Unit Coherency in Age of Sigmar 3.0

I've been wanting to make a few notes about the upcoming new rules for Age of Sigmar (i.e., 3rd edition). I don't play Age of Sigmar very frequently, but given that my children seem more interested in the game compared to 40k, staying on top of a few of these things does literally find its way to my desk. [And before anyone says: yes, my children like 40k, 30k as well, but just not quite as much as Age of Sigmar which they have really taken to in tandem with RPGs].

The main change -- among a good number of changes -- for Age of Sigmar 3.0 is the changes in unit coherency. I regard this as a pretty fundamental alteration to how the game is played at a game level, strategic level, and tactical level. 

In previous editions, we saw a large number of single rank units stretching far and wide (cf., gratuitous bloodcrushers image!). This clearly was good for screening and other uses. Yet its basis in reality is not too strong. [And again: you will have to forgive me for using the term "Rank" here -- I'm very much an old timer now and remember those heady days of early Warhammer Fantasy Battle very well]. 

So what has changed?

In a nutshell: for units that have 6 or more members, they need to be near 2 other members, instead of just one. 

On the surface, this feels fine. Small units can still stretch out conga line style, but larger squads must now think about having ranks on surface inspection. In that light, I actually like the new ruling since it starts to feel much more realistic and gives a flavour of what the old WFB rules might have once been like. 

But there are plenty of configurations of large units that we can now consider for use with this rule. 

Of course, a player could arrange blobs of three models close to each other and have other blobs of 3 a little further apart. But who is going to play that other than "win at all costs" types? Well, I suspect some will in all honesty. And it will be popular. 

I'm also going to go one step further: we are not going to see ranks either, despite my initial enthusiasm! The obvious reason is that the back rows will not contribute to combats as effectively. 

Instead, I think we are going to see a lot of zig-zag arranged units such that the rear row can still reach over the top and strike in combat. I also think that some amount of adaptation to the zigzag will be seen so that attackers tessellate will be seen. Of course, the Khorne player won't think too much about this, and will hopefully just charge in recklessly anyway - as befits such an army. Or at least, I hope that is what will still happen. 

Zone Mortalis update

When the news broke about the new Necromunda underhive scenery being available, I was fairly excited. The new scenery pieces are amazing, and much less expensive (at least in principle) compared to the older resin pieces produced by Forge World that have been discontinued of late.

What I did not quite expect was a full-on update to the Zone Mortalis rules set to be released for the Horus Heresy at the same time! The new rules can be found via the Warhammer community website. 

Fundamentally, the new rules are not that much different to what has gone before. There's an attacker, a defender, a couple of missions, and some special rules. 

As per usual, the tight confines of the Zone mean that a player cannot select a monstrous creature, or dedicated transports. Base size limits are in effect too: no bigger than 60mm, and certainly nothing bigger than walkers. 

Terrain plays a big part still in the Zone. The rules for bulk heads are still there, along with platforms and stairs. Given the new stair wells in the plastic Necromunda kits, these rules will be cited a lot in play I believe.

I like the retention of the special firing rules, as well as the "catastrophic damage" table which is nice to see. The rules for poisoned air, or void fighting remain pretty much the same, and void enhanced armour is recommended to avoid the effects of extra rending rolls being imposed. 

Overall, I like the update. What I feel is missing is some of the more in-depth rules for various types of scenery. It might have been good to see some rules supplied for the Horus Heresy for the sector mechanicus servo-haulers for instance (the entire boxed set could readily be adapted for the Horus Heresy, I contend), along with specific conversion rules for the rest of the sector mechanicus boxed set (some of which is pictured here). Other than that - its all good!

Melta Bombs in Horus Heresy

Following on from the previous digest of thoughts relating to the new edition of the rules set for Horus Heresy, I wanted to briefly touch on one of the most outstanding corrections to the rules we have seen. Namely: Melta Bombs.

To explain the context for this one: Melta bombs have long been an upgrade item that a squad can take to battle. More specifically, it is an upgrade that certain units can take one of for every single member of the squad. Legion outrider squads spring to mind, amongst others.

