Units with more than two different weapon skills

[Sam]

Ok, so I was playing a game today (or yesterday, rather, as it is now past midnight here) and I was using my command squad with Straken, Kell, 2 Bodyguards, a medic and 2 veterans. I stuck the whole thing in a Valkyrie and use my Scout move to pull off a first turn assault against an Ironclad.

Well one of my opponents (this being a 2v2 game) asked what the majority weapon skill of the squad was. To this I responded: 5. Everyone, including my teammate questioned this, so I elaborated that there were 3 models with WS 3, 3 with WS 4, and 1 with WS 5, and that since there was no majority they had to roll to hit against WS 5. Everyone then proceeded to tell me that the majority was actually 4, which, as I repeatedly pointed out, is simply not the case. They then pulled out this concept of a "highest majority" and insisted that since the highest majority was 4, the group WS was 4.

Now in this case, it really didn't matter. Either way they hit on a 4+. But this still bothers me. I've re-read the section of the rulebook titled "Units with different WS" and this is what it says: "A few units in Warhammer 40,000 contain models with different Weapon Skill values. Attacks against such units are resolved using the Weapon Skill of the majority of the engaged models. If there is no majority Weapon Skill, use the highest Weapon Skill of the models engaged."

By definition a majority has to be more than half of the group, though I have also heard people argue that it simply needs to be the largest number in the group. Either way, 3 is not more than half of 7, and 3 is not larger than 3. Can anybody help me see how they determined WS 4 to be the majority here?

[DarkLink]

Majority is determined by the mode (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mode_(statistics)) of the data range. In your case, there were 3 weapon skills; 3, 4 and 5. The mode for this range doesn't really exist for our purposes, meaning that no majority exists. Thus, WS 5, as you concluded.

If there were two WS 3 models, then the mode would be 3, and thus the majority WS would be 3.

If your friends argue, then tell them they need to take a statistics class, because they don't know what they're talking about.

[BuFFo]

I was going to create a 'rules rant' post, but I am sure someone else will.

Just stick with the WS4.

[Nabterayl]

Not actually sure what BuFFo's talking about. You're right - that unit is attacked at an effective WS5. WS4 is not the highest WS majority in that unit. It's the highest WS plurality.

[MVBrandt]

Funny situation, accurate analysis.

[Culven]

This issue arises from how players interpret "majority" as well as the poorly written rule which states one should use the highest WS when there is no majority.

"Majority" causes problems because some player interpret it to mean the overall majority (i.e. what is the WS of 50% or more of the models in the unit?) while others interpret it to refer to the simple majority (i.e. which WS do the largest percentage of models in the unit have?). The latter is more acurately refered to as "plurality" as Nabterayl mentioned. To further confuse the issue, the way that the rules are written, if there is no majority (regardless of one's interpretation of the word) one is to use the highest WS in the unit. This means that one couls have a unit of 50 WS1 models, 50 WS2 models, and one model with WS5 and the entire unit would be hit on WS5 despite this being the minority WS in the unit.

In my experience, most players use the WS of the simple majority (i.e. the WS of the group with the most models), or the highest WS of the groups tied for the simply majority. This seems to be the most "realistic" since it reflects the probablility of the attackers fighting against models of that WS.

[DarkLink]

This issue arises from how players interpret "majority" as well as the poorly written rule which states one should use the highest WS when there is no majority.

"Majority" causes problems because some player interpret it to mean the overall majority (i.e. what is the WS of 50% or more of the models in the unit?) while others interpret it to refer to the simple majority (i.e. which WS do the largest percentage of models in the unit have?). The latter is more acurately refered to as "plurality" as Nabterayl mentioned. To further confuse the issue, the way that the rules are written, if there is no majority (regardless of one's interpretation of the word) one is to use the highest WS in the unit. This means that one couls have a unit of 50 WS1 models, 50 WS2 models, and one model with WS5 and the entire unit would be hit on WS5 despite this being the minority WS in the unit.

In my experience, most players use the WS of the simple majority (i.e. the WS of the group with the most models), or the highest WS of the groups tied for the simply majority. This seems to be the most "realistic" since it reflects the probablility of the attackers fighting against models of that WS.

Thus my point about the majority being treated as the mode (i.e. the most common WS, rather than a greater than 50% of all WSs).

[MVBrandt]

The reason we have rules is so that the game can be played by them, without a whole lot of worry or discourse.

It is rare to have a unit where you have 3 x 1ws, 3 x another, and 1 x yet another ... rare enough that there's not much of a precedent. The rules clearly state how it works out there ... so why fret or stress it?

Dem's da roolz ... laugh about how in this case they don't really make sense in the "real world," and go back to your fun game. Think outside the box, ya know?

In baseball, because the pitcher did some random thing wrong with the way he engaged in his warm-up, the batter gets a free "ball" and runners advance bases. This is called a balk. It's whackadoodle, and the hitting team gets a huge advantage for this really minor thing the pitcher did. BUT hey, them's the rules ... and nobody cares.


The OP was correct in this case ... WS5 was his unit's WS ... by the rules of the game. It's good to avoid a rules debate in a rare instance where one comes up and GW's writing is actually clear on the subject.

[BDub]

Ah hell, just take the average and round up! (I round up because I like to think that having an expert marksman in the group elevates everyone's skill, hehe).