Upping Your Game –SBG’s most misplayed rules

Dan Stu: The MESBG rules are brilliant, there’s no doubt about that. It’s arguably the best, most balanced, most streamlined games that GW produce, and when you’re familiar with the rules, games flow at a nice brisk pace.

However, it’s also no secret that the rules have been cobbled together from various supplements and prior editions – in fact, it’s a miracle that the game is as cohesive as it is, given its history. While its elements have been brought together fairly seamlessly, there are still a few rough spots and rules that might be counter intuitive or tough to pick up for new players.

We asked around the community and have put together a list of rules that we most often see played incorrectly – and what the correct ruling is. In fact, we got so many suggestions that we’ve had to split this out in to two articles (or maybe even more!)

As so much of the intricacy of the game is held in the move and fight phases negotiating control zones, we’ve dedicated the first instalment of this series to look at these rules in particular.

So, in no particular order, here are 5 of the most commonly misunderstood rules in MESBG:

Starting a move inside another model's control zone

A model may begin its move inside the control zone of an enemy model for various reasons – normally because it fell back or made way in the previous turn’s fight phase, ignoring the control zone when it did so.

Model B is starting its move inside model A's control zone. 

When B it begins its move, A's control zone is treated as being a radius the size of the gap between model A and model B.

What this means in practise is that model B is free to move within model A’s normal control zone (the solid line) on the condition that it does not get any closer to the enemy model than when it started – i.e. does not cross the dotted line. If it does this, it must charge the model A as if it had entered its control zone as usual. If it does cross this dotted line, it must charge model A. 

Pairing off fights - '1v1s where possible' does NOT mean 'as evenly as possible'

The movement phase, control zones and pairing off fights are a critically important part of the game - in fact, they're the main part of SBG's unique flavour - but they're given such little real estate in the rulebook. One rule we see misinterpreted a lot is that people assume fights need to be paired off ‘as evenly as possible’, but the rulebook does not say this.

The reason for the confusion is the incredibly vague wording from the rules manual: '[Fights must be] paired in to one-on-one fights where possible'. It is understandable that people would assume the intention here is that fights should be paired as evenly as possible, but this is not what is being said.

Pairing in to 1v1s where possible simply means that you have the maximum number of fights, everything that can fight must fight, and that everything that can be divided in to a separate combat does so (i.e. if it’s possible to divide a 2v2 in to a pair of 1v1s, you must do this). By doing this, every model in base contact must participate in a fight, and nothing is ‘pulled out’ of combat.

For example:

This fight may be resolved as a 3v1 and a 1v1, or as a pair of 2v1s.

In this example, as soon as red models A and B are paired in to a fight with at least one unlabelled model, the requirement to ‘pair in to 1v1s where possible’ has been satisfied. From there, blue model C may join the fight with either A or B, at the decision of the priority player. In this example, joining B is likely preferable for the blue player if they have priority, as they are more likely to kill red model B as  it is trapped- whereas if A has priority, they will likely create a pair of 2v1s and resolve the A&C fight first, as doing so has a chance to un-trap B before the second fight is resolved.

Backing away an inch in a straight line

A fairly quick one, but one we see played wrong very frequently. The criteria for a model being trapped is if they cannot back away a full inch in a straight line. That means no curving around bases, no shuffling back a centimetre – in a scrum, it’s very likely that there will be a good few traps at the start of the fight phase, and it’s in the interest of the priority player to look for these and resolve them first.

The space needed to back away is generally larger than a lot of players give it credit for, and while you ignore control zones while doing so, it’s the ‘straight line’ part that will often trip people up. You need a space the size and dimensions of the dashed areas in the image below and to not be trapped – and once you start looking for it, you might find that models become trapped a lot more often than you’d previously thought.

The surprisingly large space needed behind a model in order to back away and not be trapped. 

Also, it has important implications for the shieldwall special rule. Because you cannot curve your back away move in order to stay in base contact with allies, it’s very difficult to end in base contact with another model that is locked in to combat - unless it was exactly an inch away at the start of your back away move. For instance, if you are backing in to the same space that was left in a previous turn. Alternatively, you may be aided by another model which is making way, which brings us on to…

Making Way and Backing Away

When a model loses its duel roll, it must back away. If it is not able to do so, a single model can make way in order to make space. However, these two actions are not the same. Backing away is mandatory (if it is possible), and follows the rules we spoke about above. However, making way is not mandatory, and does not follow the same rules. That means a few things: 

• You may trap yourself in order to not have to concede ground. If, for whatever reason, holding position is more important - it may be for an objective, or it could be that you were charged by cavalry and would be knocked down and trapped regardless of whether you can back away – it may be preferable to elect not to make way with supporting models, in order to prevent the model in combat from falling back. This only works if there is no other route to back away, but can be clutch for grabbing objectives or keeping your battle line tidy (in the event that the model survives, of course!)
• The model making way does not have to move back a full inch (in fact, it must move the minimum amount needed to un-trap the model that's backing away), and it does not need to be in a straight line. This means that it can be more flexible with its move – if it has not already supported a fight, it may move to a supporting position, or can also back away in to shieldwall formation or use its movement to grab objectives or cause new traps.

‘You must charge the first model whose control zone you enter’

This is spelled out fairly clearly in the rulebook, but is still something that causes some confusion. Once you enter an enemy model’s control zone, you may continue moving freely within that control zone, with the added bonus of ignoring any other enemy control zones. The caveat is that you must end your move in base contact with the model whose control zone you entered first, meaning that you can end your move by charging a second model if desired.

In this example, the blue player wants to charge the red model A with their hero D, ending up in single combat. However, D is prevented from doing this by a piece of terrain, and to get to A, needs to enter control zone of red model B first, and must end up in base contact with B. D can move enter B’s control zone and then move freely within any other control zones, so it may end up in base contact with both A and B, cancelling both control zones.

Blue D wants to end up in single combat with red A, but needs to take control zones in to account to achieve this.

The charging model will not necessarily end up fighting the model it initially charged - if blue is able to get a second model (E) in to base contact with the initially charged model (B), and pair off the fights accordingly, blue’s would-be-assassin D can effectively be ‘pulled’ out of combat with the model it charged in the first place (B) – giving them the best odds of killing model A.

However, it is important to note that the initially charged model (in this case, B) no longer has a control zone, so any further charging models will likely enter other active control zones – in this case, belonging to red model C – so blue E will have to enter C’s control zone, finishing in contact with both B and C.

In these types of situations, it is extremely important to consider who has priority, as they will be pairing off the fights in order to achieve the most favourable result. It’s likely that blue would only attempt this if they are the priority player, and can then pair A with D aiming for the kill, leaving E to fend for itself against both B and C.

Bonus: Prone = No Control Zone

Finally, a quick but often forgotten rule – prone models have no control zones. What’s more, enemy prone models can be hopped over with a jump test. This doesn’t come up often, but I don’t think it’s ever come up in a situation where it hasn’t been brand new information to my opponent!

That will do it for our first instalment of Upping Your Game - we received plenty of suggestions for rules to cover so we'll be diving in to some really nitty-gritty areas in future update.