Multi-Assault

[Requiemnex]

I have been playing Warhammer 40k off and on since 2nd edition. I have played without break since 6 months before 5th edition came out and play in tourney as well as casual play on average 4-6 games a week. NEVER in my time playing have i experienced this before and it blew me away.

 

 

So I had a squad of Chaos Space Marines sitting in the wreckage of their rhino after it had exploded. Thus using a large blast marker to represent the difficult terrain and the models were placed inside of this.. Approx. 6-7 inches away i had a squad of obliterators hiding in threes taking shots off at various different things on the field from the safe place of trees.

 

He has a landraider about 15 inches away from my chaos space marines in the cover.. My turn I use the CSM to kill a daemon prince not too far away. and spread them out in the cover a bit. His turn he rolls the land raider up takes his Khorne Zerkers out and proceeded to roll for terrain.. He then announced that he is assaulting my CSM. I said ok. He moved the first 4 into base contact with my guys and then moved his 4 other guys into my obliterators while still leaving his guys in coherency to the guys that assaulted my chaos space marines (that are now approximately 5 or so inches from the obliterators.

 

I had NEVER seen this before and I will admit it I am "that guy" so i started asking him what he was doing. he explained that he was "multi-assaulting" and that it was perfectly legal.. I then started to spout off that he announced he was charging the other unit that would prevent him from coming within an inch of my other models. I dont see how he could assault the obliterators as well. This blew my mind. Two people who both have worked in gaming stores and one who had worked for GW himself said its legal.. I left it at that..

 

Could someone please tell me.. Is this league and if so how does it operate under the rules?

[hazardousZERO]

From my experance it is perfectly legal. Page 34 of the rulebook will agree with your opponet. Sorry

[Legatus]

5th Edition WH40K Rulebook, page 34, "Move Assaulting Units":

ASSAULTING MULTIPLE ENEMY UNITS

As you move your assaulting models, you may find it is possible to reach other enemy units that are close to the one you are assaulting.

 

As usual the closest attacking model must be moved to contact the closest model in the enemy unit against which the assault was declared. Then remaining models can assault models belonging to other enemy units, as long as they keep following the rules for moving assaulting models. Remember that the assaulting unit is not allowed to break its coherency, and this will obviously limit the potential for this kind of assault.

 

If the assaulting unit shot in the Shooting phase then it must declare its assault against the unit it shot at, but it can engage other enemies as described here.

[Tanhausen]

The first time you are done this and are not familiar with the BRB... you cry.

 

It gets even better...just so it doesn't surprise you:

 

Say you have a NASTY character with fearless and next to it say 20 models of some lame unit... and I assault with 5 terminators to BOTH units.

 

I'll try and dump as many attacks to the LAME unit in order to deliver as many wounds as possible...so basically, if I survive your uber-character, I'll probably win the combat and each of your units will either check to flee or (if fearless), check as if wounded... 1 per point difference in combat result... you might end up rolling with 4-6 or even 8 wounds with your fearless character, which otherwise I'd have a HARD time wounding :)

 

I cried the first time I saw it!

[Requiemnex]

Wow, thanks for the clarification. After this was done to me I picked up my rulebook and will be re-reading it.. I have done this 3-4 times and each time I find something that I missed the other times I have gone through it. The multi assault is now in my bag of tricks.. This is for seriously a bad ass trick and also a way to get more free movemement out of an assault.

 

Thanks for the clarification. I appreciate it.

[Tanhausen]

You don't get more movement.

 

And remember: first closest model to closest enemy and have to finish in coherency.

 

In a game vs IG, my LRC go to his backyard... and multiple assaulted 20 IG+Commisar AND 1 Leman Russ AND 3 heavy weapons... he cried. Next turn, a lone terminators survived and assaulted his static (!!!!!) Valk and almost made it to his static colossus.

 

Its a lot of fun :)

[Requiemnex]

By free movement.. You assault a big unit and a small unit. focus lots of attacks on the smaller unit and consolidate into the larger unit for free out of turn movement. Sorry.. I use khorne zerkers and I am always looking for ways to get a few extra inches around.

[Frosty the Pyro]

By free movement.. You assault a big unit and a small unit. focus lots of attacks on the smaller unit and consolidate into the larger unit for free out of turn movement. Sorry.. I use khorne zerkers and I am always looking for ways to get a few extra inches around.

 

you can only consolate when an assault is over, you cannot consolidate into another assault (thus must obey the 1" distance rule). If you were engaged with both units in the assault, then the assault is not completed and you must pile in instead. This is detailed on pg 40 of the BrB

[Commander Sasha]

This tactic is invaluable against Mech Guard, with a line of tanks at the back, enabling you to attack different vehicle units.

