Stormy's A.S.S.: Blood Lance

Blood Lance: You're doing it wrong.

Well, after the epic fail that was the Tork Bow I figured I'd double check my next addition to my A.S.S. So it is that the The Blood Lance is going to be a question to be solved while also being something evil to pull on people. It has been causing a few problems since the BA FAQ was released. Its mainly this sentence: 

Q: Blood Lance is a psychic shooting attack that can hit multiple units. If the Librarian wishes to assault after using Blood Lance, which unit(s) is he permitted to assault?
A: Only the first unit hit by the Blood Lance.

That's a pretty clear and concise answer from GW that leaves no room for argument (I know!). Well, there's no problem when the Libby or Libby Dread is on his own and throws the Lance.

The area that's causing headaches is when multiple units are hit - what happens then?



Before I jump to the Blood Lance conundrum I'll give out two nice little filthy things that I know are right to pull with your BAs, as that's what this part of my blog is supposed to be about.


1. The Stormraven can move Flat Out and shoot one of its weapons thanks to its Power of the Machine Spirit. Moving Flat Out doesn't allow you to shoot anything but POTMS allows you to shoot one more gun than you're normally allowed. 0 + 1 = 1.

2. Fear of the Dark and a Culexus Assassin are luls. The Culexus drops enemy units within 12" to Ld 7 and when you dump Fear on them they test on Ld 5. Yes its a gimmick that most tourneys won't allow (No Allies usually) as it requires you to buy an Inquisitor and the Culexus but it can a nice trick to pull on unprepared opponents, although I doubt it would perform well over the course of a 4 or 5 game event to be honest.

Onto the main thrust (Lance, geddit?) of this article. I'm going to outline the problem using pics so that even the Pinball Wizard can understand what I'm getting at.

Libby on his own.

The Libby here is on his own and targets the Guardsmen. He rolls his distance and is able to hit the unit but when drawing the line he also hits the tank. There's no issue here - even though he has called the Guardsmen as his shooting target he will still be forced to assault the Chimera because Stone Cold said so. I mean the FAQ, the FAQ said so.

Does anyone else remember the WWF/E? I used to like it but finding out its scripted is comparable to finding out that Santy isn't real. I prefer watching MMA stuff now although I wonder how much of that is rigged sometimes.

No LOS to the Guardsman - you can only target the Chimera.
LOS to the Guardsman - you can target either but only assault the Chimera or its occupants if its gets destroyed by the Lance. This leads us nicely to...

Libby + Unit Problem 1.

Here A and the Blue line is the Libby and B with the White line is the unit of Assault Marines.  

The unit declares its target for its shooting to be the Guardsmen. The RAS will only be allowed to assault the Guard, assuming they survive and don't flee from casualties.

However, when the Libby fires his Lance the first thing he hits is the Chimera. The FAQ tells us that he can only assault the first target hit in this case the tank but the unit has shot at the unit and can only assault them. How is this solved?

In this case can the unit multi-assault as long as the Libby moves to attack the tank?

Libby + Unit Problem 2.

Here's a more complex and more likely-occuring scenario. The Libby's Lance has Wrecked the Chimera and the unit inside has spilled out the back. Meanwhile the unit has shot at the Guardsmen.

Both units are now within 6" but the problem is can the Libby assault the unit that has disembarked while the unit attacks the Guardsmen? The Libby must assault the first thing he hits, or its former occupants in this case, while the RAS has declared they're attacking the infantry.

Does the assault happen at all or are both forced to stay still as the entire unit doesn't technically have a target to assault - remember the FAQ says the Libby can only assault the first unit hit while the unit has already declared the big squad as their target?

In this case would the unit be able to multi-assault but have to take a Difficult Terrain Test (and a Dangerous Terrain Test because of the wreck)? What would happen if the Libby was able to make it to his target and the unit wasn't?

Let's say the Difficult Terrain Test roll is a 5 and the Libby makes contact with the small squad while the RAS don't reach the big squad.

Can the squad simply try to move as many models into the small squad as possible or is the entire unit stuck and unable to assault as they both haven't reached their targets?

Libby + Unit Problem 3.

I've got White Lines, running through my mind.

Here's another take on it.

The BA shooting has been very successful and has Exploded the tank and dumped the unit well within assault range of the Libby and unit (white lines). However the unit of Guardsmen have suffered casualties and are no longer in assault range (red line).

Seeing as the RAS are out of range of their target but the Libby is within range of his can he assault and drag the unit with him into the small group or are they forced to sit still as neither has a valid legal target?

Imagine that the big unit of Guardsmen is a Dread - can the RAS use their Meltas to pop the Dread while the Libby tears open the transport and then have the entire unit assault the former contents of the transport even though the RAS have destroyed their target with their shooting?

What I'm getting at is: Does the BA FAQ/Codex overrule the Rulebook and allow you to switch targets from the nominated one in the shooting phase to a new one in the assault phase because of Blood Lance?
 
I haven't got a definitive answer myself which is why I'm going to leave this open-ended and throw it to the floor.

EDIT: Thanks to Little Dave, Ivan and Dave in Other Realms for the use of their models/terrain.