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I have a couple of rules questions!

Electric Pulse

I'm not sure I have this one right. My understanding is that I can use the Electric Pulse as a CC attack, and then if my opponent dodges or does a CC attack of their own against the model using Electric Pulse then they receive a -6 mod and if they fail by 6 or less then the Electric Pulse effect triggers. That seems to make sense. What I don't get is this part:

Electric Pulse can be used proactively by declaring a CC Attack with it, but the effect only applies if the enemy declares an ARO.

What I don't understand is why I'd "proactively" declare a CC attack with electric pulse outside of an ARO. It seems like the cases are:

Enemy active turn: enemy uses a move skill (e.g. into melee), I Electric Pulse as an ARO, enemy uses CC attack/etc
My active turn: I use a movement skill (maybe I move into melee, or maybe I just idle or whatever if I'm in melee), my opponent has to declare an ARO or lose the opportunity, and now I can Electric Pulse as my second skill if they chose CC attack or dodge or I can do something else if they didn't.

So I don't understand why I would use the Electric Pulse "proactively" without waiting for my opponent to declare their ARO first. What am I missing here? Is there some reason I'd want to declare CC attack as my first skill? Can I do that?

Moving into CC from behind

If a model moves into melee with my model, but my model is facing the other way, can I BS attack it as an ARO? I thought I probably couldn't, but someone disagreed so I wanted to make sure.

Thanks for any responses.

Well you described how you'd use it in your active turn so I don't understand what you're asking?

On the other point , you need LoS to shoot so I don't see how you can ARO with it
On the other hand, CC attacks don't require LoS, just being in base contact
Other than that it's just the Change Facing ARO avalaible as far as I can tell

The reason I'm confused about the Electric Pulse is I don't see how the quoted text (which is part of the Electric Pulse rule) makes any sense, because if it's your active turn (which it has to be for your opponent to have to declare an ARO) then your opponent would declare their ARO before you declare you're CC attacking with Electric Pulse anyway, so there's no situation where you would blindly declare Electric Pulse (on the active turn) and have the result contingent on what your opponent declares. So either:

1. I'm wrong about how you use Electric Pulse, or
2. there's some reason you'd declare CC attack with Electric Pulse as your first skill and then something else as your second (I don't think there is but maybe I'm wrong?) or
3. the quoted note on Electric Pulse makes no sense

Or maybe there's some weird edge case where someone can delay an ARO where it becomes relevant?

With the CC attack, you should be able to Dodge by my understanding, since you need LoF to Dodge but you gain LoF when the enemy enters base to base contact. But at that point I guess you should get the Engaged state and become unable to shoot? So I would've thought you'd have no line of fire to the enemy until you become Engaged and unable to make a BS attack.

 HiveFleetPlastic wrote:
The reason I'm confused about the Electric Pulse is I don't see how the quoted text (which is part of the Electric Pulse rule) makes any sense, because if it's your active turn (which it has to be for your opponent to have to declare an ARO) then your opponent would declare their ARO before you declare you're CC attacking with Electric Pulse anyway, so there's no situation where you would blindly declare Electric Pulse (on the active turn) and have the result contingent on what your opponent declares. So either:

1. I'm wrong about how you use Electric Pulse, or
2. there's some reason you'd declare CC attack with Electric Pulse as your first skill and then something else as your second (I don't think there is but maybe I'm wrong?) or
3. the quoted note on Electric Pulse makes no sense

Or maybe there's some weird edge case where someone can delay an ARO where it becomes relevant?

You're not wrong. But remember that an opponent does not have to declare an ARO and may just forfeit the chance at one, thereby obviating a chance at allowing you to make an attack with the EP (assuming your first short was to move into B2B).

So basically, if an opponent is aware of the EP rules, and knows your model has no other weapons, his best option is to do nothing.

Yes you can choose to use it in CC with a Order, so if the other guy does something for a chance to Imm-2 the enemy. Yes it is niche use but there is more then a few skill/equipment that are niche.


As for moving in to CC from behind. ZoC is what let's you use a BS attack or dodge or any visual based ARO. Look at MA for the guys you can't use your ZoC but need LoF to shot at.

 Jin wrote:
You're not wrong. But remember that an opponent does not have to declare an ARO and may just forfeit the chance at one, thereby obviating a chance at allowing you to make an attack with the EP (assuming your first short was to move into B2B).