Also handy against Tyranid Tervigons, who often have multiple broods of recently spawned termagants: the gaunts squish underfoot, forcing loads of Fearless/No Retreat additional wounds on the big critter.

[Requiemnex]

I am sorry I used the wrong word. Where I wrote consolidate I intended to mean pile in. If you have a 4-6 inch spread between units with models between to keep coherency when pile in occured after destroying one unit you would pile into the other (assuming you assaulted two targets) thus allowing for "free movement" Often what I try to do is force my zerkers into a situation where they will do 80% of their damage the turn they will assault and thus not killing their target in my charge. Then in the enemy assault i clean up the unit allowing me to move without being shot at in his/her turn. Freeing up the squad in my turn. This works really well for zerks as they clean house pretty frequently.

[Tanhausen]

That's the main tool for a footslogging/assault oriented list: to kill but no to wipe so they can wipe in the opponents turn preventing being shot at..

 

But the idea we're talking about goes a step further... because if the "soft" unit flees, the fearless still holds ground and eats a few wounds/saves.

 

Also, when multiple assault, usually the 2 targets are equally distant from the assaulting unit... so you don't really gain that much movement.

[Eenami5]

I'll try and dump as many attacks to the LAME unit in order to deliver as many wounds as possible...so basically, if I survive your uber-character, I'll probably win the combat and each of your units will either check to flee or (if fearless), check as if wounded... 1 per point difference in combat result... you might end up rolling with 4-6 or even 8 wounds with your fearless character,

 

I don't understand this part of your statement. Does this mean, when a side loses, are you figuring that each squad on the losing side takes the full amount of wounds from losing a combat (from No Retreat!), instead of the losing side taking the wounds?

 

Is there anywhere in the BRB that specifies that each individual unit takes the wounds, or the entire losing side?

[stinkenheim]

Each unit on the losing side tests with the same modifiers (the number of wounds you lost by). Fearless units automatically pass these tests but are required to take a number of armour saves equal to the amount they lost combat by, if you have more than one fearless unit then they both take the full number of wounds. You don't divide them amongst the units.

 

E.g 3 enemy units lose combat by 4 wounds.

1 of the units is fearless and so takes 4 armour saves.

 

If 2 of the units were fearless then both would take 4 armour saves each

[Eenami5]

Re-reading the "Independant Characters & Assaults" section on page 49, it seems that I may have been somewhat confused. It states that characters are treated as part of the unit, except when attacks are resloved. So in a case where there's a squad with an IC attached, and they lose an assault (and are fearless), the unit as a whole, including the IC, take one 'set' of wounds, as the IC is just another member of the squad. Correct?

[nurglez]

correct, however this tactic is best used against tough targets that aren't part of the unit, like a hive tyrant fighting in the same combat with some gaunts, kill 15 gaunts and suffer 5 casualties, so if you win by 10 the hive tyrant needs to make 10 saves or die :lol:

[Frosty the Pyro]

correct, however this tactic is best used against tough targets that aren't part of the unit, like a hive tyrant fighting in the same combat with some gaunts, kill 15 gaunts and suffer 5 casualties, so if you win by 10 the hive tyrant needs to make 10 saves or die :(

Indeed, its part of the reason 5e no retreat rules are distinctly inferior to 4e no retreat rules.

[Algesan]

I'll try and dump as many attacks to the LAME unit in order to deliver as many wounds as possible...so basically, if I survive your uber-character, I'll probably win the combat and each of your units will either check to flee or (if fearless), check as if wounded... 1 per point difference in combat result... you might end up rolling with 4-6 or even 8 wounds with your fearless character,

 

I don't understand this part of your statement. Does this mean, when a side loses, are you figuring that each squad on the losing side takes the full amount of wounds from losing a combat (from No Retreat!), instead of the losing side taking the wounds?

 

Is there anywhere in the BRB that specifies that each individual unit takes the wounds, or the entire losing side?

 

We went around and around on this in a thread. Stubborn is better than Fearless unless you know you can win the CC. However, if you do get into a multi-assault situation, and you have a patsy unit, hit them with as many units as you can and try to get as many Fearless units tagged as possible. Depending on the target and the units involved each wound you win by is like adding a free models to your side. If you happen to hit high toughness MCs, then it is like adding squads to your side for free for every wound.

 

Normally trying this is stupid because it exposes your troops to extra MC nastiness, but if you can get that patsy lined up, it's definitely exploitable.