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Note: Most, but not all, of these questions are from the [gw-warmaster] eGroups list.
Q: What scale are the models?
A: The human sized models are about 10mm tall and fairly 'robust'. Most of the monsters and machines are a little larger, relatively speaking, than their Warhammer equivalents. The Dragons stand about 50-60mm tall.
Q: Are bases provided with the models?
A: Yes. Although the models are all metal castings the bases are 40 x 20mm plastic mouldings approximately 1mm thick. Character sets come with standard bases, but I prefer to mount my characters onto round stands 20mm diameter. This makes them more easily recognizable. The rule book explains how you can do this.
Q: How many armies are there?
A: The rulebook describes six armies - Empire, High Elves, Dwarfs, Undead, Chaos, and Orcs and Goblins. We have completed all of the design on these armies now (Feb2000) and all will become available within six months of the game's release (18th March in the UK). We have some further models in preparation and these will be released sometime after the six armies.
Q: Will there be more armies?
A: Yes. We've almost finished a seventh army and have another one underway. Whether we do more armies or not really depends on how popular the game is, but obviously I would like to continue to add to the range and eventually cover all the Warhammer armies. As to what armies we're working on - it seems a bit mean to give the game away doesn't it!
Q: Will there be supplements?
A: It's a bit early to say. I don't think White Dwarf is very good at supporting games other than Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 in the long term. The WH and WH40K stuff seems to always end up pushing everything else out. I'd like to start a dedicated magazine or possible a Warmaster section for the GW web-site. A lot depends on finding good contributors. Anyone out there interested?
Q: How big an army do you need to play?
A: Well bigger is definitely better! Warmaster really is a game about grand manoeuvre. That means you probably need to paint up about six units to get any kind of feel of the game. I'd say 12-15 units plus characters was about right for a typical battle. If that sounds daunting I'd suggest players combine armies to start with - Warmaster plays very well as a multi-player game in any case. I'd also suggest that players make 'mock-ups' using card stands - that way you can learn the game and play a few amries whilst painting is in progress.
Q: What about scenery?
A: 12mm scale 'N' gauge railways stuff is pretty close although I prefer scenery to be slightly 'undersized' myself so I'm making my own. We've found a company that makes resin tourist models of Irish castles and these will be sold by Forgeworld. We've also designed a few new resin buildings and fortifications for Forgeworld. Also a ship!
Q: And how much do the models cost?
A: The prices are set locally so you'll have to check the GW web site or White Dwarf in your country. However - the target price that I set myself when designing the system was 5 UK pounds per unit. Most of the troop units are selling for exactly 5 pounds in the UK . Some of the lighter packs are cheaper and a few of the larger special pieces, such as the Dragons, are more expensive.
Q: Can you use the Fallback move at the end of a combat to move in any direction? The rules on page 44 seem to support this, but "falling back" towards an enemy formation seems wrong.
A: Fallbacks don't have to be 'back.' they can be in any direction, but units cannot move within 1 cm of enemy as they fallback. So, for example, they can't use the move to penetrate an enemy line. Although we tried to come up with a workable rule that allowed units to 'fall back' where back was always away from the enemy, in practice we couldn't come up with anything that worked and didn't fill several pages of text (blah). so, we went for this shorter and more workable solution and it does work reasonably well.
NEW 4-21-00:
Q: When a stand of troops has enemy stands touching both its side and rear what is its Attack Modifier –1 or –2?
A: A –1 penalty applies to any individual stand which has an enemy stand’s front edge or front corner touching its own side edge, rear edge, or rear corner. It does not matter how many enemy stands touch as described the maximum penalty is –1. Even a stand that is completely surrounded therefore suffers only a –1 penalty. See page 37 Attack Modifiers.
NEW 5-28-00:
Q. In the army lists do the min/max values apply to each set of up to 1,000pts or to each full 1,000pts? Is a 1,500pt army subject to basic min/max restrictions or double, as for a 2,000 point army. What about restrictions for 999pts or smaller armies?
A. p127 Units/Characters final paragraph, "The min/max applies for every full 1,000 points of agreed army value".
If you agree to play a 2,000 point game that's two full 1,000 points so double the min/max values. If you only choose 1,995 points worth of troops for your 2000 point army that's your loss. The important thing is that you've agreed to play a 2,000 point game. The actual number of points in the army doesn't matter so long as it does not contain more points than you have agreed to use.