Many players (including myself, I must admit) were very used to playing that every single model armed with a melta bomb could try to land it on their enemy in close combat (the fight phase) if they chose to.

The Frequently Asked Questions for 7th edition put an end to this. Those clarifications mandated that only one grenade could be used per phase of a turn per squad. This outraged many people in the community who felt that this was the wrong call. In turn, there were others who pointed to the fact that this was simply just "rules as written" and was therefore simply reinforcing how grenades should have been played all along.

With the introduction of the modified 7th edition rules set for Horus Heresy, this situation has been reversed. Now every model armed with a melta bomb appears as if they will be able to try to land their bomb on top of a target. Of course, this will make the players happy who spend a (not inconsiderable) number of points on upgrading their units to take melta bombs on every single model.  Why would the army lists allow this, after all, if only one model were to take an attack with a melta bomb in a single given phase.

I am personally very glad to see the return to the rules as they were being played before the FAQ was released for 7th edition. It all makes a bit more sense this way to my mind!

Mind Howl

Bit of a rough week just gone (thanks to those of you who messaged me). Hopefully things should improve now and we'll get back to our more usual roll out of posts. 

Today, I wanted touch on the forth-coming release of the new Horus Heresy rules set. There appears, on the surface, to be a number of important, significant, and (dare I say it?): longed for changed in the rules that are being proposed.

One of the big ones is the total elimination of Invisibility as a psychic power. Invisibility caused all sorts of shenanigans in the 7th edition of both Horus Heresy and Warhammer 40,000. So much so, that independent tournaments invariably had their own house rules on the power to prevent too much abuse.

Its termination with extreme prejudice is a welcome one from me. In its place, we have a new power entitled "Mind Howl". The image below was taken from the Warhammer Community website, and I use it here under "fair use" clauses (happy to take it down if desired). 

On the surface, Mind Howl is a reasonable replacement power for invisibility. It provides the caster with a way of reducing the effectiveness of a target unit both in terms of the WS and the BS of the victim. At Warp Charge 2, it has a steep price (but we do not yet know how the psychic phase will operate under the new rules system ... I'm hoping for something more streamlined myself, but time will tell), and has to be within a range of 12 inches. This range won't be an issue for a melee orientated psyker to take on. However, the temptation will be to attempt to nullify opponents best ranged weapons as well. 

In practice, this means that packers that have rules such as infiltration and teleportation may well be able to shut down some of the most powerful incoming fire power from opponents. 

You can probably guess my thoughts here. With the Alpha Legion, one of these infiltrating strategically near the backlines could do amazing damage to the ranged potential of any enemy units. Even certain Thousand Sons builds can pull off this kind of treachery. Hence, even though Invisibility was a game defining psychic power, the Mind Howl replacement power can potentially be just as frightful in its own right. I can certainly see me taking an Alpha Legion librarian just to exploit this power alone and shut down the ranged weapons of heavy support squads to snap shot levels. Hydra Dominatus brothers!

7.1 Edition

Watching the Twitch Channel for Warhammer in the week, there were plenty of previews coming out of Forge World. These not only included the miniatures (Astraeus, Red Scorpion chapter dreadnought, space wolves terminators, doors for rhinos, etc.), but also a quick glance through the new rulebook for the Horus Heresy era.

Described as Version 7.1 of the rulebook, on screen it appeared as a large tome held together by a pair of large bulldog clips. In other words -- a high level proof. All the pages were printed and ready. Everything was there. Just the binding missing.

The guys explained that the rule book has been sent to the printers and they are estimating something like one month or so before the book is ready.

I'm still pleased that the Horus Heresy will be adopting a modified 7th edition, but sad that it is not wholly compatible with 8th edition (meaning one set of rules for 30k, one for 40k). I guess I will withhold judgement until I can actually get my hands on the new rulebook to see what has changed. Exciting times ahead!

