Ruleshammer 40k Q&A: April 28th 2023

Welcome to Ruleshammer! This week we’re covering some more questions submitted by you, the readers, and our patrons on the Goonhammer Discord. Remember the banner below will take you to the Ruleshammer 9th Edition Compedium, for all the questions I’ve answered this edition!

As 9th draws to a close Ruleshammer will try to focus on other games for the coming months, but we need your questions! If you have any Age of Sigmar Questions or Kill Team questions please do send them in via the usual form!

Redeploying Units with Deployment Abilities

Redeploying has once again become a subject of discussion, this time asking us to consider units with abilities to redeploy in locations outside of the deployment zone and if you can use them when those units redeploy. My short answer is Yes.

Here's an example of one such ability:

Infiltrators: During deployment, when you set up this unit, it can be set up anywhere on the battlefield that is more than 9" away from the enemy deployment zone and any enemy models.

Largely, the argument against redeploy abilities from allowing a model to use this ability is one of timing, arguing that this ability only works "during deployment" and the redeploy abilities are later on in the game set up sequence. However I think you need to read "redeploy" as "deploy as if during deployment" otherwise the term has no meaning at all. These abilities don't explain what "redeploy" means, they just say a unit can do it.

After both players have deployed their armies and determined who has the first turn, select up to one friendly <SEPT> unit, or up to three friendly <SEPT> units if you selected the Kauyon Tactical Philosophy this battle, and redeploy them. If the mission uses the Strategic Reserves rules, any of those units can be placed into Strategic Reserves without having to spend any additional CPs, regardless of how many units are already in Strategic Reserves. If both players have abilities that redeploy units, roll off: the winner chooses who redeploys their units first.

So either "redeploy" means to follow the "during deployment" step rules and put models where it says, which would include any "during deployment abilities". Or there's no rules for what redeploying means and it's either RAW nothing or you can put models wherever you like on the board without any restrictions. I doubt either of those are intended interpretations though.

Commander Farsight. Credit: Jack Hunter

Tau - Kauyon and Montka, nearest target and slow rolling

Not sure. Going to preface this one with not being 100% on how this is meant to work. The question is: If the closest eligible target changes during the resolution of attacks being made by a unit, does the unit continue getting the bonus if it split its fire among multiple units? Let's go to the rule:

Each time a model in this unit makes a ranged attack that targets the closest eligible enemy unit within 12", if that model is not within Engagement Range of any enemy units and did not Fall Back this turn, on an unmodified hit roll of the value shown in the table below, if that attack scores a hit, it scores 1 additional hit.

This question immeadiately heads into a weird level of semantics that honestly I'd rather avoid but I decided to write about it this week to explain how I'd handle these things in a casual game.

The semantic argument is that you get the bonus from Montka or Kauyon from attacks that target the closest eligible enemy unit. The rule says that in the present tense though and it's a rule that resolves each time an attack is made, as in when resolving them. Despite the targeting step being earlier. Following this reasoning if a unit has 20 attacks, and the first 10 destroy the original closest unit and the second ten are now targeting the closest eligible unit you'd get the buff.

It's not an entirely flawed argument in my opinion. The ability does however conflate two things that the rules have happen at different times, and as such it sits on the edge of ambiguity for me. Rules in this state in my opinion are better played with the disadvantaged read until confirmed otherwise. So I personally would only play with the buff for the first 10 attacks. It's definitely something TOs should weigh in on at events as well.

Does an auto wound on a Hit, need to have actually hit?

Depends on the ability. Some abilities such as Judgement require the roll to not only meet a numerical target but also be a successful hit in order to trigger the auto wound effect. Rules such as the Votann Judgement Tokens read as follows:

Eminent Threat: On an unmodified hit roll of 5+, if that attack successfully hits the target, it also automatically wounds the target.

Some however do not specify this, like this Astra Miltarum stratagem Ingrained Precision:

INGRAINED PRECISION: Use this Stratagem in your Shooting phase, when a BORN SOLDIERS unit from your army is selected to shoot. Until the end of the phase, each time a model in that unit makes a ranged attack, an unmodified hit roll of 5+ automatically wounds the target. If an attack automatically wounds the target as a result of this, then for the purposes of any other rules that are triggered on a particular wound roll, that attack is considered to have been made with an unmodified wound roll of 6.

Admech also had their auto wound stratagem gain this requirement in the Balance Dataslate for some time, before one of the most recent slates removed every balance change the faction had received to date, including that extra requirement.

So obviously the abilities that say you have to hit, mean you have to hit. I think there's going to be disagreement on the others though, some will read the lack of mentioning it as meaning you don't need to hit. Some will think that because any of these abilities have required it, they all should work the same way regardless of RAW. I would recommend checking with your TOs and Opponents which take they have on these so that it's not debated in the heat of things later on.

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