Dark Elf Shades and Characters - March and Shoot?

[Druchii Monkey]

Apologies, have not got a rule book to hand and need to know the mechanics of characters joining Shades (scouts + skirmishers).

If a character joins a unit of Shades presumably the Shades can still march and shoot but can the character march and shoot as well?

Want to try a big unit of Shades with a sorceress and the Guiding Eye for one round of extra accurate shooting and the sorceress might chip in with a crossbow shot of her own but not sure of the rules.

Any help appreciated.

[Scalebug]

It is just fine;

A character model that joins a unit of Skirmishers gains the Skirmisher special rule as long as he stays with the unit.

(It is different from Fast Cavalry, where the unit instead loses that status if a character joins them...)

[Druchii Monkey]

Thanks. Appreciated.

[Khorneflakes]

what if the character has a mount that grants him fast cav?

[Fubar]

Well technically Raw only male characters become skirmishes, so won't work with a sorceress. Nice idea though.

[Scalebug]

what if the character has a mount that grants him fast cav?

Then the unit get to keep being fast cav.

Unless you meant joining a unit of skirmishers, which you can't. You have to be on foot (and male, as Fubar pointed out).

[Druchii Monkey]

What i found out last night when i played my game is that my great plan had one little flaw. I was hoping to cheekily get my Sorceress in close as part of the unit of Shades for a round of shooting and a nasty close-range spell. However, i don't believe a character deploying with scouts can deploy as a scout themselves so my whole Shade unit deployed like everyone else. This reduced the effectiveness of my strategy somewhat.

However rather interestingly and i don't know if i was playing it right, but when my Sorceress cast with irresistible force and had a roll on the miscast table the result was "7", models in base to base contact suffer damage. Strictly speaking none of my Shades were in base to base contact as they were all spread out as skirmishers - if this is the right way to play it this says to me that there are certain advantages in deploying Sorceresses with skirmishers. If they go boom-bada-boom-bada-bing there will be fewer casualties.

Are both of the above statements a correct interpretation of the rules?

[Scalebug]

No one the first there; Characters need the scout special rule themselves to deploy with scouts.

Yes on the second; base contact is base contact, there is no particular rule that the dispersed formation of skirmishers are considered to be in contact, or anything of that nature. So unless the miscast happened while they were in combat, or for other reason happened to be pushed together (something like passing between two units or pieces of impassible terrain or such, should be rare anyway...) there will be no hits on the unit on that result, and likely fewer from the ones where you place a template as well.

[Druchii Monkey]

Yes on the second; base contact is base contact, there is no particular rule that the dispersed formation of skirmishers are considered to be in contact, or anything of that nature. So unless the miscast happened while they were in combat, or for other reason happened to be pushed together (something like passing between two units or pieces of impassible terrain or such, should be rare anyway...) there will be no hits on the unit on that result, and likely fewer from the ones where you place a template as well.

Nice, one i will remember for the future.

[Cynigher]

Well technically Raw only male characters become skirmishes, so won't work with a sorceress. Nice idea though.

Why can only male characters gain the rule? Because it says "he"? However alot of rules regarding wizards also use he such as "A wizard can always choose to substitute one of the spells HE rolls with the signature spell" So are we now not alowed signature spells?

[Scalebug]

Why can only male characters gain the rule? Because it says "he"? However alot of rules regarding wizards also use he such as "A wizard can always choose to substitute one of the spells HE rolls with the signature spell" So are we now not alowed signature spells?

You might want to consider the possibility Fubar was joking there...