2010-01-16

Warhammer 40k Wounds Allocation


Summary
This article is about Wounds Allocation in Warhammer 40.000. Inspired by BoLS article on the same topic and contains some my ideas and suggestions on how to improve current wound allocation rules.

4th edition
Previous edition of Warhammer 40.000 rulebook used different wound allocation strategy. For instance, we have Chaos Space Marines squad of 5, without any special features.
a) We got 3 wounds. Nothing special here, we will just take 3 saves and will remove those who failed.
b) We got 5 wounds, and our opponent can choose who will take individual save. But all models are the same, so no need to choose between them. Each model will take exactly 1 save, so we have 0.33 chance to lose all our models.
c) We got 15 wounds. Book states that we will roll all the saves at the same time. And statistically 15 * 0.33 = 5 and all models will be lost. But it looks like the story of Schrödinger's cat, statistics can only show us probability and all 5 models somewhere between life and death. How will it look like if we have only 1 dice?
0. Each model have to roll 3 saves, so it still can be saved.
1. First roll - 2. First model is dead.
2. Second roll - 1. Second model is dead.
3. And NOW they all will surely die, becase 3 models will roll other 13 dices.



5th edition
5th edition came with new wounds allocation system, that from the one hand can help you to save few more units and from the other hand - risk to loose special model is higher.
For example, we have Chaos Space Marines squad of 5, with Aspiring Champion and Meltagun.
a) We got 3 wounds. We will allocate them on simple models, so Champion and Meltagun will surely live.
b) We got 5 wounds. Now we must allocate them on all models, and Champion and Meltagun will take their own saves, while other 3 wounds will go to simple models. In this case chance to lose Champion or Meltagun is much higher than in 4th edition, where opponent was able to choose only one of them to pass it's own save.
c) We got 15 wounds. Now we will allocate 3 wounds on each model. Statistically all the squad will die, but being Warhammer 40.000 player will you just remove all the squad without rolling dices? Dice does matter. We will roll for the Champion, then for Meltagun, and then - gues what - we will roll other 9 dices for 3 models similar to 4th edition!
Why is it so? It's only half solution of 4th edition, it's not complete working system.

Apply "special model" rules to everyone
The first solution that comes in mind - let's roll separately for each model. Statistically it will lead us to the same result, but it will save us from problems of 4th edition. We will just roll 3 dices for each model, and that's it, some of them will get their chance to live another minute.
But now imagine we have squad of 10 models, with Champion and Meltagun. Now you have to roll 10 times instead of 3 as in original 5th edition. And some Orkz will better lose few models more than rolling 20-30 separate rolls...

Minimize time wasting
Well, we have working solution, now let's think about how to save some time.
Here is my suggestion:
1. Roll first line of saves and remove failed with all their other wounds:



2. Roll second line of saves and remove failed with all their other wounds:



3. Roll last line of wounds as normal, now each model have it's last roll, without taking rolls for their long-dead brothers. In my examples it's obvious that we just saved 3 of our Marines from another line of 3 wounds, minimizing chance to lose them by 0.33.



Maybe you have better suggestions? It would be great to improve current systems, to make them closer to perfect.

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