Charging question

Hi all,

Referring to the picture below: units A and B are the enemy's models, and unit C is yours. Let's say you declare a charge from unit C against unit A; you roll enough to complete the charge, and there is no intervening terrain or models that would block you. You move straight ahead to make contact with the models, however, because units A and B are exactly in line, unit C will make contact with unit B also. What happens?



Pg. 22 of the BRB states that "There is one important principle that you should always keep in mind when charging: under no circumstances can a unit use its charge move to move into contact with an enemy it has not declared a charge against.", so how do you move your unit to contact only unit A? Do you shift off to your left a little so as to avoid any contact? What if there is a unit on the other side too in which you would contact? How does it work?

From that diagram you'd wheel the top right corner of C far enough to hit A and not B.  You can't do a side-step with the whole horde, but you do get 90 degrees of free wheeling goodness before you have to close the door.

I agree, under the circumstances provided you would have to use your free wheel in order to position Unit C so that it only makes base contact with the unit it's declared as it's charge target then complete the charge. This could be achieved by wheeling on the front right corner of Unit C then moving forwards to connect that corner with Unit A and then close the door by wheeling the left flank back and into base contact with Unit A.

I agree, under the circumstances provided you would have to use your free wheel in order to position Unit C so that it only makes base contact with the unit it's declared as it's charge target then complete the charge. This could be achieved by wheeling on the front right corner of Unit C then moving forwards to connect that corner with Unit A and then close the door by wheeling the left flank back and into base contact with Unit A.

Agree this ^^

Kind regards Zolas.

thanks for the responses everyone, that clears up part of my question.

However, in the below scenario, how does it work? Unit C wants to charge unit A, which is flanked by D and B, disallowing you to wheel and close the door without touching either unit. Is your charge failed? Can you simply not declare a charge in this scenario? It doesn't seem to make sense to me if that is the case. This occurred in a game against a friend and we couldn't agree on what to do. In the end we decided that unit C is in combat with unit A, and shuffled everyone else an inch back/away.

I was watching a batrep  and they were talking about how you can only charge and come into as few units as possible (ideal one) like u couldn't charge units a and b on purpose, but I think in this case uld  have to charge either flanking units and not unit A making unit A unchargeable  with ur horde

You might be right there hmm. But a thought just occurred to me: if you charge unit A, wheeling to make contact with a corner of your horde to just any part of unit A, is it then up to unit A to close the door, as you are unable to? I believe that is covered somewhere in the book, and could apply to this situation.  The more I think about it the more that makes sense to me.

You might be right there hmm. But a thought just occurred to me: if you charge unit A, wheeling to make contact with a corner of your horde to just any part of unit A, is it then up to unit A to close the door, as you are unable to?

Yes, per the BRB pg 22.

-Snark

I think you've missed an important paragraph in the BRB, page 18. It's the third highlighted section, titled "Charging More Than One Unit".

Here's the verbatim typing of it:

"A unit can normally only declare a charge at a single enemy unit. However, if there is no way at all of completing the charge against an enemy unit without touching another (sometimes known as 'clipping') then the charging unit must also declare a charge against the other unit(s)..." The rest applies to the reactions.

So, in your first example, You try and pivot to avoid Unit B in order to hit only Unit A.

In your second example, however, since you cannot avoid hitting either Unit B or D by charging Unit A, you effectively declare charges against both Units B and D as well, who then choose to stand-and-shoot, hold, or flee. (Or, you can choose to have the additional charge declaration be on one of those units, then wheel and pivot to avoid clipping the other).

To avoid this conflict, simply choose to charge either Unit B or D, as then you'd have to wheel anyways to make contact with them. But, if your best target happens to be Unit A, prepare to fight multiple opponents at once!

---

So, yeah, the discussions in this thread are more or less incorrect by the rulebook (at least, in regards to the second question posed here). But, then again, I just happened to have the BRB within reach once I started reading what was being said here. Helps to use the BRB as opposed to just straight-up memory, which is faulty and not in print

Provided the middle unit could wheel (and that's the big if) then you wouldn't need to declare charges on the other two because it can be completed.  But Sazel is absolutely right, if both of those units are stopping the middle unit from wheeling, you'd have to declare a charge against at least one of the others to complete it.  I was waiting to get a reference to the multiple charging rule myself when I got home form work.

Keep in mind, that situation is a happy one to be in if you've got a terror causer in that unit, since both units would need to take a Terror test.

In your second example, however, since you cannot avoid hitting either Unit B or D by charging Unit A, you effectively declare charges against both Units B and D as well, who then choose to stand-and-shoot, hold, or flee. (Or, you can choose to have the additional charge declaration be on one of those units, then wheel and pivot to avoid clipping the other).

To avoid this conflict, simply choose to charge either Unit B or D, as then you'd have to wheel anyways to make contact with them. But, if your best target happens to be Unit A, prepare to fight multiple opponents at once!

Surely it makes more sense to declare either unit B or D to minimize the number of units you're in contact with rather than charging the whole lot of them. Similar to Example 1 you'd wheel and charge but this time with the purpose of minimizing the number of units you engage.

I completely agree with MasteroDisaster, you have to avoid multiple units on the charge if possible. The only time in the scenario above that unit C would charge multiple units is if it was too close and wheeling would contact unit A before either B or D and therefore have to close the door into contact with either A and D or A and B. I believe if it can make the wheel into either B or D with out touching A then its the only legal charge option.

is it really possible to avoid charging unit b in the first example? cause , even after the weel, when you make contact with unit a, you would than have to maximize youre frontage btb contact, which would probably  make you clip unit b, right?

In the first example, it looks as though unit A and B are the minimum distance away from each other, 1". If unit C wishes to declare a charge against unit A and rolls well, so the charge can be completed. Unit C wheels to bring as many models as possible into contact with unit A (usually keeping the last model in the front rank corner to corner with the last model in the front rank of the opposing unit), thus causing unit C to not clip unit B, because 20mm and 25mm bases do not stretch an inch, and therefor cannot touch unit B. This is also considering that unit C has enough room between the opposing units to wheel in such a way to bring itself into contact thusly.

In your other example, you can declare a charge against unit A with unit C, but you are going to have to declare a charge against at least one of the other units. If you have enough distance between unitC and the opposing units to bring about a right side wheel, you can do as I explained above and leave the last model in your front rank corner to corner with the last model in their front rank of unit A, avoiding unit B (because it's supposed to be an inch away) but then hitting unit D (and having to declare a charge against them, then having them declare a reaction, etc.). Or you can do the opposite and wheel towards the left, effectively charging unit A and B (instead of A and D).

Hope that makes sense! I might even be able to take pictures/make a video later...but alas I am at work.