GW asks us for FAQs

Whilst this is at least a few hours old now and has already been reported elsewhere, I'm covering it here as well since its such a BIG THING.

Games Workshop is asking the fan base for what questions they would like answered.

This is amazing. If you're like me and have been playing since the heady days of Rogue Trader, you would have seen the rise, fall, rise, fall, rise cycle of the company and the Game, plus all the codexes. Indeed, if you look back through my posts, you'll see I was playing Chaos Daemons before they were a top tier codex. And when they were. And when they're just competitive. And so forth. 

A similar cycle has happened with Games Workshop's engagement with the community. Long ago, they did have things like discussion forums and engagement via Facebook (etc.). But all this was put on ice a long time ago. Recently, both GW and FW came back to Facebook with vigour. What we're seeing is really good to be honest. 

Here's a very SMALL sample of the questions that have already been asked. These are merely the ones that grabbed my attention since they've been raised elsewhere already and repeatedly. And these are before any gets asked about FW or the interaction of 30k and 40k...

Gargantuan Creatures - can they shoot all of their weapons at different targets, or can they only shoot two different weapons at two different targets?

How does a Gargantuan Creature Move Through Difficult Terrain?

Psychic Powers, A or B:
A) A psyker can only cast as many powers as he has mastery levels. E.g. ML 1 can only cast one power/use force weapon once.
B) Can cast as long as there are still warp charges left and they are not casting the same thing again. E.g. ML 1 could cast a power, and then use force weapon.

Are warp spiders intended to be allowed to jump away every time they are shot at or just once a shooting phase?

Do Blood Angels Scouts get the increased WS and BS like the other chapters now? (See also Dreadnought questions!)

Note to Self: When One Cannot Hurt the Enemy

Note to self. 

If one is facing a "big bad" in close combat that a unit cannot hurt (e.g. a soul grinder that is fully mobile and AV=13 front armour with nothing but S=4 attacks), then it is possible to voluntarily fail a morale check to get out of that combat and not get bogged down and generally tar pitted until death.

Here endeth the note to self. 

30k Legions vs Veterans of the Long War

In the next few weeks, we'll be playing a series of games in a round robin style format or tournament. This will be purely for fun, of course. I'll be using a 30k Alpha Legion army list and will be testing out a list that I've never used before.

However, one entertaining rules query has already come up. One of the other players will be using Codex: Chaos Space Marines. Without thinking about the background fluff too much, how will Veterans of the Long War special rule interact with a 30k Space Marine Legions army list?

I am personally going to suggest a ruling that it'll have its full effect. It seems only fair. Regardless of whether I declare my Alpha Legion to be Loyal or Traitor, the wording of Veterans of the Long War is such that it effects "Space Marines". I regard that the pre-Heresy (certainly) and the immediate post-Heresy Alpha Legion (arguably) were still Space Marines in effect and were not highly influenced by chaos until later on. 

I'm wondering if others have come across this before (or other interactions of 40k and 30k rules) and what they've done? 

New 30k FAQ and Errata Digest

The new FAQ and Errata digest from Forge World came out whilst I was offline the other day. In today's post I wanted to focus on a couple of points that have arisen from the new document. For the main part it covers all the other errata that have previously been issued, but also adds some new and exciting things on top of them, plus a contentious point that I will turn to later.

Terminator armour.

The first major point in the document is that Terminators who are wearing Tartaros armour can now make sweeping advances. I cannot underscore enough what a big deal this is. Indeed, it is a bit of a game changer as to how one might approach building terminators in army lists. By fore-going the Cataphractii armour and an extra pip in invulnerable save, we gain the ability to rid ourselves of an opponent outright in close combat. 

Therefore, I would expect to see many more builds involving Tartaros amour. Close combat builds specifically, to be sure. Hence more power fists, thunder hammers and even the none-upgraded and humble power axe will be prevalent here, rather than focussing on long range firepower. I would also expect to see more of them in land raiders now as well - rather than deep striking on to the board (although that also remains a viable tactic). Even pairs of lightning claws become a distinct possibility here too. 

