FUBAR 40K : Adepta Sororitas vs Necrons : Part 2

When we last left the story, Canoness Valoria and the Battle Sisters in her command were pressing in on the escaping Necrons and their trophy.

The "x" markers remind me they need to check if the figure can return to the game or not. The green bead tells me the figure is suppressed.

Valoria gripped the hilt on her eviscerator and threw herself into the enemy - the whirring blade catching living metal in its teeth. In the ensuing chaos, the Untouchable broke free of his captors and took off for the nearest ruin.

It will forever drive me crazy that the corner piece is on it's side and i didn't notice until I looked at the pictures after!

Two Battle Sisters descended on the running Untouchable and brought him into their custody. But, the second squad of Necrons charged into the ranks of the Sisters and a massive scrum ensued.

It got a little messy here.

The Battle Sisters gave better than they got initially, but the fallen Necrons kept reforming, and Sisters soon began to fall. With no small risk of being overrun, Valoria took personal command of the prisoner and ordered her Sisters to fall back, firing as they went. 

That swarm never stood a chance against 13 dice of shooting.

With their Sisters safely away with the target, the remnants of Sister Angelique's squad dropped back as Sister Caterina's squad provided covering fire.

Reduced to a fraction of their starting force, the Necrons simply disappeared without trace. Moments later Valoria summoned the shuttle for extraction.

They had lost two squad leaders and five Battle Sisters but, costly though it was, it was victory for the Adepta Sororitas.

***

Some Thoughts on FUBAR

I've played many games of FUBAR and I like the rules, so nothing that follows is a deal breaker for me, just some thoughts on suitability for new players.. 

I started down this road because I ran into a situation I hadn't encountered in previous FUBAR games.

The game is a unit vs unit game - activation is by unit and all members of the unit must take the same action. However, while the assumption is multi-figure units, it supports single-figure units, like my Canoness. Some supplements even add rules for Heroes that give some single-figure units special abilities.

Now here's what I found to be a bit of wrench in the works: 

My Canoness charges a unit of Necrons and makes base-to-base contact with one of them. As written, it sounds to me that the whole Necron unit is now in close combat. And per the rules, they may move up unengaged figures that are within 3" of an attacking enemy figure.

1. How many Necrons in the unit can be moved into contact with the Canoness? That his, how many figures can attack one figure.
2. What about those figures who are not engaged or are outside of the 3" range? Can they shoot? Can they move? 
3. Can figures who are within that range, but can't make contact with a model be moved into contact in a subsequent round if a friendly figure is removed? 

The rules don't answer any of these explicitly. The players must decide for themselves.

If you have experience wargaming, you probably have some preferred way of handling the number of figures that can attack a single figure in melee. In my case, I allow three figures to contact one, but only if all other figures in the assaulting unit have been engaged by at least one enemy. 

But, what if you're new to wargaming? 

The second and third questions aren't as straightforward, in my opinion.

We know units can only take one action on their activation, different actions can't be taken by different figures in the unit - so shooting seems unlikely to be allowed. 

Fair enough, although this might strain the ol' noggin' as it seems to be unrealistic and especially so if your brain is telling you the figures are individuals even though you know it's a unit vs unit game.

But what if that unit was attacked before it activated? Can those figures still get their activation? (probably not for most of us, but someone might decide otherwise)

Even potentially more confusing, it implies a single figure can tie up an entire unit. This is useful for the side with the single-figure unit but is that what was intended?

Intended or not I like that, but again, players have to decide. 

It worked well for the Necrons - a scarab swarm was able to screen the main body of warriors as they made their exit. It worked well too for the Sisters, when, as in my example, Valoria charged the Necrons - she was able to freeze them in position at the table's edge. She's a heroic individual doing heroic things, so narratively speaking it made sense.

Per the rules,  "The combat continues at the beginning of each subsequent turn. The units involved automatically activate at that point. They cannot subsequently activate in that turn."

What does that mean for non-engaged models? Certainly, they can't shoot. The whole unit has to take the same action after all and they've been forced to activate automatically at the start of the turn.

Can those figures move if it involves moving into the close combat their unit is engaged in? If they were within 3" but couldn't make contact initially can they fill in for the fallen? 

It's not explicitly stated that non-engaged models can move up to fill openings as others of their side fall. Common sense tell us they should be able to, but the rules are silent and again, if you're new to wargaming, you might wonder if allowing it is in keeping with the designer's intent.

If you liberally interpret "Then the opponent can move up any unengaged figures that are within 3”/8cm of an assaulting enemy figure." as applying in subsequent rounds of close combat,  you can at least reason your way to supporting the conclusion if they are within that 3" range, they could move to fill in for a fallen comrade.

What about figures that were outside the 3" when the assault began? Can they move into the combat? Or do they just hold their position? 

Once again, the players need to decide. 

Again, none of this is a slam against FUBAR. Lots of sets of rules have issues like this. It does mean that I wouldn't make FUBAR my top recommendation for totally new players without guidance from an experienced gamer. 

"For my money" (they're free, so ...), they are better suited for people who have experience to draw on and fill in the gaps.  As I'm not new to wargaming by any means, I'll be returning to them undoubtedly, but for now I've got my eyes set on trying Warhammer 40k's 2nd edition rules.