If you agree to play a 1,500 point (say) game then that's one full 1,000 so use the basic min/max, an agreed 2,500 point battle is double, an agreed 3500 is triple, and so on. 1,000 points is really the smallest size required to play a satisfactory game, but if you have less than 1,000 points use the basic min/max values. If players wish to agree to increase, decrease, or in any way adjust the min/max values for their own purposes that's entirely up to them of course.
Q. If two friendly units lose a combat round and one is completely destroyed, is the retreat distance still divided by two or is the `destroyed' unit gone and therefore ignored. To put it another way, are destroyed units counted with regard to retreat distances in multiple unit combats?
A. When working out the retreats for surviving stands count the casualties against destroyed units and count the destroyed units when dividing for distance. Page 46 Retreats and Pursuits, "The distance moved is the difference between the number of hits scored divided by the number of units on the losing side including any units removed as casualties."
Q. Fortress walls, towers and gateways cannot be damaged with arrows & other light shot (p91). Does this mean that Chaos & the High Elves cannot possibly destroy a fortress wall because they have no artillery capable of doing the required damage? Could the spells "Curse of Chaos" and "Hail of Destruction"/"Storm of Stone" be used to damage fortress walls?
A. These spells have to be used against enemy units so they won't be any help when it comes to attacking fortresses/etc. Siege equipment isn't included in the lists at all – the lists being primarily intended for field operations. The assumption is that siege towers, rams and other siege machines are available to all armies in a siege game. You'll notice that each item has its own army list entryand points values. The plan is to add further items to the siege machines described in the book. For example, trebuchets, bombards, mangonels, and similar pieces. Some of these are already in preparation at the time of writing.
NEW 6-28-00:
Q. When two opposing units face each other on a hill with no advantage of height then does either unit count as ‘defended’.
A. Defended status applies to individual stands rather than whole units. A stand counts as ‘defended’ if it is positioned on the crest or upper slope of a hill or rise so that it occupies higher ground than the enemy. See p45 of the rulebook. In the case of a stand on a hill, that simply means it counts as defended if it is higher than the enemy it touches. If neither side is higher none counts as defended. It’s hard to rigidly define what ‘higher’ means unless you also rigidly define the design of scenery to be used. Which is why the main rulebook doesn’t attempt a definition. However, there are notes on how to interpret this rule with different designs of scenery in Appendix 2 on p147 of the rulebook.
Q. Would you mind doing a follow up on the question of charging from the front, and putting units on the flank of a unit.
A. Stephan has kindly put together an explanatory diagram which covers this nicely. The important point to remember when working out multiple charges is that each unit makes its move one at a time. This means the movement of the first unit can compromise the lines of sight of the second and subsequent units. An order given to a brigade merely entitles units to make a move – there is no such thing as a ‘charge’ order – so work out the sequence of moves exactly as if the units had each been given separate orders one after the other. Once the first unit is in place the second unit works out its charge from the position as it is at the start of its own move
Q. Shooters are allowed to pivot 180 degrees to shoot – does this apply to the shooter’s own Shooting Phase, to shots at chargers in the enemy’s Command Phase, or whenever the unit shoots for whatever reason?
A. A unit can turn about to face so that it can shoot during its own Shooting phase (p26). The reason we allow this is that a unit might be facing the wrong way at the start of the Command phase, be unable to use initiative (for whatever reasons…range/undead/confused), and have enemy positioned to their rear.
In fact this is one of the few core game rules that we feel doesn’t quite work – partly because it seems equally reasonable that a unit which has enemy to its rear ‘shouldn’t ‘ be able to redeploy to meet the threat in this automatic fashion. This is something that we’re giving some thought to at the moment.
Q. When an army withdraws do you finish the turn, like it says in the summary of End of the Battle chapter (p62), or do you end the game immediately once an army withdraws as it says in the text (p.63
A Ouch - you got me there! The trouble with providing summaries and cross-reference is it’s very hard not to make mistakes. The game ends immediately when one side withdraws. You don’t play until the end of the turn. The game is over, the players’ shake hands, the loser congratulating the victor who then generously offers to buy the next round of drinks . I’m sure that’s a rule…well it is now. (Joke!).
