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So you can make a 3" inch consolidation after resolving your attacks in close combat, which is all good. But what if 4 units, for example. charge one unit and in the ensuing fight phase the first unit you choose kills off the entire unit. It consolidates as it should. What about the other 3 units? They no longer have anything to attack so do they get a consolidate move just because they were in a fight, or even just because they charged?

Thanks, it's a big deal when going towards objectives etc.

I believe the three other units will simply skip the unnecessary sub-phases to go straight to the Consolidation sub-phase, thus allowing them their 3" movement.

Ive been playing it as "if you cant fight (not within 1inch of enemy model) You cant pick that unit for the Fight sequence" Thus no Consolidation or Pile-In. Because if that's the case the *whole* army can consolidate 3" in the fight phase.

Ah yes I see what you mean, you're right. The Fight Phase never begins with the three units and so they can't consolidate. You're right !

Units which charged are always eligible to be chosen to fight. They don't have to be within 1". A fight consists of steps 2-6 in the Fight Sequence (the end of step 1 is explicit about this).

So if you charged, but by the time you get picked to fight there aren't any enemies around, all you do is Pile In and then Consolidate. You could potentially use these moves to get within 1" of other enemy units. You would not be able to direct attacks against them, though, since they were not targets of your charge.

careful with your pile ins and consolidations... I am seeing more and more players not following the "pile in to closest unit" rules.

You can only engage another unit if "prior" to your pile in or consolidation.. you were closer to an unengaged unit.

so if you cant pile in closer to the initial target (which is also the closest) ..you don't move at all.

I see players all the time engaging other units without taking into account they were closer to the unit they charged as well as moving there models around even after they have come as close as possible. Once that is accomplished.. there is no movement

Dionysodorus wrote:
Units which charged are always eligible to be chosen to fight. They don't have to be within 1". A fight consists of steps 2-6 in the Fight Sequence (the end of step 1 is explicit about this).

So if you charged, but by the time you get picked to fight there aren't any enemies around, all you do is Pile In and then Consolidate. You could potentially use these moves to get within 1" of other enemy units. You would not be able to direct attacks against them, though, since they were not targets of your charge.

This. I completely forgot about that rule until you mentioned it, even though it's the first words in the Fight phase rules.

 zedsdead wrote:
careful with your pile ins and consolidations... I am seeing more and more players not following the "pile in to closest unit" rules.

You can only engage another unit if "prior" to your pile in or consolidation.. you were closer to an unengaged unit.

so if you cant pile in closer to the initial target (which is also the closest) ..you don't move at all.

I see players all the time engaging other units without taking into account they were closer to the unit they charged as well as moving there models around even after they have come as close as possible. Once that is accomplished.. there is no movement

True.
The trick is clever movement in the charge phase which will mostly decide what units you can pile into.
All the freedom at charging is awesome.
Like there is no need to charge directly. You can move in the back of the target modell, if you follow the other rules and that way use small units to surf around them and gain additional movement.

Or circle around non flying units to prevent them from falling back.

Now I'm even more confused. Does that mean no charging models can't pile in and consolidate? Does the last sentence apply only to chargers?

ravenerioli wrote:
Now I'm even more confused. Does that mean no charging models can't pile in and consolidate? Does the last sentence apply only to chargers?

They can, but only if they got to fight. If they end up more than 1" away before being selected to fight, they can't now be selected to fight.

What it means is I you charged you:
1) Always get to Pile In
2) Only get to attack if there is an target within 1" after you Pile In
3) Always get to Consolidate

They are just point out that you may end up getting to Pile In and still be more than 1" away from all enemy models and thus not able to attack in the Fight phase.

So essentially if 3 or 4 units charge one unit and my first charging unit destroys it the other 3 chargers get a free 6 inch move towards the closest enemy unit?

ravenerioli wrote:
So essentially if 3 or 4 units charge one unit and my first charging unit destroys it the other 3 chargers get a free 6 inch move towards the closest enemy unit?

Indeed they would

 zedsdead wrote:
careful with your pile ins and consolidations... I am seeing more and more players not following the "pile in to closest unit" rules.

You can only engage another unit if "prior" to your pile in or consolidation.. you were closer to an unengaged unit.

so if you cant pile in closer to the initial target (which is also the closest) ..you don't move at all.

