8th Ed. Flank Charge/Challenge Question

[ncharman]

Hey all,

Just played my first game with 8th Ed with a buddy who fielded an Ogre Kingdom army. We were a bit confused about a situation that came up during our match and was wondering if anyone here could give me some clarity on it.

I charged his unit of Ogre Bulls with 2 units of Saurus Infantry. I will do my best to recreate the layout.

xxxxOOO
xxxx
xxxGOOO
xxxx
xxxxSMOB
...........xxxxx
...........xxxxx
...........xxxxx
...........xxxxx

So one unit in the front, one in the side, the unit in the side contained a Saurus Old Blood. The Ogre Slaughtermaster issued a challenge to the Old Blood which I accepted. After a few rounds of combat, all Ogres in the back two ranks where killed and the Slaughtermaster, Ogre Bull and Bruiser remained. At this time I had one rank left on the frontal charge and 2.5 ranks left on the flank charge rank.

Question is, since the unit was charging into the flank, at this point the only model in BtB with them was the Slaughtermaster (who was occupied with the Oldblood in challenge) do the rest of the units get to still attack the rank and file troops who are being shielded from the Slaughtermaster? or is the entire unit attacking the flank nullified due to being held up in a challenge?

 

[Stonecutter]

Models can only attack models they are in base contact with or, in the case of supporting attacks, models in base contact with the model in the front of their file. In this instance, all your saurus to the flank do indeed lose their attacks since the only model in contact, the slaughtermaster, is in a challenge and cannot be touched.

 

[BEEGfrog]

As stonecutter said...

But you do get rank bonus and flank charge.

Front saurus and ogres are not steadfast as front saurus do not have more ranks than ogres (1 each) and flank saurus have more ranks.

 

[ncharman]

So basically his Slaughtermaster in a challenge completely negates an entire block of infantry?

I guess thats the rule, however I definately think it is stupid, as it effectively negated around 8-10 Attacks and in the reality of things it would make no sense to have an entire unit stay in place and watch a challenge whilst another unit of theirs is engaged in combat to the front. *sigh*

 

[Coatl]

Doesn't the rules for challenges say to remove the combatants from combat if possible or am i imagining things?

 

[brokbrok]

^ I thought this as well.

I'd assume you treat the situation the same as the book shows to treat rear charges where half a rank is missing, i.e. you would assume that people move up to fill in the missing ranks so that the full area would still fight as normal. You leave the challenge people there for the sake of laziness, but you shuffle rank and file in your head so that everyone remains in combat.

 

[Stonecutter]

As per page 102 of the BRB, "if a character accepts a challenge, move him into base contact with the challenger,.." I believe the taking them out of combat was the wording in 7th ed IIRC.