N00b question about wound allocation

[LunaWolvesRule]

Hello guys,

 

Sorry if this sound really basic regarding 40k rules, but I didn't find the rulebook clear enough on this topic (or maybe I'm just dense).

 

Heres goes:

 

Lets suppose I have a really basic 5 man marine squad, same weapons, same stats, all marines have W:1.

 

My oponent scores 5 hits over the whole unit and I fail all 5 saves. Now what? Am I forced to allocate 1 wound per unit, thus getting wipedout, or can I allocate it differently? (like stack 3 on one guy and 2 on the other). Can someone explain to me how this is done?

 

I've seen some discussions about "wound allocation on complex units" and again, due to my doubts on the "simple" scenario, a more complex one makes even less sense...So also presenting a more "complicated" example:

 

I have a squad of 5 deathwing terminators, each with a different weapon (1 heavy flamer, 1 stormbolter/PF, 1 TH/SS, 1 Power claws, 1 sargeant w/stormbolter/Power Sword) and of course W:1. My oponent scores 9 hits, (unbelievably) I miss all my +2 saves. How do I allocate my wounds, are there differences among weapons? How does this work?

 

Thanks for helping a noob. As a side note I have the "pocket" version of the rulebook, so pointers to any clarifications in there are also welcome.

[Thurgam]

Wound allocation works as follows each model takes one wound so in the five man example each model would take a wound no double stacking of wounds on one model. For the Terminator the Same thing would apply. Now if He had only done two wounds on the Terminator squad, you could pick witch model you want to go away first. The only cavet for that would be Regular models first then the seargent last. Hope that clarifies.

[muadib02]

First off you allocate wounds before you take saving throws, and you must allocate 1 wound per model until all models in the squad have 1 save to take, then you can double up. This is important.

 

Case 1: 5 identical marines, suffer 5 hits and 5 wounds

5 models therefore each model is allocated one wound...as they are all identical you then roll your 5 saves and remove whichever models you want for the failed saves. So in your example they all just die.

 

Case 2:5 Terminators (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) You take 9 hits/9 wounds

Each terminator must be allocated 1 wound to save against....so essentially you wind up with 4 terminators taking 2 saves, and 1 taking 1 save for a total of 9 saves. You then roll your saves and any distinct model which fails a save dies.

 

As i said the key is that you are technically allocating saves to be taken, not wounds after you take saves.

 

Hope this helps.

[LunaWolvesRule]

Yes, thanks guys!

 

Now the whole thing makes more sense... Since on my n00b games we were just rolling to hit,wound,save and then allocate B) This made things a bit confusing in some units.

[Leonaides]

point of order- thurgam suggests that your sergeant must be the last one to take extra hits. This is wrong, there is no such rule and indeed it can be advantageous to allocate more hits on him. For example, 4 bolter marines and a serg take 6 hits, 2 of which are power weapon. It would usually be sensible to dump both pw hits on the serg to preserve your remaining marines.

[Thurgam]

My mistake, Guess me and my group have been doing that wrong.

[Frosty the Pyro]

Here, print this out, tape it to the back of your dex, or BrB or some other handy place for a reference. It will solve the vast majority of wound alocation questions quickly and easily.

 

Frosty's Wound Allocation Order of Operations

 

1. Enemy Rolls to hit

2. Enemy Rolls to wound

3. Apply one wound to each MODEL untill each model has one wound, Then Apply a second, third, and so on untill there are no more wounds to allocate.

4. Seperate wounded models into different identical groups based on wargear and profile (so all marines with just a bolter in one group, ones with a boltpistal/ccw in another, plasmaguns in another, sergents in another and so on)

5. Roll armor saves for each GROUP

6. Within each group apply wounds in such a way to remove the maximum amount of models/wounds posible (for example intant death goes on the ones with the most wounds remaing), extra wounds do NOT carry over into other groups, they are lost.

[thade]

Take close looks at the example pictures and caption text; that's what really helped me.

 

I'll step through two examples here. Your example (five identical marines) and a more illustrative example (one sergeant, three marines with boltguns, and one marine with a flamer). Basically it flows like this:

- Opponent rolls to hit then rolls to wound. In your example he's rolled five wounds which you must allocate.

- Initially, allocation is PER MODEL. You may not allocate more than one wound to a given model until all other models in the unit have the a wound each. Both units (your vanilla unit and my unit with a serg and flamer) have five wounds to save for: each model has a wound on it.

