The rules are actually pretty straightforward:



The FAQ gives one slight modification of this, in that if the nearest unit is "fully engaged" (i.e. contacted by two of your units) you can proceed towards the next closest enemy unit.

To me, these rules are very strict about what and where you can counter charge, but it seemed to me that not everybody played this way. Sometimes a strict ruling would lead to a congestion of units where only the front units would make it into base contact simply because a path "directly towards" the closest enemy unit (or next closest if the closest is fully engaged) would lead a unit to simply hit his friends in the back. Most players (including me) would, I think, agree that a slight detour is OK here, but I'm not sure if the rules actually allow that. I had one situation with 6 Shining Spears vs 6 Warp Spiders (first round draw, then counter charge) were the Spears wanted to surround the Spiders and contact them all, but I argued that the first four Spears would have to contact the two Spiders in front, leaving the Exarchs (unit 5 and 6) free to use their FF value. Reading the rules I believe I was correct.

A more uncertain case is one I observed where a Revenant (war engine) wanted to counter charge two Monoliths (it was engaged by a Warrior Phalanx). If it moved in a straight line it would contact both monoliths, but would then be out of range of one of the Warrior units. I argued that it had to charge straight towards the middle of the closest monolith, and then use Barging to continue straight towards the second Monolith. This would keep all the Warriors in range.

1) Am I correct in that "directly towards" is this strict? Should it have been towards the closest point of the closest Monolith? Or is it enough that the unit that counter charges moves toward any part of the target enemy unit?

2) Could the Revenant have continued its counter charge towards a third unit if it had any remaining move? (Not relevant in this case - it would have been back towards the Warriors.)

Forgot something:

How does this apply to transports that countercharge? Troops are allowed to dismount, but shouldn't they dismount in front of the vehicle (in keeping with "directly towards the enemy")? Or are they allowed to ignore the "directly towards" rule because they are "placed", not moved?

(This would affect common tactics with Krieg Gorgons and Eldar Wave Serpents, to name a few.)

I'm not getting the precise question in your example above.


This could be the cold medicine talking here but it seems to me that you're thinking that units all have to move as part of a counter charge (technically they do but you're allowed a 0cm counter charge move). Are you saying that units 5 and 6 cannot countercharge since they are blocked by units 1-4 because the shortest path moves through them or are you saying that they must use FF because the closest enemy units are already in b2b against 2 units?

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I could have been more clear. All Spears make it into b2b, but they would have liked to contact all the Spiders. That they cannot do as they have to move two units b2b with each of the closest spiders (if the spiders had all been in one row instead of two abreast they would only bring 3 units in b2b). Now they leave the 2 spider exarchs free to use their superior FF values.

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Interesting, don't know how the rules is intended to work but can give you my point of view.
We play with a not so strict straight line, units (both disembarking from transporters and otherwise) must move the shortest rout possible towards the enemy. So we allow units to move around already fully engaged units.
When disembarking with a lot of units from WE:s we allow them to "appear" within 5 cm as it is easy to make a circle around a WE without "fully engage" it.

I must admit I've tended to play it a little more liberally, but for a reason that has not been mentioned.

Firstly I would interpret "directly towards" to mean "the shortest route to" which is not necessarily a straight line and would thus allow you to move around impassable terrain and units.

Secondly, and perhaps erroneously, I tend to apply both the countercharge rule and the ZoC rule together. That is, you move towards the closest unit, until you enter the ZoC of a unit in which case you try to get into BtB. Because units lose their ZoC once contacted, in practice where enemy units are bunched up together, it ends up meaning that:
1. Unit X moves towards unit A.
2. Unit X enters unit A's ZoC.
3. Unit X contacts unit A.
4. Unit Y moves towards unit A.
5. Unit Y enters the ZoC of unit B (unit A has none)
6. Unit Y contacts unit B.


I honestly have no idea if this is supported by the rules. This favours the CC lovers a bit, I would say. Actually for me it rarely comes into play because I rarely use CC, it might benefit my opponents a bit I suppose. Defensive CC needs all the help it can get though

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The clarification to counter charge rules have tried to deal with this.
The large Krieg formations are an excellent example of this and playing many games against them (funnily enough, using the exact same list that was used in the EEC) helped lead to the necessary FAQ's.
This sort of thing is vital to stop a formation of 20 armourless guardsmen have a 4+ reinforced armour save (as long as the opponet is clever enough to set up the engagment properly).

