Independent Characters and Forced Disembarking

[Blindman6]

I know that an independent character can split from the squad during the movement phase by disembarking and separating (or disembarking separately), but can an independent character voluntary split from a squad when forced to disembark (ie transport destroyed in shooting or assault phase) by the player choosing to place him/her out of coherency of the rest of the squad? If no, then can the character be forced to split from the squad if he/she must be placed out of coherency?

 

Thanks for answering all of my questions! A lot of things have come up in our local games recently.

[JamesI]

Characters can only split off of squads in the movement phase. If you are getting out of a transport because it was killed by enemy shooting, he must stay part of the squad.

[Blindman6]

OK. What happens if some sort of damage or deployment requirement forces him out of coherency? Would he then automatically be detached from the squad come the controlling player's movement phase?

[Legatus]

The character cannotbe forced to be placed out of coherency. If models cannot legally be placed, they are usually destroyed. If, however, the models maintaining the unit cohrency with the character are removed as casualties, so that the unit coherency between the character and the unit is broken, then at the beginning of that player's next movement phase the character will no longer count as being in coherency. For gameplay purposes it makes no difference whether the character automatically is considered to be detached from the squad or whether the player would just decide to detach him and simply not move him back into coherency.

However, during the turn where the unit members are killed, the character will still count as part of that unit. So if the enemy shoots at the unit (killing the members maintaining coherency) and then subsequently assaults the unit, the character will still be a part of it and has to move into combat. Only at the start of his next movement phase will the character leave the unit.