Hi All!
A few days ago I threw up an untried House Rule for SHWs, as follows:
"SHWs can freely target any vehicles or war engine units, but target the
closest infantry units as per the normal shooting rules for firepower."
The initial problem? SHWs (particularly Death Rays and Anti-Tank) can
easily target individual infantry units, such as command units within
large bodies of other infantry. And as a consequence Captains,
Librarians, Hive Mind, Commissars, etc., die very quickly from a
well-aimed batch of SHW fire, and from quantity fire the Save ability
doesn't really count for much...
We've had two games now with the revised rule - Space Marines vs
Tyranids, and Space Marines vs Orks. And we've found that it makes a big
difference to game play/strategy. Character models can now benefit from
screening troops; screening troops actually have a function now (against
SHW fire those hordes of cheap gretchin are actually useful to prevent
Warlords from dying before getting into Close Combat). Tyranids actually
have a fighting chance now! And this is important IMO to balance out the
Tyranid list - they are REALLY STUFFED against most shooting armies with
even a smattering of SHW weaponry. Hmmm. Hive Mind? What Hive Mind?
The key difference we found, particularly with AT fire, was that troops
with a 3+ or 4+ Armour Factor were good to use in a screening role
against SHW weaponry. The shooting player either wasted 4+ shots against
3+ armour troops, or used them against enemy vehicles/war engines (which
is what they are for anyway!).
I think, and we'll have to try them against other army combinations
first, that we will DEFINITELY be adopting this as a standard House Rule
from now on.
Your comments are welcome, particularly from others who have tried this
rule out.
Kind regards, JAMES FLOWERS
-------- DIALOG INTERNET LIMITED ----------------------
Email: jflowers_at_... Web:
http://www.dlg.co.nz/
Phone: 0-3-548 1832 Cell: 0-25-956657
Address: P O Box 787, NELSON 7001, New Zealand
Received on Sat Apr 26 1997 - 21:56:26 UTC