Hi guys. I've played Wallace a couple of times now and have been thinking about the best way to protect him if you don't get first turn. Both times I used the castle Wallace method described by @daboarder in his excellent tactica. First game the PanO opponent didn't attempt to attack it, second game ko dali and a speculo managed to jointly kill Wallace, although it almost didn't work, cost both their lives and used all their orders to do it. So I can definitely see the merits of the tactic. Then I thought, if you get second turn and the opponent deploys first and you think an assassination run is likely. Why not keep wallace as your reserve and place him far away from the assassin model once it's been placed? Then I thought, linkteam rules say you form the team during deployment. Placing reserve models is still part of deployment. Can you keep Wallace, or any eligible model, in reserve and then place it in coherency with models it could legally form a link team with and form the team?
Yes, you can place a reserve model into a fireteam. Since Galwegians aren't a legal fireteam without Wallace, you would declare the fireteam when Wallace is placed. If the fireteam was already legitimate, then you would simply add the reserve unit to the existing fireteam.
Thanks @macfergusson I thought it would work like that but its nice to have it confirmed before I try it. Follow-up question... If you do what I described, but for whatever reason decide to deploy your reserve model outside a link team and you haven't formed a link team yet because you were planning to put your reserve model in it to form the link (eg. Wallace joining Galwegians), can you still declare the formation of a link team without the reserve? Example of what I mean You have two possible link teams you could form (Galwegians with Wallace or a volunteers/ Grey link). You were thinking about putting Wallace in whichever one was further from the enemy Speculo. The speculo goes down somewhere unexpected and you think it would be safer to put Wallace prone on a roof far from it and either link. Are you then allowed to form the volunteer/ Grey link even though Wallace hasn't joined it? (Obviously Gals couldn't be linked in this situation)
The only thing you can change at Reserve Deployment are things related to the Reserve Unit you're deploying. If you want that Volunteer link formed up before turns start, you need to declare it.
Why is that though? Technically, basic deployment rules only allow you to place that last model at that moment and nothing else, but Fireteam rules allow you to form Fireteam by placing a Leader token (and making necessary coherency checks) during Deployment phase, giving you that permission. And placement of "reserve" model is still a part of Deployment phase. Also, such topics should really be opened in rules section.
You form the Fireteam when you place the Team Leader token. Any troopers you pacce on the table after that won't be in the Fireteam.
So are you saying that a Reserve Unit can't be in a Fireteam, or that the Fireteam it is going to be in shouldn't be formed until you place the Reserve Unit
The second. If you want the reserve trooper to be in a Fireteam you have to form the Fireteam after deploying them, which means you won't get to adjust anyone's position.
What if I have a link team on the table, and when I place Wallace on the table as reserve model, can I brake the old link team and make a new one with Wallace and Glaswegians?
In your turn by spending a Command Token, sure. But you won't be able to do so during Deployment because you don't have permission to reform the Fireteam.
To elaborate: you have a permission to break your own Fireteam, but: "In the Active Turn and in the Reactive Turn, a Fireteam is automatically cancelled in the following cases: ...... The Fireteam can be cancelled voluntarily by the player, with no expenditure of Orders or Command Tokens." Deployment phase isn't a part of Active/Reactive turn, obviously.
You need to evaluate when to use it and when not too. Whenever you are going first, you probably dont need to rely on the trick nearly as much and can in all likelihood hammer the opponent so hard they will have other things to worry about. When going second you need to think about the opponents lists, Haqqislam, Hassasins, Combined, Shasvastii and PanO (Yes, specfire is terrifying) are all armies that run some of the best assassination units in the game, so against those lists its far more likely you will have to contend with such actions. Armies like Yu Jing or Nomads can play this way, but its a lot less likely that they will, you need to evaluate the risks
