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That is a good shot Kingsley, it's a great example of proper spacing.

Thanks TheLionofTheForest! My "Bunker" was built in 1900 and 41, and the last thing that bled profusely in there was the last pig on our farm to be butchered and salted in my now game room - it's been at least three decades though...

On your other note, this is the thing that currently bothers me, I'm o.k. with a two row system that will grant +5 cover saves on half of my models, I feel like the weight of dice I throw will offset that unfortunate reality...

Thanks Kingsley! This picture makes for an excellent example of why I feel my guys are doing well to take four dice for each of four models - in this picture what we shall call a wing of this army is some 25 inches in length - and quite properly spaced, as you rightly submit, to avoid a stacking pile of blast damage.

However, this formation does not - in any way - account for maximum possible shooting dice/ this set up is not maximized for rolling as many dice as possible in the shooting phase, which is my all-encompassing goal. (Beautiful picture and paint though in any event!!)

Two things - considering one in three blast makers land on target, how many blast markers is it possible to shoot in a single shooting phase - assuming the army is built towards maximum blast marker damage?

And two - I shall paint a fancy deserted island backdrop for my next pictures... lol


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Also, good Sir Kingsley, my approximation of minimizing blast template damage assumes that the basic antithesis of my tactic shall be blast templates, which will catch several models standing shoulder to shoulder in a row, and perhaps kiss the row 1 & 1/2 inches behind the first row. To say it outloud:

I realize a row shall take many blast template hits, I consider the amount of hits minimized when it doesn't hit as many models as the template could.

Unfortunately, at the moment I see no way to nullify blast damage and still put some 40 shooting dice (with 20 5+ cover saves as well) onto an enemy unit. No doubt causing fairly extensive or total trauma to the target, whilst sustaining an occasional blast wound as penance...

Are you haunted by the echoes of squeeling pigs while painting? Now I want some bacon. Lol

Guard can throw a crapton (A LOT) of blasts. Artillery, mortars and don't forget about template weapons.

Just as a side note, if you like army level tactics over squad level tactics give a look a t Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It is designed for army level tactics and historical style movement, where 40k is more about the squad skirmish.

Is see one major flaw in the movement plate idea Assuming you run book mission rules, you will lose 5 of the 6 simply because your formation can't move organically enough to hold multiple objectives.

Lion is right, Plasma Leman Russ based army will drop armies in any kind of cluster, 1 tank drops 5 blasts at ap2 for 230 points. an IG army can field 9 in one FOC, and that is about the most expensive way to get blasts for IG. Or 3 mortars for a 60 point 3 blast barrage (not sure why I don't see that more often).

Could try Epic also.

With the increased terrain density in 40k, these would be of severly limited use. What happens if you ended up playing in a Cities of Death level board? This brings 40k into the world of Black Powder, where flanking shots would be devastating. And, with the rigid placement of the HQs, special and heavy weapons, bringing them all to bear on a target would require more movement than they would be allowed.

Imperial guard can throw out as many blast templates as they feel like.

For example, I usually pack:
1 Leman Russ executioner w/ plasma cannon sponsons: (That's 5 Str 7 AP2 small blasts)
2 Leman Russ battle tanks (2 Str 8 AP 3 large blasts)
1 Marbo ( 1 Str 8 AP 2 large blast)
1 Master of Ordinance (1 Str 9 AP 3 Large blast, Barrage)
1 Valkyrie or Vendetta with either Multiple rocket pods or Hellfury missiles ( 2 Str 4 AP 5, or Str 5, AP Large blasts, respectively).

So, that's 11 templates I can fire off, 10 (or 8, if I take the hellfury missiles) of which I can continue shooting turn after turn. Most of those templates are AP 3 or below. The AP3 means those marines are not going to get their armor saves, which, by the by, the armor save of 3 for your basic infantry is awesome, but clumping them together mitigates that advantage. With 11 blast templates, It's not going to be an occasional blast wound. I'm going to blow the formation off the table. I think all the imperial guard commanders are silently squirming in excitement. If only all space marines used these trays.


Now, the example above doesn't even approach the amount of blast templates imperial guard can bring if they start taking artillery, or taking 3 tanks to a single heavy support slot. Barrage weapons (most of the guard's artillery) count as shooting from the center of the blast outwards, which means artillery effectively denies your cover save granted by the models up front andyour armor save.

Additionally, a blast marker scattering doesn't mean it misses. It may very well scatter into your other units, especially if those units are grouped closer together. It may even hit two rows at once, taking out 2 or 3 marines from each row.

