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I've watched several video batreps recently, and I've noticed players wrapping up units they have charged, saying the unit is trapped, which I take to mean they can't call back. Can someone explain how this works to me?

Thanks!

Well they can't move. Not much to explain there.

The rulebook states that in order to Fall Back, you have to finish your move more than 1" away from an enemy model. Also, you can't move over enemy units. If those conditions aren't met, you can't Fall Back from combat

Does the 1 inch move zone prevent that? I mean, you could just move in a straight line to get out of btb/1inch zone.

Depends on how thoroughly surrounded a model is. Opponents frequently use battleshock to kill off surrounded models, though.

It usually relies on using three infantry models to form a triangle around one enemy model. There will be no way for that model to move away, and therefore the unit can’t fall back.

You can sometimes do some very sneaky stuff with this trick. It’s not just about killing units in melee - it also helps that the enemy can’t shoot you. If you’ve got something like a flying unit you can have it join a fight against a trapped unit, keeping it safe from harm. Then it can fall back and shoot on your turn.

Hovering flyers can also do this quite effectively. They can turn to face any direction when in hover mode, so you can have them charge in backwards, ready to head back to your own lines next turn.

@Mandragola, that's awesome, I hadn't considered that as a possibility.

@General Hobbs, as others have said it's about surrounding one or more enemy models in a way that they are unable to move away. As the rules prohibit moving through enemy models an enemy model may find that the space between your friendly models is insufficient to move through, there by trapping it into combat.

A easy example is when you are battling tanks. Your models can surround the tank and prevent it from falling back. The same can be done with individual models in enemy units.

With this strategy I find you have to consider the following:
1) How many models of the enemy you are likely to kill (and where they will take them from)
2) How many models are lost in the moral phase

If you have a super killy unit that is likely to wipe out the enemy I suggest positioning your unit so that when it comes to swinging that you only have 1 model within the 1" of the enemy. Use your 3" pile in to position your other models in a better place to encapsulate the enemy (staying outside 1" where possible), then after swinging using the 3" consolidate to get into B2B and locking the enemy models into combat (you will need to get behind the enemy for this to work)

If you kill too many enemy models in combat then it is possible for them to remove any trapped models in the moral phase at which point you are out of luck.

Something to be aware of:
- after pile in and consolidate you must be closer to the closest enemy unit than before. Meaning you can't if your model is already in base to base.
- because of this, it's usually better to not get closer 1" after the charge, so you can use those moves. Also you only need 1 model in 1".The others can be kept further away to use your pile in to it's fullest.

The charge and fight phase is the tacticly most difficult phase to master... movement.

Thank you all for the answers. Yes, HTH is very difficult and can be the difference between a good and great player. Hence why I asked this question....I've learned more from this thread than I have in ages playing IRL. I can't wait to try and practice it.

TBH I think most players think you can fall back the way you used to be able to retreat after a failed morale check.