by Peter Atkinson and Pat Nevan

This is a hot topic right now, and a debate we’ve seen across FB, WhatsApp and. Discord: When does Krethusa the Croneseer do her thing, and crucially, does she get to interrupt?

There’s a few times where this might be really important. For example if you’ve declared a Battle Tactic that requires you to take a specific objective, Krethusa could make a DOK unit walk onto that objective in your hero phase, and tip the scales their way. But if you have a way to tag them first (for example with a Mighty Destroyers charge), they’d be within 3″ of your models and hence unable to make that normal move. So the sequencing matters.

There’s also the small fact that most damage spells occur during the hero phase, so you may or may not have the opportunity to blast her off the board before she does her thing, depending on how this all goes.

First things first

There are two important principles here:

• The ability takes place during “the” hero phase (not “your” hero phase). So it can be used on either player’s turn.
• There is no further comment or direction on the timing window, so it takes place during the hero phase (not at the “start of” or “end of” that phase) per rule 1.6.1.

Timing in AOS

So if this happens during your opponent’s hero phase, do you get to jump in and go “A-ha!” at any point after the “start of” stuff (such as Heroic Actions)? Let’s look at the core rules.

So what happens is that the player whose turn it is carries out all of their “during” the hero phase actions in a sequence of their own choosing, and after that, their opponent does likewise.

And in this case, if the DOK player is attempting to use Burnt Offering during their opponent’s hero phase, their opponent will have the opportunity to cast spells, make their own hero phase moves and do anything else that isn’t at the end of the hero phase first.

Hang on though, what about PMDs?

This raises an interesting knock-on question. When are we rolling for PMDs? If that’s a “start of” thing, does 1.6.2 imply that the player whose turn it is rolls theirs first, potentially having their Acolytes Battalion PMD in hand during their own “start of” interactions while their opponent hasn’t yet rolled for theirs?

Nah. That one has been specifically FAQ’d for exactly this reason:

Bringing it together

So by applying 1.6.2 and the FAQ above, this is what the sequencing of the hero phase looks like.

Let’s say there’s two players: Player A is running any other army, and Player B is running DOK. Circled in red is the timing window for Krethusa’s Burnt Offerings ability in each case.

First of all when it’s not the DOK player’s turn:

And then this is how it looks when it is the DOK player’s own turn:

There’s no wording to say that this ability happens out of sequence, that it interrupts or that it gets the jump on your opponent in any way.

It just operates in the hero phase. And as such, the player whose turn it is carries out all of their abilities that take place during the hero phase first, followed by their opponent.

Is this intentional?

There’s a school of through that it’s meant to be an interrupt, in which case GW will need to issue an erratum to move it to the start of the hero phase, because that’s certainly not the case right now.

There’s also a contrasting school of thought that GW will make it “your” hero phase and stop you using it on your opponent’s turn altogether. There’s a non-zero chance that you’re not supposed to completely switch off objective scoring on your opponent’s turn for example, considering that the ability lasts until the end of the turn and not until your next hero phase.

As it stands though, Burnt Offerings works on both players’ turns, in the timing window described above. And what’s more, the rules we’ve seen for the Army of Renown imply that it’s likely for that to be intentional.

Where does the confusion come from?

There’s a good chance that the confusion sprang up with some of the text in the WarCom article which mention interrupts and the rules for the Army of Renown, which does kick in the ability at the start of the hero phase:

This wording shows us pretty clearly that moving it to the start of the hero phase is a bonus specific to the AOR, and not the ability’s native home. What’s more, the wording of “the” phase (not “your” phase) is reinforced, again implying that the current wording is very deliberate. So if you’re expecting an erratum to change this rule (in either direction), I think you’ll be waiting a while.

So in the AOR – yes, you’ll get to interrupt. In classic DOK though (or as an Ally), when she’s running off her warscroll?

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So I hope that helps, because it’s an interaction I’ve seen discussed a lot in the last day or so. Thanks to the guys in the Plastic Craic discord and the Intricate Rules Pedantry WhatsApp group for talking through it together, and don’t worry – she’s still bringing a lot to the table for 170 points.

Murder of Crows stacks, folks. Murder of Crows stacks.

Credit for cover image to Games Workshop

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