Do you know the rules?

[Docmani]

I was together with friends this past Saturday and we played a bunch of games of 40k. We had quite a few rules questions/issues come up. Its funny that a large group of us, who play quite a bit of 40k, all were hit by things we thought were absolutely true, but when presented with the rules in black and white were stunned to find out we were wrong.

Here's some issues that came up:

1) An assault was resolved and when after models were removed, there were no models in base-to-base contact. One player claimed they were no longer locked in combat and that they needed to make a consolidation move. (No... both sides make pile in moves and the assault continues next turn)

2) When placing a blast template a player told me the center had to be placed over a model's head. I replied, no, its over the center of the base. (We were both wrong, you place the center anywhere over the base of a model)

3) In a multi-unit assault, the losing side takes seperate morale checks for each unit, using only the wounds taken by/inflicted by each unit. (Nope - The rules clearly state seperate morale checks, but each unit uses the same modifier based on wounds taken/inflicted by all units involved in the combat)

4) A unit was assaulting a fast skimmer. Cruising speed for a fast skimmer is higher than a normal vehicle. (Splugh?! Combat speed is always 0-6", Crusing speed is always 6-12", regardless of vehicle type... sorry you need 6's to hit)



So, how well do people you play know the rules? I'm not afraid to pick up the rulebook and look stuff up, but some people seem to get bent out of shape. "Thats how everybody plays at the store!"

[isotope99]

1) Yes, knew that. What I don't know without looking it up is if you have a multiple combat and one entire squad ends up unengaged, are they free to move on?

2) This came up for me at the weekend and I played it both ways as I was too lazy to look it up. Makes sense, especially for larger base squads.

3) Yes, knew this; it is a fairly common way of forcing extra wounds on elite fearless units or breaking multiple squads at once. Relevant for any horde type army and I last used it for popping Tau bubble wrap.

4) Never thought about this, always assumed it as it seems a bit ridiculous that the fast vehicle would otherwise end up in a worse situation than a slower vehicle.

[Docmani]

4) Never thought about this, always assumed it as it seems a bit ridiculous that the fast vehicle would otherwise end up in a worse situation than a slower vehicle.

I think my response was something similar when it was brought up. "You mean its EASIER to hit a fast vehicle? That makes no sense."

I'm curious what are rules that everyone sees that are commonly misinterpreted...

[Wolfshade]

I've come across these and had no worries, though I tend to place the blast marker hole over the models head as the hole balances nicely over the head. Number 1 is a bit of a chargin if you have more than one independant characters attached to a squad if the squad is wiped out the two characters are locked as a squad in combat even if out of coherency of each other, and not base-to-base in the end of that assault phase.

The rule that I have seen most often mis-interprited are master crafted weapons allowing all missed to-hit rolls to be re-rolled not just the one.
Though in our group every so often we slip back into previous editions of the game. :confused:

[Lerra]

Here are the things that come up most often:

1. "Chaos Daemons have to split their army into halves during your deployment". Nope, Daemons choose their halves at the top of their first turn, just like Drop Pods. If I'm playing someone for the first time, there is about a 75% chance that I'll have to pull out my codex for this one.

2. What happens when you surround a vehicle and then wreck it? Passengers are unable to disembark because the hull is completely surrounded, but lots of people will argue that you can emergency disembark on top of the hull. Other people argue that the squad is destroyed. I've never found a satisfactory answer to this question.

[wkz]

...
2. What happens when you surround a vehicle and then wreck it? Passengers are unable to disembark because the hull is completely surrounded, but lots of people will argue that you can emergency disembark on top of the hull. Other people argue that the squad is destroyed. I've never found a satisfactory answer to this question.Its all about the sequence:

When a transport vehicle is destroyed... Disembark the passengers FIRST, then wreck the vehicle.

As the vehicle is "alive" (but not for long) at that point in time, the sacred "all models are impassable terrain" rule still applies, so the passengers cannot stand on top of the (soon to be dead) transport. And since the vehicle is completely surrounded... ...

To be honest, not knowing all of the rules is quite... common. This is due to the great rules pileup that is known as the BRB: there are movement rules, cover rules which refer to movement rules, shooting rules which refers to movement cover and assault rules, assault rules which refer to movement (cover) rules and shooting rules, morale rules which refer to movement shooting and assault rules, weapon type rules which refers to shooting rules, unit type rules which refer to movement shooting and assault rules AND each other. And after you're confused out of your mind, we then add Vehicles rules (refer to all of the above) and building rules (refer to all of the above, INCLUDING vehicles) to the mix...

And after all that mess is over... ... hey lookie, Universal Special Rules! And Mission type Rules Too!! (including Nightfight rules and Deepstrike rules, which refer to... ARGGGGGG!!!!)

*groan*

Edit:
This is perhaps why the Rules section of the BOLS forums tend to have "simple" questions popping up from time to time... something that's innocently legal may not be so once you get a reference from another chapter on the other end of the BRB rulebook.

Personally, the rule I was most glaringly wrong on at 5th edition is Wound Allocation on multi-wound models. You'd assign one wound per model, not per wound, before you roll that "to wound" roll...

[Mystery.Shadow]

If the vehicle is Destroyed-Wrecked, the occupants must exit from a disembarkation point. If the vehicle is surrounded, they can ONLY make an Emergency Disembarkation. But remember, since the vehicle is surrounded, they CANNOT physically be outside of that 1" of an Enemy Model, therefore, the occupants are also destroyed!

Now, if the vehicle is Destroyed-Explodes, then the occupants are placed where the vehicle WAS. If the occupants can safely be placed with 1" or more between them and the enemy, they exist on the table. If they cannot, then those are destroyed!

[Lerra]

I'd agree with you on that point, but it's been consistently ruled against me (twice at Adepticon this year, once at Adepticon last year, and at a score of local tournaments). It seems like most TOs say that you can emergency disembark into the hull wreckage as long as you're 1" away.

[DarkLink]

Well, that's not how it works. But TOs like to do whatever they want anyways, and sometimes that's necessary.

[wkz]

I'd agree with you on that point, but it's been consistently ruled against me (twice at Adepticon this year, once at Adepticon last year, and at a score of local tournaments). It seems like most TOs say that you can emergency disembark into the hull wreckage as long as you're 1" away.

Now that you know where to point to in the rulebook itself, here's to hoping your opponent agrees before the TO is called and/or the TO knowing where to look before passing judgement.

[warpcrafter]

This is because your mind is trying to make you play the game in a sensible, logical manner. That is WRONG!!! Perhaps you should sniff some paint or something. That should set you back down the GW rabbit-hole.

[DarkLink]

Yeah, how is your TO supposed to dock you comp score artificially for being a dirty cheatin' WAAC $%^&*er, man! That's, like, believing in the free market or being a libertarian or something, man!

And just in case you missed it, that was sarcasm;).