Gone to Ground & Righteous Zeal

I’ve posted my thoughts on this topic on several forums.  Hopefully now my thoughts and my way of explaining it are refined.

With the release of the new Rulebook FAQ, there’s some confusion as to whether Black Templar infantry can Go to Ground (GtG) voluntarily and if they pass a Righteous Zeal (RZ) morale test and move forward, will be able to act normally for the next turn.  The short answer is Yes.

The FAQ says:

Q: If a unit that has gone to ground is then forced to move,
other than to fall back, do they return to normal or still count as
having gone to ground? (p24) A: They will return to normal.

Some people disagree that Templars can Zeal and return to normal and they site the word “forced”.  They argue that RZ is identical to a Consolidation move and a C-move does not force you to move, therefore the short answer is No.  So lets take a minute to look at Righteous Zeal.

In general, the current way that RZ is described is “it’s a consolidation move”.  Templar players go on to say that movement isn’t necessary because C-move states that you ‘may move up to D6″‘.  They go on to say, if you do move, it must be toward the closest enemy unit. So, basically movement and distance are optional while direction is not.

I’d like to go through the process for getting to this interpretation, using colors!  As we read RZ in the BT codex we get to the third paragraph and we find out that if we pass the morale check we must move towards the nearest enemy unit.  The next sentence says “identical to a Consolidate move”, so we’re off to the BRB.  And it said identical.  Ok, got it.  Identical. There we read that a unit may move up to D6″ in any direction.  Now when we come out the other side of the Rule Interpretation Factory, we should be identical to Consolidate (all blue).  Cool, now what’s the interpretation we have again?

After passing a morale check, a unit may move up to D6″ which must be towards the nearest enemy unit.

I don’t see all blue, so what happened?  Well, we cherry picked, and when it comes to rules, inconsistency is rightfully frowned upon, so we need to fix that.

That damn “identical” word is causing the problems, but it’s such a strong word, so lets go with it.  We’ll be consistent and use it as the basis of the interpretation.  Now we’re back to all blue.  We may move up to D6″ in any direction so I pass a morale test and Zeal away from the enemy.  Wait, does this sound like Black Templars to you?  Me either.  This obviously goes against the intention of the rule.

RAW is better than RAI, but in this situation RAW isn’t possible.  So the only logical solution is for everyone to take a pen and scratch out the word identical in their codex.  Once you do that it becomes easy to see the proper interpretation:  when you pass the morale test, you must move towards the nearest enemy unit, but the distance moved does not have to be the full distance rolled. Movement and direction are required, but distance is optional.

So the short answer, Righteous Zeal is forced movement and Yes, we can move normally after having gone to ground.

Don’t leave yet, we’re not done!  Sorry.  There’s two points to make about GtG vs Pinned.  Since RZ doesn’t apply to Pinned units this needs to be discussed.  First, FAQ quotations:

BRB:

Q: If I find a reference to a unit that is ‘pinned’, does it
mean a unit that has gone to ground? (p24)
A: Yes, ‘pinned’ is simply a short way of saying ‘gone to
ground by failing a pinning test’.

BT:

Q. What is a ‘pinned’ unit?
A. A pinned unit is simply a unit that has failed a
pinning test and has gone to ground.

The first point is:  Pinned, according to the following FAQs, is the same thing as GtG.  In other words, Pinned actually becomes GtG.  Pinned transforms into GtG.  This means Pinned is not actually a condition or unit status.  Units can never be “pinned” but they can be forced to “go to ground”.  If Pinned is not a status then the word “Pinned” under the RZ rule in the BT codex can be ignored and BT infantry would Zeal forward when GtG and move normally next turn.

The other argument is that Pinned and GtG are not the same rule and not the same condition.  Most people think the opposite and use the above FAQs as proof that Pinned and GtG are the same thing.  They’re wrong, but most of the time in game it doesn’t matter.  The only time it does matter, in perhaps the entire scope of the game, is for Righteous Zeal.  It’s pretty simple really, GtG is missing one key ingredient to being Pinned…. a failed Pinning test.  If you haven’t failed a pinning test, then you’re not pinned.  Its that simple.  Here’s a visual:

When I say Pinned is GtG but GtG is not Pinned, this is what I mean.

So, either way you slice it, the short answer is still Yes, we can Zeal out of Gone to Ground and move normally next turn.

Suffer not the Unclean!

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~ by BigDunc on November 20, 2010.