NEW 8-25-00:
Q: If I have two or more missile armed units shooting at the same target from different directions, for example one from the front and another from the back, how are drive backs worked out?
A: Total the casualties and dice for distance, then work out the drive back from the closest enemy stand that shot. See p27 ‘Driving Back Enemies’. Where two or more stands are equally close the player whose unit is being driven back can choose which to take as the ‘closest’.
Q: Given that during shooting and combat individual stands in the same unit can be both ‘in the open’ and ‘defended’ (and in some cases ‘fortified’) how is a unit’s status determined for drive backs from shooting. Do all of a unit’s stands have to be ‘defended’ for the unit to count as ‘defended’ or merely some of them?
A: This can’t be answered directly from the rulebook so we will
have to make a provisional answer in lieu of a proper amendment. This replaces the two
relevant paragraphs on p27.
Units with one or more stands in defended positions roll one less dice when working out
drive backs. One hit therefore cannot cause a drive back, two hits roll 1 dice, three roll
2, and so on.
Units with one or more stands in fortified positions roll two less dice when working out
drive backs. One or two hits therefore cannot cause a drive back, three hits roll 1 dice,
four roll 2, and so on.
Q: When a unit is pushed into an enemy, either by being driven back by shooting or forced to retreat in combat, how close must the unit get to the enemy before it is confused (if driven back into enemy) or destroyed (if retreating into enemy). The question arises because units that are driven back into enemies halt 1cm distant (p49 case 4) – so how about units that approach to within less than 1cm but don’t touch?
A: In both cases units/stands are penalised if they are obliged to move in such a way that they would otherwise contact enemy stands – that is to say if they either touch or move through enemy stands. The same applies to stands that move into enemies as they fall back after combat, although in reality this is extremely rare because fall backs are not made in a fixed direction. The reason for applying the ‘1cm’ rule when units are driven back is to establish a formal position for units which would otherwise be moving on top of other units or touching them. If a unit moves back towards an enemy without touching it doesn’t matter how close it gets so long as it doesn’t actually touch.
Q: Referring to the following diagrams – can the blue infantry unit charge the red cavalry unit by means of a second successful order in the command phase. The question arises as some players interpret the sentence ‘A unit can only charge an enemy that it can see at the start of its move’ to equate to ‘A unit can only charge an enemy that it can see at the start of the command phase’.
http://members.xoom.com/Balzemon/epbimages/diagram61.gif
http://members.xoom.com/Balzemon/epbimages/diagram62.gif
A: In Warmaster the player gives an order and makes a move, he gives a further order to the same unit and makes a further move, a third successful order would give a third move, and so on. Specifically, that is what is meant by a ‘move’ although it is hard to avoid using the word informally to describe all of a unit’s movement in the command phase. A unit needs to be able to ‘see’ the enemy unit it intends to charge when the command is given – i.e. at the beginning of that individual move. It does not matter whether the enemy unit was visible at the start of the command phase – only that it can be seen when the command is given.
In the diagram example the second diagram is therefore perfectly legal.
Q: Referring to the following diagram. In both of the situations shown in the diagrams three units (blue, cyan, green) have been charged by a fourth. (red). For the sake of argument, each attacking red stand has inflicted sufficient hits to removed a whole stand from the unit it is facing. The question is, in the first situation the three units are in columns and casualties are removed from the back, whilst in the second situation the three units are arranged in lines, so all casualties are removed from the front. What would be the correct support bonus in both circumstances.
http://members.xoom.com/Balzemon/epbimages/diagram81.gif
A: In the first example the support bonus is +3 and in the second 0 (as casualties can neither support or be supported). See p40 Supporting Troops.
