Can a character move through enemy stands?

[azrael71]

I have just been looking at the pics for the recent Euro GT and noticed an interesting formation around an enemy character.
It effectively surrounded him.
I know in the rules it states that if a character is moved through htey must relocate but how does this work in reverse?
Can the character move (I know some wizards have a teleport style spell) past them or not?
I can see this making for som every interesting and challenging games if the answer is no

I look forward to your responses.

[jchaos79]

I always understood that a character can not pass through enemies units. They have a large range of movements and can avoid them, but his path then will be large than moving in a straigh line. So the effective distance is reduce.

I assumed in my games that teleport could be done through enemy units in straigh line. But returning to your friendly lines army without another teleport spell is hard, because the wizard has to avoid enemies units and could be surrounded and slained.

[Guthwine]

Characters cannot move through enemy units but Lex´s triangle formation to catch characters is debatable and was forbidden, the moment he used it.

See the swarm here:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_m-eK_xxIIFk/Scj6RljVjXI/AAAAAAAAEVM/wl07w3cJrns/s720/P1020065.JPG

[azrael71]

I think the formation lex used would have cased the character to relocate or be destroyed due to the space inside the traingle but with 6 stands it may work.
Why was it rendered 'illegal' in the tournament?

[Guthwine]

I think because it goes against the spirit of the game. For a more detailed info ask SpiritusX and the other rule gurus.  

Also it depends on the base your using for your characters, my bret chars are all based on a standart WM base, so in that case the trick doesnt even work. (at least not with one unit)

[spiritusXmachina]

First of all this topic is not totally cleared out in the rules.
 
We had a long discussion even before EuroGT about this topic (years before Ulgityer already raised this) and thinking about the consequences it would have if this tactic was commonly known and used we decided to forbid that trick.

Just think about an High Elf army with a nice amount of Eagles and Dragon Riders! This could mean a quite sure victory in the first round for the High Elves!
First two units of Eagles totally surround the enemy general, second a dragon rider just lands on top of him! Voilá!
I don't think that anybody would like Warmaster games to develop like that...
And don't try this out with your gaming friends at home - only if you want to lose them!

Greetings,
Gerald

[Guthwine]

First of all this topic is not totally cleared out in the rules.

Well,it specifically say that characters can move through friendly units. That very much sounds like that its forbidden to move through enemy units.

[spiritusXmachina]

Well, but especially interesting is the very moment the character movement is triggered.
There were arguments that the character sees the enemy coming and flees before the unit is placed, other meant that one could place two stands to surround the character and the last stand could do the fatal blow. Other opinions said that one millimeter of free space is sufficient that the character may flee and so on (still all that would not help against the HE-tactic from above).
That issue is unclear at whole. But I think there is general consensus that the above tactic should not be possible.

[Getlord]

Here in Poland we generally allowed to move characters through enemy units to cut this discussion and forbid stupid game endings against the spirit of tactical game the Warmaster surely is. We made it few years ago and it works just fine.

[tweety]

That issue is unclear at whole. But I think there is general consensus that the above tactic should not be possible.

Knowing Lex I would say that the move at EuroGT WAS deliberatly made to get the discussion going. There have been several events where eg. CB used this or similar tactics, and it takes considerable manouvering and ordering to manage this. As for anyone having his General in a position at the start of the game that would allow HE's to get the drop on him.......... well, lets say you now have plenty of time to play a SECOND game and learn from the experience.... 

[wmchaos2000]

Why not regard it as if an enemy unit had moved through the character?
Meaning: In that moment when the character realizes he is going to be surrounded, he is allowed a 30cm move to join a nearby friendly unit. If that distance is to long, he may stay put and hope for not being squashed by the next enemy unit that arrives. Otherwise he is closed in until the enemys next move phase.
It could work...