Monday, March 22, 2010

Vehicle Squadron Cover Saves

So After this last tournament i noticed there was a lot of misconception about the way vehicle cover saves work and instead of continuing the discussion in comments i decided ill just throw up a post about it.

so the BRB says
"use the rules for vehicles to determine if each squadron member is in cover(ignoring other members of the squadron, as if they were not there), and then the rules for normal units to work out if the entire squadron is in cover or not."


So there is a two part process here.

1. Determine if each member of the squadron is in cover, ignoring the other members of the squadron for this.
2. Determine if overall, the unit is in cover or not.



What i commonly see is that people follow only the first part, and ignore the second.  This results is the thought that one member of a unit can get a cover save while others dont.  The second part however negates that thought, it states we use unit rules.  Unit rules state that if the majority of the unit is in cover the whole unit is in cover, if the majority is not in cover the whole unit is not in cover.

in the below amazing msPaint examples, the green is a complete LOS blocking piece of whatever.  Each rectangle is a model in the vehicle squadron, each has a % in it that describes how much of it is visible to the attacking arrow model.

So in this Example A: The Vehicle squadron does get a cover save on all attacks from the arrow, while the left model is 100% visible the other is 0% visible, so the unit is 50% visible.




Example B: In this example one model is 100% visible and the other is 50% visible, so one of the models out of 2 is in cover, therefor again the unit gets cover saves against all attacks from the arrow.




Example C:  In this example we have 3 models in the unit, the one on the left is 100% visible, the middle is 60% visible, and the right is 0% visible.  So the left and middle are not in cover, so the entire unit receives no cover saves from all attacks from the arrow even if an attack is allocated to the 0% visible model.




Example D:  In this last example we see part of the first bit of the rules, it would seem like the front model is blocking the second model, but because they're in a squadron you don't get cover from other models in the squadron.  Therefor both models in the middle are 100% visible and not in cover, so 2 of the 3 models are not in cover and all attacks against the unit receive no cover saves even if an attack is allocated to the model that is 0% visible.

7 comments:

  1. Thanks for confirming that I understood the rules. In that last discussion I got confused enough to question my understanding... :)

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  2. MS Paint is the devil, but it got the deed done. Yep, looks like we're all on the same page. I like how you put the percentages on the objects... I'll be stealing that idea. Cheers!

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  3. probably my fault on the last discussion, i wrote the initial article at midnight before server maintenance and the follow up comments this morning while handling 2 work conversations in chat and my wife and daughter running around the house...

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  4. Excellent post mate, cleared it up nicely.

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  5. Another point on this is in Vehicle Squadrons like the Tau Piranha.

    Say I take 5 Piranha
    -3 have Disruption Pods
    - I take 4 LasCannon Shots from a Devistator Squad (does anyone ever use those anymore?) from 36" away.

    The result is that Each and Every Shot gets a cover save.

    HOWEVER, it even 1 of the Piranha gets destroyed, ALL 10 of the drones jump off and form a unit.

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  6. Great FAQ - Thanks!

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