Praevain and Delegatus.

These two character models now have rules that are official. Although they could have been considered official before, the new document makes it very clear and adds in their entries. Presumably they will be included in a future publication, or the re-working of the "red books".

Dreadnought attacks.

On par with their contemporaries ten millennia later, dreadnoughts now have a modified profile. This makes even the ordinary dreadnoughts a very attractive prospect to army list builders.

Knights.

All varieties of knights -- including the ones from Warhammer 40,000 -- are now valid to field in the Horus Heresy. This is awesome, as we can now use the fully plastic kit to build our own knight detachments for use in this game, rather than the resin variants. Not that cost might be such an issue if one is already playing Horus Heresy era games, arguably.

Relics.

Sadly, relics are noted as not being intended for regular (or casual) play. They are only intended for use within narrative campaigns, as presented within Conquest. What this means is that the Alpha Legion combination of automatically exploding tanks is not going to happen in tournament play.

I am actually sad about this and regard this as somewhat contentious. I noted in my original post on how to automatically explode tanks that this would probably be changed by Forge World. It seems that this prediction has come true. But not in the way I would have originally thought. Regular Warhammer 40,000 armies all have access to relics. To deny the legions, Solar Auxillia, and the rest access to relics in regular games is really sad to see. In competitive play, these things might be taken care of by compositions scores and similar. But to just outlaw them outside narrative games is disappointing. 

Overall.

I'm really happy with these changes apart from the relics. It really is a very good move by Forge World and demonstrates a commitment to their product line and the balance striking required for a modern war-game. Long live the Heresy!

Rules of Yesteryear: AD&D THAC0

If you already know what "THAC0" stands for, then you probably already know what I'm going to say in this post as you've probably got analogous experiences to me!

In Dungeons and Dragons, the chance to hit (and indeed: to wound) an enemy was determined by the THAC0. In short, it stands for "To Hit Armour Class 0". Every player character (and opponents!) had a numerical (integer) THAC0 value that started out at a modestly high level for lower level characters, and got lower as the player character increased in level.

In turn, everyone also had an Armour Class. The better the armour that someone was wearing, the lower that armour value would be. It even extended to negative values. 

Let's take an example to make this concept a bit more obvious. A level 5 warrior has a THAC0 of 16. That means that if he (or she) is facing an opponent with an armour class of 0, they need to roll 16 or more on a d20 to hit and wound that enemy. If the opponent was wearing slightly worse armour, they might have an armour class of 10 instead. Therefore, the warrior receives a modifier of 10 to this. Hence they'd need a 6 or more to damage them. And if their armour was superb, they might have an armour class of -2. That would need a roll of 18 or more on a d20 to do damage. And so forth.

THAC0 was eliminated from Dungeons and Dragons with the advent of 3rd edition (in the year 2000). Armour classes were reversed such that higher values of armour were better (rather than lower). Yet, the concept of THAC0 and its abbreviation will (I'm assuming!) sit strongly in people's minds if they've played Dungeons and Dragons in yesterdecades. 

Rules of Yesteryear: 40k Modifiers to Hit based on Range

Back to Rogue Trader in today's post. In this earliest of editions of 40k, there were bonuses and penalties to hit your target based on your range. 

In the example below, the las pistol (which I also bet you didn't know had a nickname of "bloogers"?!) there is a bonus to hist of +2 if you're within 8 inches of the target, but a penalty to hit of -2 if you're between 8 and 16 inches away.

Rules of Yesteryear: 40k Target Priority

The year is 2004, and the 4th edition of the Warhammer 40,000 Rulebook is released, alongside the Battle for Macragge (which had a whittled down version of the rulebook).

One of my fondest memories of this edition was the "target priority" rule.

It was an attempt to try to capture the sheer immediacy of battle. If a unit wanted to shoot at an enemy other than the closest one, it had to take a leadership check to be able to do so. I personally really enjoyed this rule, even if it did make the game slightly clunkier, as I felt it really captured what a tabletop war-game should be in essence.