Here are some of the FAQ's that will be incorporated into the Tournament Pack's next edition:

Q: If one of my formations is charged in an Assault do I counter charge only units from the assaulting formation or do I counter charge the nearest enemy unit even if it is in a supporting formation that is not part of the Assault?
A: A counter charging unit may engage enemy units from supporting formations, as long as they were the closest enemy units.

Q: Does the formation coherency rule still apply during a counter charge?
A: Yes. The coherency rules apply to counter charging units.

Q: If the closest enemy unit is already engaged (it has two units in base-to-base contact with it) do I still need to Counter-charge that unit or can I Counter-charge another enemy unit?
A: If the closest enemy is already fully engaged, you may carry on the counter charge and try to contact the next closest enemy unit.

Q: Does a counter-charge trigger Overwatch?
A: No. The “move” referred to in the OW rule refers to moves made as part of an action, as described in section 1.7.

Q: Can units countercharge over friendly units?
A: Countercharging units follow the normal movement rules with respect to that. Armoured vehicles can move over friendly infantry, an intermingled Warhound titan could step over friendly AVs and so on.

Q: The countercharge rules say you must countercharge directly towards the nearest enemy unit. What happens if the direct path to that unit is blocked by impassable terrain or friendly units?
A: A countercharging unit may move around impassable terrain and friendly units, as long as it is attempting to take the shortest possible path to an enemy unit. Note, this should be kept in the spirit of the "closest enemy" rule and not applied loosely in an attempt to bypass nearby enemies.

Q: Can a defender counter-charge after firing Overwatch fire in an Engagement?
A: Yes. Firing on overwatch is not a new action per se – the initiative test has been taken already, it is a continuation of the same action. This would allow the defending formation to react to the engagement as they normally would once the OW fire is resolved.

Q: In a counter charge during an assault, how/when do units that are mounted in transports move?
A: The transport unit counter charges 5 or 10 cm depending on movement rate and THEN embarked units dismount and are placed within 5cm of transport vehicle (per rules1.7.5 and 1.12.4)

And from the War Engine section:

Q: Can War Engines barge friendly units out of the way in a Charge Move/Counter Charge?
A: No. The war engine has to move according to the movement rules. If it cannot completely cross the friendly unit for any reason, it is prevented from taking the move.

The last FAQ is very important and it's essential that all players using War Engine transports know this.

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As to the disembark question, my initial reaction is that the unloaded troops should follow the counter charge rule and move towards the nearest enemy. This may mean they are nearer the enemy than their transport.

These interpretations are kind of necessary now that we have formations in the game such as the Krieg infantry behemoths.

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For me the mounted guardsmen have already counter charged when the WE moved, so they only get to disembark and follow the rules for that. So they are placed *within* 5cms... and yes the * are there to acknowledge the whole within/completely within debate!

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Pretty straight forward.
They should be placed as close as possible to the attacking formation.

As for the Krieg massive formations...
They were obviously intended to be attrition formations but in the hands of a skilled player (and with no regulation of counter-charging) they are actually 20 stands of infantry with 4+ reinforced armour which rolls 26 dice in an Engagement.
When you see 3 of these formation on the other side of the board it isn't much fun (I know, I've faced it more than a dozen times with various armies in the hands of an expert player - Matt Shadowlord).

I can honestly say that if I had been on the NetEA committee when this list came up for approval, I would have voted no based on the way these huge infantry formations with war engine transports effect the game.

Also Gorgons should have an auto destroy critical but now we're really getting off topic... sorry about that.

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I would agree with this too. It makes no sense for countercharging infantry to have to be placed infront of their vehicles and in danger.

Changing how we all normally play the game through a FAQ like this would be a terrible idea Onyx and I hope you reconsider.

I'm coming round to the idea that Gorgons may be undercosted - but just fix them in particular. The simplest solution is just to increase the cost of a pair, say by 75 points or so.