Although one might choose to justify this by imagining that the first example represents a ‘defence in depth’ with troops stationed in reserve, in fact this really is an idiosyncrasy of the system. We were aware of this whilst the game was under development but we couldn’t come up with a solution that we liked. At the time we couldn’t quite make our minds up whether we were looking at an inherent flaw or a viable defensive tactic! Having had a further six months or so of playing and much helpful advice we are currently (August 2000) thinking about the way that supporting troops work and especially about whether casualties should support or not. If we were to adopt a new rule that allowed casualties to support this would have several advantages – not least being that it is a more ‘natural’ response from players. A further advantage would be to slightly strengthen infantry in defence (which you may choose to see as a disadvantage depending on your point of view). And, of course, situations as described above would give the same supporting bonus (+3). In any case – we shall be testing some ideas along these lines and any proposed amendments will appear in Warmaster magazine and/or Rick’s website/the official GW website.
NEW 9-29-00:
Q: Could you please go over the rules for determining charges against the front and flanks of units - see the accompanying diagram (diagram 1). How are charges resolved and stands positioned in these circumstances?
A: This is one of those questions that demands detailed explanation so I've prepared a series of diagrams which takes you through the whole thing. Follow this link to begin. (Webmaster's note - I've had to do these as a PDF file. You can download Acrobat reader from the Adobe website for free.) Click here for the diagrams.
NEW 10-28-00:
Q: Do engaged enemy units block the line of sight for artillery to shoot overhead?
A: Artillery are allowed to shoot over obstacles, including friendly stands, that occupy lower ground than either themselves or their target (Shooting Overhead p67). Usually foes are of no concern as the closest visible enemy will be the target – but if enemy stands are fighting in combat they are ineligible as targets and the artillery can shoot over them as if they were obstacles or friends.
Over level ground all obstructions to sight block the line of fire – including stands engaged in combat.
Q: In a combat engagement, can stands that have been charged in their side or rear subsequently turn to present their front to the enemy if they win the combat round and elect to pursue? If permitted this would presumably allow them to avoid the –1 penalty for fighting to their side/rear?
A: Assuming we are talking about a combat where a unit is only fighting to its side or rear (not to its front) then it is perfectly correct to turn the pursuing stand so that it fights to its front. This is covered as ‘All other stands…’ in the final paragraph of p42 though not given as a specific example.
In this situation the pursuing unit would pick one stand of those fighting, preferably one which has seen off an extant enemy stand, and move it back into contact (centre to centre front to front – as the retreating stand won’t have changed its orientation). Any remaining stands from the pursuing unit can then be placed relative to the first.
Q: What is the correct points value for an Orc and Goblin Shaman (some language versions have different points values).
A: The English language version is correct. An Orc Shaman is 45 points and a Goblin Shaman is 30 points.
Q: In the Orc and Goblin army list, does the Giant get a 5+ armour save (this is also different in some language versions).
A: Once again the English language version is correct with a 5+ armour save.
Q: A unit of cavalry is charged in the flank by a unit of chariots and amazingly, the cavalry wins the combat. The question arises how that pursuing cavalry unit is moved. Is the cavalry moved just like it had initiated a charge with the cavalry's front edge facing the chariot's front edge?
A: (Note: This answer is merely a suggestion and not a hard and fast rule)I don't think this situation is totally clear in the rulebook so I can see we have need for some kind of clarification. However, I'm not exactly sure what that should be. As the rules read the cavalry stands could be positioned any way the player liked (as they were not touching at the front edge) but it would be silly to position them around the sides of rear. I'd say, in this case, you'd move the touching stand (or one of the touching stands if there are more than one) against the front of one of the retreating stands (center to center) and then rearrange the cavalry.
Q: Can a stand shoot if part of its frontage is blocked by a friendly stand, or if only a part of its frontage can trace a line of sight to a target.
A: A unit can shoot so long as it can ‘see’ the target from any point along its own front edge (or all round in the case of some units). So, a stand does not need to trace a line of sight from its entire frontage only from a point on the frontage (p25).
Q: If I give a brigade an order to charge a unit can all the units in the brigade attack?
A: If you successfully issue an order to a brigade then any units in the brigade can charge against any enemy they can reach as described in the rules for charging (p32). They are not obliged to do so, some can charge whilst others do not. Any units which do not charge must move ‘as a body’ – which is to say they have to end their move touching. Units that charge do not need to end their move touching other members of their brigade – they are allowed to separate (p35). When units charge from a brigade it is essential to move the units one at a time, as the movement of the first unit may affect the lines of sight in respect of a second unit, and so on for third and fourth units.
