Hey PI-Warhammer Recruit!
Good Saturday morning to you! In the previous article, we learned how to Move and Shoot, today we’re going to learn how to Charge and Fight!
A quick break down of the core game play articles:
- Part 1 – Moving and Shooting
- Part 2 – Charging and Fighting
- Part 3 – Command Phase and Applying All We’ve Learnt
In this scenario, we’re going to use 1 Primaris Lieutenant and 3 Scarab Swarm models
Today, we’ll be playing the Necrons side and our opponent will be the Space Marines side.
Step 1 & 2 : Moving and Shooting
Following the steps from the last article, we’ll move the Scarab Swarms towards the Primaris Lieutenant to get closer for the charge.
But since the Scarab Swarms are a unit of 3 models, they would need to move as a coherent group. To do so, each model must be within 2″ of another model within it’s unit.
Picture 1, the Scarab closest to us is within coherency. Picture 2, the Scarab closest to us is not (not 2″ within next model)
Step 3: Charging
Our Scarab Swarms must be within 12″ of the enemy Space Marine model in order to declare a charge. Note if we’ve made an advance move earlier, we can’t charge.
Roll 2 dice and add the result, that is the max charge distance in inches the unit can charge.
The nearest Scarab Swarm must end its move within 1″ of the enemy Space Marine Lieutenant, else the charge fails! So before you charge, try to get your models as close as you can to the enemy!
In this case, we rolled 7, the charge is a success!
Now that our models are within range, it’s time to fight!
Step 4: Fighting
There are 3 parts to the Fight Phase:
- Pile In
- Make Close Combat Attacks
- Consolidate
Pile In
To pile in, we move our Scarab Swarms into base contact with the Space Marine. They can move in and around the enemy of max distance 3″. Note they still have to be at least 2″ of each other for unit coherency.
Make Close Combat Attacks
Previously as you learnt how to Shoot, you select your range weapon, roll to hit, roll to wound, the enemy does saving throws, damage is inflicted etc.
For close combat, you do the same just that for melee attacks, you use the ‘A’ characteristic (‘A’ for Attacks) for weapon skill, you use the ‘WS’ characteristic (stands for ‘Weapon Skill’) and weapon’s ‘S’ stat will either use our model’s own ‘S’ characteristic or modify it.
Let’s check our Scarab Swarm Data Sheet
1 Scarab Swarm model can make 4 attacks. So we have 3 models, thus 4 x 3 = 12 attacks, means we roll 12 dice!
Its ‘WS’ is 4+, so rolls of 4 or more will hit the Space Marine.
We rolled 12 dice for 3 attacking Scarab Swarms. 7 hits went through
Let’s check what melee weapons they have:
They have ‘Feeder mandibles’ which uses the ‘S’ of the model, in this case, its 3.
Let’s roll our 7 dice to wound.
We check our wound table to see if the result inflicts any wounds on the Space Marine:
Our Scarab Swarm strength 3 is lower than the Space Marine’s Toughness (its 4), so we would need 5+ to wound him.
We have 4 dice that rolled 5+, so that’s 4 wounds!
The enemy Primaris Lieutenant Space Marine now rolls to Save against the wounds, his Sv is 3+. So he saved against 3 but took 1 wound. That’s 1 Damage. Note he has 5 wounds so he’s a tough fella!
Consolidate
In most cases, after we’ve removed eliminated models, we will have ‘holes’ in the fighting units, a Consolidate is basically to move your attacking models up to 3″ into the nearest enemy model to close ranks.
The Primaris Lieutenant Attacks!
Now the enemy Primaris Lieutenant is not going to take this lying down. It’s his turn to fight! Let’s check his Data Sheet
He can make 4 attacks, so that’s 4 dice the opponent will roll
His ‘WS’ (weapon skill) is 2+, so hit rolls of 2 or more will go through!
He uses a Master-crafted power sword which adds +1 to his Strength of 4, making it 5!
So let’s see how well he does against our Scarab Swarms
The opponent rolls 4 dice for 4 attacks, all 4 went through!
The opponent thus rolls 4 wound rolls
Because the Primaris Lieutenant’s ‘S’ is more than the Scarab Swarms ‘T’ (5 vs 3), results of 3+ will wound!
That’s 3 wounds total!
We normally have to roll saves for our Scarab Swarms to check if the wounds will inflict them. They Sv on 6+
However the Lieutenant’s Master-crafted Power Sword has an Armour Penetration (AP) Characteristic of -3.
This makes it impossible for the Scarabs to save against because whatever result we roll will be below 6 eg. if we rolled 6, 6-3 = 3 which is a fail.
AP is always applied to the target’s save roll afterwards.
The attacks cleave straight through the Scarabs’ armour dealing 2 Damage for each successful wound.
So 3 wounds of 2 damage each is 6 damage total!
This eliminates 1 Scarab model (it has 4 Wounds) and inflicts 2 damage to 1 other Scarab model. We now have 2 Scarabs left.
And there you have it!
That’s how you Charge and Fight in Warhammer 40k! Tomorrow, we’ll learn about the Command Phase and Applying All We’ve Learnt!
Want to start your own Warhammer 40k journey? Pick up the new Recruit Box which has all the models shown in this article and more! We’re also doing a bundle set of 1 Recruit Box and 1 Hobby Starter Set for only $100! Head down to the store to check ’em out!
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