I'm curious how people play this.

Given three formations A, B and C, where B is intermingled with A and C, can an attacker declare an assault against all three (because B's intermingled with the other two) but only get within 15cm of units from A, or C?

Or do they have to get within 15cm of units from B?

I think it's the former, as "For the purposes of the assault, the intermingled formation is treated as being a single formation."

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27 1.12.10 Intermingled Formations

Q: Is the intention of the intermingling rule that all the enemy formations assaulted must have a unit within 15cm of the attacker after charges, as well as within 5cm of the prime enemy formation?

A: No, the intent was precisely that a poorly positioned and supported battle line could be “rolled up” by a flanking attack. There were multiple discussions about to what extent it should be allowed and the rules as written reflect the intent that an entire line can crumble whether or not the units in question were directly threatened. Some people have played a houserule that all intermingled enemy formations must have a unit within the 15cm of the attacker after charges (and if not the enemy formation in question is dropped from the assault), as well as within 5cm of the prime enemy formation, but this is not part of the official rules.

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They only need to get within 15cm of the target formation. However, unless the target formation is B, only one of A or C could be part of the assault.

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I go the opposite way to SK, the rules seem clear all three can be assaulted as one even if you only come within 15cm of say A. It's the other player's bad for intermingling so much.

Got it wrong there sorry. Re-reading the rule the intermingled formations must be within 5cm of the target to be assaulted together. If assaulting A, then B could be added in but not C.

We have always played that you have to get within 15cms of the initial target formation.
In the example above, an attacker would have to get within 15cm of formation B to be able to call an intermingled engagement on all 3 formations.

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You're both slightly wrong.

To quote a bit from the rulebook the rule says

The rules allow you to declare an assault on a formation anywhere on the table, you just need to end up in range or the assault stalls:

If the player were inrange of only A but A, B and C were in a line within 5cm of the formation either side he could declare the target as B and count it as intermingling with both A and C.

However If there was a fourth formation in the spacing AxBxCxD (x=less than 5cm gap) then only A and C could be intermingled with B, D couldn't as it out of 5cm of the target B.

I actually misunderstood the initial question so quoted an FAQ that doesn't quite apply. Oops.

Like GlynG says, you would have to get within 15cm of B to include all three formations.

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The Intermingled section is quite clear.


An engage action is always targetted at a single enemy formation. Once the target formation is established, any other formations within 5cm of the target can be pulled into the fight. At that point, the intermingled formations become one formation.

Rules on making a Charge move.

So in the example in Dave's first post, if a player wishes to declare an intermingled engagement against A, B & C, Formation B has to be the initial target (assuming A and C are not within 5cm of each other).

This part of the Special Rule really pertains to the actual mechanics of resolving the engagement rather than effecting the initial charge move.

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I read all those sections already but you're interpreting it incorrectly Onyx.

Then

By the time the 'must be within 15cm of the target formation' clause is reached the target formation now includes the other intermingled ones within 5cm as "being part of the target". Therefore it's legal to declare the target to be B and approach to within 15cm of only A as A is now counted as being part of the target of the charge.

That is an extremely gamey interpretation and I really wouldn't like to see things being played this way.
I think I'll keep playing it the way I have described as it is the most obvious interpretation of the rules.
I'm sorry but I just cannot support any other interpretation.

Intermingling is already bad enough. This interpretation makes it ridiculously powerful.

My understanding of the rule completely satisfies the FAQ as in Dave's example, no attacking unit would have to be within 15cm of either formation A or C to be able to call them into an intermingled assault on formation B. I believe that is the intent of the FAQ and not some way to try and gain a huge advantage by being able to call an intermingled assault on a formation that you could potentially not even reach and then draw in other formations to make the assault happen in the first place.

The above suggested interpretation will make Marine aerial assaults even more powerful - something that doesn't really need to be buffed.

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Yeah, the lesson should be "don't intermingle unless you're ready for it". I don't think it's gamey at all - if troops are so close, they'll panic if the other friendlies start running away as well. That's the intent of the rule.

I think your coming at this a little biased, assuming the way you've been playing it is right rather than looking neutrally at what the rules say. People are obviously interpreting it in slightly different ways but many (most?) people have always played it that way.

Yes intermingling is powerful and it's often not a good idea to intermingle, but there are pluses and minuses and you can always keep your troops apart or take the risk.