NEW 4-21-00:
Q: When a unit of Cannons fires at a unit in a forest and scores 2 hits how many dice are rolled for drive backs? Is it 2 because ‘defended targets count as in the open’ to cannon fire (p68) or 1 because ‘defended units count one less dice for working out drive backs’ (p27).
A: When rolling hits cannons count defended targets as in the open (4+ to hit) and fortified targets as defended (5+ to hit). This only affects the score required to hit and it might be better to think of this as a +1 bonus to hit against defended or fortified targets. The number of dice rolled for drive backs is not affected. As far as drive backs are concerned, a unit in a defended position still counts as in a defended position and a unit in a fortified position still counts as in a fortified position. So, a unit in a wood taking 2 hits from cannons is driven back by 1 dice because as a ‘defended’ unit it ignores the first hit. Note that because cannons reduce the score required to hit compared to other shooters they are more likely to inflict hits and therefore more likely to cause enough hits to cause a drive back.
NEW 5-28-00:
Q. On page 24 the rules state that units shoot at the closest visible and eligible enemy target. Does artillery also have to shoot at the closest enemy?
A. Oh yes! The exception is when artillery is shooting at walls, gates and towers (p91) when they are allowed to ignore closer targets. Even so, the walls, gates, or towers still have to be visible for the artillery to shoot at them.
NEW 8-25-00:
Q: The rulebook says the Helblaster can make up to 6 attacks, but the battle report in White Dwarf 246 implies otherwise. Can you clarify?
A: The rulebook is correct – the Helblaster gets 6 attacks up to 10cm, 3 attacks up to 20 cm and 1 attack up to 30cm (p68).
NEW 4-21-00:
Q: The Staff of Spellbinding can be used against an enemy wizard who fails to cast a spell (p77). Can the Staff of Spellbinding be used if a Wizard’s spell is cast and subsequently dispelled, or only if the actual cast is failed?
A: The player rolls to cast a spell. If he makes his roll the spell is successfully cast and if not the spell has failed. See p72 Casting Spells for an explanation of how this works. The Staff of Spellbinding can only be used when a spell fails. If the spell is cast successfully the Staff of Spellbinding cannot be used even if the spell is subsequently dispelled.
Q: If a Wizard is ‘spellbound’ by the Staff of Spellbinding
does the effect last for the remainder of the battle?
A: Yes. A spellbound Wizard suffers the –1 dice penalty each time he
tries to cast a spell for the remainder of the game.
Q: Can a Wizard give orders to a brigade where only some of the units are within his command range?
A: To determine if a unit is within a character’s command range measure the distance from the closest part of the closest stand in the unit to the character's command stand. If the distance is equal to or less than the character'’ command range then he can attempt to issue an order. This is the way distances are generally measured, the same applies to command penalties for example (p15).
So, in the case of a Wizard with a 20cm range he can attempt to give an order to a unit so long as the distance between the Wizard and the closest part of the unit is 20cm or less. It is not necessary that the entire unit lies within a 20cm radius of the Wizard or even that one entire stand be within a 20cm radius.
When giving orders to a brigade the character still needs to be in range of all the units. The easiest way of measuring is to disregard the closest unit/s, and measure to the most distant unit in the brigade you want to give an order to (p17). If the unit is out of range as described, then it cannot be included in a brigade order. However, a character could still give a brigade order to those units that were in range leaving any units not in range where they are.
Q: If a unit in a defended or fortified position is struck by a Gerroff spell how far are they driven back.
A: 5 x D6cm as for any other unit. As the Gerroff spell’s drive back isn’t based on hits but on a random roll no modifier is applied for the drive back.
NEW 6-28-00:
Q. If the High Elven spell Heaven’s fire is cast on a unit which has had a hero on a dragon mount join it, can the hero on dragon mount fire again along with the rest of the unit?
A. The straight-forward answer is no – the spell applies specifically to the infantry or cavalry unit and not to accompanying characters. The question is slightly complicated because we have already introduced a ‘trial rule’ which defines the way character’s add their shooting bonus to units – so we may need to make sure this situation is clearly explained in the wording of the final version of the trial rule.
