Sprint/Glide rules debate

[Tom]

This came up in my game vs Mike and in the end we just had to roll for it as the rules weren't clear. I've asked on Jake Thornton's FAQ blog post but no official response and any drive by commenters seem to be just as unsure as we were.

Sprint says you can't deliberately change levels. But glide says 'The model may drop any number of levels in a single Move or Sprint action without harm. This may be done as a deliberate movement or as the result of being blasted out of position.' And why would it mention sprint if you couldn't use it on a sprint action due to the same level restriction?

What I tried to do (and the dice said no) was make the first part of my sprint into open air, glide down, and then finish my sprint at ground level.

Given some time to muse, I might suggest as a ruling that you can sprint into open air as your second sprint move (you didn't change levels as part of your sprint, but gravity catches up as soon as your sprint is over) but not split it as I tried.

Or do you think I was just being cheesy and no level changes means no level changes full stop?

I can see this coming up most times Plague get the vestigal wings mutation so would be good to get a group ruling for some consistency!

[Darkson (Simon)]

Only had a quick look through the rulebook, but I think "Sprint" is the basic rule, and things like "Glide" and "Hover" are exceptions to that rule, else Sprint wouldn't be specifically mentioned in their text.

But as I say, that's just based of a quick read in the rule book.

[Tom]

Had a glance by Jake's blog to see if I had a reply.

No, but I did notice something else we did wrong:

1: This last bit is very important: the Fight caused by moving into a cube is part of that Move action, not a separate Fight action (free or otherwise). In the initial print run of the rulebook the relevant wording was “… it will Fight for free as part of that action.” This was confusing as “for free” didn’t mean it was a free action, just that it happened as a bonus without costing you another action. My bad. The second print run of the book fixed some typos and included some minor corrections (see the FAQ), one of which was to change this line to “… it will Fight as part of that action“. The rule hasn’t changed, it’s just been made less confusing. Again, the critical bit here is that this Fight is part of the Move action.

So you can have a free second fight for rolling particularly well on the initial fight test when you move into an enemy square.

[Mike]

has he updated the post where he mentions a list of actions?

It should read now, move (include fight), free fight, free move ( include fight), free fight etc
And if already in combat, fight, free move ( include fight) etc

This would benefit a charger, he moves in ( includes fight ), gets free fight, then free move. If lucky a charger can effectively double the attacks and do the checkers effect as described in the original FAQ.

[Tom]

The draughts (what country are you from man!?) chain jumping situation is indeed an odd one. You'd basically need a string of cubes each containing exactly two opponents. Not a massively likely situation but one to be aware of when facing melee monsters.

[Mike]

The draughts (what country are you from man!?) chain jumping situation is indeed an odd one. You'd basically need a string of cubes each containing exactly two opponents. Not a massively likely situation but one to be aware of when facing melee monsters.

I was talking about my weekend jaunts at checkers dear chap. One must keep up appearances.