Assault moves and charges

During the Assault phase you may only move and attack with detachments that you placed on Assault orders in the Movement phase.

Remember, where your detachment has Blast markers, you must pass a Leadership test before you can move it.

We call each move that you make with a unit in this phase an assault move. Where you make an assault move that puts your unit in base contact with an enemy unit we call this a charge move. Every charge move is an assault move, but not every assault move is a charge move.

Assault moves

Moves in the Assault phase are subject to all the rules that we described for the Movement phase — except that the Snap Fire rule does not apply in the Assault phase. Also, there are some complexities in this Assault phase that mean you need to pay extra attention to the way that you move each individual unit. [1]

When you move a detachment in the Assault phase, move each of its units one after the other. For each unit:

  • You must move it at least 5 cm — or into base contact with an enemy unit that is within 5 cm — if you are free to do so. [2] Any movement beyond this is optional.

  • This move must be as direct as possible towards an enemy unit. This does not necessarily mean the nearest enemy unit, or even one that is in a detachment that you intend to assault.

  • You may not move your unit away from the enemy unit that it is nearest to.

    • You may ignore the nearest enemy unit if you already have a friendly unit in base contact with it. Then focus on the next nearest enemy unit that is not in contact with a friendly unit.

You do not have to move units more than 5 cm if you do not want to. You might only want to move units into range for a firefight or to grab an objective, for example.
Nearest enemy unit

The nearest enemy unit is the one that your unit could reach by the shortest route.

However, you may detour around dangerous terrain if you wish, to avoid Dangerous terrain tests. In that case, the nearest enemy unit is the one that your unit could reach by the shortest route that does not include dangerous terrain. [3]

Charge moves

If the assault move that you make with a unit puts it into base contact with an enemy unit, then we call this a charge move, or a charge.

This is the only time that you may move your unit into base contact with an enemy unit.

You can benefit from a special increase to the Speed value of some units, but only where you use this increase to reach base contact — a charge move.

  • Where a unit has a split Speed value such as 20/30 cm, use the second value. [4]

  • For any other unit, use its Speed value in the usual way.

Ganging up

You may place a maximum of two units in base contact with an enemy unit.
Related information
1. Difference from Epic 40,000:  We clarified the requirements to better integrate the 'no moving past' concept that Epic 40,000 describes in the Battles Book under FAQ: Moving past in the Assault phase.
2. That is, this requirement does not override rules that state that you may not move the unit or must cease movement with the unit — such as when you fail a Leadership test to move the detachment, or you fail the first part of a Dangerous terrain test for the unit.
3. Difference from Epic 40,000:  We added this option for you to avoid dangerous terrain during your assault moves.
4. Difference from Epic 40,000:  We added split Speed values to make special increases to Speed values easier to understand. We changed the explanation of charge moves to clarify the details and to integrate the Split speed values.