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I was playing in a Mega Battle a few weeks ago and during one of the combats an interesting rules question formed. It has to do with which models count as being Engaged. Here is the situation.. A squad of genestealers with Broodlord charged a squad of terminators and almost wiped them out. The marines charged in with a tactical squad and a Chaplain in Terminator Armour. Now about three of the marines were in base to base and four were within 2" of them so seven marines engaged, the chaplain charged into the side of the combat and engaged a genestealer that was within 2" of the stealers in base to base with the marines. So what happened was the Broodlord went first and killed a couple of the marines. The marine player removed the marine in base to base with the BL and one within two inches of him. Next the stealers and the chaplain struck simultaneously. The stealers killed another marine and did a wound on the chaplain. The chaplain killed three stealers, so the Nid player removed the one in base to base with the chaplain and two of the stealers in base to base with the marines. This left only one of the marine squad in contact with a stealer and no one within 2" of him and the nid player claimed that only the one who was still in contact could fight even though the others(including the Vet sarge w/power fist) were engaged at the beginning. The rules did not clarify this situation very well and in the end we decided to follow the nid player's interpretation. But what do you think?

Each initiative step decides who can fight. At the point that the last squad would be going, that model and unit members within 2" can fight on that initiative step, it does not matter who was in base to base earlier in the combat, just at that step. You are no longer restricted to only the one model in base to base though unless he is the only one left from his unit or if he is an Independent Character. It sounds like the nid player was right except for his teammates within 2" should have been able to join in.

Snoogums is right.

Page 41, 2nd to last paragraph. Who is engaged is re-calculated at each initiative step.

One of my favoered tactics as Tau is to get everybody out of base when the marines kill them at I 4. The Sgt with a power fist doesn't get to hurt anymore and I hope to roll high on the morale check so I can run away without being caught and then shoot the marines.

This is completely right. How did the chaplain go at the same time as the genestealers? Aren't they I 6? He can't have furious charge unless he was part of a squad and so should have charged in with the squad...

Yep, common tactic in 4th. When you have models at different intiative steps, greater care has to be taken when positioning them to maximize the chance they will get to strike.

Having 1 Uber character attatched to a squad who attacks first, can be as bad as having 1 uber character that attacks last.