Avengorii - Unstoppable Nightmare

[Tibus367]

Unstoppable Nightmare is a Monstrous Rampage for Avengorii monsters.

"Until the end of the following combat phase, the first time a different friendly Avengorii unit within 6" of this unit is destroyed, this unit can fight immediately after the last slain model in the destroyed unit is removed from play"

Does this mean the affected monster gets to attack twice (once when the friendly unit is destroyed and once when it is picked to fight later)?  Or if the monster has not yet attacked yet, it attacks now and does not get to attack again later in the phase because it has already attacked when the friendly unit was destroyed?

[Sutek]

It's the same as the Vyrkos battle trait.  It means the monster fights straight away and doesn't have to wait for it's activation.  The core rule of not being able to fight twice will still apply.

Personally I think this rampage is too situational to ever be better to use over the other ones.

[Tibus367]

I am not sure how that makes sense.  Since the friendly unit dies on the enemies' activation, it is now my activation anyway.  Unless you mean that the friendly unit dies, then the monster gets to attack, and now I get another activation with some other unit.

It does say that "this unit can fight immediately" without any qualifier such as "If it has not already been picked to fight".  The Vyrkos rule clearly spells that out but the Avengorii does not which is why I am thinking it may be intended as a separate attack happening in the opponents 'pick' without preventing me from picking it later.

[Sutek]

I'm running an Avengorii list tomorrow.  I'll try it and see what my opponent thinks.

[Sutek]

As suspected, I never got to use the ability as the situation it would have been used in never occurred.  It's the problem with most of their abilities.

In the rare event it gets used, the consensus was that the monster doesn't fight twice, but you get to pick a second unit to activate.

[NinthMusketeer]

The Core Rule restrictions on fighting are:

-When you pick a unit to fight, it must be eligible to do so and a unit is not eligible if it has already fought in that phase.
-A unit cannot fight more than two times in a phase, regardless of any abilities, and this overrides the normal principle that abilities take precedence over core rules.

The Avengoraii ability says they immediately fight, as Tibus mentioned there is no restriction of 'if it has not already fought this phase'. Meaning it absolutely can do so even if it has already fought once before in the same phase. What would prevent it from doing so is if the ability would be making it fight a third time.

In practical terms this means the following two scenarios are true:

Scenario A

-Atella the Vengorian Lord uses Unstoppable Nightmare at the end of the charge phase.
-In the subsequent combat phase, the opponent picks a unit to fight first and wipes out a different friendly Avengoraii unit within 6" of Atella, triggering the ability and causing her to fight immediately.
-It is now the priority of Atella's controlling player to pick a unit to fight. However, Atella has already fought that phase and is thereby not an eligible unit to pick.

Scenario B
-Atella the Vengorian Lord uses Unstoppable Nightmare at the end of the charge phase.
-In the subsequent combat phase, Atella's controlling player picks a unit to fight first and picks Atella, causing her to fight.
-The opponent then picks a unit to fight and wipes out a different friendly Avengoraii unit within 6" of Atella, triggering the ability and causing her to fight immediately. She does so even though she already fought once, because the use of the ability does not put her above the hard limit of fighting twice per phase.

Ultimately the ability can be an extra fight in the same phase but only if you play it right.

Edited July 28, 2023 by NinthMusketeer