Order of fire selection

[ShinyRhino]

One thing I sometimes struggle with while playing is resisting the urge to run through my units from left to right (or right to left, whatever) during the shooting phase, to be sure I don't forget to fire anything.

When selecting a sequence of fire, I came up with a very situational yet interesting scenario.

 

I've been toying with the idea of running a template-heavy list someday. Two Whirlwinds and a Thunderfire in Heavy Support slots, and a blast weapon in every squad (missiles or plasma).

What order do you fire in, though?

Let's say you have a 20-strong Mob of Boyz that both Whirlies and the T-fire can hit, as well as a lone Scout Squad with a missile launcher in range.

Do you drop the two Whirlies first, the frag from the Scouts, or the T-fire?

None of the hits will allow an armor save to Ork Boyz. So do you go for the chance of a big hit twice withthe Whirlies first? Fire the frag missile in the center of the mob to maximize the chances the scouts' BS causes a hit? Or do you use the T-fire's special ammo to guarantee lots of high S wound rolls, or the chance to slow down the Boyz with Tremor shells. Four individually-scattered small blasts is nothing to ignore.

If you drop the Whirlie plates first, you have more models available to fall under the pie plate, but mass wounds will reduce the chance that your followup small blasts land on-target, and the number of models availabel to be hit by those small plates.

If you frag first, you have a greater unit footprint to scatter onto, but less a chance to wound.

If you hit the Mob with the Thunderfire first, there's a chance that they could be neutralized (via Tremor shells reducing movement) for the next turn, and then ignored as a target, so the frag and Whirlwinds can hit something else.

 

How do you generally prioritize fire when using small and large templates? Small first, then go up? Or go for mass kills via large, and hope the smalls do something to the reduced squad?

[thade]

There is a lot to consider here.

 

The goal is two fold: Kill as many as possible, and force a possible Fall Back.

 

If you whittle a unit down with small arms fire or small templates first, the big pie plate will have less underneath it, thus could give me less dice to roll. However, if I hit big with the big pie plate first and my opponent is smart, he'll pull models out to thin them out so the small templates will do less. Then again, if the opponent was smart, likely in the first place his unit was spread out to the max reach of coherency anyway, to minimize my pie plate storm damage.

 

So I would do it like this.

 

1. If I want to try and make as many units as possible Fall Back.

- Pick a target.

- Hit it with a huge pie plate.

- Is that enough to force a morale check? If not, hit it with a small template or two (or another big plate if necessary).

- Pick another target and repeat.

 

2. If I want to try and wipe as many units out as possible.

- Pick a target.

- Hit it with a huge plate.

- Is there enough left to justify a second large pie plate? (ie at least 5 models that i can it under the template). If so, second big plate. Otherwise, small plate time.

- Pick another target and repeat.

 

One thing that will get you if you make it clear your list is a pie plate list is that your opponent will keep his units spread out as much as he/she can in order to minimize the amount of models you can get under a plate. (For instance, a smart Green Tide player will always spread his boyz out like whoa.) Still, this sounds like a lot of fun. =)

[JamesI]

Against most foes, I'd go with the Whirlwinds first, see what gets pinned and move on accordingly.

 

Against big Ork mobs, I'd probably save the whirlwinds for last, kill some and make it easier to pin them when the barrage fires.

[Gornall]

To echo what has been said, I'd let them have the WW first. It needs maximum number of models underneath it to be effective. That and it will never be able to stack wounds, so more than likely that unit will still have some left. The TFC on the other hand, only needs a few models to be close together to be effective. If 25 out of the 30 Boyz are spread out well, but 5 of them are kind of clustered, your TFC will be able to force a lot of wounds on that squad. This could lead to overkill and have caused you to waste the WW's shots, but in general I don't see this being a problem against large Ork hordes. After firing those two, then I would use any left over single blasts to do clean up duty as needed.

[Giga]

Against an ork boyz mob, I would fire the thunderfire cannon first, then the frag missile, then the whirly templats.

 

Why? Because the thunderfire cannon is probably going to cause most wounds, and kill most models. The frag missile goes 2nd in hopes it just might do something (mine rarely do anything), and the whirlwinds go last because by the time the second whirlwind fires that ork mob should be at 10 or fewer models, at which point they're no longer fearless and have to pass leadership tests at -1. :P

 

The same works for most opposition. Shoot them with the whirlies last, so you force a pinning test at -1. Whirlies are also least likely to miss completely due to having the big template.