I gotta say though, you've got the right idea--delivering as much firepower as you can to the target. I've seen too many space marine commanders have a tactical squad sit at the back and only pop off four or five shots with a missile launcher all game, wasting all that potential bolter fire.

To the LionofTheForest, Fortunately I'm not much for superstition - but I am a rapturous consumer of pork products. =)

I will also submit that you, BarnOwl, and Kestril make some very good points about the torrent of blast templates a guard army might fling at leisure - and the inevitable result of a few certain blast hits per turn.

For this, all I may say is - my first full Phalanx game against a "Stormin' Norman" Schwarzkopf Imperial Guard Commander, such as described, will surely be a very brief and one sided report. =)

If the Phalanx isn't fully formed (Say instead that I use four groups of 2 five man squad mini-phalanx groups) I would still be able to apply relatively high firepower to several units instead of one, whilst widening my "tactical footprint" considerably and somewhat offsetting the steel rain of the Guard.

To SoloFalcon1138, I would only point out that once distributed into two five man blocks, which may deploy to fire side by side, or form a thin column with which to maneuver - I suspect I might still be able to lug this type of formation through fairly cramped city streets, leading to my next search in the modeling forum to find a way to represent my dearest Nashville, not in true 40k scale (Hideously huge anyone?) might be scaled down somewhat to fit on an 8x6 surface with some thickness, if not true scale accuracy, in an acceptably tight city fight fashion.

Needless to say, I am now thinking about developing some pseudo-standardized "table doctrine" to allow for movement and massed fire of multiple 5 model line blocks in very tight conditions...


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By the by, Imperial Armor, Volume II. Space Marines and Forces of the Inquisition does cover Space Marine "Formations" from page 179 to 191 - some of this is what has inspired my current efforts...

5-10 man 1.5-2" spaced tactial wedge work pretty well and can be handled with out movement trays. I often run a 5-10 TDA flying wedge with an HQ in the middle to get my CC beast where he needs to go, so smaller wedges do work.

As to the IA, it also talks about really big games. I think your wedge's could be right evil in an Apoc level game.

I knew I had seen this tactic before, The Flying V! Go Mighty Ducks!

Every body keeps yelling blast templates. I understand they're a big issue to an army like this, but rarely is it that I see an IG army BUILT for that kind of thing. Frankly, you'll get more consistency firepower by slapping maxed plasma vets in chimeras and going to town. In an average IG tournament army I'd estimate that 3 Large Blasts and maybe up to twice as many small blasts in an enemy army. Most of the army would be the highly competitive 3 x Plasma Vets in a chimeras, then you'd add russes in to taste as well as a few mortars. Maybe people throw in a manticore, but at that point you're getting a nice 3+ armor save.

Seriously! They aren't as common as one would think, simply because they lack the reliability of point and shoot options like plasma vets who'll hit more often than not, and likely deal more wounds than a basilisk or russ blasting away over the course of the whole game.

So, keep up your work, i'll be interested to see the results of your five man movement trays.

Looks very interesting so far, love to see a new angle on the game (and I play fantasy, so I know how fundamental formations are for tactics).

Just one small thing I noticed in your original post. When placing a blast template, the center hole has to be fully within the model's base as you show. However, it can be "biased" off center; the template doesn't have to be concentric with the base. As such, if I (as your opponent) was placing the small blast template in the 4th picture, I would bias it about .25 inches to the top right, and get a total of 8 hits (vs the current 6 that you have).

Thanks GpFunk & Texx! I had a chance to play my first game with four of the five man blocks - list follows:

HQ- Tau XV-8 Commander w/MP & BC
TR- Tactical Squad, 10 men - 1w/pg
Tactical Squad, 9 men - Sgt w/PP
EL- Terminator Squad, 5 men - 1w/Chain Fist
HS- Hammerhead - w/Railgun and Smart Missile System
Hammerhead - w/Railgun and Smart Missile System
Total: 994 points

This is my Memphis Allied Army of 1000 pts, my ally and I each took a copy of this list and faced off on a ping pong table, I focused on his tanks with mine, fearing them greatly (and wisely) and killed one of his on turn 2, I also started turn 2 after suckling upon a scattered large blast from a railgun submunition, for a late turn 1 loss of a 5 tactical marine tray on my right.

Beyond this, his phalanx was then dice stacked to wreck mine, which it did in short order. I lasted till turn 6 in annihilation, but lost by 150 points worth of casualties (Not normal points tally) to my opponent.

A non-scattering template later killed 8 remaining men on my two left templates, Two large blast hits and one lesson learned - if you don't need 4 templates literally touching each other, don't have them doing so... =)

Well that should've been common sense, such wounds always bring lessons with you in the future though...