Wound Allocation, Mixed Units, and Coherency

[jaxom]

I was thinking of Deathwatch Kill-Teams when I read this about allocating attacks.

 

 

 If a model in the target unit has already lost any wounds or has already had attacks allocated to it this phase, the attack must be allocated to that model.

 

Bold added by me. Shoot a weapon at the unit which requires the invulnerable save, like a storm shield, and if the model with the invulnerable save survives then they're the model that has to have any further wounds against the unit allocated to it. For example, I shoot a Devastator squad with two lascannons, two plasma cannons, and six bolters at a Deathwatch Kill-Team with one storm shield. I shoot the two lascannons first; the first wound is allocated to the storm shield model. Any wounds are allocated to the storm shield model until he is destroyed; for example the second lascannon wound and we'll say he survives that too. I then shoot the bolters; any wounds have to be allocated to the storm shield model; I can't take them on the no-invulnerable save models.

 

The multi-wound model allocation rule is not new, but I think it's where we will see the new Coherency rule come into play. If one is not careful with movement then a model that's already wounded being removed then it could destroy other models, especially if they have large bases. For example:

 

 

After moving, any wounds have to be taken on the middle model. That could result in a great than 2" gap between the remaining models.

 

 

[Lexington]

Good point, and another reason to not spread out / conga line too much in 9th Edition.

[Brother Casman]

Ooh, good catch, jaxom.

[NTaW]

Duly noted!

[Atrus]

Haven't had time t o read. So can we still choose where to allocate the first wound? Or is it.like 6th ed where it has to start at the model closes to the damage source?

[BluejayJunior]

You still choose which model to allocate wounds to, but you can no longer switch between different models. So if you start by taking a lascannon shot from a tac squad on your model with a storm shield, even if it saves, it would have to take all the remaining shots from the bolters until it fails. 

[Atrus]

Ah cool, so no more storm shields tanking the melta shots while the grubs take the bolt shots.

[jaxom]

Ah cool, so no more storm shields tanking the melta shots while the grubs take the bolt shots.

Yes, when one realizes that even with fast rolling wounds are supposed to be allocated one at time. I don’t know if this would be a “gotcha” because most people technically allocate to a group of identical models in a unit when dealing with volume of fire.

[Lexington]

When it’s talking about “phase” here, am I right in saying that said model has to tank wounds for the entire shooting phase?

[jaxom]

I’d have to double check, but it’s at least tanking all the shooting for the entire phase from the unit that did the initial attack.

[chapter master 454]

Wait...oh that's kinda neat. So you can in a way stagger firepower because you choose the order of weapons resolved I believe. You can "bait" those units meant to tank hits like storm shields then let loose with lesser firepower to take them out so it gets through. 9th so far seems to be shaping up to be interesting as it seems that some of the more interesting changes aren't even major, but minor tweaks that make a difference.

[jaxom]

Exactly, which is why I chose the devastator example. Bait the storm shield withlascannons then the bolters and last, hopefully with no storm shield left, the plasma cannons.

[War Angel]

Exactly, which is why I chose the devastator example. Bait the storm shield withlascannons then the bolters and last, hopefully with no storm shield left, the plasma cannons.

Fire one lascannon, then the heavy bolters, then get em again with the high strength weapons.

 

Mixed save squads are dead.

[Fajita Fan]

I'm looking at my Deathwing right now, I may need to rip off some arms and equip more TH/SS.

[Raven1]

 

Ah cool, so no more storm shields tanking the melta shots while the grubs take the bolt shots.

Yes, when one realizes that even with fast rolling wounds are supposed to be allocated one at time. I don’t know if this would be a “gotcha” because most people technically allocate to a group of identical models in a unit when dealing with volume of fire.

 

 

I wouldn't is a "gotcha" moment as it is a core rule.  Players should really know the core rules.  I would consider "gotcha" is a unit or codex and a specific rule that was out of the norm that would confuse players especially if they didn't normally play with or against that faction/unit.

