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Hey guys,

I'm looking at Raven Guard's Master of Ambush ability, which reads "At the start of the first battle round, before the first turn begins" take the WL and any 1 infantry unit and redeploy them anywhere on the battlefield (second part shortened/paraphrased).

A) Can they redeploy into reserves? People generally seem to agree that during their redeployment they could be thrown into reserves using the "Strike from the Shadows" strategem: "Use this stratagem during deployment. Select one Raven Guard infantry unit from your army. You can set that unit up in ambush rather than on the battlefield" etc. Now at first I thought "oh, but MoA is during the first turn, whereas SfTS is only "during deployment", so it won't work". But it's not entirely clear whether that means "during the Deployment phase" or just "when you're deploying a unit". However, the only precedent I can find set by GW is in Faith and Fury, where it says: Q: If a unit has an ability that allows it to be set up in a location other than the battlefield, can this be done when they are selected for the Tactical Perfection Stratagem? (a strat which allows them to redeploy during the start of the first battle round) A: Yes, unless the mission specifies that the unit cannot be set up in that manner. For example, the mission may specify the unit must be set up on the battlefield. So, for example, a unit of terminators that redeploys at the start of the first battle round can use it's natural teleporter ability to go back into reserves, even thought it also says "during deployment". This to me is an almost perfect precedent where it's very similarly worded rules and timing, and it allows them to redeploy into deepstrike.

B) If I already have 50% of my army in reserve, can I still put them in reserve and bypass the 50% limit? On first reading I thought no, because if all of the above counts as "during deployment" then it would follow that the Tactical Reserves restrictions which are also "during Deployment" apply - otherwise it feels like you're trying to have your cake and eat it too. But, again, there is only one precedent I could find and it seems to be supportive. In the GSC FAQ there is a similar ability called "They Came From Below" and it also happens during the first round: "Q: In a matched play game, can you use Stratagems such as They Came From Below to increase the number of units set up underground beyond the normal Tactical Reserves limits?A: Yes. The Tactical Reserves limits concerning this apply specifically to deployment, whilst this Stratagem is used once the battle has started". One other interesting piece of note, if it means anything, is that Tactical Reserves capitalizes the word "Deployment" whereas rules like Teleportarium and SftS do not.

Anyway, based on the following, I'm checking that it's okay to set up 50% of your army on the board, then use MoA to redeploy 2 more units into reserves. Sorry if it's a silly question, but I just want to be sure

 superwill wrote:
I'm looking at Raven Guard's Master of Ambush ability, which reads "At the start of the first battle round, before the first turn begins" take the WL and any 1 infantry unit and redeploy them anywhere on the battlefield (second part shortened/paraphrased).

Firstly, you can't paraphrase anything in 8th edition because it's a mess of special snowflake rules and no standardisation. As per the errata:

Page 57 – Master of Ambush
Change this Warlord Trait to read:
‘At the start of the first battle round, before the
first turn begins, if this Warlord is on the battlefield
you can select one other friendly Raven Guard
Infantry unit (excluding a Centurion unit) on the
battlefield. Remove that unit and this Warlord (if it is
also Infantry) from the battlefield, and set them up
anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" from
the enemy deployment zone and more than 9" from
any enemy models (if both players have abilities that
redeploy units before the first turn begins, roll off; the
winner chooses who redeploys their units first).’

A) It explicitly says "on the battlefield", so no, you cannot deploy them to somewhere not on the battlefield.

B) Moot point because you cannot deploy them to somewhere not on the battlefield.

Also, there is no such concept of "reserves" in 8th edition. Some units can be deployed in a place that isn't on the battlefield, but that is not a single place called "reserves".

Ahhhh gotcha. I hadn't read Tactical Perfection close enough to see that it was worded so vaguely. Well there goes that. Thanks for the help