If a unit of Spearmen is down to its last three trays and has a Front Line Rune Golem in the center tray, normally that Golem cannot be assigned damage because it would violate 22.4 ("22.4 Damage cannot be assigned to any figures in a tray that, if removed from the unit, would cause that unit to be split into two separate groups of trays."). However, if you had two Accuracy icons, you could assign enough damage to that figure to kill it. ("22.5 When performing an attack, the attacker can spend any number of accuracy (?) icons to allow him to assign damage to figure upgrades that cannot normally be assigned damage.").

I'm assuming 22.4 wins, since there are no rules on how to deal with a split unit, and 22.5 is intended to allow damage on figure upgrades when there's still some back ranks in play, but that's not what they actually say.

This could also (maybe?) happen with that one morale card that kills a figure upgrade, though I don't recall the full text.

I think "cannot" wins in this instance. Unfortunately, I can't really back this up.

One of the golden rules states: "If a card effect uses the word “cannot,” that effect is absolute and cannot be overridden by other game effects." In this case, we are dealing with a rules effect and not a card effect. However, I think the spirit of the rule carries over into this situation. I think the reason "cannot" is not applied to rules in the rule book (only to card effects) is because there may be card effects in the future that allow you to do something the rules say you cannot. But since we are discriminating between two rules and not one rule and one card effect, I'm confident that 22.4 wins.

32 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

I think "cannot" wins in this instance. Unfortunately, I can't really back this up.

One of the golden rules states: "If a card effect uses the word “cannot,” that effect is absolute and cannot be overridden by other game effects." In this case, we are dealing with a rules effect and not a card effect. However, I think the spirit of the rule carries over into this situation. I think the reason "cannot" is not applied to rules in the rule book (only to card effects) is because there may be card effects in the future that allow you to do something the rules say you cannot. But since we are discriminating between two rules and not one rule and one card effect, I'm confident that 22.4 wins.

and yet the Accuracy rule overrides "cannot," since it specifically says "assign damage to figure upgrades that cannot normally be assigned damage."

Just now, skotothalamos said:

and yet the Accuracy rule overrides "cannot," since it specifically says "assign damage to figure upgrades that cannot normally be assigned damage."

Hmm. Good point. Like I said before, I can't back it up!

1 minute ago, Budgernaut said:

Hmm. Good point. Like I said before, I can't back it up!

for the record, that's my interpretation too. I'm digging for ways to back it up myself.

i would guess that the golem dies, and is replaced by a tray from the bank rank which is in this case also the front rank and a tray of spearmen from the sides slides into place where the golem was. although i may be wrong here.

I agree with Klaxas... Whether you do damage to the Rune Golem or not, he's still technically a part of a spearman unit, and you would remove wounds the same way you would from the unit if he weren't there, i.e., the golem's tray would be replaced by a tray with spearmen in it. If the golem was killed while there were still rear ranks, they would fill in the front. It's hard for me to imagine that the game designer's would intend for there to be a U shaped spearman formation in any instance.

On page 18 of the Learn to Play guide under Heavy Upgrades section:

"When a heavy figure upgrade is removed, replace the removed tray with a full tray from the back rank."

But a) there is no back rank, and b) when you do replace the heavy figure upgrade, the tray is not being split. I still maintain that you can't assign damage to it.

4 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

But a) there is no back rank, and b) when you do replace the heavy figure upgrade, the tray is not being split. I still maintain that you can't assign damage to it.

For single rank trays, the front rank is also the back rank.

3 minutes ago, Budgernaut said:

But a) there is no back rank, and b) when you do replace the heavy figure upgrade, the tray is not being split. I still maintain that you can't assign damage to it.

Rules reference 66.1: "When a unit is made up of a single rank, that rank is both the front and back rank."

I think the question would be, who decides which try gets moved to fill in where the heavy figure tray was.

9 hours ago, pdf0202 said:

Rules reference 66.1: "When a unit is made up of a single rank, that rank is both the front and back rank."

I think the question would be, who decides which try gets moved to fill in where the heavy figure tray was.

