I'm not really interested in how rules can be misread to generate ridiculous situations. It's good to remind everyone that GW does not write precise rules using technical language--they often do not even try. (almost unfortunately, they DO try (usually fail) sometimes, leading to unrealistic expectations in other instances)
I think it's pretty clear that the initiative system bottoms at 1 and caps at 10. It's not explicitly said , but I nonetheless think it's pretty clear. A reasonable person could maybe wonder if you can have initiative 0 or less, though.
A reasonable person could not assume that leaves you unable to attack.
Second time I've noticed it.....you know what agreement sounds like on the internet?
Silence.
Normally I would ignore jabs like these, but this one actually reminded me of a funny story I once heard: A man was driving in the middle of nowhere down a secluded country road far from any cities. He got a flat tire, and got out to walk for help. After walking for some time, he came to a small stone monastery. He knocked on the door and roused the monks. "I've got a flat tire. Can I use your phone?" He asked.
The monks said they were sorry, but they did not have a phone. "If you stay tonight, you can get a ride on our wagon into town tomorrow," they said. So the man stayed the night, and they put him in a small room in the monastery.
In the middle of the night, the man was awakened suddenly by a noise. Not just any noise, but the loudest, most wonderful, most terrifying, most hair-raising noise ever.
He sat there, his heart beating for a few minutes, and he heard it again!Getting out of bed, he went running in the direction of the noise. It came again, making the hair on the back of his neck rise and his skin crawl. Finally, he came to a large door where the head monk was standing. The door was at least 15 feet tall, and made of solid-looking wood and metal. It had chains and bars and locks and a deadbolt on it, and was the most formidable door the man had ever seen.
"What was that sound?" He asked. "What made it? Is it behind that door?"
The head monk shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said. "I can't tell you; you're not a monk."
As the man turned away, he heard the noise again. "You have to tell me what it is," he begged.
"I'm sorry, I can't tell you, you're not a monk," said the monk.
The man tried to sleep, but couldn't get the noise out of his head. In the morning, as he was getting ready to leave, he heard the sound again. It made his ears ring and his mind whirl. "Please tell me what made that sound," he asked.
But the monks wouldn't. "I'm sorry, you're not a monk" was all they said.
The man left, and eventually got his car fixed and went back to his life. But he couldn't get the sound out of his mind. After a few months, he got in his car and drove and drove until he found the monastery again. He got out of his car and found the head monk. "I can't forget that sound from that night I was here. Please, please please tell me what made that sound." The head monk just shook his head.
"I can't tell you; you're not a monk," he said. "Then tell me how I can become a monk," the man said.
The head monk said "It's very difficult. Are you sure you want to do this?" The man said "I've got to. I have to know what made that sound. "The head monk said, "To join us, you have to perform several tasks. Your first task is to count all of the stars visible in the sky."
The man thought about how hard that would be, but he had to know what made that sound. He sat up every night for a year, counting the stars over and over until he was sure how many stars were visible in the sky. He went to the head monk and told him, and the monk nodded.
"Very good. Your next task is to count all of the grains of sand on the beaches around the world. "The man knew this would be even harder, but he could not get the noise out of his head. He had to know what, what kind of animal, could make that terrible horrible mind-bending sound. So he left on his journeys. He crawled the length and breadth of every beach in the world, counting the grains of sand, and he returned to the monastery years later. The head monk heard his answer and nodded.
"Excellent. You are almost done. Your final task is to climb to the peak of the highest mountain in the world, and see yourself in relation to the rest of creation." And the man knew this would be hard, but he outfitted himself, and he went to the highest mountain in the world, and he climbed to the top, and returned months later, older and wiser and more tired than years before when he had first heard the noise, the noise that would not leave his mind and that echoed in his every waking thought.He returned, and the head monk saw that he was wiser, and said "At last, you are a monk. Come with me."
And they walked through the monastery, its twisting and turning halls, and as they went the man heard the noise again, over and over, and he was no longer sure if it was the noise or merely his memory of it.And finally, finally, he stood in front of the door and the head monk opened it up, and the man saw what had made the noise.
But, I can't tell you what it was. You're not a monk.
Great stuff right? But what's the point of the story? It is much like the logic in your first post...
there isn't any.
The initiative system DOES explicitly bottom at one
in combat, it IS explicitly said. However, characteristics can be zero, that also is explicitly said. There are also multiple precedents for characteristics being reduced to zero, and when seven of the possible nine characteristics are zero they result in a model being unable to do anything associated with that characteristic. Does I0 result in a model being unable to attack? Damned if I know, but it certainly is not a clear-cut situation.
How about the cases when GW does not want a characteristic to go to zero? Reduce attacks... to a minimum of 1, reduce leadership to a minimum of 2... those are the exceptions to the rule. Why did they need to call out "to a minimum"? Because characteristics can be zero. I would like to think whoever wrote the Daemons codex has played at least a little 40k before and realizes that the vast majority of the armies and units out there are NOT I6 or higher, so if they wanted the negative five initiative modifier to drop things to one they would have included "to a minimum of one", like the other exceptions to the "zero is an acceptable number" rule. They also could have written the ability as "reduce initiative to one" rather than a number higher than nearly all standard initiatives out there - but they did not, leaving the situation ambiguous,
which is why it needs a FAQ.
Present some actual evidence why being unable to attack is "unreasonable" and we can actually have a discussion. I would recommend by beginning with how I0 is different from WS0, BS0, S0, T0, W0, A0, or an Armor Save of - (as a zero-level characteristic "is also occasionally represented by a '-' "). Be careful though, I hear GW does not write precise rules using technical language so any attempt to ask "hey, what happens when X?" can result in unwarranted smugness on the internet.
