It was a situation that happened the last game my brother played. My brothers wardancers were in combat with a phoenix guard unit, in the flank. On that flank was also a HE battle standard bearer on horse. Now to the question.

My brothers opponent argued that those wardancers in base contact with the BSB were forced to allocate their attacks against him since they were not actually in base-to-base with a phoenix guard model.

My brother on the other hand argued that he could actually choose whether to attack the BSB or the unit itself (the phoenix guard) since the BSB is part of a unit and is not a unit in itself as long as he is in the phoenix guard unit.

Who is right? Are you forced to attack the bsb or can one allocate all attacks against the unit? :)

Thank you.

If you are in base-to-base with the battle standard bearer and no-one else, then you have to attack him. Any contact (even corner-to-corner) with another model, however, allows the wardancer in question to attack that model instead.

even if the bsb is within the unit? I would have thought you would have the option to. oh well. He should have gone kb dance and taught him a lesson.

Burro Boskov

Characters are 'units within a unit' in such a circumstance. Think of it as a heroic presence or somesuch: if they are not in contact with any ordinary soldiers, they must face the hero.

Any other interpretation would prevent certain magic items (Vampire Counts have them I think) from being effective.

Guess that settles it :). I thought about killing blow too, but the bsb is hitting first with 3 S5 attacks + his horse. Not much would be left to hit back.

Thanks guys :).