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Hi Everyone!

So this is something of an experiment, and I apologize up front if it goes horribly wrong! The idea is from the chess puzzles you see in the paper all the time - you see a game near completion and have to figure out how to take the win.

So, in that spirit, here's a game at the top of turn 6: Tyranids V. Imperial Guard

The 6 green squads are all 5 guardsmen (squads have taken casualties!) armed with lascannons and plasma guns. The large red circle is a tyranid carnifex, armed with enough dakka to ensure he can wipe out a single squad in his shooting phase, but too far away to engage in close combat. The 32 (or so) red circles are a squad of gargoyles that arrived by deep striking the previous turn (5), and wiped out a squad with their fleshborers.

Ignoring what the armies were initially, the victory conditions are assumed to be as follows:

If the carnifex survives, it claims its table corner and the 'nid player wins.

If the carnifex dies, the 'nid player loses.

Assume the carnifex has one wound left, and any of the guard squads stands a good enough chance at killing it that one left alive will spell defeat for the tyranid player. Also assume line of sight won't opperate as a factor. The center of the Gargoyle squad is about 7" from the imperial guard line, and the table happens to be 600 pixels long and 400 pixels wide - so one can make a rough approximation of ranges, even if the circles aren't exactly to scale.

The challenge: It is the top of the Tyranid player's turn. What can he or she do to all but guarantee a victory, bar some really, really terrible dice rolls?

So! I know there are a lot of assumptions, and the situation isn't exactly the way a real game would play out, but the solution I have in mind might spark some interesting conversation.

Have at it!

Just do a multiple assault with the gargoyles on the right 5 squads (Spread them out during movement) and then have the carni shoot the squad on the left.

(Assuming the Gargoyles pass the IB test)

Well, so much for that

That's basically what I was thinking about, and I suppose it looks kind of obvious given the image.

What came to mind and got me interested was the fact that a dense cluster of gargoyles, given the movement rules, could literally have on model move 12" in one direction and another 12" in the other, and have the rest fill in to keep coherency. Add in a fleet move and assault and you could have a giant 2'+ wave of assault to tie up enemy squads.

I keep trying to think of other cases where using the fact that all models can move distinctly as long as coherency is maintained can be useful. I haven't come up with much, but it's important to remember that units don't have to move as blobs, and can infact pull of some fancy manouvers in the case of fast ones like Gargoyles

sorry, but you cannot do that in 4th edition rules

1) cannot engage more than one unit at a time, thus the 4 squads to the right will be able to shoot when their turn comes

if you considered spreading out and charging only one (2nd from the left), if the carnifex was warriors it would be fine, as the gargs will form a large enough close combat wall (given the guard didn't lose combat and run) to block line of sight, but it is a carnifex which is in question, as the gargs and the guard which would be locked in close combat is only size 2, the 4 squads in the right will be able to shoot over the size 2 combat at the monstrous creature (carnifex)

apologies if I have misinterrupted the rules and the purposed ideas above are correct

Well I am no rules guru so I might get something wrong here but I would...

Run the carnifex as far away from the IG squads as possible and then move the gargoyles as close as I could to the guard squads. If I'm not mistaken the guard will have to take a leadership test to shoot at the fex because its farther away and given the fact that guard Ld is nothing special I don't think they will hit the fex. Kill some guard troops with shooting from gargoyles and wait out the turn and hope you dont get blasted.

You can assault multiple units so long as you fill the first requirements of getting all base-able models based in the target squad, and then get into coherency with that combat. If you can't do either of those things with a model, it is free to touch whoever it wants as long as it stays in coherency with the squad. Spreading out is wonderful for tyranids, as only one model needs to be in synapse, and only one model needs to touch an enemy to lock the squad into CC.

The guard wont need a Ld test to shoot the fex either, as the fex is a large target.

Posted By Einstein000 on 04/17/2006 1:04 AM
sorry, but you cannot do that in 4th edition rules

1) cannot engage more than one unit at a time, thus the 4 squads to the right will be able to shoot when their turn comes

I'm not quite sure where you got that idea (maybe from the 'assaulting the unit you shot' rule?), but you can indeed charge and engage any number of different units as long as you can meet the critera for each assault.

 

Spread the gargs across the field within charge range of all of the enemy units.

Have the 'fex wipe out one of the units on one end.

Charge in with the gargs and lock each unit up in CC. With so few attacks from the gargs going toward each unit, you will insure that they remain locked on the IG players turn.

They can't shoot, Carni survives, nids win.

I stand corrected. After carefully reading the assualt rules I have found I was incorrect on the matter, thank you for clearing it up.

I have a few question I hope someone can clear up:
1) For instance, you declare charge on all 5 units to the right (given the gargs are spread out during movement phase) and the 2nd from the left is declared as the primary, you must charge that squad first, then work your way towards the right?
2) Is this manoeuvre difficult to pull of if there is space between each squad, since you must follow the rules for charing (charge models which have not contacted yet, etc)?
3) Does this charge have the possibility to wipe out all 5 squads to the right (nids win combat, all 5 guard fail leadership, all roll lower than gargs initiative)?

thank you in advance for any help you can provide

1)
You declare a charge against a single target unit.

You then move the closest charging model to the closest model in the target unit

You then move any model of your choosing from the charging unit - it must attempt to complete one of the following in this order: base an unbased model in the target, base a based model in the target, get within the killzone of the target (I think?), and then maintain coherency.

If the model you choose to move cannot complete the first 3 criteria, it is completely legal for it to base an unengaged enemy unit, so long as it maintains coherency with the charging unit.

2)
It isn't hard to do if you have a large unit spread over a large space, like the example.

3)
Yes it does. Though if one guard squad passes the Ld test, the gargs are locked and cannot pursue anyone.