Article Discussion: Suppression Fire for 40K

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**Anonymous**

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**Kolath**

Wow! This article is awesome! I am definitely interested in trying out this rule!

**Michael J Young**

Sorry these rules have not been well thought through yet and can be horribly gamed.

(I have to confess, I play with an Orc army, so therefore anything I say will be coloured with those thoughts.

but nonetheless).

The main disadvantage is that there is no point in firing more that 5 shots in suppressive fire. Therefore everyone's going to fire 5 shots. Look for small units and special rules allowing units to engage more than one target.

I see loads of people organising their armies such that exactly 5 shots are fired at each enemy unit, and of course they are fired at the biggest unit first (the 30 ork boys). get 5 shots from some piss poor unit and bingo I lose one sixth of them every time I move. Orks do not need that.

In fact the game does not need any more "Attacks every model in a unit" rules. These are designed to sell large new GW models.

Things that I think ought to be suppressive fire (like 60 BS 2 shots from 30 shoota boys) are no more effective than 5 shots from a IG unit

By the way suppressive fire in real life tends to be at terrain not at units.

THE BASIC IDEA IS GOOD BUT NEEDS RETHINKING

So to be positive. something like "Throw a dice for every shot at a bit of terrain. count the 6s . Number of 6s in some way effects people moving shooting from the terrain

The idea I do like is that if you move or fire your unit then you suffer. If you don't then you get away with it..

So not "This is a crap idea" but more "This is a good idea not well thought through yet"

Try again....... Please ..... would be really interested in something better.

**SoloFalcon1138**

Way too much going on. Very realistic, not very game-friendly, and as I have heard many times before, reality has no role in 40k. 40k is an abstraction. It is abstract for a reason. If not, a turn would go on forever.

**Michael J Young**

Agree, apart from the "very realistic" bit. Complex <> realistic

**Dakkamite**

I can dig this. Maybe streamline it a little bit for the sake of... well, speed over accuracy.

One thing I would probably change is that you inflict a suppression effect / pin check / etc for every ten shots your pumping out from assault or rapid fire weapons, rather than just a flat 'suppression if 5+ 'attacks''. Makes more sense that more bullets = higher hit chance if you step out of cover and a greater "oh shi~" factor for the dudes on the recieving end. Also gives an incentive to have more than the minimum number of guys standing out of cover to suppress and so adds another layer of choice to the rule.

Units being suppressed also should not be able to overwatch. I'm not sure if your rules dealt with that and I just missed it, but thats how I'd do it.

**Firehead158**

Suppression should require the entire unit to attempt to suppress. Maybe make it require 10 or more, then every 5 after that creates a +1 on the chance to get hit, and incurring leadership penalties. This way large units or units that can put out a lot of fire at range can suppress, and smaller units at close range can also suppress sufficiently.

Instead, you make it so it is declared as a shooting attack, fired as snapshots with the same requirements. 5 hits supresses, every successful wound reduces their leadership until the end of their turn, and they become pinned. Any attempt to move during their turn once suppressed then incurs the conditions you had stated previously in the article.

Totally see where all this comes from, and seeing something like this excites me, as I agree this game lacks a "fire and maneuver" component.

ETA: And here I thought this was a new article. Over 3 years old!? Oh well. Still a cool idea.

**Dakkamite**

How about this;

Suppression Fire

Any unit that inflicts an amount of hits equal or more than the number of models on a target unit during the shooting phase is said to have suppressed them. Note that blast weapons do not count for these purposes, but template weapons do. Lone independent characters, monstrous creatures, vehicles etc are immune to the effects of suppression.

Units may also opt to fire suppressive fire instead of normal shooting as long as they are able to fire at least two shots during the shooting phase. A Suppressive Fire attack is fired as Snap Shots, however, every shot counts as hitting for the purposes of suppression. A model that has fired suppressive fire may not take any cover saves whatsoever during the opponents following shooting phase.

A suppressed unit must make a pinning check at the end of the shooting phase, or go to ground. If they pass, they are able to act as normal, however, until the start of the suppressing players next turn, should the unit move, shoot, charge, or take any action other than going to ground or fighting in an assault, it will suffer overwatch fire from every unit suppressing it for each action it takes. If it wishes, the suppressed unit may make a half move instead of its normal move, and may opt to fire snapshots instead of normal shots ~ neither of these actions will cause it to suffer overwatch fire. In the case of template weapons, overwatch fire is resolved as 1d3 automatic hits but only if the target ends its action within 6" of the suppressing unit. In addition, a suppressed unit loses it's 'always strikes first' effect from being in cover.

One unit may suppress another multiple times from the same set of shooting. If a unit is suppressed multiple times, it only makes one pinning check, but suffers a -1 modifier for every additional suppression after the first. In addition, the suppressing unit adds +1 to its to-hit rolls for overwatch fire for every successive suppression it scores.

If LoS is cut or if the suppressing unit routes, is pinned, assaulted, or in some other way unable to fire, then it cannot fire overwatch on the unit it is suppressing.

Example

A unit of twenty Shoota boys has decided to fire on a unit of eight Space Marines. Meanwhile, a unit of ten Space Marines has decided to suppress a unit of ten Shoota Boys.

In the first case, forty shots are fired, and ten hits are scored. In addition to any damage, the Space Marines have been successfully suppressed ~ just.

Meanwhile, the Space Marines have fired twenty shots due to being within rapid fire range. Because these are suppressive shots, they only hit on 6s, but every shot counts as having hit for the purposes of suppression. Regardless of the number of hits they actually get, the Space Marines count as having hit the Shoota Boyz twenty times, achieving double suppression. They must make a pinning check at -1 leadership, and any overwatch fire they suffer in the next turn from this unit of Space Marines adds +1 to its to-hit roll.