Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

In my first game yesterday, I think I may have broken a rule of some sort, but we weren't sure.  Basically, I mixed three squads of IG together into a massive clump (keeping coherency,  but intermixed units) just before being charged, so my opponent had no way to charge just one squad, but had to charge all three (and thus either allocate attacks to just one squad or do very little to each squad).  As long as coherency rules are not being broken, is this legal?    The 1" rule only applies to ENEMY models(right?), so as far as our ref could tell it was alright, but it severely miffed my opponent.

Completely legal and a valid tactic. If they attack and hit all three units and just 1 stays in combat you can't get sweeping advanced. The down side is the fact that if you are tied up in close combat, you can't shoot with that unit, you can't shoot the enemy unit, and you may lose the fight during your round allowing his guys to either charge another unit or maneuver as they wish.

Interlaced squads are legal. However, there are some practical problems with them. Let's take an example with two squads (# and @). Each squad has nine men and are deployed as:

#@#@#@
@#@#@#
#@#@#@

OK, so I haven't broken any coherency rules but movement is going to be a bit tough. I have to nominate my first unit (let's go with the #'s), move it and then select another unit. The problem is that I can't move all of the #'s because some @'s are in the way.

One way to make this more flexible is:

@#@#@#
@#@#@#
@#@#@#

However, this limits my movement to one direction. Another possibility is to make the most of my maximum coherency distance:

# @ # @ # @

@ # @ # @ #

# @ # @ # @

Now I do have the flexibility to move but unless all my movement is diagonal then my path is going to be wiggly so I won't be able to cover as much distance. Of course, all the problems with movement also apply to getting into an interlaced deployment. I can't tell how you did it but if you moved squad A's models through squad B's then you are on dodgy territory.

As an aside, all these formations make you much more vulnerable to blasts.