A peacekeeping Myrmidon is walking alone down a dark alley. "Nice ODD you've got there" says a Ninja "Would be a shame if something happened to it" says another "Why don't you hand it over?" Says a third. "Enough! Ninjas, Engage!" Says the Oniwaban. Desperate, the Myrmidon lays down a salvo with their Chain Rifle, but the Ninjas all roll criminally low. Backed up against a wall that is the edge of the board, the Aleph player can only place at most 3 Ninjas in Base to Base contact. Or 2, if he places them poorly. 1. Can the Aleph player intentionally choose to optimize placement so that as few enemies as possible end up Engaged? 2. Who picks the order of Placement? 3. Does the fact that there is no room for some Ninjas mean their Engage failed automatically and they take Chain Rifle damage (similarly to if they were out of range or to the Climb+ ruling)?
what is it? the spoiled scenario for the new season of "Mirmidon Wars" series? but i think ninjas would not get hit for sure, the placement must be done by Mirmidon commander, but in the order the ninjas owner (Oniwaban?) choose. the optimal placement? sorry, there is no space for all of you, so in the line, b@stards.
I have a hard time telling whether these are rules questions or "Can we get CB to shoot themselves in the foot again?" questions lately. Placement of the Engaged troopers is an effect of Engage, it's not a requirement. So there's no logical reason (and several game play related reasons) for the face-to-face roll to fail automatically because the placement is impossible. You have three ninja's declare Engage when you know there's only room for two of them. Placement hasn't failed before the roll, because you can't predict how much room you'll need. At this point, most of the rulings on the old forum have fallen into "I guy on the Internet claimed it was true" territory. The Close Combat rules specify an upper bound for engagement: The maximum number of troops in base to base contact with a model with a 25 mm round base is 4.The maximum number of troops in base to base contact with a model with a 40 mm (or wider) round base is 6. (limits that are basically to make base size differences matter less, since you should be able to get 5 or 6 25mm bases in base contact around a 25mm base depending on how bad your tolerances are) If you get out your 25mm bases or models, you should notice that the statutory limits for the game are less than what you can physically fit in base contact. That is a really good reason to say "Yes, you do have to ensure all of the troopers that the game allows to be in base contact to be in base contact."
Okay, let me put it in a more realistic scenario, and honestly what I was really asking. Liu Xing lands in the middle of a 5-man Fireteam. All members declare Engage. Max amount of people who can be in BtB with a Liu Xing (S2) is by the rules 4, which is less than 5. What happens if all of them succeed? Problem with that question is that it has been proven that people have a vested interest in answering to the Liu Xing's disadvantage, so I didn't want to trigger involuntary false responses. I'm asking specifically due to this bullet point under effects: You cannot declare Engage if the reactive trooper would be incapable of reaching his target even if it is closer than 2 inches (for example, if there is a wall or an insurmountable chasm in the way).
CB already shot themselves in the foot when they wrote the Engage rules. They should've just written it to allow the engaging player to place the model then we wouldn't have this "My Fusilier holds your TAG above his head and sticks it to a wall" nonsense. If they shoot themselves in the other foot they might finally acknowledge this rule needs a fix.
@Mahtamori , when you DECLARE engage - all was legal. it only become illlegal AFTER the rolls already done cause of placement other models. so roll successful - no need to rewerse it to fail.
Ask yourself a Q. Is the wannabeengaging model able to reach his target with a 2" (+ kinematika) move? Yes, proceed to declare Engage. No, you have to plain dodge. This is a bit of a hole, but if it happened to me i'd go with @solkan view. If all 4 enemies managed to get their rolls, you must place them. If 5 enemies manage to get their rolls? The active model decides the placement, so 4 engaged, 1 on his feet but evadad damage nonetheless.
I do not buy that this has been answered in a satisfactory fashion that's also consistent with the rules. And yes, it is going to be relevant because Fireteams aren't uncommon and a Liu Xing template is less than 2" from the Liu Xing so literally any member of a 4+Fireteam touched by the template will be able to declare Engage, regardless of what other abilities they have (unless it's a Hacking Device).
This. The quoted rules text is a check to see if the reactive trooper can reach any position of the active trooper, not the final position that the active player places them in. What would need an answer is who and how you decide to place troopers if they can't reach - that doesn't stop the Engage from having fulfilled all it's Requirements.
