6th Ed. Initiative steps

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 Greetings, Battle-Brothers.
Warp storms have interrupted the psychic conduits, but now that they have cleared I am able to send missives once more.
This time I have a vital message about small changes to the Warhammer 40,000 6th edition rules that might have been missed during quick read-throughs. I would like to point out changes to the Assault phase of the game, starting on p. 20 of the new rulebook.
First, let us examine the obvious but still important small details on p. 21:

 - Charging models (which can now charge 2d6") cannot move through gaps (in terrain) smaller than their base, cannot move through friendly or enemy models, and cannot move into base contact with units they are not charging (more on that later).

- A charge begins with moving the closest model from the charging unit to the charged unit (as measured by the shortest possible route, going around impassible terrain, friendly models, and enemy models in other units). This initial charger must move to contact with the nearest model in the enemy unit being charged, using the shortest possible route even if that takes the model through dangerous or difficult terrain. If the model goes through dangerous terrain it must test as normal and if through difficult terrain it rolls 3d6 and uses the 2 lowest dice for the charge distance. Further, all the charging unit's models then attach at Initiative 1.

 - Once the initial charger is in base contact with the closest model in the enemy unit, the rest of the attacking unit moves. The charging models can move in any order, but they must follow several rules - a charging model must end its move in unit coherency with a model from its unit that has already moved; if possible the charging model must end its move in base contact with an enemy model in the charged unit that is not already in base contact with another charging model, failing that the charging model must move into base contact with an enemy model from the charged unit that is already in base contact with a charging model, failing that the charging model must end its movement within 2" of a model in its unit that is in base contact with an enemy model from the charged unit. This is a good time to point out p. 28 (Multiple Combats): a model is not permitted to move into base contact with a model from a secondary target unless it cannot move into base contact with a model from the primary target.

 -There are now 10 Initiative steps. At the beginning of each such step, models with Initiative values equal to that step perform a pile-in move of 3". These models must move into base contact with an enemy, failing that they must move within 2' of a friendly model in base contact with an enemy, or failing that to get as close as possible to an enemy model. This 3" of movement is not slowed by diffcult terrain (but can still cause Dangerous terrain tests) and cannot be used to contact units not in the assault. The pile-ins and the subsequent fighting happen at each Initiative phase, not all at once. So, assaulting can be a bit more complex than in 4th edition.

An example: A unit of Blood Angels consisting of Dante at I6, Tycho at I5, some Assault marines with chainswords (at I4) and one with a power fist at I1 use their jump packs in the assault phase to charge a unit of traitor Guardsmen at I3. Let us assume that the charge succeeds. The Blood Angels get one attack each as base Strength at I10 from the Hammer of Wrath special rule. So, all of the unengaged Blood Angels make a 3" pile-in move. The Blood Angels attack as normal, wounds caused must be allocated to an enemy in base contact with a model attacking at that Initiative step, if there is none then it must be allocated to the next closest model, and so on. Once the I10 wounds are resolved (allocated, saved, etc.), then Dante piles-in at I6 as necessary, performs his attacks, and resolves any wounds as normal. Tycho piles-in at I5 if he needs to and goes through the process, then the chainsword-wielding marines pile-in if they need to at I4. If there are any Guardsmen remaining they pile-in at I3 and perform their attacks in response. Finally, the I1 Blood Angel piles-in and attacks with his power fist attacks. Of course, this will be much simpler when there are models with only one or two different Initiative values. How is this different than in 5th edition? In the last edition there was only one pile-in: by the charged unit after the charging unit finished their initial movement. As the rulebook points out, pile-ins are 3" by the attacking unit and 3" by the defenders, so it is unlikely that there will be unengaged models by the end of an assault. However, if pile-in moves are unable to bring any models together, the assault comes to an end. Of course, here may well be ways to string out units to make it more difficult to be be wiped out in close combat, perhaps by stretching out units tp the maximum coherency. The downside is that though the combat may be over, the loser may still be destroyed in a sweeping advance - even if the losing unit is too far away to be contacted in the actual assault.

I will leave the implications of all this and exploiting of these new rules as an exercise for the reader.

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