My guess would be the attacker as it is the attacker who has general control over damage allocation

6 hours ago, Klaxas said:

My guess would be the attacker as it is the attacker who has general control over damage allocation

But the attacker doesn't get to choose what tray is moved. If they wanted a specific tray removed, they should target it. If their priority is the upgrade unit in the front, well then the defender will get the game breaking benefit of choosing what tray from the back rank slides up.

Don't get me wrong, there are certainly instances when it will matter, but I don't find it to be a big deal.

This is a great rules lawyer question! Now I would love to see a clarification of this rule prioritization. I think I agree that the answer seems to be from the L2PG: PG 18 - "When a heavy figure upgrade is removed, replace the removed tray with a full tray from the back rank." and that for the case of a single row this would be both the front and back. This definitely seems like a case where we need a subcategory under 'Figure Upgrades' that defines heavy upgrades and specifies this rule since it isn't present in the RRG. I think an elegant solution would be a ruling that says something to the effect that: "If the defender must replace a tray from a heavy figure upgrade, they must choose to replace it with a tray which is not engaged if possible." No 'cannot' in the wording there, leaving it implied that the defender resolves the problem if both trays are engaged.

In section 10.10 it specifies that the DEFENDER removes the trays. I would suspect that this implies all tray removal and shifting must be at the discretion of the defender as well, so the defender decides which tray to replace it from. I think that as long as everyone knows this, you would just always plan to try to eliminate the spearmen farthest away first and work your way closer to your unit.

Lets talk about HOW this might actually happen. The most likely case of it occurring seems to be thus: A unit of spearmen has a FLRG. Turn 1: The attacker rolls an Accuracy and a Mortal Strike, and assigns the -damage- of it to the Rune Golem figure upgrade. Turn 2: The attacker again rolls an Accuracy and a Mortal Strike, and assigns the -damage- of it to the Rune Golem again. The heavy figure upgrade, per being assigned two wounds, is removed, leaving its tray empty. The tray is removed, leaving two separated trays of Spearmen. One of these two trays is selected by the defender to be moved over to occupy the tray space left by the FLRG. Note that doing this without accuracy is possible, but it would come to a point where they would not be able to assign damage to the Rune Golem after the first wound because of 22.4, so at least the 2nd wound must be dealt with 1 Acc + 1 MS (or 4 Acc + 4 Hits is highly improbable)

Lastly: the math of the whole shebang. This is assuming that you have somehow already gotten the FLRG down to his last wound, either with an earlier combo (unlikely) or reduced the unit to a pitiful state where it has few wounds left! In order to get an Acc+MS result, there are only a few combinations that currently make this possible. The probabilities below DO NOT include rerolls (which make these increasingly likely). The candidates would be:

• Kari Hero (Blue + White dice) = 2.08%
  • Kari needs to roll a MS on her white, and an Acc or Hit-Acc on her blue dice to pull this off.
• Ardus Hero (White + White) = 1.38%
  • Ardus needs an MS on one dice and a Hit-Acc on the other
• Ardus (White + White + CL ability + blight) = 4.00%
  • When a worm is around and the enemy is blighted, Ardus needs to roll a MS or Surge on one dice, and a Hit-Acc on the other.
• Ardus-FU Reanimates (White + CL ability + blight) = 1.04%
  • When a worm is around and the enemy is blighted, this thing needs to roll a Hit-Acc on the white dice, and a Surge on one of the red dice.
• Ardus-FU Reanimates w/ MoI (White + White + CL ability + blight) = 8.03%
  • When a worm is around and the enemy is blighted, this thing needs to roll a Hit-Acc on one white dice, and a MS on the other white or a surge on the other white or the red dice.
  • Note that this unit is also very likely (assuming it still has 4 front ranks) to be able to generate the 12 damage necessary to simply wipe the entire remaining Spearmen unit and wounded FLRG off the board.
• Ardus-FU Reanimates w/ MoI (White + White + CL ability + RA ability - blight) = 0.61%
  • Same unit as above, different situation: without blight!
  • This assumes you somehow roll 3 surges + Hit-Acc or roll 2 surges + MS + Hit-Acc, to allow you to blight and MS at the same time.
  • The idea that this unit could theoretically pull this off is kinda scary, especially when you consider it only costs 63 points, and a Brutal Spearmen unit costs 66 points!