Breaking From Combat

All of my opponents are knocked down. Can I break from combat without making a roll? What if they're stunned? Can I charge out of combat in either of those situations?

I'd have thought "no" to all, but a new player in the group saw things differently.

You can.

Rulebook p. 21 (see underlined):
moving from combat
Once models are engaged in hand-to-hand combat they cannot move away during their movement phase. They must fight until they are either taken out of action, until they take out their enemies, or until one or the other breaks and runs.
The exception to this rule is that if all a model’s close combat opponents are knocked down or stunned, he may move away from the combat if you wish, and even charge other enemies within range.

Louis is quite right.

You shouldn't though! You should always kick a man when he's down!

I stand corrected then. It came up in my Left 4 Dead scenario, when getting to the end of the board was more important than zombie stomping. Thanks for the rules, guys!

No problem.
Though I'm with the Warboss on kicking on the lying down guys, I guess that there could be scenario objective situations where going for the win beats going for the kills...
Rarely though.

Yeah, winning the scenario is one bonus experience point for the captain only; every dear(er) zed is a experience point for any hero who puts him OOA. Plus, if you don't kill all the zombies, how are we ever going to make Mordheim safe for democracy?

but sometimes surviving (not going out of action) beats kills. if you know you get a pretty nasty charge(from a Posessed with good advances) the next turn, than it is sometimes wiser to break from Combat and run.

I did it sometimes to get models out of risk to regroup for a good counter charge.

Or use a henchman to move 'away' from combat which you'd rather have your heroes in. It's a bit counter-intuitive, but a strong strategy in Mordheim.

I'm sure most of us have done that. Move a Henchman for a stunned enemy and than charge a Hero in the get the kill. It’s a bit “Cheesy” sounding, but it’s legal. And I’ll do it again! LOL

In a game recently we encountered an unusual problem: It is a cold and icy day in Mordheim(weather table: Icy underfoot). The vampire is in base contact with a knocked down forest goblin but he wants to charge another model: The forest goblin leader. We agree that he's allowed to, so far no problem. Since he's about to charge, he rolls the "Icy underfoot"-roll and manages to dodge the fatal '1'. Still no problem.
But the goblin leader carries around garlic, and the vampire fails the Ld-test and cannot charge.

So:
a) Is the vampire still in base contact with the knocked down goblin, so that he can kick it in the HtH-phase?(I believe this situation is completely comparable to a normal model failing to charge a fear-causing creature)
b) Should the ice-roll or the garlic-roll go first?
c) What if the vampire had rolled '1' on the ice-roll, would he fall to the ground still in base contact with the goblin, allowing him to kick the fanged one, or would the vampire be moved just out of base contact?

In the actual situation we ruled that in trying to charge, the vampire was moved out of base contact since it seemed most fair.

a)
I would say:
If he has not actually moved out of the combat, either due to what-ever-weather-reason or failed LD-test (or antoher reason robbing him of his movement (like failed climb test)), then he is still in combat and in base-to-base with the goblin.

b)
I don't know that weather rule (we don't play with weather). But if:
1) you need to roll every turn; then it comes before the LD-test
2) you need to roll when you want to move; it's after the LD-test, because the LD-test states if he actually 'wants' to move.

c)
Again I don't know the specifics of the rule, but if he falls on the spot, then I would say still in base-to-base.

Another question: Can I fire a missile weapon at an enemy who just stunned one of my models in close combat? so in effect, he is in close combat. Practically there is no reason why I cannot shoot at an enemy if my only ally is laying face-first on the ground.

What do you think?

Well he's not laying face-first, as he recovered to 'knocked down' in your recovery phase.
But I see your point.

Strictly speaking, they are still in close combat, and therefor you can not shoot at them.

But you might wan't to house rule something with your group, for future situations like this, if you think it's unfair/wrong.

