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If 2 separate units attack a blood angel unit and unit 1 kills enough blood angels to pull unit 2 out of engagement and pile in range does it still get to attack ? I understand each individual attack is meant to happen separately in the rules but am not certain if I am missing a rule about units hitting simultaneously. We could not find anything in the downloaded rules.

Nothing is truly simultaneous, it is in sequence. Using casualty removal to prevent attacks back has been a legit tactic for several editions now.

Note that Charging units can always be activated so could still Pile In 3” and nab you if close enough, whereas a non-Charging unit not in Engagement Range after casualty removal is not eligible to be activated.

I'm getting mixed mesages from the core rules on this question.

In the rules text at the top of page 32, there's the sentence

Core Rules, p.32 wrote:Note that a player cannot pass or opt not to fight when they
have one or more eligible units that could fight - they must
select one of them to fight.

So, if you end up in a situation in which a unit that charged (= is eligible to fight) but none of its models can reach Engagement Range by piling in (= not able to perform a pile-in move), then you cannot make any attacks with your unit when you select them to fight, i.e. your unit is not 'an eligible unit that could fight'. This means you can't select it to fight during the Fights First step.

If another enemy unit were to move into pile-in range in the Remaining Combats step (either by itself piling in and fighting or by consolidating after fighting), you could then select your unit and fight that new enemy. In your example, the 'new' enemy unit could even be the survivors of the BA unit you originally charged.

But, on page 35 under Select Targets, we have

Core Rules, p.34 wrote:If there are no eligible targets (because there are no enemy units
within Engagement Range, for example) then that unit cannot
make melee attacks this phase, but it can still Consolidate
(pg 35).

This would seem to imply that a charging unit is in fact considered an eligible unit that could fight simply by virtue of its having charged and you would thus be forced to select it to fight in the Fights First step, at which point it would be able to do nothing but Consolidate.


Regardless of all of the above, units are selected one at a time and therefore never fight simultaneously (although that's what would be happening in the 'real world'). All of a unit's separate models do fight simultaneously, though.

On a slight tangent, I think an important thing to remember is that, unlike in past editions, there's no rule that says you can attack only the unit(s) you charged. Any enemy units with models in range are eligible targets.

Cheers for the rules clarification guys, we played it as you said but were not sure.

Snuggiraffe - Charging is all the eligibility you need, as Pile In is part of the steps taken when you activate the unit to Fight. Don’t overcomplicate it past this and it makes sense.

Core Rules wrote:In both steps, a unit is eligible to fight if either or both of the following apply:
■ It is within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units.
■ It made a Charge move this turn

A Charging unit is always eligible to fight. The big changes from 8/9th is that you can't Pile In unless your unit can move into Engagement Range of one or more enemy units. You also can't Consolidate unless you get either into Engagement Range of one or more enemy units or alternatively in range of an objective marker. You can no longer use a Double Charge to slingshot a unit forward 6" (or more with some units) across the open battlefield:

1. PILE IN
When a unit Piles In, you can move each model in that unit that is not already in base-to-base contact with an enemy model up to 3" – this is a Pile-in move. For a Pile In to be possible, a unit must be able to end these moves within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units and in Unit Coherency. If these conditions cannot be met, no models in the unit can make Pile-in moves this phase and you progress to making melee attacks with that unit. Otherwise, the unit can make Pile-in moves.

Each time a model makes a Pile-in move, it must end that move closer to the closest enemy model. If it can also end that move in base-to-base contact with one or more enemy models while still satisfying all of the conditions above, it must do so. The controlling player chooses the order in which to move their models.

....

3. CONSOLIDATE
After a unit has finished making all of its melee attacks, it Consolidates. Each time a unit Consolidates, you can move each model in that unit that is not already in base-to-base contact with an enemy model up to 3" – this is a Consolidation move. For a Consolidation to be possible, a unit must be able to end these moves within Engagement Range of one or more enemy units and in Unit Coherency. If these conditions cannot be met, then each model in that unit can instead make a Consolidation move towards the closest objective marker, but only if, after doing so, that unit is within range of that objective marker and in Unit Coherency. If these conditions also cannot be met, no models in the unit can make Consolidation moves this phase and that unit’s fight ends.

Sorry if I'm beating a dead horse here, but I'm still a bit confused.

 alextroy wrote:
A Charging unit is always eligible to fight.

For the purposes of the OP's example, their second unit would be eligible to fight in the Fights First step (because it charged) but as there aren't any targets in range, we get this scenario:

Core Rules, p.34 wrote:If there are no eligible targets (because there are no enemy units
within Engagement Range, for example) then that unit cannot
make melee attacks this phase, but it can still Consolidate
(pg 35).

So, because you have to select a unit if it is eligible, you end up not being able to fight with the second unit at all, right? You've selected it and could Consolidate, only there's nothing in Consolidate range, so the unit just activates, then immediately deactivates again?

What about when an enemy unit who gets to go in the Remaining Combats step gets too close later, has the unit that charged forsaken its opportunity to fight or does it become eligible again?

I think this is the source of my confusion:

Core Rules wrote:2. REMAINING COMBATS
In this step, all remaining eligible units fight. This includes any
units with the Fights First ability that were not eligible to fight
at the start of the Fight phase, but have since become eligible
to fight.

If a unit is eligible to fight by virtue of charging alone, irrespective of whether there's actually a target available, then it must be selected in the FIghts First step and cannot become eligible later in the Remaining Combats step. It's quite possible that this is how it's supposed to work, and that the bolded part is added only for the benefit of units that have the Fights First ability natively (presumably, a unit that charged loses the Fights First ability it gained as a charge bonus at the end of the Fights First step).
Of course, the reverse might also be true, in which case Consolidating towards a unit that charged but didn't fight is going to require more consideration (in the same way that, on your own turn, you might not want to Consolidate any unit into an enemy that hasn't fought yet).

P32, second bullet point, tells you a unit that Charged is eligible to fight, so it can go through the steps outlined in the Fight phase. So long as the unit's Pile-In move would get it into Engagement Range it can still fight even if there are no models in Engagement Range when it activates.

Snugiraffe wrote:
I think this is the source of my confusion:

Core Rules wrote:2. REMAINING COMBATS
In this step, all remaining eligible units fight. This includes any
units with the Fights First ability that were not eligible to fight
at the start of the Fight phase, but have since become eligible
to fight.

This note exist for those cases when a unit with the Fight First ability (natively rather than from Charging) was not eligible to fight until a unit Piles In or Consolidates into Engagement Range with it during the Remaining Combats section of the Fight Phase. Without the note, the unit would be ineligible to fight because the Fight First part of the Fight Phase had already ended.