[Resv]

When figuring out firing order I always think about how my Assault Phase is going to end up. I know I want to soften up targets that are in easy reach of assaulting units to give them an edge. I try to figure out which units would profit most of possibly getting an extra bit of movement from the D6 consolidation. After this then I start looking at what I have left to shoot and other targets of note, enemy squads that aren't in direct conflict with one of my units.

 

Now that I write that it seems really overly complicated but that is what usually goes though my head when I start figuring what templates need to go where.

[waaanial00]

Well shooting phases require a little bit of skill in picking what to shoot and with what. General tips are:

 

Always have at least 2 units earmarked to shoot one unit but have overlapping fields of fire so that you can swap over fire if your first unit does the job. It sounds complex but it is essentially about making sure that you do not waste fire.

 

When tank busting start with the weapon which has the greatest probability of achieving your goal, unless this means some of your shooting would be wasted. So range before ability.

 

Always make sure that template weapons shoot first, if you are intending on using them. So for example you have in range 2 Heavy Flamers from an Ironclad (which cannot charge), a Tactical Squad and a thunderfire. You would shoot the Heavy Flamers first, to stop the enemy removing units which will lessen their worth. Then it is all about the range of the Tacticals, if by dropping 4 templates on the enemy you are in danger of wasting the shooting of the bolters then it might be better doing this first. Though of course if they are in range no matter then it is better to drop the templates first because then you have a greater chance of killing more. Dont worry about the Thunderfire being able to kill more due to statistics because if that were the case then firing bolters in wont matter that much as the chances of you killing loads with the bolters is such that they are unlikely to make a difference.

 

In terms of the actual scenario, I would say look closely at the capabilities for clues:

 

Thunderfire is direct fire, works best with clustered enemies and/or large unit sizes, has massive range. - Therefore it should go before any shooting that will either remove units from LOS, drastically reduce unit sizes, kill units within its range capabilities.

 

Whirlwind is indirect and direct fire, works best with clustered and large unit sizes, has moderate range. - Therefore it should fire before anything which will remove units from its range, priority should be for targets within LOS to improve accuracy but not to the detriment of things which cannot target units outside of LOS.

 

Plasma Cannons are high strength, direct fire which work best against high toughness or well armoured foes - Therefore it should fire before anything which has a greater range than it. It should also fire after untis which are less effective than itself at killing the unit and are incapable of shooting at anything else. It should go ahead of anything which will remove units from its LOS.

 

Frag Missiles are low strength, direct fire long ranged weapons - Therefore it should shoot before anything which will remove units from its LOS and range. It should shoot before anything that is better at killing the target unit if it has no better alternative (even tank hunting) so that its shooting is not wasted. It should shoot before anything which will remove units from its LOS. Face it, that frag template isnt going to be killing much so its safe to have this shooting first if you have no better alternative.

 

Flamers are low range, direct fire, auto hit weapons - Therefore they should be used before anything which could concievably remove units from its range. Its ability to hit everything means that this should be your starting point even if you are potentially removing targets from other weapons as they are guarenteed hits. Better to guarentee some hits and work towards maximum potential death and then work backwards.

 

These are just my thoughts, I am sure that they are not particularly well articulated or even practical in every case. What I have tried to suggest is that weapons should be given priority if they will have no other impact, after then its all about potential to do damage. If the potential is high and would free up other weapons to target other units then shoot it first. However if you have 3 weapons which can only hit 1 unit, start with the one which is ill suited first and then work up towards the one which is best suited as it will allow all weapons to contribute and culminate with the one which will hopefully doom the unit to complete breaking point.

 

Use or discard as neccessary.

 

Wan

[Warp Angel]

It's not directly addressed in Killhammer (and probably deserves an article of it's own), but Killhammer addresses the principles of target and shooter selection and provides a good baseline.

 

From that baseline, you essentially, figure out what is the most dangerous thing on the table that your opponent has (highest Killhammer target rating) and figure out what things on the table are most dangerous to it (highest Killhammer unit rating against that unit) and start there. Run through unit vs. target comparisons and figure out where the greatest opportunitis to create a kill gap are, and proceed to exploit them.

 

It's certainly not an easy thing to elaborate on in a short space and assuming I find time to write another article, elaboration on this would ceratinly be on the short list.

 

(see sig links for killhammer)