I have been playing matches at my store where there is virtually no way of removing an enemy off an offidian archway or numinous occulum via mellee. They and all tournaments use base to base and ONLY base to base measuring (baddice
http://baddice.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/bloodandglory2017_AoS_Championships.pdf ). So for example; All the mighty lords and all their bloodreavers, couldn't hit pink horrors on top of an archway. Cant move close enough, can't charge them, cannot close combat them, PERIOD. So you need some sort of ranged to take that on. It means that in a vacuum, a fight between equal points one unit versus another... the ranged unit that gets on top of some second story terrain WILL win and cant even be touched if the other unit is only melee. Seems really stupid to me that 20 pink horrors in a sea of only melee units WILL still win. No one can climb up there because there is no space to fit a base either... large units that under model to model measuring could hit a target on a balcony, cannot at the store or these tournaments... That seems really against the spirit and intent of the game. As it stands its a "houserule" that everyone just uses (i am not against it entirely... i dont want people piling their bases on mine and modeling to abuse this happens too. So its well and good to stop those shenanigans... but it really hurts big models that are assembled exactly as depicted on box...). Next I want to talk about an errata
GW put out in their attempt to deal with this.
https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Errata/warhammer_aos_rules_en.pdf under movement section;
" Q: Please clarify when/if it is necessary to count vertical
movement as part of the distance a model moves, especially with
regard to climbing scenic walls. If the height of the wall exceeds
a model’s movement, is the wall unclimbable, or can it be
climbed over multiple turns? Can a model run up the wall?
A: The vertical distance needed to climb up and down
a wall counts as part of the distance a model is able
to move. This may require a model to spend several
turns climbing an especially high wall (you will need to
remember how far it has climbed each turn). Models
can run while climbing a wall. Note that models which
can fly ignore scenery (and other models) as they move,
and therefore the vertical distance is not included when
working out how far they have moved.
Q: A model cannot move through scenery but can move across
it or climb it (unless it is stated otherwise on the scenery
warscroll, I presume). Are my Drakespawn Chariots allowed
to climb a Fortress Wall or move down from a Witchfate Tor or
Fortified Manor?
A: For simplicity and ease of play, the core game rules
allow any model to climb any piece of scenery. If you
wish, you may want to say that models are only allowed to
move to places that they could reach ‘in real life’, but you
will need to apply a certain amount of common sense
and discretion in order to make such a rule work well.
Q: Are models/units allowed to ‘climb up’ trees on the Citadel
Wood bases?
A: Yes. For simplicity and ease of play, models are
allowed to climb up and down any type of scenery "
So when I tried to say that I COULD in fact charge a unit on a wall via this errata, I was met with only critisism and denied. Told that it ONLY affects move in movement phase (although its called a "charge MOVE") (in essence they were saying charge move is a "move" only when it works for them...) Whole store was doing this, manager told me I could not win unless i still had shooting left... Now according to Baddice, they use EVERY errata... So I would think it would be that models CAN charge terrain like this, just the height of said terrain would be added to the charge distance... Everyone at the store tells me I am wrong and that the errata makes no sense so they wont use it...
So the question is: Who is doing this right?
I havent actually been to a tournament to know for sure... I do think that simply having high ground should just make you invincible to melee that seems wrong and unbalanced. If its true though... why not run a Tzeentch daemon list and just abuse the hell out off the ruling? Fill every conceivable second floor terrain with pink horrors (which will be impossible to remove off an objective if ones there by simply splitting, makeing you waste several units dedicating firepower at one or three turns minimum if you only have one unit shooting them.) With ranged superiority, one could easily focus fire out all enemy ranged threats and then just laugh after thats done "nah nah you cant touch me now, nah nah". Seems like a stupid annoying way to play but hey, abuse it if its true.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Anyone who has been to a tournament and dealt with this, please tell me whats correct. Can i charge the unit and refer to this errata, or can I simply not touch the unit in melee? If I can, i need something to back my argument up (more so than showing them the errata as that didn't work for them)
Automatically Appended Next Post: Felt gakky to play against someone . I ran blades of khorne with no ranged except a slaughterpriests ability (opponent killed both first, knowing slaughterpriests can pull units out of place). We played a few more turns. I get up to his objective only to realize I actually cant do anything at all and should have conceded turn one because all along I had no hope of touching the unit defending the objective... Felt really stupid and gakky. I feel bad for khorne players. But hey feth us for "not building a balanced list".