Q&A: Assault phase

Q: When one detachment engages another in an assault or a firelight, it is quite possible for one of these two detachments to have a total assault or firepower value of zero. (Consider a detachment that has nothing left but Rhinos). For the purposes of determining the die roll modifiers, should the superior side automatically be considered to have 4 or more times the assault/firepower of the side with zero (and thus get +4 to the die roll), or should some minimum value be assigned to the inferior side?

A: It automatically gets a +4 modifier. Theoretically this can lead to some strange situations, i.e. one stand of Gretchin getting into a firefight with 25 Rhinos and ending up with a +4 modifier!, but in practice the rule works just fine. Players that have a problem with this should come up with their own house rules, for example assuming that a detachment always has a value of at least 1 for firefights or close assaults, even if all the units involved have a factor of '0'.

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Q: During shooting, the rules specifically state that a unit needs a line of sight to at least part of the target detachment in order to participate. There is no such statement in the rules for lending assistance in an assault or firelight.

1. Does a unit need to have LOS in order to participate in a firelight, or does it only need to be within 15cm of the enemy detachment?
2. Does a unit need LOS in order to lend support to an assault, or just satisfy the 15cm criteria?

A: NO LOS is required in either case. For firefights and assaults we assume that there is considerable movement going on which is not represented on the tabletop, and that if a unit wants a shot, it will get one!

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Q: If an infantry unit can get into close combat but is not allowed to (i.e. the enemy unit in question is already being attacked by two units) can the infantry unit still double its movement to get into range to help with supporting fire?

A: No.