The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 aims to tell a story with every game, and nothing is more dramatic than the brutal, blade-clashing, chainsword-revving, blood-splattering carnage of close combat in the 41st Millennium. None of that carnage is lost in the new edition, and the phase is now faster and smoother than ever.
The first change you’ll notice – engagement range is now 2” instead of 1”. If you’re within 2” of an enemy unit, you’re engaged with it, and you can’t finish a move within engagement range of an enemy without charging. Crucially, you CAN now move through an enemy model’s engagement range in the movement phase.
In the new edition, you pick the targets of your charge AFTER you roll, and any unit can declare a charge so long as there is at least one enemy unit within 12”. This means there tends to be far fewer totally failed charges where a unit is left standing around in the open, particularly if you’re smart and position your unit to have multiple potential options depending on what you roll (including not charging at all, if you prefer).
Charge Move 11.04
Maximum Distance: Charge roll.
Eligible If: Your unit declared a charge this phase.
Effect: Your unit moves as described in Moving (03).
Before Moving: Select one or more enemy units that are within 12" of your unit and within the maximum distance of your unit; until the end of this move, each of those enemy units is a charge target.
While Moving:
Each model must end its move closer to one or more charge targets.
Each model that can end its move within 1" of one or more charge targets must do so.
Each model that can end its move engaged with one or more charge targets must do so.
After Moving:
Your unit must be engaged with all of the charge targets.
Your unit cannot be engaged with one or more enemy units that are not charge targets.
Until the end of the turn, each model in your unit has the Fights First ability (24.13).
Moving chargers is also a little more generous. The target of your charge must be within the distance that you rolled, measuring base to base, and if you can get within an inch when you move a model, you must do so – but if you can’t, you only need to move to be within engagement range. This means that charging around corners or into terrain becomes a far more forgiving endeavour, as your unit only need make it to within 2” of the enemy.
Crucially, you can fight any enemy within engagement range (2”), which means there’s no more of that “I’m going to stand 1” away from the wall” malarkey. Terrain can still help to limit how many models can get to the fight, but it will rarely mean that units fail a charge because the enemy has positioned a line of troopers on the other side of a barricade.
Making a charge move
A: The BLUE unit declares a charge and the charge roll generates a maximum distance of 7". Unit A is within this distance, so can be selected as a charge target, but the BLUE unit would not be able to end its charge move engaged with this unit after moving around the intervening terrain features.
B: This unit is more than 7" from the charging unit, so it cannot be selected as a charge target, even though the charging unit could end its charge move within 2" of this unit.
C: These units are both within 7", so can be selected as charge targets. The charging unit can end its charge move engaged with all of its charge targets, so this move can be made.
Another key change is ingress moves – which cover all types of special deployment like Deep Strike and other ways of moving in from Strategic Reserve – allow you to set up more than 8” away from enemy models, rather than the current 9”. This means that you still need to roll a 9 to successfully charge out of Deep Strike, but now your potential landing zones are larger, and you have much more flexibility to move your models around when the dice gods are kind.*
Pile In moves also see changes – these are now all done before the fisticuffs start, rather than each time a unit is selected to fight. The player whose turn it is resolves all of their Pile Ins first – shuffling units 3” to get as many as possible into engagement range** – followed by their opponent.
Fighting works much the same as it did before – players alternate between units that are eligible to fight – but the order in which those units get to fight has changed. Most importantly, the player whose turn it is now gets to pick a unit first – including when fighters on both sides have the Fights First rule. This means that one of your units that Charged will get to strike before enemy units that have the Fights First rule.
Once all combatants with Fights First have taken their swings, the person who would normally be next in line gets first pick from the rest of the crowd, regardless of whose turn it is.
Normal Fight
Players alternate selecting units to fight. Fights First units must be selected before any other eligible units.
1. The RED player selects their MONSTER to fight. It makes a normal fight, destroying the TRANSPORT.
2. The embarked unit makes an emergency disembark move. After doing so, it is unengaged.
Overrun Fight
3. The BLUE player has no Fights First units, so the RED player selects their next unit.
4. The RED player selects another Fights First unit. This unit is unengaged, but was engaged with the TRANSPORT at the start of the Fight step, so can make an overrun fight. It first makes a pile-in move to engage the unit that disembarked, then fights, destroying two enemy models.
5. The BLUE player’s unit fights back, but inflicts no damage.
Sometimes, in fights with a lot of separate units involved, your troops might find the models they were previously engaged with are dead by the time it’s their turn to swing. Fear not – if they are eligible to fight, but unengaged, they can make a special overrun fight that gives them a second Pile In move before picking their new targets.
Finally, when everyone is done knocking the stuffing out of each other, Consolidate moves are all made at the same time, similar to Pile In moves. They can be used to manoeuvre further into combat, leap on an enemy unit within 3”, or dash to a nearby objective. But be careful when engaging a new enemy unit that hasn’t fought yet in that phase, as they’ll still get the chance to fight despite everyone else being done.
More is on its way from the new edition of Warhammer 40,000 soon, as well as yet another miniature reveal from the Armageddon boxed set on Monday. While you’re waiting for the latest updates, sign up to our newsletter so you don’t miss out on anything – there’s loads more to see, and we’ve got your back.
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* Meanwhile, owners of jet packs and 18” range Melta weapons are having the best day ever.
** And, if you’re crafty, you can get into engagement range of units that weren’t the target of your charge while Piling In.
