Rules Brushup

Warmachine is a complex game. As well as many of us may know the game, there are always a few areas where the rules aren't crystal clear. A few rules questions popped into my head while listening to a podcast recently, and to highlight them here, I thought it would be fun to present them in quiz format.

Keep in mind that these are all questions to which my answer before looking it up was "I'm not 100% sure".

Q. A Cygnar journeyman warcaster with a RAT of 4 is firing at a knocked down Man-O-War which is B2B with a nearby Ironclad. Assume that the journeyman is not aiming. What does she need to hit?

A. Anything but snake eyes. If the Man-O-War were standing up, she'd need to roll a 10, since its defense of 10 would go up to 14 with the in-melee bonus. But since it's knocked down, it's DEF 5 and more importantly, doesn't gain the in-melee bonus.


Q. Three RAT 5 Cygnar long gunners want to make a CRA at a DEF 10 Man-O-War Shocktrooper who is engaged with an ironclad. What do they need to roll to hit?

A. This is a trick question. It's actually not possible to make a CRA into melee. The long gunners can't even roll. I had not known this at all until recently - it seems like a fairly obscure rule. Page 65 of the rulebook says "Combined ranged attacks cannot target a model in melee unless it has a huge base. Combined ranged attacks can target huge-based models in melee normally."


Q. A Storm Strider is engaged with a group of Mechanithralls and makes a lightning cannon shot at a distant bile thrall, which it can do due to its Dual Attack rule. Can it aim?

A. It cannot. The description of the Aim action reads as follows:

The model does not advance, not even to change its facing; then its Normal Movement ends. For the rest of the model’s activation, it receives a +2 bonus to every ranged attack roll it makes. A model in melee (p. 43) cannot use its Normal Movement to aim.


Q. A journeyman warcaster with a RAT 4 takes an unboosted shot at a pistol wraith, which is DEF 18 due to cover. What are her chances to hit?

A. About 2.7%. That's right, it's actually not impossible. The journeyman will hit on a roll of 12, even though it should need a 14 to hit. This may be the only situation where you actually have a better chance to hit by not boosting. On page 41 of the rulebook, under the "Attack Roll" section, you can see the following text: "A roll of all 6s is a direct hit unless you are rolling only one die, regardless of the attacker’s MAT or the target’s DEF."


Q. A model is B2B with a knocked down enemy model and wants to fire at a different enemy model in its range. Can it do so given that it's not being engaged by the knocked down enemy model?

A. It cannot. It's true that models that are knocked down or stationary can neither engage nor be engaged. But directly contrary to another blog article I uncovered while researching this one, the model that's looking to take the shot in this article is still engaging the knocked down model, and this means that it's unable to make that ranged attack. Of course, it would be easy enough for it to step back, avoiding any free strike since the enemy is knocked down, and then make its shot.