Doppleganger Cloak: Activate vs Attack?

[Easytyger]

This situation came up in a game.  

On Duality of Death one player was tabled except for a single hero with Doppleganger cloak sitting on one of the two objectives. The other player had the lone hero surrounded but had no shooting and not enough magic to kill the cloaked enemy Hero who was healing on the objective. 

The Cloak states "attacks" not "activates".  So as written could the Cloaked hero choose to activate and just not make any attacks and not be able to be targeted at all by melee attacks?.  So would this force a Minor Victory if the VPs were even and the Cloaked hero couldn't not be moved off the objective and is effectively immortal?

[King Taloren]

You have to attack per core rules.  All models in combat must pile in and attack if they are able to and have a viable target to attack.

 

There is no avoiding the combat with the doppelgänger cloak. All models in combat must pile in and attack. So the opponent charges the hero and cannot activate because the cloak doesn’t allow for a legal target so then the cloak has to activate and attack, there is no passing allowed until you have no viable combats. Then the other player can attack the cloaked player because the cloak had to activate and attack first to make a viable target to have a combat.

 

There is still hope the combat won’t be enough to kill the cloaked hero but he’s still going to have to eat all the attacks piled in on him first

[Isotop]

11 minutes ago, Easytyger said:

This situation came up in a game.  

On Duality of Death one player was tabled except for a single hero with Doppleganger cloak sitting on one of the two objectives. The other player had the lone hero surrounded but had no shooting and not enough magic to kill the cloaked enemy Hero who was healing on the objective. 

The Cloak states "attacks" not "activates".  So as written could the Cloaked hero choose to activate and just not make any attacks and not be able to be targeted at all by melee attacks?.  So would this force a Minor Victory if the VPs were even and the Cloaked hero couldn't not be moved off the objective and is effectively immortal?

"[...] When it is your turn, you must either pick an eligible unit to fight with, or pass (note that you cannot pass if there is an eligible unit from your army that can fight). A unit is eligible to fight if it is within 3" of an enemy unit, or if it made a charge move in the same turn. No unit can fight more than once in each combat phase. If you pick a unit to fight, it first piles in, and then the models in the unit must attack." 

(https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Rulesheets/ENG_AoSSW_Rules_booklet_web.pdf , page 5)

 

Hope this reference helps you

[Easytyger]

6 minutes ago, King Taloren said:

You have to attack per core rules.  All models in combat must pile in and attack if they are able to and have a viable target to attack.

 

There is no avoiding the combat with the doppelgänger cloak. All models in combat must pile in and attack. So the opponent charges the hero and cannot activate because the cloak doesn’t allow for a legal target so then the cloak has to activate and attack, there is no passing allowed until you have no viable combats. Then the other player can attack the cloaked player because the cloak had to activate and attack first to make a viable target to have a combat.

 

There is still hope the combat won’t be enough to kill the cloaked hero but he’s still going to have to eat all the attacks piled in on him first

 

2 minutes ago, Isotop said:

"[...] When it is your turn, you must either pick an eligible unit to fight with, or pass (note that you cannot pass if there is an eligible unit from your army that can fight). A unit is eligible to fight if it is within 3" of an enemy unit, or if it made a charge move in the same turn. No unit can fight more than once in each combat phase. If you pick a unit to fight, it first piles in, and then the models in the unit must attack." 

(https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/AoS_Rulesheets/ENG_AoSSW_Rules_booklet_web.pdf , page 5)

 

Hope this reference helps you

Ah thank you for the quick responses! Much appreciated! 

[HollowHills]

The way to use the Doppelganger cloak is where you have a hero that you want to attack with which is pretty scary and a unit that you want to attack with. You can activate the unit first knowing that your guy will be safe, forcing your opponent to attack a unit which has already gone in combat. For example charging a Bloodthirster and a unit of Bloodletters, you can activate the letters knowing you will still get to use the thirster at full strength. Any scenario where your opponent has to waste attacks can be handy, but isn't the main goal imo.

[King Taloren]

11 minutes ago, HollowHills said:

The way to use the Doppelganger cloak is where you have a hero that you want to attack with which is pretty scary and a unit that you want to attack with. You can activate the unit first knowing that your guy will be safe, forcing your opponent to attack a unit which has already gone in combat. For example charging a Bloodthirster and a unit of Bloodletters, you can activate the letters knowing you will still get to use the thirster at full strength. Any scenario where your opponent has to waste attacks can be handy, but isn't the main goal imo.

Yeah that is the proper way to use the cloak but in this scenario the cloaked model was the last one standing on the field

[BaldoBeardo]

Deleted because can't read.