The downside was that most units would have at least a leadership value of 9, meaning that these kinds of rolls were marginally pointless most of the time. Equally, in several tournaments, forcing my opponents to use this rule really saved my bacon a few times. So it is one of those rules that has really stayed with me. I genuinely liked it, and wouldn't mind seeing some kind of analogue to it reintroduced (if some way could be devised to do it so that it wasn't just another pointless dice roll!). 

Rules of Yesteryear: 40k Vehicle Damage

Inspired by my post yesterday, I thought I'd pull out a few old rules that have long since been discarded. Today, we're going to take a quick, and very visual, tour of the old vehicle damage charts from 1992's "Vehicle Manual". The first picture is of the front cover of the manual.

These rules were released in White Dwarf prior to this publication, but feedback from the public and play testers modified it. Yes: seriously. People wrote letters using pen and paper and sent them to Games Workshop HQ. You don't have to believe me, the authors wrote exactly that in the introduction to this tome!

This next image explains what the system was ultimately all about. The overhead sheet! Basically, you put the crosshairs on where you are targeting on the vehicle (see the next image that shows a Rhino in the cross hairs). 

Here, I'm aiming for the fuel tank. We then proceed to hit (etc.) and you can read what happens next in the summary on the targeting grid.

If you got a palpable hit, then the charts on the reverse of the rhino's sheet would be consulted. The above is an example of what might happen if the fuel tank got hit. I like the 4-6 result of the tank essentially turning in to a heavy flamer! 

Equally, I can totally see why this entire system was got rid of. Its slow, unwieldy, too detailed, too labour intensive (imagine having a sheet for every tank, dreadnought, Tyranid big bug, and variant thereof) and frankly the current more abstract system just flows a whole lot better. 

I regard this as one of the prime examples of the rules changing over the years for the better. But I fear we have reached the stage where cutting back of 40k rules will happen once more as the rule book has become too bloated and the armies too complex. Just an opinion. Regardless, I hope you've enjoyed this trip down memory lane and found these images educational (they're reproduced here for just that purpose - please don't sue me GW!). And for those of you who've never seen this stuff before, I trust its been an eye-opener!!

Preferred Enemy: Unpainted

A relatively new concept to me was being employed at a Games Workshop run tournament that I chanced to witness recently. They were employing a novel rule such that any model that was unpainted  had preferred enemy ruled against it.

As well as applying to unpainted models like the one pictured above, this rule was also being applied to models that had less than three colours on them. Indeed, it seems that to be classed as painted, models must have at least three obvious colours on them. I think this divisor between painted and unpainted is rather common in tournaments that I have attended in the past - I've certainly come across it multiple times in the past.

That said, I'm not too sure how I feel about the Preferred Enemy: Unpainted rule!

On the one hand, I can certain see that it would encourage players to get their miniatures painted in time for a tournament or event. But on the other hand, if that self same tournament already had composition scores associated with it, then what's the point - it just detracts from an even match up.

From a personal point of view, I actually don't mind playing against unpainted armies at all. I do prefer to play against painted ones, but that's just a preference as I'm very much in to the visual and painting aspects of the hobby, probably more so than the gaming side these days. Equally, if someone doesn't have the time to paint everything, but its all assembled and mostly WYSIWYG (or at least a sensible counts-as size at bare minimum), then I'm all good!

(Addendum: and: no -- I'm not making this stuff up just because its an April 1st posting!).

Of plague zombies and typos: a limited 40k FAQ Digest

The news of the new FAQs from Games Workshop is now getting toward a day old or more!  I wanted to use this post to have a quick skim over what I found the most interesting (which may or may not correlate to "most significant" for others).

Firstly, the main rulebook.  The (re?)introduction of killzones is interesting.  This means that if you only have bolters and your target squad ranges from 22 to 26" away from you, then only kill those within 24".  Should you have taken a missile launcher, or lascannon, then you can kill the whole lot of them.  Interesting!

