Rule Question: consolidating into assault?

[robomummy]

So I played a small game for the first time in over a year with a friend of mine and i had a question about something that happened in the game.

So I had a basilisk and a heavy weapons team sitting on an objective and he charged his dragoons into the basilisk but failed to destroy it. When it came to consolidation he consolidated his units 3" closer to the heavy weapons teams and they ended up within 1" of my Heavy weapons team. He then claims on my turn when I try to move and shoot them that I can't without disengaging because they are 1" and in assault. This was my first game in 8th and I don't have a book but is this something that he can do? Are you now allowed to consolidate into combat?

[gigasnail]

You are, with some provisos.

When a unit consolidates (or piles in, same rules apply) each model must consolidate towards the nearest enemy model, not just wherever it wants. You have to be careful when making your initial assault move if you plan on looping another unit in with pile in/consolidate moves.

You are not required to pile in or consolidate, just remember that if you do, you have to move towards the nearest model.

You can avoid overwatch by doing this.

There are other things to remember, namely that you can rope whatever you can reach, but you must declare them as targets to actually get to swing at them, the units you declare a charge against must be within 12", and everything you declare a charge against gets to overwatch you (as long as it isn't already locked on combat).

Now, if you are in a multi-round combat, you don't have to declare new targets when you roll into other units via pile in or consolidate moves because you're not charging.

Make sure you leave an air gap of 4.1" between vulnerable units to stop them getting wrapped up. Layers of cultists, scouts or nurglings make the sweep and clear difficult for units like berserkers.

This becomes important for things like berserkers, or units using stratagems to fight twice (or even 3 times), but doesn't matter at all if you're just trying to the other units up and prevent them from shooting.

Some units (like hormagants) have enhanced pile in/consolidate moves. You can really reach out with these guys.

Also note that units with FLY keyword can disengage and shoot with no penalty.

Hope that clears things up. The big takeaway is that you have to pile in/consolidate to the nearest model.

Edit: also note you still must always maintain coherency. This can lead to a unit becoming stuck and unable to move if by casualty removal you break coherency in a large strung out unit.

[discombobulator]

Also, once he consolidated within 1" of your heavy weapons team, your unit became eligible to fight. So unless, as gigasnail mentioned, he declared a charge on both your units, you could've fought him during his turn while he could not.

[gigasnail]

Yeah they could have fought. Just no one fears the lukewarm wrath of a heavy weapons team in melee.

[robomummy]

It would have been good to know that beforehand I guess. Would I have been able to over watch or would that be shooting into assault?

[No One]

No, you only ever get to overwatch if you are actually declared as a target: it has nothing to do with actually ending up in combat.

Also, one thing to add/emphasise: you only have to end your move closer to the closest. This can be a 3" move that gets you 0.1" closer, and within 1" of something that wasn't the closest or a charge target.

[discombobulator]

Mar 27, 2018 4:00:39 GMT gigasnail said:

Yeah they could have fought. Just no one fears the lukewarm wrath of a heavy weapons team in melee.

Unless someone sacrificed a goat to the dice gods.

Had I shut my mouth in one of my last games, my opponent would've consolidated his death company into a full crew of my sword warriors.  I can tell you he was happy to know about that bit.