Locked In Melee

Make Gladius feel more realistic and more like the tabletop by increasing weapon ranges but limiting weapons and movement when in melee. Now you can fire a sniper rifle or a lascannon from far enough away they can’t just walk up and hit you next turn. But if that Ork Warboss does manage to reach you, your only choices are to stab back with a combat knife or to try and fall back, focusing entirely on dodging its power claw. You won’t outrun it while moving backwards, but you might buy some time for your allies to fire – after all, they can’t get a clean shot off at someone currently engaged in hand to hand combat.

All non-melee weapon ranges are doubled. Basic sight range is now 6 hexes.

If an infantry, monstrous creature, or walker unit is next to an enemy that meets the same criteria, it is locked in melee. Its speed is reduced to zero and cannot be increased by abilities, and non-pistol ranged weapons are disabled. It also cannot be targeted by ranged attacks from any unit allied with its opponent, which includes avoiding overwatches on the turn it charges.

All such units without melee weapons now have a new ability to attack with a backup weapon, which has identical stats to a close combat weapon.

All such units also now have the ability to retreat, spending their action to gain one movement. To do so, you must be in combat, and cannot have moved earlier in this turn. To save on clutter, this ability will only be visible when it can be used.

On the tabletop, some units can fire and charge in the same turn. To represent this, these units can fire ranged weapons on the turn they entered combat, but only at adjacent enemies. This applies to any unit with an assault weapon, as well as any unit that is a walker or monstrous creature, or has the relentless or slow and purposeful traits.

Some units can never be locked in melee. A squad of guardsmen with bayonets stabbing a tank’s treads won’t stop its gun firing, and larger units probably won’t even notice them underfoot. Fortifications, non-walker vehicles, flyers, super heavies, and gargantuan units can never be locked in melee. They still cannot target anyone in melee with their allies unless they are adjacent to their target.

Units also cannot be locked in melee while over water. Hovering units can be locked in melee while over land if they meet the other criteria, but when floating over water, can’t be held in place or hold others in place. This stops them locking land based units in melee while on a tile that means the land based units cannot strike back.

There are many abilities in the game that interact with this new system. This section explains how they do so.

Abilities that increase your movement will not work while locked in melee. Teleport abilities other than those specified below will work.

Debuffs with a range larger than 1 have had their range doubled, and can be used both into and out of melee. Aura effects and abilities that target allies have not been changed – this includes damaging abilities like the librarian’s shockwave, which can be used in melee. Actions that simply use a weapon are limited to the same restrictions as normal attacks. Item actions are unchanged, as their range is 1, but can be used in melee.

Units with the hit and run trait have a move of 1 while locked in melee, and can use existing abilities that increase their movement, but cannot retreat. They cannot count as charging if they started their turn in melee, even if moving to a different target, but they can fire all ranged weapons if they move out of combat.

Summoned units do not count as charging if summoned directly into combat, but may charge the turn they are summoned.

The basilisk’s earthshaker cannon and the deathstrike’s deathstrike missile now have their minimum range doubled to 4.

Units with battle focus can retreat for free if they’ve already used their action. To do so, they must have started their turn in melee, but they do not need to still be so – you are not penalised for killing your enemy too quickly. They can also still use the regular retreat action if they wish. Note that only one version of the action will appear at a time, depending on if you have used your action or not.

As on the tabletop, warp spiders cannot use their warp jump generator while in combat.

The spiritseer’s abilities that can target both allies and enemies have been doubled in range.

As on the tabletop, the haemonculus’s crucible of malediction can be fired into melee, but may not be used while locked in combat.

As on the tabletop, mandrakes cannot use fade away while in combat.

The succubus’s no escape ability prevents units from retreating.

The traits wraithflight and immune to natural law allow canoptek wraiths and transcendent c’tan to not have their movement be limited while locked in combat.

The vaul sentry cannot engage in or be locked in combat.

The ghostkeel’s electrowarfare suit trait now works against attacks from range 3 or higher.

Markerlights have been doubled in range, and can fire into combat – after all, there is no risk of them harming their allies. They cannot be used while in combat.

Vectored retro thrusters work like the hit and run trait.

The biovores’ spore mine launcher and the harpy’s spore burst actions have been doubled in range, but cannot be used while in combat.

The malanthrope’s and venomthropes’ toxic miasma ability is usable while in combat, like on the tabletop.

The tyrannocyte’s instinctive fire only applies if there is an adjacent unit. There are too many circumstances where a unit in ranges 2-3 could be an illegible target, so these will not prevent firing at further targets.

As this mod changes quite a lot of things, I cannot promise it will be compatible with other mods that effect units. It should be compatible with both Too Many Voices and Gladius+. It will not work with custom factions or most custom units (if a unit cannot be locked in combat and has no abilities that would need changing, it should work).

– 20th June 2026: Added missing pistol classification to Hexmark Destroyer’s pistols.
– 18th June 2026: Prevented locking in melee while overwater to fix the bug where land only units could be locked in melee with units they couldn’t melee attack.
– 30th May 2026: Tidied up the visuals when you mouse over the Locked in Melee trait.
– 23rd May 2026: Included the new units from the Eradication Pack DLC.
– 15th December 2025: Fixed an issue where troops in transports couldn’t disembark, due to counting as locked in melee with an adjacent enemy.
– 13th December 2025: Included the new units from the Rampage Pack DLC.
– 20th July 2025: Adjusted the Cadre Fireblade’s Precise Shot so the range increase is also doubled (resulting in a total of 6/8/10 range instead of 5/6/7).
– 28th June 2025: Fixed a bug where Salvo weapons were having their ranged halved from one to zero, preventing them from firing.
– 9th June 2025: Put back in several special rules on units that Gladius removed because they didn’t have melee attacks to use them with. Mostly this is Furious Charge on Ork units, Smash on Tau Monstrous Creatures, and the Toxin Sacks upgrade on Tyranid units.
– 7th June 2025: Updated to match Patch 1.16.1. Also added missing melee and retreat abilities to the Onager Dunecrawler.
– 24th May 2025: Included the new units from the Onslaught Pack DLC.
– 3rd May 2025: Fixed a bug with Rvarna Battlesuit’s Nova Shockwave.

I want to thank the people on the gladius discord for their help with this mod, in particular Vaeki and Malaikat for helping make the AI respond to the changes this mod makes.