NEW 10-28-00:
Q: In the Magic section (p72) it states that the same spell can only be successfully cast on the same unit once in the same shooting phase (final para page 72). In some of the spell descriptions this is restated.
Does this rule apply to all spells or only to those specified in the spell descriptions. If the rule applies to all spells, how do you deal with spells (such as Fireball) that hit all units in a 30cm line, as it is possible for a unit to fall beneath two fireballs from different wizards even if it is the initial target of neither.
A: The rule is a general one – it applies to all spells and is intended to make it impossible to exploit the effect of magic in large games. In the case of a Fireball (or comparable spell) a unit can only be affected once, so a subsequent fireball would cause no further harm to a unit that has already suffered one fireball attack (even if no damage was caused).
I must confess to forgetting this myself on occasions – as the temptation to line up your wizards and blast a unit into smithereens is considerable! However, that’s exactly why we introduced that rule, and once you have 4 or 5 wizards in play to allow otherwise does tend to shift the balance of power towards the magic. As the rule stands, players are obliged to use their wizards in conjunction with other missile-armed units and to spread their efforts over the battlefield – which is the result we were looking for.
Q: When are Dwarf ‘anti-magic’ attempts rolled – before the Wizard rolls to cast a spell or after he has successfully cast a spell?
A: Dwarf anti-magic and Scrolls of Dispelling can be used once a spell has been successfully cast. See p75 Dwarf Anti-magic Spells and p77 Scroll of Dispelling.
Q: If a unit of Trollslayers loses two stands how are victory points awarded?
A: Any Trollslayer units remaining at the end of the game count as destroyed earning the opposing player full points (p141) so a single remaining stand earns the enemy full points (80pts) just the same as two or three stands. Basically – to earn the Dwarf player victory points they all have to die!
Q: If a unit of Trollslayers is struck by a Gerroff spell are they driven back?
A: No they are not – Trollslayers are never driven back.
NEW 5-28-00:
Q. When flyers retreat from combat, can they move over impassable terrain or other units? Are they destroyed if their path is blocked by a wood or by a friendly unit that does not make way, for example?
A. Flyers aren't treated differently from other troops in combat. If stands are forced to retreat through enemy stands, or through friendly stands that don't make way, the flyers are destroyed (p41).
This situation represents troops being surrounded and overwhelmed by the enemy, or being driven through their own friends in panic before running from the field. Imagine the flying creatures panicking and scattering. Many would be beaten to the ground and slain, speared, or otherwise killed or wounded, but the majority would probably survive. They would take to the air and scatter in all directions.
In Warmaster terms that means the stand is destroyed – it has lost its ability to fight. The same holds true for all types of troops. In any real battle more troops flee, surrender, cower or become incapacitated by exhaustion than are actually killed. In Warmaster it all amounts to `destroyed'! With that in mind you can see how it doesn't really matter whether troops can fly because all they're going to do is use their extra mobility to get away from the battle faster!
In the case of impassable terrain, the rule is that stands forced to retreat into impassable terrain are destroyed (p41). Which is to say any terrain which is impassable to that troop type. So cavalry retreating into a wood are destroyed, but infantry are not, for example. In the case of flyers, woods count as impassable terrain so the rule would be that flyers retreating through a wood are destroyed. This is meant to represent the troops becoming irretrievably dispersed. I never imagined a cavalryman turning round exclaiming, `Oh no it's a tree' and dropping dead. That would be… unlikely! Horsemen can be imagined to flee amongst even densely packed trees, and flying creatures could fly into or around trees, but they do so as individuals. They would have to abandon the cohesion and structure that makes them an effective military unit. So, in Warmaster terms, stands are destroyed if they retreat into terrain that is deemed unsuitable for them to operate in. You can imagine how troops lose contact with officers who therefore cannot rally their forces, individuals find hiding places, no-one knows what's going on beyond their immediate vicinity, and therefore the stand ceases to have any value as a fighting entity. And, of course, sometimes the trees get them (joke!).
Q. On a roll of a 6 on the Giant Goes Wild Chart (p137) the Giant's attacks are doubled. Are the bonus attacks from charging doubled too?
