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Can Shadowsun and Farsight both start the game, in reserve, joined to the same unit? (A Farsight bomb, let's say?) Or is this tactic illegal, as some people believe, because Shadowsun has Infiltrate, and must deploy after Farsight and his unit, and thus would be ineligible to join them in reserve?

To clarify: Infiltrators are deployed after all normal units are deployed. Some say that since they are deployed second, even when deploying into reserve, and that ICs must be placed in reserve WITH the unit they are joining, then Shadowsun cannot join Farsight's bodyguard unit along with Farsight.

Other units with similar abilities, such as Kayvaan Shrike, are given implicit permission in the FAQ to do so.

That is, as I understand it, the primary argument against the practice. I would greatly appreciate it if Peregrine or one of the other people who hold this view would elaborate on the reasons that they see it the way they do.

Lock and post removed...I can at least see the argument now.

Yes, you can.

Page 121, under "deploying infiltrators and redeploying scouts": first you deploy all units apart from those held in reserve or infiltrating.

Page 124, under "preparing reserves": you make the choice of which units to put in reserve once (including the 50% limit, which would get kind of confused if you could place more units into reserve later).

Conclusion: all units are committed to reserve at the same time, before infiltrators are deployed. Once committed to reserve a unit with the infiltrate USR is not taken back out of reserve and forced to deploy with all the other infiltrators just because they have the USR (otherwise you'd never be able to use the outflank option).

As above. There isnt a valid reason to deny them being held together in reserve.

I'm sorry, Peregrine, apparently I'm confused. I thought you were claiming Farsight couldn't even join the same unit as Shadowsun during deployment, not that they could, just as long as they were reserved and not Infiltrating. On a re-read I see my mistake.

My apologies. I'm running on forty minutes of sleep at a time due to a new-baby-oriented schedule. I thought I understood where the issue lay, but I see where I screwed up. Sorry for the confusion everybody.

Move along...nothing to see here...

Can an IC without infiltrate (for example a Space Marine Captain) join a unit with infiltrate (such as Scouts) in reserve?


Seems to be a related question.

Yes, as there is no rule stating otherwise.

I believe the keywords here is 'during deployment' on the limitation of joining a unit with infiltration.

This refers to a key section of the book, on page 121, known as the deployment phase. It is even given the title 'deployment' so it sits quite well with the infiltration wording. This phase of the game set up has a defined end: that being when turn 1 begins! I like to consider it turn 0 myself, but that is a personal choice. However you consider it, this is a phase of set up and has a very clearly defined starting and ending point. Any units that come onto the field after this point are not subject to the normal rules that are defined within the deployment section, including any special rules that put limits on units during this part of the game setup.

Reserves are an additional special rule that is put into place during certain missions, all of them in the BRB, that allows you to chose units that you are not deploying. It is used to govern how units come onto the field of play if they are not deployed during the deployment stages. It also clearly states that IC can join units at this time, mostly to highlight that the standard method of IC joining a unit is still taking place, just off the battlefield, as you can be sure someone would argue that an IC can't start with a reserved unit period if it hadn't been stated clearly that they could. It also covers how these units come onto the field, all after Turn 1 when the official 'deployment' phase has ended.

The only real nit-pick that could be taken is the word deploy is used within one paragraph describing how the unit arrives from reserves. If you are facing a rule lawyer that grasps at anything, including a individual word, then you have a real dick on your hands. However, if she/he wants to be that restrictive you can easily point out that deploy and deployment are two different words that can not be used interchangeably. I think it is a stronger argument to state the word deployment was addressing the phase with the exact name of deployment, which deep striking units ignore completely as they come in after the deployment phase has finished.