Here's a situation I ran into last night: I'm curious if there's a clear answer I don't see.

My enemy has a squad one space away from my own squad (not adjacent, there is one space between the squads).

For the first part of his turn, he moves into the square adjacent to my squad.

I opt for Reactive Fire, but the roll is a MISS.

For the second part of his turn, he opens fire with ranged weapons and takes out 2 squad members.

Then comes the Close Combat roll.

Here's the question: Because I "used" my squad for the failed Reactive Fire opportunity, am I able to roll dice for them in Close Combat? Are they also de-activated from responding in a close combat situation because of that?

Since you get to roll close combat dice regardless of whether you've used your unit or not, you would definitely still get to roll your close combat dice during your opponent's close combat attack, even if you failed your reactive fire roll.

Thank you for your feedback, yet I wanted to inquire further (I may have it now).

You said that "you get to roll close combat dice regardless of whether you've used your unit or not"?

The manual only says that the defending player in Close Combat rolls at the same time as the attacker, but does not address whether the defending unit was activated earlier in the turn or not. From this, I guess you have to assume that earlier activation does not affect its ability to roll in defense. And, by extension, that a previously unsuccessful Reactive Fire attempt also does not affect to its ability to roll for defense in close combat.

If so, then I understand your reasoning. I just wish the manual made it clear, rather than leaving it for people to figure out.

Thank you.

J

Yes, your reasoning is correct.

The rule is pretty clear really - just do what it says on the tin. The problem is that many players are used to longer, more complicated rules. Dust is short and simple, just do what it says and don't think to much on if's & but's and you will be ok with them.

Major Mishap said:

Actually, I'd say that players are used to making rules longer and more complicated. Also, for at least one popular miniatures game, even when the rules change between editions, players still defend the old edition way they played using the old edition rules as quotes to "support" the changed rules in the new edition.

Algesan said:

Yes, thats the problem, players are looking for extra rules that are not there or needed because they may be used to having everything spelled out for them.