For my daemon playing colleagues and friends, plague zombies don't count toward Epidemius' tally.  I wasn't going to play that way any how, since I figure the rules cover models with the mark of Nurgle, or followers of Nurgle.  Plague Zombies are neither, since they haven't *voluntarily* decided to follow Nurgle.  (okay, don't get me started on Nurgle's Rot and Plaguebearers ... that's different ... ish ... well maybe ... okay: I wasn't playing plague zombies as counting toward Epidemius and now this is confirmed!  Anyone want to admit they were, or had contemplated it?)

For chaos space marines, noise marines get a boost, and the heldrake is classed as having a turret!  Blimey, that's a biggie!  Am I glad that I got one of those as a gift over the holidays?  Yes.

And for my favourite loyalists (Dark Angels, not Alpha Legion), the typos have been fixed up.  So at least the required units can now access the sacred relics and standards as it was obvious that they should have been able to!

There are more rule changes beyond these that I like (shooting overwatch from vehicles, Black Templars getting superior dreadnoughts and so on), but for me, the above changes seem most immediate given my gaming preferences!

The Chaos Space Marine FAQ / Errata

The new Chaos Space Marine FAQ / Errata has been released for a day now.  Its brevity shocks me.  Either the authors really believe strongly there's nothing else to correct, or they forgot something.  If they forgot something, then what would it be?  I'm looking at you Daemon Princes.  You guys need to have MARKS as well as Eternal Warrior to make you worthwhile.

But let's look at what we got.  Three boons, and two oddities.

The two oddities are the same: Axe of Blind fury can now be wielded by both miniatures with the Mark of Khorne and Khornate Daemons.  But how are we purchasing Khornate Daemons to wield the Axe of Blind Fury please?  Is this some kind of strange fore-shadow to a future chaos daemons update / codex?  Hmmmmmmmm.

The first true Errata is the Typhus / Plague Zombie controversy.  Resolved in favour of large blobs of plague zombies.  Yay!  Time to purchase some zombie bits and mx with Cadians, Catachans, Ghouls, Skeletons, and green stuff!

The second is the correction to chaos terminators.  Instead of only being able to purchase either a special ranged weapon, or specialist melee weapon, or a pair of lightning claws, we can now do any of the three.  So don't go removing arms from those plastic terminators yet: our combi-meltas with chainfists are legal once more!

The third is a 5 point points-cost drop to the Helbrute (now 100 points).  That's actually very unusual for a FAQ / errata.  A sales inducement perhaps, since I don't know too many people online or offline who were worried that the Helbrute was mis-priced at 105 points.

Vector Strike (Notes to Self)

In my daemon and chaos marine armies, I regularly take flying monstrous creatures -- even in 4th and 5th edition.  Now that 6th edition is upon us, I feel I'm really missing out -- forgetting -- about the vector strike ability.

Given how many of my opponents are fielding flyers themselves, I really think I need to remember this rule more often.  d3+1 hits against any enemy, including opposing flyers, at AP3 is good news!  I haven't remembered to use this rule a single time yet.  I've been systematically taking pot shots at opposing flyers up to now and generally trying to bolt of Tzeentch them out of the skies.  Hopefully writing this note will help me remember!

Anybody got similar stories?  What are the new rules you're forgetting?

FAQ Digest

Given the recent release of the plethora of FAQs, I thought I would take a bit of time to digest what it means.  My assorted thoughts are below, and I focus on the chaos codices unapologetically.

Core Rules.

* The "look out sir" rules got clarified, and as some folks put it, nerfed.  The crazy multi-character mobs of Nobz and the like can no longer pull their tricks.  The closest model is now the guy that tries to save the character's life and there's only going to be one character per squad as I see it.  The phrase "or unsaved wounds" has left the building.

* An interesting gem is that "very bulky" is added to bikes and jetbikes.  That means that they take up 3  spaces in a vehicle.  I can't recall the last time I loaded up a vehicle with bikes and jetbikes .... makes me wonder what is coming down the road!

