Though to be fair, the monster itself should be perfectly aware of how strong its own tail is, and thus it would make perfect sense to position itself in a manner that allowed for her powerful tail swipe. I prefer imagining it as the Bastiladon moving forward, then making a spin at the approaching enemies. Though it is a bit difficult to pull off, since it means you don't get to beam the enemies, nor charge them if they decide not to.
The sentence structure used for the tail attack makes for two completely equally valid interpretations. I go with the less powerful one that says in order to get +1 to hit and S10, the attack needs to be to the rear. Others read it as it being S10 all the time, and +1 to hit if the attack is made to the rear.
Oh. Funny, I hadn't even thought of that interpretation. I normally just play it as 1 S10 attack with +1 to hit, that is only possible to be used against units in the rear. Though I see the logic behind the other argument. After all, it should still be able to thrash around and smaack things with that enormous tail - it is just far easier to hit those already standing near the tail. Of course, logic =/= actual game mechanics and rules. So that's a pretty weak argument.
See, i never read it that way at all... I'm going to have to re-read it when i get home. I always read it as 2x str4 attacks and 1x Str10 attack. +1 to hit if they're in the rear. Using the other logic, would not every attack be strength 10 then?
It is pretty ambiguous. I would guess the Bastiladon gets two S4 attacks and one S10 attack and the S10 attack gets a bonus to hit against a model in the rear arc. If they intended the S10 attack to only be used against a model in the rear arc, there are numerous ways it could've been written more clearly. "If attacking a model in the creature's rear arc, nominate one of the..." Or "Against models in the creature's rear arc, this attack is resolved at Strength 10 and receives..." Edit: This may or may not be of value, but the 2014 ETC FAQ had this very question on it: