6th Ed Breakdown: Wound Allocation

Well I have managed to get 5 games of 6th edition in over the past week. Between work and the 4th, happy belated birthday America, I wish I had more time to play.  There is so much to take in.
I have gotten in games with my Craftworlders, the Grey Knights and my re-acquired Dark Eldar. I like the changes in the rules and how they affect the Eldar. The Grey Knights took somewhat of a hit, but I have a couple tricks I want to share involving them with today's topic.
Wound allocation in 5th edition was a broken system. It lead to the creation of death star units that were nigh unto UN-killable without a major dedication of fire. The wound allocation methods and rules are very different now and as such nerfed killer units.  Essentially wounds are now allocated from closest model to the firing unit back, only taking armour save into account for any different type of allocation. Weapons are divided into wound pools based on strength and AP.
This means placement of your models within the squad is pretty important. It adds a tactical element to the game which fast moving and multi deployment style armies can really exploit.

Both the Eldar and Dark Eldar can really take advantage of wound allocation as it now stands.  Lets look at a few examples of how you can better protect your units and how to hit enemy units to really cause some damage.

Now the real key thing with the Craftworlders is protecting your Exarchs.  They have a different save, usually, than the rest of the unit and since they are the source of the units special abilities you will have to protect them. Granted this can be hard.  Positioning them near the center of the unit with regular Aspect warriors forming a circle so to speak around them will help you deal with attacks from multiple directions. Liberal use of the "Look Out Sir!" rule should also be used.  Granted Precision shots from characters and sniper weapons can foil this strategy.  "Look Out Sir!" lets you shunt even theses wounds to the rest of the unit though.

"Look Out Sir!" can also be used very effectively to keep your Farseers alive, especially when they are in with a unit of Warlocks.  Warlocks are all Characters.  They can still do "Look Out Sir!" rolls, but the real important thing is that you can redirect wounds from Warlocks with vital powers, like Embolden and Enhance or even if they are equipped with Singing Spears.  Now remember you can redirect a wound or unsaved wound.  so if you can attempt to redirect a wound away form a vital Warlock before you roll to see if the save is good, just in case you don't want to risk the loss.

Challenges in close combat although good in some cases can prove to be a bad day for most Exarchs.  You do have the advantage in Initiative in most cases, but a lack of Strength or power weapons that can do the job quickly.  If you know you cannot win the challenge don't accept it.  The Exarch powers will be active despite the Exarch not fighting.  Also since the Exarch and the Aspect warriors have the same leadership value, bowing out of the challenge keeps the Exarch alive to fight another day or in this case the next turn.

The Challenge can also be a very effective way to keep your Wraithlords alive.  The Wraithlord, according to the rulebook, is a Character.  This means they can issue and accept challenges.  When you charge challenge that Sgt with the Power Fist.  Guess what if he refuses he can't strike or hurt you.  If he accepts he will be a smear on the ground.  I know that may cause your opponent to try and use the "Our Weapons are Useless" rule, but as I see it the unit can hurt you, but your opponent choose not to.  This can also help in combats where a big bad, Tyranid, Daemon Prince or what not, is trying to lay waste to a unit that can hurt it but probably not bad enough to win.  The Wraithlord can go in and challenge the beastie, who is a single member unit and as long as he is a character too, can't refuse the challenge


Now I have been reading, a lot, and I have a few thoughts on how to take out targets.  Psychic powers aside, I will cover them next week after I touch on allies, you can really pick units apart quickly if you maneuver your army correctly and exploit your deployment possibilities and opportunities.

People will get smart quickly about how they arrange their unit, well a few will anyway, Special weapons and Sergeants will be visible but not in the forefront.  Tag teaming units is a excellent method of trying to eliminate special aspects of a unit.  Basically hitting the unit from two sides.  The real trick it to lure a unit into position with Unit A so that Unit B can hit it from the opposite side.  This is where Swooping Hawks, Warp Spiders  and Jet Bike Units come in.

I am going to start running Warp Spiders a lot more in this edition.  Although the Web Spinner is pretty short ranged the mobility of the unit and the fact its strength 6 more than makes up for it. Having no AP value no longer hurts the weapon either.  Just be sure the Exarch has Withdraw for a quick way out if you get assaulted. 

Well I am still pouring over the book, FAQ's and Codex's.  Its a lot to take in.  SO far I have hit mostly upon the Craftworlders.  I have only gotten one game in with the Dark Eldar so far and I am still feeling them out and seeing what they can do now in 6th.  I will have some more thoughts on them when I cover Allies and Flyers.

Well that's all for now. Later this week I am going to be talking about Allies and all the possibilities for the Eldar.


Until next time.................



Blood Run, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!