Ok so what is this wound allocation so many people go on about in 40k nowadays and how is this going to help me use my Grey Knights more effectively?? In this in this post I will try to break down in a nutshell why wound allocation in Warhammer 40K is important...
Say your 5 man Grey Knight Strike Squad is in combat with 5 genestealers...rending aside if they cause 5 wounds each model must be allocated a wound, having models loaded out with slightly different kit means you are able to roll each wound suffered separately:
Example: W = Wound
Justicar W
Hammer W
Falchions W
Halberd W
Sword W
If 7 wounds are caused then you can choose who the remaining 2 wounds are allocated to:
Example: W = Wound
Justicar W
Hammer W, W - Roll the 2 wounds on the Hammer at the same time.
Falchions W
Halberd W
Sword W, W - Roll the 2 wounds on the sword at the same time.
So far pretty simple stuff and I hear you asking how is this really going to help other than possibly bore my opponent to death while I play the allocation game?
well say you took wounds that would negate your Strike Squad's save, in this case the Genestealers have caused 7 wounds again, however 2 of these are Rending...
Example: W = Wound, R = Rend
Justicar W
Hammer R, R - Hammer dies as he has no Invulnerable save, but 2nd Rend does not pass over to rest of squad.
Falchions W
Halberd W
Sword W
So here we have an example of the help that wound allocation gives, had the squad all been outfitted the same then 2 marines were definitely dead rather than one...
Now then that's the basic concept, lets delve a little deeper into this...
Lets stick with the 5 Genestealers but swap our Grey Knight Strike Squad for 5 Paladins. this time the Genestealers inflict the same 7 wounds 2 being rends again...
Example: W = Wound, R = Rend
Banner W
Hammer W
Falchions W
Halberd R - Roll for this guy...if he fails the save he is down to 1 wound
Sword R - Roll for this guy...if he fails the save he is down to 1 wound
The basic premise is the same but these guys are multi wound models and this is where wound allocation comes into it's own as the rulebook states that where possible whole models must be removed, however if all the guys in the squad are loaded out differently then you can suffer up to 5 wounds before even losing a single Paladin so you can make sure you get the maximum number of attacks back...
Lets quickly look at an example where the squad already has wounded models, again we'll stick to the Genestealers inflicting 7 wounds 2 of which are Rends:
Example: W = Wound, R = Rend, X = Existing Wound
Banner W, R - Roll the 2 Banner wounds together using different colour dice so you know which is the Rend
X Hammer W
X Falchions W
X Halberd W
Sword W, R - Roll the 2 wounds together using different colour dice so you know which is the Rend
As you can see we allocated the 2 Rending wounds to the 2 paladins who are yet to suffer a wound, this gives the whole squad best chance of survival as the wounded models need to roll their regular 2+ whilst the uninjured Paladins need to roll an invulnerable 5+ (or 4+) and a regular save of 2+ and therefore the best chance of getting maximum strikes back. Had the squad failed the 2 Rending save and a regular 2+ save only 1 Paladin would be dead, however had this squad all been loaded out with swords then the scenario would look something like this:
Example: W = Wound, R = Rend, X = Existing Wound, D = Dead
D Paladin
X Paladin
Paladin
Paladin
Paladin
Roll all of these together Wx5, Rx2...
This time you can not allocate the wounds as all the models are the same, so all save rolls are made at the same time for the whole squad...as previously the squad had already suffered 3 wounds 1 model had already (losing you 2 attacks back before we even got started) and leaving 1 Paladin with a single wound remaining. Now if we had again failed the 2 Rends and a regular save then you would lose the Paladin on 1 wound and another whole Paladin reducing the size of your force to just 2 Grey Knight Paladins...
Conclusion:
As we can see wound allocation is quite a complex but essential tactic for Grey Knights players, we have less models that are higher points cost so being able to allocate wounds effectively means we can help the longevity of our squads whilst keeping them a force to be reckoned with once they reach their target.Labels: Grey Knights, List Building, Tactics
well say you took wounds that would negate your Strike Squad's save, in this case the Genestealers have caused 7 wounds again, however 2 of these are Rending...