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Here's my thought for a rule on suppressing fire.  Please tell me what you all think.

If a unit was wounded by enemy fire in the last turn; then the unit suffers a -1 to all rolls involving BS and LD, and must pass a morale check before moving in the movment phase.

I think my wording needs a little bit of work, but the concept is there.

so.... if a player causes one wound to all of my ork boyz units and grechin, i can't move (roughly) half my army because of that? i think you need to rethink this slightly. or just scrap it.

Interesting thought,

You need to be careful with modifiers,
for example,

what happens when 3 of these are individually fired at a unit?
The ork boyz example above?
Fearless?

What are you trying to create?

All very important questions.


The idea is sound,
but you need to distinguish it from pinning and also need to write a balanced rule that can't have a game style played around.



I like the idea for example of,
if a unit takes total hits equal to the count of wounds (or models) at the start of the opponents shooting phase,
they are considered being suppressed by enemy fire.
This causes them to shoot at -1 BS the next turn if they don't become pinned that turn.

For example
(NB: Credit for this thought should originally go to Milesteg - I just embelished a little after some thought)

:-)

The rule is written to say if your unit suffers one or more wounds from enemy firing; then you are suppressed. Suffering a -1 to hit and the affected unit will not be able to move in the following movement phase without passing a leadership test. Now that I think about it the -1 to LD shouldn't be there.

I thought grethin already had a rule about getting shot at. Like they "go to ground" is it called? My thought on that is a force that is easier to wound will have more wounds and there for more units. More units means less will be effected by enemy firing. Also more units means more chance to do the same to your oppent.

The thought behind the rule is; to encourage covering fire. This rule adds a bit more strategy to the firing phase instead of just considering how many wounds you can do. I think a unit being shot at will still find time to return fire, which is why I didn't make them truley "pinned", but that unit will be a bit more cautious. Also, this isn't currently a special weapon rule, it is meant to be a universal rule.

You realize the BS of Orks is 2. A single shot could stop a mob of 20 cold, and reduce their shooting to 1. Orks chances of wounding are already pretty slim. This would also effect IG armies to some extent.

Something you may want to know-

Suppression fire is often inaccurate in the first place. It is a spray of bullets into a particular area to keep an opponent's head down while your buddies move up and into better firing positions. Often a squads heavy weapons man is set this task
--reduce the BS of those suppressing fire
--Make it only so that squads with a heavy rapid fire weapon (ex heavy bolter) can suppress.
--Hits, not wounds cause suppression
--Leadership save vs Suppression--fail reduce movement by half--Succeed no penalties

A rule like this is pointless. Since it would apply to every unit in the game it doesn't change the dynamic enough to matter and it serves as just another way to slow the game down.

If you wanted to implement something like this the best way is to keep it simple. If a unit takes a number of wounds saved or un-saved equal to or greater than the total number of models in the unit from another enemy unit it must make a pinning check.

Put 10+ wounds on 10 guys and they take a pinning check. No extra calculations, no confusing modifiers, and the rules for pinning are already there.

How about this?

If a unit sustains more hits in a shooting phase than it has models (to exclude monstrous creatures & vehicles) the unit must pass a Morale check to move in the movement phase. Fearless negates.

It doesn't require you to actually score wounds. Most things though when they feel rounds glancing off of their armor are going to be more confused and disoriented, or possibly diving for ground. This allows them to shoot back (without penalty) and provides them the ability to assault (against IG units who for instance were a little too zealous in their attempt to rapid-fire the Orcs to death.) Well disciplined troops will be able to ignore the volume of fire and continue on (Space Marines come to mind), where general cowards (cultists) are less likely to be able to move tactically.

Seems a bit too easy to force dozens of morale checks slowing the game down. Honestly the pinning rule pretty much covers this.