can say for sue that that was wrong.
Dunno if he cheated or played too much 40k but next time make sure to help him understands his army better.

HoverBoy wrote:As a LM player myself i can say for sue that that was wrong.
Dunno if he cheated or played too much 40k but next time make sure to help him understands his army better.

Thanks. He pretty much only plays 40k as having no one to play fantasy with left him with only collecting and reading the army books and rules. Btw, I love your avatar pic.

~Grimnoc

The slann is only ever hit in combat if he himself is in contact. He can't be hit, nor can the player choose to allocate wounds onto him if he is not in base contact with the enemy. If it had been in the front rank, it would be fine. However this was not the case. At best it was a misunderstanding of the Slann rules, at worst it was cheating.

You can only hit what your in base contact with. You do not allocate close combat hits unless the hit (like impact hits ) is distributed as per shooting and only if there is 4 or less Rank and File (not including champion) models left.

For example, Theres the Slann and 5 Warriors. The Slann is the the 2nd rank. You do 8 hits against warriors and wound 6. If all 6 are unsaved, only the warriors take the wounds and the extra wound is lost.

I do feel for your friend here. Fantasy and 40K have similar rules, but Wound Allocation are one of the places where they have some of those fundamental differences that can change an entire battle. And when you can't find a game, you don't get to learn them.