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It seems clear from the BGB that during the assault phase, you resolve each combat completely (including sweeping advance, consolidation and/or pile in) before moving onto the following combat.

So what happens if there are two separate combats going on within a few inches of one another, and the victors from the first combat manage to consolidate into the second combat (*before* the second combat is resolved)?  Can the consolidating parties participate in the second assault (ie attack?  be attacked? contribute numbers for outnumbering calculations?)

Here's the situation:  A Carnifex and 6 Genestealers assault 8 Marines.  A few inches away, 3 Spinegaunts assault 5 Terminators (call me optimistic) in such a way that the entire Terminator unit is engaged with the Spinegaunts.

I resolved the Fex+Stealers vs Marines first.  Predictably, the Stealers wiped out the Marines.  Both the Stealers and the Carnifex rolled 3" for their Massacre rolls.  This would be enough to bring both into contact with the closest Terminator (the gaunts were not blocking the way).

Now the second combat (Gaunts vs Terminators).  But the Stealers and Fex are in contact with the one of the Terminators! 

Q1: Do the Stealers and Fex are not allowed to fight the Terminators?  That would mean that the Stealers and Fex got to fight twice in the same assault phase (seems wrong).  They could possibly roll a whole line of units in a single assault phase by consolidating and fighting an infinite number of times if this were allowed.

Q2: Do the Terminators get to allocate attacks to the Stealers and Fex, or do they have to fight only the Spinegaunts?  If the Stealers and Fex can't participate in the fighting, why would the Terminators get to smack them around?  I suppose that it would be the Nid player's fault for choosing to consolidate into an unresolved combat, but still.

Q3: Assume that neither the Terminators nor the Stealers and Fex can fight each other this turn (seems the most conservative).  What if the Spinegaunts manage to kill a Terminator (hey, it could happen)?  Could the sole Terminator in contact with the Stealers and Fex be pulled as a casualty, and the Terminators then consolidate away from the Stealers and Fex, stranding them out in the open to be shot to ribbons?

Q3a: In the above situation (sole Terminator contacting Stealers and Fex was removed as a casualty from a Spinegaunt attack), would the Stealers and Fex contribute their numbers to the 'Tyranid side' for the purpose of outnumbering and No Retreat wounds?  If not, could "No Retreat" wounds inflicted on the Spinegaunts be applied to Stealers? What if 4 No Retreat wounds were inflicted and there are only 2 Spinegaunts left to take them?  Would the extra 2 be applied to the Stealers or Fex?

All this was too much to contemplate resolving at midnight, so we ended up just waiting until each individual combat was resolved, then doing all consolidation moves simultaneously at the end of the phase.  Which still led to strangeness as the Fex *would* have made to the Termies with his massacre roll, but didn't because they were simultaneously moving away.

What is the best way to resolve this type of situation while staying in the rules as much as possible, o RAWlords?

$.02

Just looked and couldn't find anything in the BGB that says that you only get to fight one assault per turn.

p. 44: they don't fight until the next assault phase

I had a different situation come up last night. A consolodating unit moved into base contact with only one model from an unresolved combat. Then, during resolution of the second combat, my opponent pulled the one base-to-base model as a casualty. Is the unit that consolodated in still locked?

Thanks Flavius, I must be TOTALLY friggin' blind:

P44 also notes:

"If several close combats are being fought in close proximity, a unit which consolidates into a new close combat does not count as engaged until the next assault phase and is effectively ignored. All combats are assumed to be simultanious"

Which would say to me that the answer is:

If the terminators kill the gaunts and remain in contact with one of the steelers they may consolidate wherever they choose and shoot the steelers to ribbons next turn.

A little abstract but seems to be best in keeping with both RAW and intent.

Thanks guys,

The page 44 stuff helps a lot. So it seems the answers are:

A1: The stealers and fex may *not* fight the terminators this turn
A2: The terminators may *not* allocate attacks against the stealers and fex this turn
A3: Yes, the sole contacting Terminator may be removed as a casualty, stranding the stealers and fex in the open to get shot to ribbons.
A3a: No to all, as the stealers and fex do not count as engaged and are effectively ignored


The p44 quote specifically mentions that the units are not *engaged*, but does not say that they are not *locked*. If they are locked but not engaged, then the terminators would not be able to consolidate.

I think we have to assume that 'effectively ignored' means that the terminators and stealers are not locked either. Which also means that: if the stealers consolidated into a terminator that was not engaged with the gaunts, then that terminator would be able to either a) consolidate away, if all gaunts die; or b) Pile In to the gaunts, since he would be ignoring the stealers. Either way would strand the stealers out of combat -> shot to ribbons. Actually, depending on how gaunt casualties were removed, you could mess yourself up by disengaging that terminator when you pull the wrong gaunt!

Moral of the story - you can't count on locking units unless they have already fought that turn.

I should have chosen to resolve the Spinegaunt/Termie slaughter before I did the Stealer/Fex/Marine combat.

Hey, at least existing GW rules were sufficient to sort this one out, I'm impressed! No FAQ referencing required.

So did we play it out correctly, I cannot recall.

Not as such, but the effect was largely the same. We resolved all the combats, but waited to do the consolidation until after all combats were complete. So your termies tried to run away with their consolidation, but one of my stealers just caught up (by 1/4"). The Fex didn't make it though.

If we'd done it by the book, the result would have been the same (my gaunts did not manage to kill any termies, so you didn't have any casualties to pull that might have got you out of contact with the stealers).

We *did* apparently read the 'sweeping advance *does* count as a massacre' wrong again.

we keep doing that.