Close Combat Clarifications Please

[Mr. Peabody]

Monsieur Gorillacrab and I were at it again last night, and the game was made more exciting with the loan of Mister Ken's Twisted Fate Deck!

Retrieve the Artifacts was the order of the day.

The battle was bravely fought, but in the end my corrupt-cadres forced the guardians of good from the field. Evil's ploy was a simple one: lots and lots of .22's (plus one Thompson SMG). One of my Cult Leaders took TWO .22's for two-gun mayhem. This left my cultists & leaders with no melee weapons & hence the Subject of this post:

Can a Model without a melee weapon still Charge a face-down Model, putting them out as a Major Injury?

A Model armed only with a .22 survives a Charge by another Model brandishing a Bowie Knife. Incredibly, the close combat results in a Draw! On the next Turn can the Model with the .22 fight (declare a Charge Action) (with the intent being to Leave Close Combat) even though it does not have a melee weapon, or must it automatically 'take another free wound' as per the example on page 71, Turn 5, of Strange Aeons?

Basically, if you only have fists and a gun are you up-the-creek when in close combat vs someone with any kind of knife or club?

Thanks for your time & consideration!
Thomas

[LidlessEye]

The "free" hit happens at the beginning of every round of close combat.  Without a melee weapon, your only hope is to win a combat round and move away. 

I'm not sure about unarmed models charging face down models though.  Personally, I don't see why not, but I'll leave this one for Mike to make an official ruling on.

[Lupus]

The other thing about combat that confuses me is if i'm forced to run off because i failed a Psycology test the opponet gets to roll a free wound.  Is this just the Damage of the weapon plus any bonuses against the models Constitution like normal?

[Argonor]

I'm not sure about unarmed models charging face down models though.  Personally, I don't see why not, but I'll leave this one for Mike to make an official ruling on.

I think it would be too difficult for an unarmed model to quickly dispatch a prone model (suffocating or beating to death usually takes much longer than stabbing or shooting).

Just my 5 cents....

[Uncle Mike]

An unarmed model can charge a face down model and remove him as per the usual rules. Lidless is correct about the 'free' hit.

And, If you fail Resolve and run away you take a wound...as usual.

[Lupus]

And, If you fail Resolve and run away you take a wound...as usual.

Is that you just Roll the Damage of the weapon plus any bonuses against there constitution or do you just roll on the Injury chart?

[Uncle Mike]

The roll 'to wound'. So, no roll 'to hit' required...just roll 'to wound'.

[Lupus]

Okay thats cool then so i might not do anything anyway if the guy has good Constitution but hey its a free hit after all

[Mr. Peabody]

The "free" hit happens at the beginning of every round of close combat.  Without a melee weapon, your only hope is to win a combat round and move away.

Okay, I'm being dense here (or not enough tea too early in the AM...) but this confuses me. I thought the "free" hit happens because you have no melee weapon & so can't/won't roll dice for a combat round; you just go straight to the wound roll. How can you then win a round of combat?

I like the free hit idea as described on page 71, Turn 5, but I don't think the mechanic for it is explained in the close combat rules section on pages 13-14.

Thomas

[LidlessEye]

The free hit is a bonus you receive at the beginning of close combat.  Think of it as something like  trying to fend off a slash with a forearm as your opponent closes in.  After the free hit has been resolved, a round of close combat is fought as normal.  You'll notice the first entry on the Weapon List is Unarmed, which fights at C.C. Bonus +0, 1D damage.  Cultists and Civilians usually don't have much hope here with only one Attack, but models with more dice can sometimes pull out a win.

[Mr. Peabody]

Thanks! Let me know if I have it right now:

1) A Draw was declared last turn; top of my turn, before nominations, the enemy gets to roll a free wound as a close combat must be fought at the start of any turn that any models are involved in a Draw. Lets pretend the model survives & is still Normal.
2) If I want to get my model out of that combat I need to nominate that model, declare a Charge Action & pray that he wins the combat so that he can move safely out of the Draw.

If the model had a melee weapon I could have fought the combat before nominations in 1) and, providing he won, moved away if I wished. This would have saved me a Nomination and the model an action.

There is a definite hierarchy of unarmed vs armed/natural weapons in close combat.

More and more I am impressed by the cool fun potential of this game.

[D@rth J@ymZ]

You seem to have summed it up perfectly.

[LidlessEye]

Actually, I think there's a step missed there - you can in fact win the pre-nomination combat:

On the turn after a Draw:
1) Prior to nominations, a round of Close Combat is fought:
  a) As your model is Unarmed, your opponent gets a free roll to Wound.  Assuming you survive:
  b) Close Combat dice are rolled.  Should you manage to win this combat, you may elect to move away instead of rolling to Wound.
2) If this is your turn, you may now nominate the model and shoot your assailant and/or get the heck out of there.  If it's not your turn, you're probably going to get charged again, but at least you made things a little more difficult.

In the event you don't manage to get out of the combat in the pre-nomination round, but still survive, you can then nominate the model, declare a charge and take another stab (err, punch) at it.

[D@rth J@ymZ]

Good point.  There is a chance for the free wound PRIOR to the pre-nom close combat.  Then the regular CC, assuming that the model was able to survive both the free wound and the pre-nom CC.  Win either combat, withdraw and then nominate and shoot in your turn.