- After allocation, saves are rolled PER WARGEAR/STATLINE BATCH. This means we pick up wounds for each subset of marines in the unit in question and roll them in batches, removing models for failed saves. In your example, you roll all five dice at once: if you fail all of them, you remove all of the models. In my example, I first roll the sergeant's save, than the flamer marine's save, then the vanilla marine saves, all separately.

 

This is all academic (especially in your example, where all five saves are failed) but gets more interesting when you get wound overflow...which is what wound allocation addresses.

 

Here's a new example: my unit of five marines (a sergeant with a power fist, a marine with a flamer, and three boltgun marines) has taken some heavy fire and has some wounds to allocate. Let's say they took one wound from a plasma gun (AP2) and seven wounds from boltgun fire. Now the boltgun shots are only AP4, so I can roll armor saves for those, but the AP2 shot is going to kill one of my marines (as my marines are not cowards, they were not taking cover in area terrain).

 

Wound allocation is PER MODEL. I want to try and save the power fist and, if possible, the flamer marine. First thing I do is I allocate the plasma shot to the boltgun marines. One of them will be refused a save when it's time to roll, but at least my upgraded guys don't have to worry about it. Next I put two more boltgun wounds on the bolter marines, so now each of those models has a single wound. I've got five wounds left to handle (remember, a plasma shot + seven bolter rounds, of which the plasma and two bolt shots have been allocated). My goal is to MINIMIZE the saves that the serg and flamer each take...but I can't put more wounds on the vanilla marines until every model in the unit has a wound on it. So I put a wound on the serg and a wound on the flamer, respectively. Now I have three wounds left that are unallocated and every model in the unit has one wound. I put the final three - one each, per model - on the boltergun marines.

 

This is a legal allocation. The sergeant has one save to make, and he gets his armor save. I'll roll that first, and I make it with a 3! (I'm rolling dice here to enhance the simulation aspect.) Now I roll the flamer marine's save and it's a 1. That's disappointing, but the odds were technically in my favor as he only had one save to make. Now this leaves the boltgun marine batch: there's an AP2 wound in there (which counts automatically as a failed armor save) and five armor saves. For each save failed in the batch, I have to remove a model, so I remove one off the bat for the plasma shot. Then I roll the five remaining armor saves and I get 6, 6, 5, 2, 1...which is two fails. I remove the other two boltgun marines as casualties.

 

So, that was devestating, but because the vanilla marines took the brunt of that shooting, the serg and flamer were each made to roll only single saves a piece. Now, I could've allocated this way if I wished: 2 wounds on the serg, 2 wounds on the flamer, plasma and 3 wounds on the vanilla marines. All that matters is that the allocation is even; overflow can't be stacked on a model unless every other model already has the same number of saves.

 

I'll do one more simple example, just to be pedantic.

 

On the other side of the table, my weary assault squad is only two marines strong: a sergeant with a power fist and a single brave assault marine. They too take some heavy fire - two plasma wounds and three boltgun wounds - that they have to save for.

 

I have to allocate EVENLY and I really want to try and save my power fist (I love power fists). So, first off I put the plasma shot (remember, AP2, that's an automatic save failure for my marines who aren't in cover) on the vanilla assault marine. Now I put one wound on the sergeant: a saveable wound. Each of the models has a wound now, so I can give one of the models a second wound. I put the second plasma wound on my vanilla assault marine: now I've got two unallocated boltgun wounds left. I have to allocate evenly, and that means the serg has to take another wound. One unallocated wound remains - a boltgun wound - which I put on the assault marine. Here's the breakdown:

- Serg with PF has two armor saves to make (two boltgun wounds)

- Vanilla assault marine has two AP2 shots - for which he can't save - and a now meaningless boltgun wound which he could technically save for.

It's legal to put that final wound on the sergeant, but wound allocation lets me stick it on the already-doomed-assault-marine, giving my sergeant a better chance at survival (two saves to make as opposed to three).

 

I roll my saves in batches, so I'll do the serg first. Hey, I rolled two 5s, so he's good. I don't have to roll for the assault marine as he's taking two AP2 wounds; his was a brave sacrifice. I remove him from the table.

 

I hope these examples clear things up!

 

EDIT: Write down Frosty's guide there; it's good for you.