Mr Mystery
10-19-2014, 08:09 AM
How do?
I fancied a discussion about the mechanics of the game, and how some otherwise innocuous abilities can do much more for you. Now for the most part, I think this is largely obvious stuff, but then I have been gaming for yonks, so may have experiences and stuff others don't. And sharing is caring!
First up - getting that charge in early.
Generally, the benefit is viewed as less time for the opponent to shoot you up. If you have the first turn, and manage to wangle a second turn charge, then the benefits are obvious. If your opponent can see it coming, they have a single turn to try to do something to prevent it - which is often a tall order.
But - the actual advantage goes deeper. First up, if your opponent has a large army footprint (lots of units, not necessarily hordes), then that early charge can make further charges later in the game a bit easier, as he has less time to break up the density of targets, so you have smaller charge distances (very useful in the age of random charge reach).
Secondly - whether or not you eventually wipe them out in combat, you've taken that unit out of the equation for however long the combat actually lasts. This is best seen against predominantly shooty units. Every turn they're stuck in melee, even if they're not taking a great many casualties, they're wasted points.
Third - The more units you can tie down, the less the rest of your army will be shot up as it crosses the board. As with point two, if you can pull this off, the actual kill rate of those early combats begins to matter less, as you're getting a very potent benefit elsewhere.
Hopefully that serves as a demonstration of what I'm looking to explore in this thread!
Another example - upgrades or abilities which allow reliable rallying of units, regardless of casualty count.
On the face of it, these are simply minor irritants, or somewhat overpriced. ATSKNF, Bonding Knifes, IG Orders - three off the top of my head which will allow even a single survivor to get their poop together.
Yeah. Big woop. I've got a handful of dudes, who don't really have enough killing power at all to do anything.Yay......but.....
It's not about keeping their guns in the fight, so much as keeping your opponent having to split his firepower.
Example, and I'll deliberately, calculatedly use an extreme one.
IG squad gets shot to sod in a single turn, leaving just Joe and Bob left, who quite understandably run away from the carnage. Normally, that's them done and dusted. Two lasguns can't kill much, if anything, and the chance of them rallying is 1 in 36.
BUT....if they can rally, and assuming your army benefits from Objective Secured - Joe and Bob might yet win you the game. Your opponent can either ignore them from the moment they rally, or attempt to polish them off. Either option is thorny.
If ignored, they have every chance of legging it onto an objective, and then spending the rest of the game Going To Ground. With Objective Secured, they can contest too. That's pretty impressive for two wee dudes with absolutely no hope! Potentially it's also game winning - either because they've bagged that Objective, or denied it to your opponent.
And if your opponent goes after those two little Guardsmen to finish them off? Still gonna take a whole unit to do so, regardless of how massively overkill it is. But, if he doesn't? See above! So by a single Order issued in a timely manner, you've just caused a real headache for your opponent.
Anyone else got examples of stuff which seems little more than a nice idea, but which pays far greater dividends than you might think?
I fancied a discussion about the mechanics of the game, and how some otherwise innocuous abilities can do much more for you. Now for the most part, I think this is largely obvious stuff, but then I have been gaming for yonks, so may have experiences and stuff others don't. And sharing is caring!
First up - getting that charge in early.
Generally, the benefit is viewed as less time for the opponent to shoot you up. If you have the first turn, and manage to wangle a second turn charge, then the benefits are obvious. If your opponent can see it coming, they have a single turn to try to do something to prevent it - which is often a tall order.
But - the actual advantage goes deeper. First up, if your opponent has a large army footprint (lots of units, not necessarily hordes), then that early charge can make further charges later in the game a bit easier, as he has less time to break up the density of targets, so you have smaller charge distances (very useful in the age of random charge reach).
Secondly - whether or not you eventually wipe them out in combat, you've taken that unit out of the equation for however long the combat actually lasts. This is best seen against predominantly shooty units. Every turn they're stuck in melee, even if they're not taking a great many casualties, they're wasted points.
Third - The more units you can tie down, the less the rest of your army will be shot up as it crosses the board. As with point two, if you can pull this off, the actual kill rate of those early combats begins to matter less, as you're getting a very potent benefit elsewhere.
Hopefully that serves as a demonstration of what I'm looking to explore in this thread!
Another example - upgrades or abilities which allow reliable rallying of units, regardless of casualty count.
On the face of it, these are simply minor irritants, or somewhat overpriced. ATSKNF, Bonding Knifes, IG Orders - three off the top of my head which will allow even a single survivor to get their poop together.
Yeah. Big woop. I've got a handful of dudes, who don't really have enough killing power at all to do anything.Yay......but.....
It's not about keeping their guns in the fight, so much as keeping your opponent having to split his firepower.
Example, and I'll deliberately, calculatedly use an extreme one.
IG squad gets shot to sod in a single turn, leaving just Joe and Bob left, who quite understandably run away from the carnage. Normally, that's them done and dusted. Two lasguns can't kill much, if anything, and the chance of them rallying is 1 in 36.
BUT....if they can rally, and assuming your army benefits from Objective Secured - Joe and Bob might yet win you the game. Your opponent can either ignore them from the moment they rally, or attempt to polish them off. Either option is thorny.
If ignored, they have every chance of legging it onto an objective, and then spending the rest of the game Going To Ground. With Objective Secured, they can contest too. That's pretty impressive for two wee dudes with absolutely no hope! Potentially it's also game winning - either because they've bagged that Objective, or denied it to your opponent.
And if your opponent goes after those two little Guardsmen to finish them off? Still gonna take a whole unit to do so, regardless of how massively overkill it is. But, if he doesn't? See above! So by a single Order issued in a timely manner, you've just caused a real headache for your opponent.
Anyone else got examples of stuff which seems little more than a nice idea, but which pays far greater dividends than you might think?