Re: [Epic] Battle Report [LONG!]

From: Sean A. Upchurch <sau_at_...>
Date: Mon, 8 Sep 1997 15:32:10 -0700 (PDT)

Oki:
>
> I noticed that both sides have lots of small detachments. Is this how you
> guys play ? Could you share with us the workings (reasonings) of your
> "Warped" mind :) ?
 
Sure. How many types of die rolls are there in the game [not counting war
engines] and how many can be re-rolled?

To-Hit re-roll
Air Intercept no re-roll
Ground Attack no re-roll
Leadership check re-roll
Assault re-roll
Firefight re-roll
Blast Marker recovery no re-roll
Take & Hold morale no re-roll
fire SHW on assault no re-roll
tied Strategy Rating no re-roll*

*we don't do this, we use 3 markers for both sides

So if we eliminate air units, there are only 3 things that you CANNOT get a
re-roll on. The first is firing a SHW while on Assault orders which happens
but isn't that common. The second is Blast Marker recovery which is a very
fundamental game mechanic. The third is your bonus from the Take & Hold.

Blast Marker recovery is further complicated by the Leadership check. This
check is a function of the Blast Marker recovery roll and is generally tough
to get a re-roll [usually requiring the troops be stubborn]. This leads to
something which our group has titled the "Blast Marker Game."

The Blast Marker Game:

Blast markers are bad. We all know this. They reduce your firepower. They
are a liability in Assaults or Firefights if you have more than your opponent.
They make it tougher to go on Overwatch, move or rally through the Leadership
Check. They reduce your Army Morale by 1 each as long as they stick around.

To play the BMG you design an army to maximize the number of Blast Markers you
can place on the enemy army each turn. This is done by using Disrupt weapons,
Mega-Cannons and small quantities of Firepower. Detachments which can throw
about 5 FP at the enemy can typically score a single hit with the 2 or 3 dice
they will throw and thus inflict a single BM. This can be increased further
by adding small numbers of SHW [namely Anti-Tank] to score BM with their hits.

The goal of the BMG is to "lock" down your opponent's detachments with BM and
prevent them from moving. As a side effect you bleed their Army Morale at the
end of each turn. It is a perpetuating cycle. Locking detachments down
prevents them from moving [barring a '6'] which keeps them away from you so
you can put more BM on them the next turn...

OK, I know this is round-about but that's the background. The main way to
defeat the BMG is to get those re-rolls on the Blast Marker Recovery. The
only way to get a re-roll is to buy it, for 25 points. It's called a
detachment HQ. By splitting a large det into 2 smaller ones it costs you an
extra 25pts but you now get two chances to recover blast markers assuming both
smaller dets have blast markers. A single poor recovery roll now cripples a
smaller portion of your force to put it another way.

If your opponent tries to play a traditional BMG then they load up a few
detachments but that leaves more free to carry out their orders. If they
try to hit every detachment then the markers are spread thinner and individual
detachments are more likely to "clean off" their markers.

Not to mention the tactical flexibility you get when you have more moving parts
to your war engine.

Longer than you probably expected, but that's what's going on in our minds.
Also, you should note that Tyranids and Chaos have hard hitting troops that
can get away with smaller detachments.

Chaos in particular is vulnerable to the BMG since you have to make a check to
move in the Assault phase. As poorly timed '1' or '2' can doom a Chaos
assault by halting a Daemon detachment.

One of the greatest Tyranid powers is their ability to ignore the movement
restrictions of blast markers. This is *more* important than their inability
to be broken.

Sean U
Received on Mon Sep 08 1997 - 22:32:10 UTC