Hi, From the Reinforcement rules PDF, the requirements for Request Reinforcements is: ACTIVATION To Request Reinforcements, the Active Player must meet one of the following conditions: ► The Active Player counts their Victory Points and the sum total is equal to or less than the Request Reinforcements value listed in the chart below. ► It is their third Game Round. It would seem possible for the player going second (after a brutal first player turn 1...) to request reinforcements on turn 1. Is that as intended?
Could you intentionally start 100 points down and have the reinforcements come in turn 1 as the first player? Since it's not based on how much you have lost but how much you have left.
This falls under the same general category as “can I start in retreat”. The short answer is no; as a TO I would disqualify that as a sportsmanship violation.
for reinf though, i don't see what's the big deal. Option A) you play the game as normal, drop 250Pts on deployment, and get 100Pts in reserve. Option B) you deploy 150Pts on deployment, on turn 1 you get 100Pts in reserve in its own combat group. You play the whole game with only 250 out of 350, vs a 350 Pts player. You are not in retreat, so you really play the whole game. Option C) you hate CommLink but no one wants to play 300; so you pay your mandatory tax, drop 250Pts over 14-15 models on deployment, and took 0 or 1 reserve. If you do take 1 reserve it will drop in as soon as your total surviving count is 250 (ie. it will probably drop t1 or t2 even if you took a full 250Pts main section) If option C is unsportmanship, then having 0% of games/tournament for the next year be classic 300Pts No Extra is equally unsportmanship and possibly a collusion/conspiration of TOs. But with option C being okay, I see nothing wrong with option B. in both cases you play a whole game of 350Pts with only a fraction of it. (unlike retreat glitch, where you play a single turn out of 6 and get an uncontested top of turn 1 victory) Optional Extras shouldn't be the norm, becoming a kind of : play with it or stop playing infinity.
If you’re playing a pickup game with your friends at the club, do whatever you want so long as both parties agree it sounds fun/interesting. My answer was specifically in an event or tournament organizer / judge context, where messing with points affects retreat thresholds and can deny an opponent a fair game.
Can reinforcements enter first turn? yes. Can you make a list that has so many points unallocated to trigger retreat/ reinforcements? no. What is the minimum points I can not spend when creating a list? I honestly never thought this question.
Ill look into it, it was certainly in the previous editions FAQ, if it is not on N4 and people with veteran troops want to abuse it for easy low score wins Ill see if it is prevalent to become part of the FAQ again.
Yes, you can. At your home. Not in a Tournament. That is AWFUL sportmanship and a very good way to riun the experience of game to everyone present AND PAYING to be there. BTW, if i manage to spare time to play even at home and my opponent (god forbid naming "friend" such an axhole) came out with something like that, well... that never gonna happen again for sure.
The rules really don't need to arbitrate the least amount of points a list need to have, other than for missions that ends when a player enters retreat. Just let player communities solve such problems as when a player self-cripples it is for reasons that have nothing to do with the rules.
For retreat I'm with you, but I really don't see the bad sportsmanship in doing this to trigger reinforcements T1? If you really thought FD+16 on ~5 models from a restrictive list was worth the sacrifice of 100 points in your list, why not? It could even be interesting list design. In reality it's either going to be absurdly broken (I doubt it, just can't see a "boosted" alpha strike with only 5-6 orders and a ~30 point active shooter being that good) or it'll be terrible and not worth doing. But even then it wouldn't ruin your opponents game. Most likely you use your FD+16 to cause some havoc, triggering your opponent to also get T1 reinforcements, which land right in the middle of your opponents army and dismantle them.
Please, also ask regading on the obligatoriety of reinforcements deployment... (that is, must I deploy them all? Must I spend all possible points? etc...) I ask because it may be a viable strategy if your main troops have been obliterated and your opponent is counting on the reinforcements to prevent a retreat, to intentionally force said retreat, make all possible points during that last turn, and leave the opponent without playing anymore. Mind you, this reads more as a "I refuse to be be forced to be beaten a whole new turn" than a d*ck move of "I start in retreat, then I score 1-2 pts, then the game ends", with an extra of points denial to the alpha striker.
You cannot force retreat by withholding reinforcements in the same way that a hidden Cutter cannot force retreat with its absence. There are other tactical options that make withhold reinforcements an interesting option, I had not asked about that in advance.
I cannot, however, "cancel" a Retreat state by repairing an Unconscious Marut... And I can envision games in which hard to remove pieces get healed by the reinforcements (or Regeneration! Even if it's risky and random, many think said randomnes balances the game...) and suddenly the 2nd player who got Reinforcements in their 1st turn after losing, dunno, a Bronze going KO that then Parvati topped in a single order has the whole combat group and all the reasons to alpha strike the other... Again, I'm just playing devil's advocate here, and looking for some rips in the seams...
I don't think this whole withholding theory is relevant, I know in the On Tabletop videos they made a whole hoopla about how reinforcements come before the retreat check, but the retreat check is based on VPs, that's non-null troops and it's the same value used to bring your reinforcements in in the first place. If you have 88 points (assuming 350 point game) between your things on the table and your reinforcements (and HD/AD) you are not in retreat, whether you bring those reinforcements onto the board or not will have no impact on it, simply their existence is enough to prevent retreat. Any other interpretation given the wording similarity to the request reinforcement requirements would mean that all players always get their reinforcements in turn 1 in a 350 point game.