However if your laying down guy is granting cover to your enemy, remember that he (you guy) is hit if target is missed by 1 on the dice roll, and you suffered a -1 to-hit from the cover (that is if you don't have Trick Shooter).

Squigherder wrote:

In a game recently we encountered an unusual problem: It is a cold and icy day in Mordheim(weather table: Icy underfoot). The vampire is in base contact with a knocked down forest goblin but he wants to charge another model: The forest goblin leader. We agree that he's allowed to, so far no problem. Since he's about to charge, he rolls the "Icy underfoot"-roll and manages to dodge the fatal '1'. Still no problem.
But the goblin leader carries around garlic, and the vampire fails the Ld-test and cannot charge.

So:
a) Is the vampire still in base contact with the knocked down goblin, so that he can kick it in the HtH-phase?(I believe this situation is completely comparable to a normal model failing to charge a fear-causing creature)
b) Should the ice-roll or the garlic-roll go first?
c) What if the vampire had rolled '1' on the ice-roll, would he fall to the ground still in base contact with the goblin, allowing him to kick the fanged one, or would the vampire be moved just out of base contact?

In the actual situation we ruled that in trying to charge, the vampire was moved out of base contact since it seemed most fair.

We play that the Vampire is still in base to base if for some reason he fails to leave, but it is really up to your group in this case as the rules do not cover it specifically.

My group would answer it this way for your situation:

Since the Vampire attempted to move and for whatever reason failed to do so. But the movement was still tried, that was his action. I believe there’s a FAQ section somewhere stating it takes all the attacks to OOA a stunned model. Just as a model couldn’t OOA 2 stunned models at his feet, in the same round. Since the Vamp attempted to move away and failed, he wouldn’t be allowed to attack the downed model, because he Failed Charging another model. For the same reason someone gave for failing to climb a wall; that doesn’t mean since the model failed, that model can’t instead charge another model instead. As for the Garlic situation, (I’ve never used it) I assume it works like “fear” check to Vampires. I believe failing that check is like failing a fear check, meaning that a model that fails a fear check isn’t free to charge a different model instead; because that was all his actions. My group would say, “(for game mechanics) Since it was a failed charge, moving from combat, that the model would be moved 1” away from the downed model. Therefore, would not be able to OOA the downed model that turn.”

As for your shooting issue, an Ally would be a “friendly” model. You can’t shoot into HtoH with a friendly model. If you wish to break the alliance, then go for it! I’ve gotten that one turned on me. Sometime, it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

Shadowphx wrote:

I believe there’s a FAQ section somewhere stating it takes all the attacks to OOA a stunned model. Just as a model couldn’t OOA 2 stunned models at his feet, in the same round.

The only FAQ that I could find that touches on this subject says the opposite, that you can split your attacks between Knocked Down and or Stunned models. (Mordhiemer's Ultimate FAQ, 4.2 Attacks)

It’s been a while. I’ve gone through lots of research and have come up with nothing to support that 1 model can’t OOA 2 other stunned models in close combat in the same turn. With that lack of evidence, I concede that point. (Good, I’ll be using that next time, Whoo Hoo!) I’ve gone through all 3 Erratas and FAQs, plus in the Annual, I have all 29 TCs, Best of TC, and EiF. I could swear I read it somewhere, but can’t find where now.

I’ve been on Mordheimer’s site years ago. I always thought that was a Fan Based and not an Official site. It does have some good stuff and well categorized for easy finds.

So, "LET THE BLOOD FLY! NO MERCY!" LOL

actually we had quite a similar situation the other day. the centigor had 3 stunned dark elves in btb at the beginning of his turn so we spontaneously saw no reason against it that he can use one attack for each stunned model and thus put all three ooA.

But after reading this thread I realise that we should have been more reflected on this topic. as it is indeed very strong...

on the other hand it does not happen often that you have multiple stunned models at your door step with no standing enemy model to interfere...

at least I'd houserule that the "attacking" model must at least have a sufficent amount of attacks to take out an according number of stunned models.