* A grounded swooping monstrous creature becomes gliding immediately.  As suspected!

* The problems with Deny the Witch and multiple targets that are hit from beams (etc.) is clarified: only the target -- the first unit in the line -- can make the save.

* Ageis defence lines can't be split in to smaller segments. (Darn!).  I think this one is a pity really.

* Modifiers to reserve rolls do not apply to units from allied detachments.  This one is bad, I think, as it means CSM + Daemons detachment won't *all* benefit from having a communications relay captured (e.g. with an Aegis defence line).

* Monstrous Flying Creatures can enter in swooping mode.  

Daemons Codex.

* This one (and the analogue in Chaos Space Marines) intrigues me:

Q: If Chaos Daemons are allied to Chaos Space Marines, do they roll for scatter if Deep Striking within 6" of a Chaos Icon carried by a Chaos Space Marine model? (p73) A: If the wording on the Chaos Icon’s description refers to ‘all friendly units’, then yes. If not, then the Chaos Icon only affects the specific units referred to in its description.

This implication being that the next iteration of Chaos codices will be fully interactive.


Chaos Space Marines Codex.
* Daemon Princes with wings are Flying Monstrous Creatures.  As suspected!

* Daemon weapons are AP2.

Rules Homebrew: Power Generator - a Fortification Upgrade

In the desperation of battle, canny commanders will rig up whatever they can find to the laser weaponry to produce a steady and unrelenting arc of fire.  Power generators come in all shapes and sizes, but the desired effect is the same: to enhance what is already present.

Cost:
One-tenth the points cost of the fortification it is installed within.

Effects:
A power generator causes all laser, plasma, melta, or other "energy" based weapons attached to a fortification to become twin-linked, representing an overload of power.

In addition, a single model in base contact with an appropriate type of weapon can "hook-up" that weapon to the power generator and gain the same effect.

The power generator is treated as an AV=10, open-topped immobile vehicle with 2 hull points.  If it explodes, double the explosion radius and inflict an automatic strength 10 hit on the fortification that it is contained within.

(Image: Quantum Gothic power generator).

Fortifications: Thinking about Aegis Defence Lines

I've been giving some serious thought to whether I want to include any fortifications in to army lists.  For the price of a rhino with havoc launcher, I could get an Aegis Defence Line for my armies.  That seems reasonable -- but what are the advantages?  Beyond getting a 4+ save exactly where we want it during deployment, I noticed a unique bit of wording with the Aegis Defence Line in the 6th ed rule book:

"each section [...] must be placed in contact with at least one other section"

So, we could certainly create a big circular defence line to place an important long range shooting unit behind ... or perhaps two smaller circular / rectangular sections.  But since we get 8 sections, we could create four walls for our units to hide behind (see image).  Each section is adjacent to one other and therefore fulfils the rules requirements.  

Why is this any good?  Well, the number of times I feel I've deployed on boards without sufficient cover saves in my deployment zone is large.  With this strategy, I can have 4 "buildings" with a 4+ cover save (i.e. the same as ruins!) that I can shoot behind of in safety and go to ground on an objective behind all game long (i.e. 2+ cover save).  The only negative is that I don't get the elevation that I would ordinarily get with multi-level ruins.  This may or may not be an issue depending on the rest of the scenery across the board.  I'm thinking that purchasing an aegis defence line in an army list could well be worth-while.

The other thing I've been thinking tactically about is also illustrated in the image: two sections with one in front of the other.  Here's the thought: have a tarpit unit behind the first wall to engage and charging units (presumably because they're on top of an objective?) and have an all-round unit behind the second (i.e. one that does both shooting and melee).  Any charging opponent will get shot at (maybe twice if they get out of a tarpit), risk a counter assault, and potentially have to assault the second unit next turn.  Well ... it'd have to be set up in a "funnel" manner, but the idea is entertaining.  Aerial strikes and outflanking units clearly nullify this idea pretty quickly, but against a ground assault, it'd work very well.