The Emperor Protects!
So in this installment of MorbidDon's mess we'll go over some TACTICA!
SUBJECT: Running Lots of "Mooks" Quickly / Efficiently
So for me running the game's combat in a quick visceral satisfying way is paramount to the experience of 40k! Now with any PNP RPG combat can become a cumbersome affair depending on many factors. In our case lets focus in on what a GM can do to both offer challenge and alacrity...
So this is some software I found on Darkreign - but saw a post to it here in our Forums.
USE: Generally speaking lets say I got a SQUAD of Foes (say some sort of Serf "Scum") - said Squad should have a "boss" who orchestrates the whole. Boss tells Squad members fire there - fire here - in essence concentrated fire. With Skullroller you can set the "soak" value of your target on the fly then set it to shoot X-amount of times in one round using Y-weapon type.
Our Squad (who we are counting as a "demi-Horde" in that all 10-men go on the same initiative and are subject to the same rules for area attacks against them - like with flamers and grenades) then shoots x9 Shots (Long Las d10+3) and 1 Shot (Las Pistol d10+2); whomever is the target of this salvo is automatically calculated by the "soak" value entered - in ONE CLICK, pesto (LOL) = hits, location, and any damage over soak is given, a very elegant solution to 10-man fire or any number in that case!
Foil / Tactics: If your players aren't savvy or alert - they may not realize to kill the "boss" of the squad - effectively breaking it up into 9 individual men - with no concentrated (directed) fire. In this way the Squad could be handled sort of like a Horde - magnitude A "a Mob" albeit without all the specifics that go along with Horde based specifics.
This tactic has served me well against players who play Explorators - as their total soak values are so high (last session - two 20 shot salvos (in 2 rounds) were fired against one of our group Explorator, resulting in 3-total points of damage for the whole (40 shots - via Long Las)...
This tactic is frowned upon by some GMs - many guides to GMing will tell you not to concentrate attacks vs single PCs (as its not fair - in gist); fair has no place in WAR (read the art of war and get back to me lol). On top of that this game system was designed to facilitate soaking damage and in a lot of cases not suffering any wounds - this is opposed to games that give things a high Hit Point count.
Clever players can and should use Flamers / Grenades / or whatever else is available to dealing with such tactics set again them - its is a flaw for a 10-man group to be all bunched up together - so that's this tactic's foil - for those looking for fair play - that right there in itself is the facet that allows for fairness. (our group went to town on the 2-squads using Flamer mostly to cull the numbers - I believe once they were down to about 4 men, that's when they started to fail their Morale Tests - I was checking for Morale a couple of times during that encounter as it unfolded)...
Anyways there you have it - now those mooks have something "more" to offer
Have Fun & Stay GAMING!
Morbid