A. It is the Giant's actual Attacks value that's doubled – i.e. from 8 to 16. The attack modifiers add to or subtract from the Attacks value as usual. So, the Giant would count 16 Attacks +1 for charging in the open, +1 for a Monster charging = 18. Which I, for one, feel is quite adequate!
Q. Can a flying unit see a unit on top of a hill if there's another unit right in front at the bottom of the hill? If so, can the flyers charge the unit on top of the hill? If so, where do you put the flyer stands if there is no room in front because of the lower unit?
A. In this situation the flyers can't see – the ability of a flying unit to see to charge is the same as a ground unit as described under `Enemy in sight' on p42.
Q. Can a monster mount which has joined a friendly unit shoot against a charging enemy if it has a suitable breath weapon? If so how are the shots worked out?
A. Yes the monster mount can shoot against the charging unit. The shots are worked out once the charging stands are in position but can be assumed to occur at any point during the charge move – the same way as all shooting against chargers (p28). Any casualties that occur are removed before combat and all hits scored counts towards the results for the first combat round (p28).
The issue with breath attacks is do you take the line of sight from the character stand? Or to put it another way: 1) does the actual character stand need to be able to see the target or 2) is it adequate that a stand from the unit can see on the grounds that the character can be assumed to be anywhere within the unit?
The rulebook doesn't cover this at all. My own assumption when playing has always been that you need line of sight from the model. However, this does contradict the principle that the character is `inside' the unit's formation. We may need to introduce a new rule here. I'm not really in favour of introducing new rules without a suitable opportunity to test and assess them. So! Here is a `trial' new rule – that means it's not an official part of the game until it's been tested and approved (i.e, until I say so guys). Make sure your opponent understands whether you're using the rule before the game and decide for yourself how you like it. Later on we might do some kind of on-line poll to find out how you like the rule. Here it is:
MONSTER MOUNT SHOOTING
Monster mounted characters or other characters that have a shooting attack when joined to
units are assumed to be within the unit's formation regardless of the actual position of
the unit. When shooting in the Shooting phase, or during the Command phase if shooting at
chargers, the player nominates a stand in the unit the character has joined. The shots are
worked out from that stand in the normal way. All the shots taken at the same target unit
have to be worked out from the same stand, but otherwise the character can `move' from
stand to stand during the turn if necessary. This can happen during the opponent's
Command phase if the unit is charged by more than one enemy, for example.
NEW 6-28-00:
Q. Assuming that flyers would descend from a significant height when engaging enemy units, do units on upper slopes of hills/crests of hills count as ‘defended’ when attacked by flyers. Under the flyer section it specifically states that units in fortified positions still gain protection against flying units, due to defensive works, but there is no mention of defended positions.
A. The rule specifying that flyers can attack fortified troops is there to remind us that flyers are an exception to the normal combat rules for castle walls, towers and such like (page 60). Only infantry, flyers (and in a limited way Giants) can attack enemy protected by these kinds of fortifications and infantry are assumed to carry ladders or come with siege towers (see page 45). Flyers, of course, have no such problems reaching their foes, but fortified enemy still count as fortified, and defended troops still count as defended.
Q. Can Flying troops fly over other units when they move in the Command Phase?
A. In the Command Phase flying troops can move over other units from either side in the same way as they can move over terrain features that are normally impassable to ground based units (p60 Terrain).
Note that flyers can move over other flying units as well as conventional ground based units. Flyers cannot end their move on top of other troop units. Lone character stands must be moved to join a friendly unit if enemy flyers end their move on top of them as described in the Generals, Wizards and Heroes section of the rules (see p56 Enemy Moving Through Characters).
Q. Would you allow the Bone Giant the same liberties as the O&G Giant when fighting a siege?
A. I hadn’t intended to – no. The reason being that it is a significantly smaller model (about half as big).
Q. Can monsters (move 20cm) pursue cavalry (30cm move)?
A. Yes – pursuit moves are not based on the tactical move distances.
NEW 8-25-00:
Q: Flyers can only be given an order if there is a character within 20cm. Does this have to be the character giving the order, or is it sufficient merely to have a character within 20cm of the flyers regardless of who is giving the order.
A: A flying unit can only be given orders by a character within 20cm. As with all units a flying unit can only receive orders from a single character during the command phase. So, yes, the character giving the order has to be within 20cm.
