Rules Rundown – Adepticon – Piles of Loot!

Greetings, all you Kings of War enthusiasts and part time pirates!  I’m back with another Rules Rundown, this time from the Clash of Kings event at Adepticon.  The field this year was tightly packed with some of the best players in the country.  You would think that with such high caliber players we’d have no rules issues, but as usual, that wasn’t the case.  This article revolves around Loot Tokens, and when they can be dropped and picked up by your units. 

So for this scenario, a unit of scarecrows is holding onto a loot token and is charged by an ogre unit.  The ogres fail to break the scarecrows, but they’re gonna be a pile of hay and tattered rags next turn.  Adam Ballard, the nightstalker player, seeing the writing on the wall, withdraws the scarecrows at the beginning of their turn.  They then drop the loot token and then charge back in, leaving the loot token behind them for another unit to swoop in and pick up.  After the game, his opponent questioned the move, but Adam contends that you can drop a loot token before any move, and that withdraws, charges, etc. are all separate moves. 

So the question is, can a player withdraw (a move), and drop the loot token before charging (a move), or do they need to drop it at the beginning of the withdraw portion, or the beginning of all of their movement.  Let’s dive into the rules and see what they have to say on the matter. 

On page 71 of the rule book, under Chapter 16, Game Definitions, section h, Loot Counters, it states: “A unit can drop any Loot Counters it is carrying at the start of any move – simply place the Counter(s) anywhere completely within the footprint of the unit and then move the unit as normal.”  Notice how the rule doesn’t say anything about having to drop the loot counter at the beginning of the movement phase, for example.  So the next question would be, what constitutes a move?

In the Movement Phase chapter, the rules state: “During the Movement Phase of your Turn, pick each of your units, one at a time, and give them one of the following Movement orders. Complete each order and any movement with a unit before proceeding with the next one.”  The rules then go on to list Halt, Change Facing, Advance, Back, Sidestep, At the Double and Charge as move orders.  So a unit could drop a loot token before taking any of these actions.  So far, so good.

In the Charges chapter, the rules on Withdraw state the following:  “While Disengaging, if a unit begins its Turn Engaged with one or more Enemy units on a single facing only, it may make a free Withdraw move of 1”, directly away from the unit(s), before carrying out a Charge, Change Facing, Sidestep, Back, or Halt order.”  So this makes it sound like withdraw is another move order that a unit can do.  It then lists the options available to you after you make the Withdraw move.  And this makes sense within the structure of the rulebook, since Withdraw is listed as an optional rule, and wouldn’t necessarily be called out in the main section of the Movement Chapter.

In addition, under the Melee Chapter, section I, Target Routed – Chargers Regroup, the rules talk about the options that a unit has after it routes the enemy, including moving directly forward d6”, or side or back d3”.  It then states:  “Once the Regroup move has been carried out, nudge the unit out of base contact with any enemy units it may be touching, so that it’s clear they are not Engaged.”  So here it sounds like regroup actions could count as moves as well for the purposes of this discussion. 

To recap, based on the rules as written, a unit can drop a loot token prior to any move, and the following are all considered moves: withdraw, change facing (but not pivoting as part of an advance order), charge, at the double, advance, back and sidestep.  (And it could include regroup as well).  Notably, the drop does not occur at the start of the movement phase, but before any move, even if a unit has previously made another move in the movement phase.  

I called Adam to ask him his thoughts on how the rules are written, and if he felt that his interpretation of the rules was very different from other parts of the country.  Adam said that he and his group had always interpreted the rules as such, and that it made sense because the rules don’t mention “at the beginning of the movement phase” just “at the beginning of any move.”   I also checked with the RC to confirm that Adam’s interpretation of the rule of correct, (it was).

Now, at the risk of editorializing, in my opinion this is still pretty confusing, mostly because the rules seem to use the terms “movement order” and “move” interchangeably in some spots.  The rules should clearly say what is meant by “at the start of any move” in the Loot Token section.  Two possibilities could be:

“A loot token can be dropped at the beginning of the movement phase as soon as the unit is activated, before any movement is done.”   This would clearly state what I believe to be the more restrictive version of the rule.  Or it could be:

“A unit may drop a loot token before taking any move action, including withdraw, advance, charge, at the double, sidestep, back or regroup.”  This would clearly state when a loot token can be dropped during the course of a unit’s movement.  It would also give a player more options to keep their loot counters during the course of the game and would reward having spare units to maneuver in and pick up loot counters from sacrificial units.

I personally have always interpreted the rules to mean “at the beginning of the movement phase.”  But from now on I’ll play it that I can drop the loot counter before any move action, because who am I to argue with the current US Master.