So basically, if an opponent is aware of the EP rules, and knows your model has no other weapons, his best option is to do nothing.

Every trooper is still capable of fighting bare-handed thus doing nothing might not be the best idea since the attacker gets an unopposed roll in CC

@ HiveFleetPlastic: Proactively doesn't mean you have to declare it before you attack someone. In this case it has more the meaning of planning to use it offensive instead of it's normal use as a last resort while under a CC attack.

Thanks for all your replies!

 Tristan228 wrote:

 Jin wrote:
You're not wrong. But remember that an opponent does not have to declare an ARO and may just forfeit the chance at one, thereby obviating a chance at allowing you to make an attack with the EP (assuming your first short was to move into B2B).

So basically, if an opponent is aware of the EP rules, and knows your model has no other weapons, his best option is to do nothing.

Every trooper is still capable of fighting bare-handed thus doing nothing might not be the best idea since the attacker gets an unopposed roll in CC

@ HiveFleetPlastic: Proactively doesn't mean you have to declare it before you attack someone. In this case it has more the meaning of planning to use it offensive instead of it's normal use as a last resort while under a CC attack.

Okay, and I see there is a post on the Infinity rules forums saying any model can attack bare-handed, not just ones with no CC weapons at all. Great! So if they choose not to ARO I can just punch them with my mighty CC 8, Damage 8. Pow!

What about the BS attack on an enemy that moves into base to base from behind? Is it correct that you can't respond by shooting because you don't have line of fire until the enemy reaches base to base and you become Engaged and can't shoot? But you could respond with a CC attack, right?

A normal roll at CC 8 is a 40% chance to hit! Don't underestimate your power

According to the stuff I read in the Infinity and other forums you can't shoot at your attacker. You can still ARO with a CC-Attack or Dodge.

Yeah after looking at it some more, your choice when engaged in CC from behind is limited to CC-attack back or Change facing (rather than Dodge which requires LoS)

Never mind

 Tristan228 wrote:
A normal roll at CC 8 is a 40% chance to hit! Don't underestimate your power

According to the stuff I read in the Infinity and other forums you can't shoot at your attacker. You can still ARO with a CC-Attack or Dodge.

Hey, maybe it's a 40% chance to hit, but when you multiply through the opponent's 60% chance (minimum) of passing the ARM test it doesn't look so good! (Though I guess they have to take a guts roll if they succeed? Maybe my bot can just flail ineffectually at them until they get scared and run away.)

 B0B MaRlEy wrote:
Yeah after looking at it some more, your choice when engaged in CC from behind is limited to CC-attack back or Change facing (rather than Dodge which requires LoS)

You should be able to dodge, too, because on page 18, under "LOF OF FIGURES IN CC" it says

LOF OF FIGURES IN CC wrote:Figures engaged in CC can draw a 360º LoF, but only to whatever they are in base contact with.

So you need LoF to dodge, but as long as you are in CC you will have LoF. You only don't have LoF if they do something like shoot at you from behind rather than move into CC.

Noir wrote:
Never mind

I was going to reply to your post, but it turned into Never mind while I was writing the rest! The skill I think you're thinking of is Stealth, the skill that prevents you from causing AROs when moving inside the enemy's Zone of Control if you just move around, which is interesting, because one of its lines is:

Stealth wrote:If the Movement of the trooper with Stealth ends in base to base contact with an enemy and declares any non-Movement Short Skill, then the enemy can only declare CC Attack, Dodge, Reset, or those Skills that can be used in Engaged state.

So that sort of implies you can normally use skills that can't be used in the Engaged state if your enemy doesn't have Stealth, which might mean you can make BS attacks against them?

Does this just never come up because nobody moves into CC with someone when they could just shoot them in the back or what??

 HiveFleetPlastic wrote:

So that sort of implies you can normally use skills that can't be used in the Engaged state if your enemy doesn't have Stealth, which might mean you can make BS attacks against them?

Does this just never come up because nobody moves into CC with someone when they could just shoot them in the back or what??

First Question: No, that means the you could react with Change facing if your opponent penetrates (Höhöhö ) your ZOC from behind / outside LOF even if he only moves and doesn't attack you.

Second: Basically yes, you get an onopposed shot. Thats like the Cerry on top of your favourite ice cream!