Quote Originally Posted by psichotykwyrm View Post
'Combats' and Assault Phase are not the same thing; the former occurs within the latter. Using the terms interchangeably will cause confusion.

Page 34 clearly tells us when we fight "a combat". It happens during the Assault Phase.

Page 40, under Consolidation, clearly says "at the end of a combat".

I think you guys are confusing the concepts of "IN combat" with "A combat". A unit locked IN combat that is no longer so due to any reason besides fighting A combat, has not met the criteria to consolidate. The entire context of pages 34-40 is in regards to fighting and resolving combats.

It might not make the most sense, but using the somewhat vagueness of the way they interchange combat as a rules term just shouldn't fly. I would definitely agree that it could use an errata for better clarity, but when has 40k NOT needed a lot of that?
This is one of those situations where they try and cover themselves with 'THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE!!' on page 2 of the rulebook. While that rule does make things easier to end a debate between players it's just a cop-out for GW not having their rules defined enough.