A tweak to assault Grenades....

[Mr Mystery]

How do?

So spinning off from the thread I started in tactics about Pinning.

Currently, pinning is done in the shooting phase. Which is fair enough.

But....what if a unit being assaulted had to take a pinning check against Grenades? The whole ethos of Assault Grenades in 40k is that they force the enemy to keep their heads down. Surely this could also relate to a Pinning test?

Pinning in itself isn't massively overpowered, as it requires the unit to fail a Ld test, and in 40k Ld is pretty decent across the board. However a Pinned unit cannot Overwatch - which sounds pretty tasty for units going into the assault.

Whaddya reckon? Is it overpowered? Is it a bit pointless? Is it cool? Should I just shut up, stop typing and pay attention to Walking Dead?

[Lexington]

Love it for the most part, but it'd be almost astonishingly cruel to put so many more potential Mob Rule checks on the Ork-playing population...

[Mr Mystery]

In theory, Orks should be doing the assaulting anyways :p

[vharing]

When it came to most of my games against orks when I played my Blood Angels... I am the one who assaults.

Though I do like possibly having a way to deny overwatch. Assault army need help in that department.

[Mr Mystery]

Anyone care to give it a bash? I'd do it myself, but Necrons don't exactly have Grenades!

[Lexington]

In theory, Orks should be doing the assaulting anyways :p
In theory, yeah, but it happens the other way around often enough, and Orks end up being something of a glass cannon assault army at the best of times. No need to exacerbate that somewhat precarious situation.

To avoid that, maybe just "take a Ld check, if you fail, no Overwatch"? Not quite as elegant, but it does the same thing without causing greenskins such issues.

[Mr Mystery]

Ah, Mob Rule isn't all that bad for the Greenskins. D6 hits is nowt!

[CoffeeGrunt]

So give the Blast of a Frag Grenade Pinning? Doesn't seem like it would be too nasty really.

[mordecai]

So give the Blast of a Frag Grenade Pinning? Doesn't seem like it would be too nasty really.
And steal another rule from the eldar, of course. I agree that overwatch massively disadvantages certain armies (Tyranids, Orks, Dark Eldar), but there are certain ways around it, for example arranging the charge so that only one model is visible to the overwatching squad (another use for your Rhinos, etc). Or using available terrain.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Eldar aren't the sole owners on Pinning, Tau have it on one of their standard weapons, and Guard can give it to any squad via Orders. It also used to be a latent ability in any Sniper or Barrage weapon.