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Played a game last night and Kharn the betrayer was locked in combat from previous turn with a Wraith knight having reduced it to 1 wound. In my opponents turn he charged in a unit of jetbikes. Kharn duly dispatched the wraith knight in the assault phase with 3 wounds to spare. I thought that in 7th excess wounds from challenges spilled over to other combatants. But my opponent insisted that they could not be allocated onto a separate unit unless I specify that I am allocating attacks to that unit before rolling to hit. Seeing as I had no choice but to challenge I could only put wounds on the knight. He seemed pretty sure of it so not wanting to offend we played it that way.
Still it left me scratching my head as it seems a bit odd so I thought I'd pose the question here for future clarification.

Without the book in front of me, I'm not sure, but I think the wounds can only overflow into the same unit (and not separate units). I believe the Jetbikes were safe. Still, double-checking your rulebook on this should give a clear answer.

I believe if they are a separate unit he is right. I believe wounds from a challenge can only spill over to models in the same unit as the challenger.

Page 102 (small rulebook), Combatant Slain:

If a character slays his opponent, each excess wound inflicted is then allocated to the next nearest enemy model locked in combat.

Slight paraphrase, but the rules never specify that the excess must go to the characters unit.

Under multiple combats>directing attacks

Wounds from Attacks that have been directed against a unit in a multiple combat cannot be transferred to another unit, even if the original target unit is completely destroyed.

with out having re-read challenges. I'm guessing all the attacks from a character in a challenge must be directed at the other character in the challenge and as such are never directed at the other unit in the combat.

edit: OK yeah, the only way to fallow both the challenge rules and the multiple combat rules is for the character in the challenge to direct all his attacks at the other model in the challenge's unit, otherwise he will be unable to allocate all his wounds to the other character.

That seems wierd, but the rules make sense.

Yeah having had a closer look at the rules and with what people have said on here it does seem that my opponent was right it just didn't seem right but I think Thats because in my head I'm thinking of it as a challenge against a regular IC who would normally become part of the other unit involved in the combat. Obviously a MC can never be joined. Just seems counter intuitive.

So here's one, if I issue the challenge. Is it issued to a specific unit and my opponent can accept with any character in that unit that he likes. Or is it issued to all units in the combat therefore allowing the recipient of the challenge to choose which unit he wants me to limit my wound allocation to?

He can accept with any character in one of his units locked in combat with the challenger. So you are not issuing your challenge to a specific unit.

WK are not characters so the excess wounds would spill over into the JB .

Interesting, so you can run a cheap IC with a unit and simply split them off before assaulting in such a way as to not end up back in coherency with that unit after the charge and effectively prevent any of the csm ICs from killing models from the more valuable unit


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The WK in this instance was a character as he used rules from the iyanden supplement I believe. This made it his warlord.

I don't think it's a character even for that supplement .

Oh, it gets better, or worse depending on your take. Say I have a 10 man unit of space marines and an inquisitor has joined them. He is your basic, no-option inquisitor. In the movement phase the inquisitor leaves the unit and at then end of the movement phase he is 2" from both Karn and the 10 man marine unit. The marine unit is 1" from Karn itself. In the shooting phase every one fires bolt pistols at Karn and nothing gets through. Come the assault phase the inquisitor charges Karn. Karn either has to choose to fire his over watch at the inquisitor or risk loosing it if the inquisitor locks him in combat. The inquisitor survives over watch and makes the distance. The 10 man space marine squad can now charge Karn and not have to worry about over watch. Inquisitor declares a challenge and the marines. The marines will be able to fight Karn unanswered as long as the inquisitor remains alive.

That's very basic.

Dozer Blades, Iyanden can choose to make a Wraithknight the Warlord, if done, it becomes a character.

I might have missed it myself. Is there a rule that says a warlord is a defacto character? I know Imperial Knight Warlords are characters but lets say I'm playing unbound with 12 predator tanks. I can pick one of them to be my warlord but does that make that predator tank a character as well?

If your army has a character, your Warlord must be a character. If you have no characters, then any model can be your Warlord. Imperial Knights, and Iyanden Wraithknights have a special rule that makes them characters if you take one as your Warlord.