Dark Domination timing and damage

Warmachine
1

Hello there,

Had a weird situation today that got me to reread Dark Domination in detail.
My Machine Wraith charged a Mortality’d Dark Shrouded Scavenger and rolled super high damage, crippling its cortex. Then I wanted to of course take control of it, that was the plan, but its cortex was gone. So I reread the rule and was quite surprised.

For reference, here is the rule:

Dark Domination - When this model hits an enemy warjack that has a non-crippled cortex with a basic melee attack made with this weapon during this model’s activation, you can take control of the warjack. Immediately after the attack has been resolved, you can make a full advance with the warjack and can then make one basic attack, then Dark Domination expires. A warjack can be affected by Dark Domination only once per turn.

If I read it word by word, the non-crippled cortex part seems to be checked on the hit and not after the Damage is rolled. But then…

Ok, here’s a step by step of how I read it :

  • attack hits
  • check non-crippled cortex
  • I now take control of the jack
  • Damage roll (here’s the weird part: I’m rolling damage on a model under my control, therefore, unlike what I assumed, the model is no longer affected by Dark Shroud as it’s not an enemy model)
  • then I get to do the advance and attack with the model, even if the cortex was crippled by the attack

Is that correct?

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2

This is how I read it as well.

3

It sure feels like it, but it’s weird. I mean, what’s the point of taking control before knowing if you disable it or not. I would “take control + full advance + basic melee attack” after the attack is resolved, but still check non-crippled cortex before damage, as if the machine wraith poured its corruption in the attack before the cortex was crippled and it lingered in there the time of one attack, like a fading residual memory.

4

Yeah, I’d agree with your interpretation of things there too.

5

The way I read it, you check if you can take control of the jack when you hit. So at that point, you check “hit” and “non-crippled cortex”. Great, go ahead. But the “take control effect” doesn’t actually happen until at the “after the attack has been resolved” moment.

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