Flying combat question

[Mishra]

Let's say that my opponent's giant eagle attacks my owlbear (just examples, could be any flying and grounded units), does the eagle land to attack or stay up in the air? Just wanting to make sure, because if he lands then I can charge him with another grounded unit.

 

There is a possibility that I may have the Flying ability confused as well.

[Shakandara]

To conduct attacks against another model, you must first initiate Base to Base contact. For two models to be in Base to Base contact, they must both be in the same "state" - i.e. Burrowed, Flying, or just on the surface. This means that to attack a model on the ground, a Flying model must land. However, the Giant Eagle does have the Swift Attack SA, which specifically states that when being used by a model with Flying, it does not need to land when using the SA.

 

So the answer in this particular case is "either". Your opponent may land and take all 3 of the Eagle's attacks against your Owl Bear (suffering both of your Defensive Strikes in return), or he can do a fly-by of a single attack on your Owl Bear, incurring only one Defensive Strike from you in return.

 

~v

[Mishra]

Thanks, Shakandara, I've been doing it wrong all this time. I imagined that if a flying creature entered into base to base with a grounded creature, the flying creature would remain Flying, but allow other ground units to move into base to base.

 

So just to be clear:

1. Using the same critters as above, would an owlbear be able to charge and enter into base to base the eagle if the eagle is flying? I imagine not since the owlbear is grounded.

2. And if a flying creature is on the ground due to attacking, kills it's opponent and is no longer in base to base, on it's next move it will need to follow the standard rules for taking off from the ground to become Flying again, right?

[Shakandara]

You are correct on both. The Owl Bear cannot engage the Giant Eagle while the Eagle is Flying; it has to wait until the Eagle either A) attacks the Owl Bear with Swift Attack, or B) lands, after which the Owl Bear can engage it as any other ground-based target. Once grounded, Flyers need to wait until their next action to take flight again, rendering them vulnerable to any other ground based units until that action.

 

~v

[Mishra]

That helped clear up a whole lot of confusion. I really appreciate your help.

[Stubbdog]

One side note:

 

One "house rule" that has unofficially been officially adopted for the official ReaperCon Warlord tourney is that related to the Flying swift attack, the verbage is added that flying models must still have space to put their base to gain the contact with the target model, even if they are flying. Its a minor wording change from what is in the book but does have a significant impact on how the SA is used.

 

As it again has unofficially been officially adopted (that is it will be included in all ReaperCon tourneys going forward for the foreseeable future) we suggest that it might also be adopted by players outside of ReaperCon as well.

[Mishra]

Yeah, that's one rule that we made out to be understood. If you can't get into base to base because you don't have the space, then you can't move stuff around to squeeze it in.