Reader Question: Imperial Guard in 6th

by SandWyrm

George has some questions about the 6th Edition 'Leak' rules and the Imperial Guard.

SandWyrm's comments are in red.

Hi


Love your blog and have been looking at your topic regarding
potential changes to IG arising from these "new" rules.


Not being a
blogger myself, I can't respond on the topic but was intreagued by the
comment made by Dodger3 that Vendettas are now gunships and, therefore,
get multi-targeting 6 when stationary.


I've gone through the pdf three
times now and can't see how he arrives at that conclusion.


Gunship is
a special rule applicable to Flyers which are supersonic. Not sure how
vendettas suddenly became supersonic.


Have I missed something?

Maybe you missed the Codex Update PDF that should have been distributed along with the 6th Edition PDF in the same .zip file. In it, Valkyries and Vendettas both get the 'Supersonic' (stupid name), and 'Gunship' rules.

Additionally, did you spot the weird wording regarding barrage weapons
(page 87) where it says the exceptions to normal blast weapons are:

"If the center of the marker is out of line of sight of the shooting
model, the blast scatters more likely. (not my poor wording!) If the
model failed the roll to hit, the marker scatters as normal. (for BS3
Manticore that's 2 - 6") If the roll to hit was successful, roll the
scatter dice nonetheless. If the scatter dice show a hit symbol, the
blast lands on target. If the scatter dice shows an arrow, the marker
is shifted in the direction shown by the arrow a number of inches equal
to twice the total of the roll to hit." (for BS3 Manticore that's 8-
12"!)
Is it me or does it pay to miss with a barrage shot rather than
hit?


Sorry to bother you on this but your blog seems to be the only
site I've found that's discussing the impact these rules would have on
IG!


Thanks


George
Devon, UK

Well the normal rule is that you roll to hit based on your BS, and scatter twice the number on the die if you miss. So a Basilisk firing directly at an Ev3 target would either hit on a 4+, or scatter 2-6".

So your total chance to hit is 3/6 or 50%. In reality though, you'll only really miss if you scatter 4" or 6", so we can call it 4/6 or 66%.

If firing indirectly, the Basilisk would still miss on a 1-3 and scatter normally (2-6"), but even if you 'hit', then you still have to roll the scatter die. If you 'hit' on the scatter die, then you don't scatter, but if you do, you still double the number on the die for scatter distance.

So your total chance to hit is 1/2 * 1/3 = 1/6 or 16.7%. A scatter of 2" will probably also hit, so your real chances are 2/6 or 33%.

A simpler way to get the same odds would be to give the unseen target a +2 Ev and scatter twice the die roll if you miss (as normal). But the PDF's convoluted method does increase the potential scatter distance by 2" in our Basilisk example.

So yes, it's better to 'miss' on your first roll. But you really haven't hit unless you make that 2nd roll, so it's more semantics than reality.

I do hope the PDF writers streamline that (and quite a few other) mechanics before release.