I see players all the time engaging other units without taking into account they were closer to the unit they charged as well as moving there models around even after they have come as close as possible. Once that is accomplished.. there is no movement

This is incorrect. So long as you move closer to the closest model, you can engage a unit past it as well. If you start out 1" to the left of a model, you can consolidate into base contact on the right side of that model. That's a perfectly valid method to bring a unit further to the right into combat (although if you charged, you can only actually attack the unit(s) that you charged).

I will also note that if you're in base-to-base with a model already, you can't move w/ pile-in or consolidate at all. You have to move closer to the closest model than when you started, and if you're already touching then it's impossible to get closer.

I had an assault yesterday where a few orks killed my Predator then consolidated into base-to-base contact with the Razorback behind the dead Predator. It seems you can lock any number of units if you can touch them with the 3" consolidation move. This make consolidation really like a free assault move without the attack. Really puts the hurt on tanks in particular.

Wish the rule specified that consolidation must stop outside 1" of enemy units as this is pretty cheesy.

 Ministry wrote:
I had an assault yesterday where a few orks killed my Predator then consolidated into base-to-base contact with the Razorback behind the dead Predator. It seems you can lock any number of units if you can touch them with the 3" consolidation move. This make consolidation really like a free assault move without the attack. Really puts the hurt on tanks in particular.

Wish the rule specified that consolidation must stop outside 1" of enemy units as this is pretty cheesy.

Completely consequence free fall back is the balance to this.

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Ministry wrote:
I had an assault yesterday where a few orks killed my Predator then consolidated into base-to-base contact with the Razorback behind the dead Predator. It seems you can lock any number of units if you can touch them with the 3" consolidation move. This make consolidation really like a free assault move without the attack. Really puts the hurt on tanks in particular.

Wish the rule specified that consolidation must stop outside 1" of enemy units as this is pretty cheesy.

Completely consequence free fall back is the balance to this.

Not to mention that when you consolidate within 1" of a new enemy unit, you're now allowing that enemy unit free attacks back at the unit that just consolidated. So in the quoted example, the Razorback is now suddenly able to fight against the enemy unit that consolidated into them. Given a Razorback's attacks are nothing to be afraid of, but if the enemy unit consolidated into one of your units that was more dangerous in melee, then they'd be regretting it, as you'd get to fight them and then still fall back (if you wanted) in your next turn.

This gives you all the more reason to take varied armies where you have layers of units supporting each other. That way it won't always be a smart thing for your opponent to consolidate to within 1" of your units, because you might have some nice counter-attack pretty strong melee unit waiting behind your first wave.

 yakface wrote:

 BaconCatBug wrote:

 Ministry wrote:
I had an assault yesterday where a few orks killed my Predator then consolidated into base-to-base contact with the Razorback behind the dead Predator. It seems you can lock any number of units if you can touch them with the 3" consolidation move. This make consolidation really like a free assault move without the attack. Really puts the hurt on tanks in particular.

Wish the rule specified that consolidation must stop outside 1" of enemy units as this is pretty cheesy.

Completely consequence free fall back is the balance to this.

Not to mention that when you consolidate within 1" of a new enemy unit, you're now allowing that enemy unit free attacks back at the unit that just consolidated. So in the quoted example, the Razorback is now suddenly able to fight against the enemy unit that consolidated into them. Given a Razorback's attacks are nothing to be afraid of, but if the enemy unit consolidated into one of your units that was more dangerous in melee, then they'd be regretting it, as you'd get to fight them and then still fall back (if you wanted) in your next turn.

This gives you all the more reason to take varied armies where you have layers of units supporting each other. That way it won't always be a smart thing for your opponent to consolidate to within 1" of your units, because you might have some nice counter-attack pretty strong melee unit waiting behind your first wave.

While I agree that army layers like onions are nice to see, in most instances tanks don't usually travel with infantry behind them as assault support. The benefits of "free attacks" in this one as the tank hits at once at WS6 is laughable. I guess in some instances there may be some overwatch benefit but not in most cases. In my example the (turn 1 charging) orks attacked my Baal Predator and Predator simultaneously and killed the Predator. The 5 units that killed the predator then glommed onto the Razorback behind forcing it to fall back and thus lose the ability to shoot that round. Locking another unit in combat restricts their movement and denies them any movement or another charge.

Agree that there should be at least an option to fall back like the mighty Ultramarines in consolidation cheese situations. Daisy chain consolidation moving into assault lock overly benefits melee armies.