7th Edition Rules: Assaults

Sequence: Charge Sub-Phase: Declare Charge; Resolve Overwatch; Roll Charge Range; Move Chargers (repeat these steps for all units). Then move on to Fight Sub-Phase: Choose a Combat; Fight; determine Results (repeat these steps for each Combat).

I explained rolling charge range and Overwatch already. Overwatch is particularly powerful, in my opinion, because it applies even if the charge distance is rolled too low for the charging unit to reach combat and it can kill the closest chargers, making it harder to get into combat! A unit can only fire Overwatch once per turn and only if not in combat already (and not Pinned, Falling Back, or Gone to Ground). So I think the strategy is charge with lots of separate units in the same turn.

If you charge through Difficult Terrain, you fight at a Initiative 1 (unless you have Assault a Grenades, which let you fight at normal Initiative).

Models fight in Initiative order. Anyone in base contact or within 2" of a friendly model in base contact can fight with full attacks. I think in an older edition, you could only contribute 1 attack if you weren't in base contact.

Another change is the addition of a Pile In move at the start of each Initiative step. This can partially make up for the lead models getting blasted by Overwatch or getting a poor charge distance roll, but only if you actually have models make it into combat in the first place! Basically, when you reach your model's Initiative step, you make a 3" Pile In move to get as many into base contact or within 2" as possible. This is nice for slowpokes like Orks so that if you lose a bunch of your fighters in the front lines to a faster enemy, you can still get some boyz into combat to give back some hits.

Allocating Wounds: Closest models are hit first and even models more than 2" away can be killed (but only if all engaged models are killed first).

Determining Results: Add up all unsaved wounds. The side that caused the most us the winner. (This is a big advantage to elite units as I could easily kill more points-worth of Terminators by killing one and losing 3 or 4 boyz, but I would lose the combat.) Thankfully, Overwatch casualties don't count toward determining the winner of the actual assault.

Units that lose must check morale (with -1 for each wound they lost by!). Pass and fight on. Lose and Fall Back. If you Fall Back, the victors make a Sweeping Advance to try to catch them. Both units roll a d6 and add Initiative. If the winning unit's result is higher, the losers are caught and destroyed! If the loser's result is higher, they break off from combat and Fall Back 2d6". Winners then consolidate d6", but can't use that to charge. If a unit is still locked in combat, they cannot attempt a Sweeping Advance.

With multiple units engaged, the wound results for the entire side are added up and all the losing units must check morale with the same penalty modifier determined by the overall results. (So even if your mega-nobz don't take a single wound, but your grotz  in the same melee take lots of wounds, the nobz could be on the losing side and can be caught and killed.) If the winning unit causes multiple enemy units to Fall Back in one turn, they get to compare their Initiative roll to all the units and can Sweeping Advance (destroy) any they catch.

At the end of the turn, everyone Piles In again.

Challenges: A new rule allows a character to issue a challenge to an enemy character in the same close combat. Only one challenge per combat per turn. The player whose turn it is has the first opportunity to issue a challenge. If he does not, the other player can. You cannot challenge a specific character; you issue a challenge and any enemy character can accept. If he declines, then the challenger can nominate an enemy character from those that could have accepted and that character cannot fight at all in combat (too busy slinking away like a coward) and the unit cannot use his morale (too uninspiring). If he accepts, they basically fight one-on-one until one dies or one side loses combat (excess wounds can carry over to the general melee and vice versa). And there is another rule where a different character can try to step in for the one in the challenge. Challenges could make for some exciting combats, but again, this rule seems to favor elite models. A Marine Character with power weapon or force weapon can easily assassinate a nob before he has a chance to strike with his power klaw, whereas before, the nob could stand in the second row and let the boyz take the hits until his turn to strike. At first I thought that the other side of the coin was that this rule could be used to neutralize big characters by constantly challenging them with meks, painboyz, etc., but any excess wounds inflicted in the challenge after one combatant is killed carry over to the rest of the fight. But I'll gladly give this rule a try, as it could make for some suitably dramatic moments and that is what the game is all about!

Overall,  my impression is that close combat will be tougher to pull off effectively. Random charge distance should average out to 7", about the same as the 6" before, but it will be less predictable so harder to plan and coordinate. And yes, you might charge 10 - 12", but if you are that far away, you won't normally want to risk taking a salvo of Overwatch shots for such a slim chance of making it into combat. Thankfully, Orks have the Waaagh! And 'Ere We Go special rules to help them actually make it into combat. Assaults can be incredibly decisive with the possibility of crushing an entire unit in a Sweeping Advance, but since Marines are immune to thus due to ...And They Shall Know No Fear, it skews the risk when assaulting them. But let's play a few games to see how the rules work in practice.