Competition
I've had the opportunity to play against a lot of very different players. Many of them thought they were competitive players, but only a few of them really were. Some of them had really tough armies, some of them were very aggressive or even tried to bend the rules a little in their favor. A few of them seemed like they'd do anything to win. Most of these weren't really competitive, even though they thought they were. A few, however, smiled and had fun, knew the rules inside and out and paid attention to the details even as they played a fast-paced game. In just a minute, I'll explain a bit about how to improve your game in this manner, but first I want to cover why it's important and why I'm bringing this up even as the 4th edition rules are changing to 5th.

Why now? On the cusp of the 5th Edition of WarHammer 40k, why write something involving 4th edition rules? Basically, because the same things will be important. Even if the details of the mechanics change, the areas that will most influence the game will stay the same. That is, the areas that will most influence the game if you pay close attention to them. In casual play, most players will speed through these parts to save time. While they concentrate on big things like making sure that enemy tank goes down or trying to ward off an enemy assault, they are missing some crucial details that could well cost them the game. Do I have your attention now? Read on to find out which areas these are and what they mean to you.

Shooting Casualties
Most of the time, a player will simply roll armor saves and then just pick up the appropriate number of models. Sometimes, they may try to be more cagey and pick up models from the front of the unit (to avoid an assault) or from the back of the unit to maintain their front-line distance. They will also, of course, select members of the unit that aren't characters or carrying heavy or special weapons, where possible. Usually, they will pick up models in the order the opponent fires. In most cases, that'll get you through the game, but careful casualty selection can definitely improve your game, and choosing the order you fire your _units_ can be very important. More on that in a minute, but first, the rules...

From Page 24, we know that all shots from a single unit (even with mixed weapons) are counted together. This means they can't fire their bolters first and watch you remove all your Ork Boyz, then fire the Missile Launcher at the Nob to instakill it. They roll all their weapons and do their Wounds, then you allocates the Wounds and make any appropriate armor saves. Proper allocation here allows you to keep the parts of your squad that are more important to you intact for longer.

We also know here about the rule commonly referred to as "Torrent of fire." If your shooting from a single unit manages to cause at least as many Wounds as the target unit has models, you may ask for a specific model to recieve it's armor save first. This, of course, gives you the opportunity to pick off heavy or special weapons or even characters.



Next up we have Mixed Armor saves in a single unit, from page 76. This gets slightly complicated, but with that complication, it gives some room for slightly better results when you take your damage. First off: Determine the majority armor save, since they will take Wounds first. This means that if you have a unit of a lot of guys with bad armor and a few with good armor, the ones with bad armor will get shot first. This can keep your (presumably) more important models safe early in the game as the poorer armor saves are whittled away, without risking losing a powerful model to a lucky shot. (Like when the simple lasgun takes down a Terminator.) Alternately, if you think your higher armor save models can weather the fire, you might have a smaller number of the poor armor save so that the heavier armored models can shield the lighter armored ones, at least from the first few shots from each unit.

Once you've taken care of those in the majority, if there are other Wounds to allocate, the owning player can choose which models will take the rest. (With the restriction that no model can take more than 1 Wound before all of them have taken 1 Wound. This also goes for 2 and 3 Wounds, etc.) Note that if you have mixed AP attacks, the player owning the models that are being shot may still allocate them to specific models, so long as the majority save models are Wounded first.

Example 1: A Terminator Character and 5 Space Marines are Wounded with 3 AP3 weapons. The player _must_ allocate all 3 Wounds to Space Marines, since they are in the majority.

Example 2: The same Terminator Character and 5 Space Marines are Wounded with 2 AP2 Weapons and 4 AP5 weapons. This time, the player must allocate one Wound per model (and one to take an extra Wound) but could choose to have the character take an AP5 Wound. In addition, after each model had attempted to save, the player could choose to have the Character make a save on the last Wound. (Presumably another of the AP5 ones.)

Characters
They can easily snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, so it pays to pay attention to how to take the enemy ones out and keep your own alive. The Character rules allow them to be fired on only if they are the closest targets. This means that if another unit is half an inch closer to the enemy, they are safe. Alternately, a Character can join a unit and hide safely inside. This would prevent almost any attacks from hitting them, with the exception of a Torrent of Fire result. Once Close Combat is joined, a Character always counts as a separate unit. This means that the Character must be in base contact to make any attacks. If the Character has no targets by their initiative step, they can make no attacks. Thus, don't arm your Characters with Powerfists or similar low-initiative weaponry. If you want to do some damage in assault, make sure that your Character is in the front lines where they can cause the most havoc and contact the most enemy models. If you want to protect your Character, keep them out of the way as much as possible, and if you must contact the enemy, try to get in contact with only one enemy model and surround your character with your own models to prevent them being ganged up on.

Close Combat casualty removal
This is the last of the three areas that require extra attention and usually don't get it. Most of these rules can be found on Page 41. The first thing to remember is that each initiative step is completely separate. Resolve all the I5 attacks before you get to I4, etc. This means that if you are fighting against a unit that has some attacks at a lower initiative, you may be able to remove engaged models from that area and prevent those attacks from striking at all.

Example 1: An assault squad with 4 Assault Marines and a Sergeant with Powerfist is attacking your squad. At Initiative 4, the assault Marines kill 5 models. You remove all the casualties that are close to the Sergeant and by Initiative 1, he cannot kill anything.

The "Torrent of Fire" rule also applies in assault, so if you cause Wounds equal to or greater than the number of models in the enemy unit, the attacker can nominate a single model to make the first save.

Finally, remember that only engaged models may be affected in close combat. Thus, if your unit is spread out away from the close combat, only a few may be Wounded.

If you read through the rules carefully and pay attention to the details, you can swing battles your way more often and still have a good time and enjoy yourself.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

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