Chaos Lord Locked in Challenge Combat

[Fulminata]

I played a game against Chaos yesterday with my Deathwing and had this situation come up.

 

I had a Lord charge into combat with a squad and challenged my sergeant. The remainder of the chaos forces attacked the rest of the terminators. The Chaos marines killed the terminators (with several unlucky save rolls by me) and left The Lord locked in combat with my sergeant. For 2 rounds, they slugged it out, my sergeant kept saving and kept the squad locked in combat.

 

Meanwhile, another terminator squad ran across the battlefield and charged into combat with the chaos marines watching their leader trade blows. The Deathwing killed the squad, leaving the Lord locked in combat with the first Sergeant.

 

So the question, the Lord was attached to the chaos marines, who died in close combat from the second deathwing squad. Was my second Deathwing squad locked in combat, watching the other sergeant slug it out with the Lord, or were they free to leave him to his fate and attack another target?

[DarkGuard]

The Lord reverts to an IC when his squad dies, he's an individual unit now. If your Deathwing unit can't make base contact with him (which I believe they can't if he's in a challenge), then they are no longer part of the combat and can do what they want.

 

At least that's what I remember of the rules.

[Fulminata]

That is what we thought, but we spent about 20 minutes trying to look it up. Thx.

[Seahawk]

Incorrect. Here's what we need to look at:

 

The IC only reverts to becoming a unit of one at the start of the following phase, for starters. (p.39)

 

More than one unit can be stuck in a multi-combat, even if it's only one enemy character model and the rest are friendly units. (p.65)

 

The two characters are considered as only being in BTB with each other during a challenge. (p.64)

 

A unit can only break away from a multi-unit combat if the Pile In movement is not enough to get into BTB. (p.28)

 

 

 

So, in this scenario, the Consolidate move of 3" is enough to get the 2nd Deathwing squad into BTB with the Chaos Lord, even though they cannot fight him and do not count as being in BTB. The unit they attacked was not destroyed yet either, as the Chaos lord still counts for that turn and is still alive. Since the 3" is still enough to get them into BTB, the Challenge limitations are ignored for purposes of breaking away, and as such they are still locked in combat with the two challengers.

 

As a bonus perk though, your sergeant now gets a reroll as the deathwing stand around and do nothing! :lol:

[Calnus]

Excuse me Seahawk, but where do you get that "challenge limitations are ignored for breaking away" from? The way I had read those rules, I thought that if the model was in a challenge, he couldn't count as base to base, even if he was, so in this case, it would be like the Deathwing attempting to consolidate into an un-involved unit.

 

Or would it be that due to the interaction of the IC rules, the DW don't get to consolidate, but can move away at the start of the next turn (when the IC is no longer part of the group they killed)?

[Seahawk]

Here's why. No, he cannot be rebased by the other Deathwing, but that's not what is important. What is important is that the consolidation move IS enough to get them into BTB, even though they do not count as it. This is what keeps them locked in combat. Only if the Deathwing models were >3" away at the end of the combat would they be able to break away, because then they couldn't move into physical BTB with the Chaos Lord.

[Jacinda]

What is important is that the consolidation move IS enough to get them into BTB, even though they do not count as it.

I don't think you need to even get in BTB with the Lord. All that is required is to be within 2" of "a friendly model" that is in base to base. Otherwise the end of combat pile in (which uses the Start of Initiative Step Pile In rules) just says to move "as close as possible to an enemy unit locked in this combat."

[Raeven]

Yep. You just get the observer bonus re-roll for every 5 models watching the fight.

[Calnus]

Ah, that 2" of an engaged friendly model was what I was forgetting when I looked at it. Makes perfect sense now.