 

This might however slow the game down, or we will see less mixed save units as now there is less reason/opportunity to maximize the effects.

[chapter master 454]

Yea, the main thing here is that it is always the attacker assigning wounds, not the defender. So in this case of we say 10 devastators with 4 lascannons, you would roll each lascannon one at a time until they take it on the storm shield then bolter fire once they do so.

The inverse is also true as well now, if they have a shield in the squad but have other lesser dudes to soak chaff fire, you can actually use chaff fire one at a time until he gets ASSIGNED as wound (so you don't even need to get the wound past armour, just assigning it is enough) then afterwards, unload lascannons onto them and now you get to bypass the shield. So yea, means if you want the benefit of shields you got to ether commit or acknowledge that chaff fire may do them in (after all, they are supposed to be shielding others).

[Jolemai]

Had a go with the new rules this evening. Possibly played this wrong but it seems to require a lot of book keeping.

[jaxom]

It really only matters when firing at a unit with different saves among the otherwise similar models. Otherwise it plays out as people have been doing for years, just with some parts going unsaid:

 

Tactical Squad with Sergeant, Plasma gunner, Plasma Cannon, and 7 Bolters gets wounded 10 times by lasguns. The player rolls to makes saves - it goes unsaid: "I'm allocating to a guy with a bolter and once he's dead then the next guy to get allocated will have a bolter, and so on until I'm out of models with bolters. If I had to allocate them one at a time I would do so in a way that made sense for preserving coherency while maintaining whatever tactical edge I could. If the bolter guys all die before resolving all the wounds then I'd have to think about who I'd allocate to after that." If the player rolls the first 7 saves and fails them all then the player has to explicitly state who's the next model to get allocated before rolling to save (instead of hemming and hawing about who to remove after the roll).

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

The "unit coherency check" occurs in the morale phase which is the last phase, so I believe if you accidentally have this happen to you, you still have multiple attempts to get back into coherency to save the bisected unit. You can charge, pile in, and consolidate before you reach the coherency check step.

[Plasmablasts]

The "unit coherency check" occurs in the morale phase which is the last phase, so I believe if you accidentally have this happen to you, you still have multiple attempts to get back into coherency to save the bisected unit. You can charge, pile in, and consolidate before you reach the coherency check step.

Unless you’re being fired at while out of charge range.

 

Addendum: I’ve just looked at the shooting rules (specifically under Selecting Targets). Once you have shot one weapon in a unit, you have to shoot all other weapons with the same characteristics as that weapon before shooting weapons with different characteristics if targeting the same unit. So, if the example Devestator squad fires one lascannon at the DW squad, it has to fire all the other lascannons before opening fire with the bolters.

 

“If a unit shoots with multiple weapons, all attacks made with weapons that have the same profile must be resolved before resolving attacks with the next.“

Edited July 6, 2020 by Plasmablasts

[Xenith]

With this in mind, always fire the anti infantry/weaker weapons first.

 

In the example of 10 devs with 4 plasma cannons and 6 bolters:

 

1) If ou fire the plasma first: All have to shoot before the bolters, they get tanked on the storm shields. Bolters then probably go on shielded models.

 

2)fire the bolters first. Opponent now has to choose whether to take them on the shields, risking losing them, or on power armour. If your bolters kill all the PA dudes, your plasma have to go on storm shield dudes...but they would have had to go on them anyway.

 

Unless you have multiple profile high damage weapons in a unit that would bait the shield, like lascannon, 2xplasma cannon, heavy bolter:

 

1) fire lascannon. Declares storm shield, saves

2) fire heavy bolter. Declare hellfire shells strat, MW ignores shield.

3) fire 2x plasma cannons. Nuke unit. 

Edited July 6, 2020 by Xenith

[jaxom]

Exactly, which is why my first example was specifically using 2 lascannons to bait out the invulnerable save, then boalters, then plasma. Ten man devastator squad could be worthwhile; just combat squad it if you’re not fighting any mixed saves units.