Re: [Epic] blast markers & morale

From: Thane Morgan <thane_at_...>
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 20:50:48 -0700

Mike Bowen wrote:
>
> On Mon, 5 Jan 1998, Thane Morgan wrote:
>
> >
> > I think your missing the point. He's not complaining about units being
> > immobilized, he's complaining about losing 10 morale per turn from a 2
> > unit detachment. I thought the rule was that a detachment could not lose
> > more morale than it had units, but maybe that was a common sense
> > assumption that isn't really in the rules.
>
> well, I might agree that a cap on morale loss should be no more tha the
> original # of units in the detachment each turn.
> What I was getting at was that if your enemy cannot concentrate his
> fire against a single detachment, you wouldn't have to worry about
> getting rid of 10 BM anyway.
> Tactics. Make the enemy split his fire, and not be able to grind up a big
> detachment each turn.
>
> BMs are a good indicator that a detachment is getting way too much
> attention from the enemy, 10 BM is a sure sign that the "plan" went wrong.
>
> Running headlong into a prepared defence is not good tactics.
> Use Flanking maneuvers or airpower to reduce the arty, then rush up your
> units.

Actually, its really not too hard to put 10 blast markers on a unit in
one turn. "Good tactics" can allow you to protect your suppression units
by good defense and delays. Try it sometime. Heres advice

Use firefighting attackbike/landspeeder units to push and delay units.
In one near perfect game, I kept a 3000 point army within 60 cm of his
edge of the board for the three turns the game took (15 blast markers on
two units on turn three.)

The only good use for flak is defending artillery; fighters are a bit
more expensive as they are only availble every other turn. Use screening
infantry to keep attacking planes outside of their range of your
artillery (scouts can be effective at this for a turn or two, but
usually a spread out scout force gets victimized in firefights or
assaults), or dare the enemy flyers by leaving an open path into your
flak. Sure, some planes will get past , but you only have to kill a few
planes to neutralize the FP/ blastmakers of a flyer detachment.

Aways put fodder infantry in artillery units. Keep them between
available flight paths for flying attackers and the actual units. Don't
be afraid od spreading the infantry out behind you lines; they get snap
fire on more drop pods spread out, and if you don't have bad luck, no
one else will get behind your front lines to mess with them.

Note that this got boring really fast; I haven't used artillery
batteries for ~ 10 games now, because they end the game too fast. If
your opponent plays the same way, the game seems to depend entirely on
who draws initiative in the first firing phase.

So while I like immobilizing units for several turns, the morale loss
ended the game artificially early. I won 3000- 4000 point games
frequently in 3 turns while only actually breaking 3 or 4 units, usually
less than 1/3 of total points. The new rules for blast marker liabilites
will allow you to suppress a unit without artificially ending the game
early.

Wow, this turned out long.

Thane
Received on Wed Jan 07 1998 - 03:50:48 UTC