Topic: Consolidate

[Syn Ace]

A bit of confusion over Consolidation. It's the 6 step of the Fight Phase.

6. Consolidate
You may move each model in the unit up to 3" – this move can be in any direction so long as the model ends
the move closer to the nearest enemy model.

 In 7th, you consolidated if there was no enemy left to fight. In 8th, it seems to be used to get more guys into the fight, assuming they were out of range to contribute (at least that's the example GW gives, but they always go with the most simplistic examples). But I guess if you wipe out a unit, you could move the victors toward the nearest enemy. Where it's caused confusion, is my friend used it to move a victorious unit within 1" of a new, unengaged unit to tie it up. I've seen other's online say this is possible, but I'm trying to figure out the logic. I thought you can only move within 1" of an enemy if you declare a charge? Otherwise, you stop outside of a 1"? It says during a charge you can't move within 1" of a unit you didn't target, so why would you be able to consolidate to within 1"?

Can anyone shed any light on this?

[StealthKnightSteg]

from the designer notes (I could only find a link via Bols... but should be on the 40k fb page I think)

Q: If a unit piles in or consolidates into a unit it didn’t
declare a charge against in the preceding Charge
phase, does that unit get to fire Overwatch?
A: No.
Remember though that units that charged can only make close
combat attacks against units that they declared the charge
against, even if pile-in moves, etc. bring them within 1" of a
different unit.

Linkeh

[phillyt]

Yeah, you can consolidate AND pile into unengaged units as long as you follow the rule that you are moving towards the nearest enemy model.  That will then draw that unit into combat as well.

The beauty of the new fight phase is the lack of combat resolution.  I forget all the time and keep track of how many have been lost on each side and only then remember I just need to know how many died the entire turn.

[Syn Ace]

Yeah, you can consolidate AND pile into unengaged units as long as you follow the rule that you are moving towards the nearest enemy model.  That will then draw that unit into combat as well.

The beauty of the new fight phase is the lack of combat resolution.  I forget all the time and keep track of how many have been lost on each side and only then remember I just need to know how many died the entire turn.

Wait, the designer note seems to say the opposite -- it doesn't draw them into the combat that only charging units can make close combat attacks against units they declared the charge against. I'm confused. Fucking GW.

And trying to keep track of how many models a unit lost in the whole turn is a pain in the ass. We had a fairly large battle and the Tyranids brought a bazillion units and there were mass casualties.

[phillyt]

The designer note was saying units drawn into combat through pile in or consolidation do not get an overwatch action.

You are allowed to consolidate into a fresh enemy unit if it is within 3" and the model doing so is ending its move closer to the nearest enemy model.

[StealthKnightSteg]

The designer notes say it draws them in combat but the moving unit can not make attacks versus this new unit because it didn't declare a charge / already made their attack this turn.
Khorne beserkers in this regard are awesome if you declare charges on 2 units when you know you can kill the first unit in their first fight, then consolidate versus your second charge target and hit them again! But you do suffer overwatch from 2 units then instead of just 1.

Any other unit just ties up the other unit in close combat denying them a shooting fase in the next turn (unless the unit has the FLY keyword)

[phillyt]

Correct, you don't get to activate and attack on a consolidate, but if you catch a unit on a pile in, you do get to attack on subsequent turns if the unit hasn't yet activated.  As far as I can tell.

[Syn Ace]

I'm still not seeing it. You could be right. It's just not stated explicitly that I can tell.

[phillyt]

Consolidates and pile in moves both allow you to get into contact with a unit by entering their 1" bubble.

Page 182, section 5, sub section 3, last sentence in the first paragraph says "Models that charged this turn can only target enemy units they charged in the previous phase."

This means that as long as you didn't charge the previous phase (the charge phase) you are free to consolidate or pile into a unit and tie it up.  In the case of a pile in, you can even attack the unit as long as you didn't charge that turn.  On a consolidate, you basically just tie the unit up and need to wait until the next turn to attacks.

If the question here is "Can a unit even enter into a units 1" bubble if they didn't actually make a charge move against that unit?"  then page 177, under Movement Phase, Enemy Models: "When you move a model during the movement phase, it may not be moved within 1" of enemy models."  Since neither the pile in nor the consolidate moves have this limiter, you can enter the enemy 1" bubble.