Welcome to Ruleshammer! This week we’re answering more of your submitted questions from the last few weeks.
Necrons: Technomancer Reanimation Rites whilst Deploying Teleporters
Q: Can a technomancer use rites of reanimation in the 3rd round command phase? If it is performing repair teleport homer from the previous round.
To refresh everyone’s understanding of the teleport homer action (I’m going to refer to the slightly different secondary from GT2021 but the action timing is identical – the only change is to VP scoring) this action is completed at the end of your next command phase.
Deploy Teleport Homer (Action): One INFANTRY or BIKER unit from your army can start to perform this action at the end of your Movement phase if it is wholly within 12″ of your opponent’s deployment zone. The action is completed at the end of your next Command phase provided the unit attempting it is still wholly within 12″ of your opponent’s deployment zone.
So really it boils down to is using Rite of Animation one of the ways that an action can fail? These are listed in the action rules section, found on pg 75 of GT2021.
If a unit is destroyed, makes a Normal Move, Advances, Falls Back, attempts to manifest a psychic power, declares a charge, performs a Heroic Intervention or makes any attacks with ranged weapons after it has started to perform an action but before that action is completed, that action is failed. Otherwise, that action is successfully completed. A CHARACTER unit cannot use any aura abilities while it is performing an action (if the action is failed, their aura abilities immediately take effect again).
And fortunately for the Technomancer Rites of Reanimation is not an Aura ability so there’s not limitations on it using the ability whilst the action is still incomplete.
Rites of Reanimation: In your Command phase, you can select one friendly <DYNASTY> CORE unit within 6″ of this model. One destroyed model from that unit is Reanimated. If the selected unit is a NECRON WARRIORS unit, D3 destroyed models from that unit are Reanimated instead. Each unit can only be selected for this ability once per phase.
Core Rules: Breachable trait and moving through Walls
Q: If an infantry with a large base passes through a breachable wall but doesn’t make it all the way through. Would he lose movement before the wall or be placed to the side but having both players understand that he is in between?
The short answer is that if they don’t have enough movement to reach the other side entirely or there’s not space on the other side, then they can’t move to that location. They would move up to the wall and then stop, that is their actual location.
The more detailed answer is that fundamentally models can’t end moves partially through walls in Warhammer 40k. There’s no rule that specifically says this but that doesn’t mean that something is allowed in this game, there’s no rule against putting a model on it’s side but that’s still not allowed. In a permissive ruleset like 40k you can only do the things the rules say you can do, everything not specifically allowed is not allowed. There are however guidance notes in the core rules however that add specific clarification about this.
Hints and Tips – Wobbly Models
Sometimes you may find that a particular terrain feature makes it hard for you to place a model exactly where you want. If you delicately balance a model in place, it is very likely to fall as soon as someone nudges the table, leaving your painted model damaged or even broken. In cases like this, provided it is still physically possible to place the model in the desired location, you may find it helps to leave a model in a safer position, so long as both players agree and know its ‘actual’ location. If, later on, an enemy model is shooting the model, you will have to hold it back in place so they can check visibility
so whilst you can place models in positions where it’s hard to get them to balance and then decide to put the model in a safer location to avoid damage if it falls, this hint/tip is pretty clear that models must be placed where it’s physically possible to place them. This does lead to situations where the gap is insufficient for a model to move through into engagement range for instance during a charge.
Astra Millitarum: Cadian Field Promotion and Old Grudges Interaction
Q: Can the new Cadian stratagem “Field Promotion” be used with the WL trait, “Old Grudges?” Old grudges says to pick an enemy unit after Deployment & before the first battle round. But Field promotion gives a new WL trait to a character after a warlords death. How does that interact?
So this is a bit of a weird one and it has divided us a little here at Goonhammer HQ. I can certainly see how thinking the buff remains in play might be reached however I don’t think we can reach the conclusion that happens; first of all the stratagem has the wording below.
Field Promotion: Use this stratagem when a CADIAN WARLORD from your army is destroyed. Select a CADIAN OFFICER model from your army that does not have a Warlord Trait. Then, select a warlord trait that no model in your army has and that the selected model is eligible for. Until the end of the battle, that model gains that Warlord Trait anf for all rules purposes now counts as your WARLORD. In addition, if that model has the Voice of Command Ability, until the end of the battle it gain the Senior Officer ability. If any mission objectives, secondary objective, tactical objective, or Agenda rules are triggered when your WARLORD is destroyed, those rules are not triggered until after the new WARLORD is destroyed.
So whilst you can’t give the new Warlord the Old Grudges trait the wording of that trait implies that you only need to be within 6″ of your warlord to keep the buff.
Old Grudges: After deployment, but before the first battle round begins, choose a unit in your opponent’s army. You can re-roll failed wound rolls for ASTRA MILITARUM units from your army that target the unit you chose whilst they are within 6″ of your Warlord.
However that’s not how this actually works. Old Grudges is an aura ability that would be assigned to the original model on your roster. It doesn’t have the Aura tag because this is an 8th edition codex, but it’s “an ability that effects models within a range”, in this case it affects friendly units when within 6″. As such you need the Aura to be on the battlefield for it to function, and it’s been destroyed and removed from play.
So whilst you have a warlord and it might have friendly units within 6″ of it, it doesn’t have the Old Grudges ability and therefore doesn’t provide the buff. This is true of all the current Astra Millitarum Warlord Traits, arguing that Old Grudges keeps working would require accepting that ALL of the old traits keep working even without the traits on your new Warlord.
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