I've just been reading an article on bols about wound allocation. This seems to be in the same vein as the authors previous article about true line of sight. I'm not quite sure what to make of these articles. It seems like they are purposefully trying to stir up responses from the community.
Having looked at the example he gives he is an extremely lucky player. Every plasma gun shot hits and wounds? Awesome. 6 wounds from lssguns? Amazing. I wouldn't expect that many from a full squad of 10 on first rank, second rank order, Rapid fire range. The space marines with the lasgun wounds are likely to to lose 2 of their number. Moving on.
Considering 5th edition has been out a while now. I'm at a loss as to how this is plaguing the game.
However, lets have a look at the authors complaints about the system, as well as some of the commenters complaints.
- Squad can potentially survive by taking more incoming fire.
- 'wasted' wounds. Wounds that get allocated to models that have already recieved a killing wound.
- multi wound units with unique wargear.
I think this covers the vast majority of peoples issues. So what would be the best way round this? There is no real one solution that can cover every issue by itself. So in order to satisfy the complaints I prepose the following:
Wounds are allocated in order of increasing AP, starting at ignores armour then 1, finishing at -.
That deals with the first issue. I doubt very much that the bols author will be complaing about his missed lasgun wounds.
If a model has more then 1 wound it must be allocated the number of wounds equal to its wounds characteristic before wounds can be allocated to the next model. For example, a 5 man space marine squad (1 wound each) with attached chaplain (2 wounds). Takes 3 AP 2 wounds and 6 AP 5 wounds. The space marine player may elect to allocate the 3 AP 2 wounds to the normal marines, 2 AP 5 wounds to the two remaining, as yet unwounded marines. Then 2 AP 5 wounds must be allocated to the chaplain before cycling the 2 remaining wounds back round.
This helps rectify the second point about wasted wounds. As each model has to take their fill of wounds rather then 1 each. However in order to keep things fair:
When a unit with multi wound models takes wounds from a weapon that causes instant death, each model can only be allocated 1 instant death wound before wounds are allocated to the next model. Instant death wounds are to be applied to unwounded models if possible. For example, a unit of 6 ork nobz, T4 2 wounds, has one model previously wounded. The Orks take 3 wounds from missile launchers, 2 AP 2 wounds and 7 AP 5 wounds. The AP 2 has to be applied to the wounded Ork. The missile launchers have to be applied to un wounded Orks where possible. 4 of the AP 5 shots will be needed to fill out the wounds on the Orks that still need to be allocated wounds (to meet their wounds characteristic) before the final 3 AP 5 wounds can be allocated in the second cycle of wound allocations. Note, in the event of a unit containing a model of 2+ wounds when the majority of the squad has one wound, or an independent/upgrade character is in the unit. There is no requirement for the model or character, with two wounds to be allocated the instant death shot. This is to prevent unscrupulous players that may take advantage of wound allocation rules from 'sniping' characters in squads with missile launchers.
This should hopefully solve the major issues that have cropped up on wound allocation. As you can see it is an extremely simple system that should take virtually no time during gaming.
Either that, or don't bother firing the lasguns as well.
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