Mindshackle scarabs - assault or continuous combat?

[dawnbreaker]

"At the start of the Assault phase, after assault moves have been made, but before any blows are struck randomly select an enemy model in base contact with the bearer of the mindshackle scarabs."

The key part of the sentence is "after assault moves have been made".

The question is: must a unit have assaulted into combat as a condition in order for mindshackle scarabs to activate, or are the scarabs activated every assault phase that the necron lord is in combat?

In other words, the scarabs activate in the first asasult phase. Do they then activate in subsequent phases even though no assault moves have been made?

[Angelofblades]

I'd have to say no, because of pre-existing examples.

The wording is exactly equivalent for Cleansing Flame for Purifiers, and AFAIK, people are popping cleansing flame past the 1'st turn of close combat.

Empyrrean Brain mines have the same exact wording. Now unless people are willing to nerf Purifers then MS's can be used past the first turn of combat.

[thecactusman17]

No. "After assault moves have been made" also allows the models to attack NEW units locked into combat with them if they have been assaulted. Any models in B2B with the Mindshackle model must risk taking the test every assault phase where they remain in B2B with the model.

This is actually a ridiculously powerful ability, and makes assaulting a court (or being assaulted by a court) with lots of these guys a real nightmare situation for just about every unit in the game. Imagine, for example, these guys assaulting somebody like Draigo or Calgar and he attacks all of his own units each phase as though he was your own?

[Wildeybeast]

Answer is quite clear. It doesn't say anywhere in either the book or the FAQ that the unit must have assaulted, merely that this takes place in the assault phase. Thus it can happen in every assault phase. The part about 'assault moves' is simply to make clear exactly when during the phase it happens, there is no pre-requisite on any of the involved units to have to actually make assault moves

[Demonus]

yup i have to agree with the Beast.