One key part of the new Engagement Range other than resolving issues for things like Knights and Trygons is that is also clears up differences in the Hover Tank Rules like those I covered in this article on Transports – getting within 1″ of a hovering vehicle’s “footprint” now ensures you’re in engagement range thanks to the generous vertical allowance. No longer is a model on a 1.1” tall plinth immune to combat… ANKLES are back on the menu!Įngagement Range is now used as a catch all term for this cylinder and it affects how units move and how they fight so it’s important to understand to play out those phases correctly. There’s more to explore here rules wise but I will save this for a future article focused more specifically on these mechanics.Įngagement Range codifies the concept of “within 1″ of the enemy” into a single term for reuse across the rules, and also adds a new feature – in 9th edition it now has a vertical component (5″) allowing for fights across different elevations in ruins, over crates or around barrels. For instance look at the example below:Ĭoherency checks are the real end to having hordes of models in long “conga lines ” lose too many models and spread them too thin and the unit can collapse down to its last 5 models. While in Coherency you need to be mindful of how the new Coherency Checks rules will need to be a factor in the models you chose to remove from a unit.Įach player must now remove models, one at a time, from any of the units in their armies that are no longer in unit coherency, as defined on page 4, until only a single group of models from the unit remains in play and in unit coherency.Īssuming you lose no more models to a Morale Test the models you remove when taking damage needs to take the coherency of the unit into account or you risk losing more models. Let’s consider that formation for 7 models again. This rule isn’t without it’s quirks for instance a unit of 5 models can actually cover a wider area than a unit of 7.

These changes combined with a few others will see models in larger units moving in tighter groups. So there’s two main changes here from 8th to 9th: The 6” vertical limit has been reduced to 5” in the new edition (the height of a single floor of Sector Imperialis/Mechanicus buildings) and if a unit has 6 or more models then each model needs to be within 2” of 2 models now.

While a unit has six or more models, all models must instead be within 2″ horizontally and 5″ vertically of at least two other models from their unit. The New Coherency RuleĪ unit that has more than one model must be set up and finish any sort of move as a single group, with all models within 2″ horizontally and 5″ vertically of at least one other model from their unit. This is a significant change especially for armies fielding large units this change marks the end of the “Conga line” approach to unit coherency.

Used warhammer 40k 8th edition rulebook