Age of Sigmar: Rule Conundrum – The Great Garrison Debate
The Garrison Rules are a core mechanic of Age of Sigmar – but how do they interact with the Endless Spells? Let’s chat.
There has been a question bubbling up with the release of the Kharadron Overlords new battletome. We were hoping that it would get resolved when the new book and FAQ landed, but, unfortunately we haven’t seen anything pop-up. So in an effort to shine a light on this issue, we’re going to talk about it today. Before we get into all the gritty details, let’s just say what the issue first: How do Endless Spells interact with units that are Garrisoned?
What is Garrisoning and why does it involve the Kharadron Overlords? We will cover that. We’ll also cover why this is a little ambiguous with the interactions between Endless Spells, too. We’re not trying to prove it one way or another – but we do have an opinion on the matter which we’ll cover at the end of this article. So – let’s dive in to Garrisoning Units.
What IS Garrisoning?
For the uniniatied, the Garrison rules are actually a part of the core mechanics in Age of Sigmar. Not many folks really take advantage of them but that’s a whole other issue. The rules can be found in the AoS Rules section online:
That’s it. That’s the whole section. Give it a read – but before you make any judgement calls, let’s keep talking about why this is an issue – and specifically for the Kharadron Overlords.
Transportation
With their new Battletome, the Kharadron Overlords gained a lot of really cool rules. One new rule they now have is their ability to Garrison a unit on their aetherships. Here is a copy of the Arkanaut Ironclad rules for reference:
Very clearly, it states that this model can be garrisoned by up to 25 friendly Marine models even though it is not a terrain feature. So, essentially, you’re using the Garrison rules in conjunction with this unit. Everyone still tracking? Good. Now we get to the final part of the issue.
Endless Spells Enter The Fray
In the rules for garrisoning units, it states the following:
Units that garrison a terrain feature are removed from the battlefield and are assumed to be ‘inside’ the terrain feature. Units must treat a terrain feature garrisoned by the enemy as if it were an enemy model.
…
A garrisoning model can attack and be attacked, cast or unbind spells, and use abilities, but cannot move.
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This is important. Now let’s look at a typical Endless Spell:
Check out this section in particular:
After this model has moved, each unit that has any models it passed across, and each other unit that is within 1″ of it at the end of its move, is subjected to the Purple Sun’s baleful energies…
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The key part there is the “passed across” phrasing. So let’s set up the scenario.
There is an Arkanaut Ironclad with a unit garrisoned inside. A Purple Sun passes over the Arkanaunt Ironclad but does not end its move within 1″ of the Ironclad. Clearly, the Arkanaut Ironclad qualifies for the damage check – but what about the garrisoned unit?
The argument against the Endless Spell working is that while it did pass over the Ironclad, it can’t pass over the garrisoned unit because it’s not on the table. How can you “pass over” something that isn’t there?
The argument for the Endless Spell working is that the unit might not physically be there, it’s considered inside the Ironclad, and therefore it should be considered as a “passed over” unit. Plus, it still interacts with the game in the sense that the garrisoned unit can basically do everything BUT move.
So again, we’re not trying to pick a winner here and we DO think GW should clarify this. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything in the FAQs for the Kharadron Overlords, Malign Sorcery or a Commentary about it.
Our Opinion
We’ve seen this argument before. It was Warhammer 40,000. If you’ve been around the block a few times you might remember that a similar situation came up with transports and psychic powers in 40k. There are a few differences here however. The key one is that the unit is actually an eligible target for attacks. Based on that, we’re leaning towards allowing the Endless Spell to work on garrisoned units. But hey, that’s just like our opinion, man.
So what do you think? How would you rule this question – and if you have a ruling from GW in an Errata/FAQ we’d love to see it!
