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REVISED TEXT: The changes won't make everyone happy, of course, but how does this read now? Any more inaccuracies?
Example of a war engine assault
To finish up, let’s play out an example of several Ultramarines formations assaulting a Great Gargant to see what war engines can do.
Infantry assaulting a war engine may seem silly at the outset, but this kind of assault is an abstraction of the troops attempting to penetrate (by any means) the war engine to kill its crew or sabotage and destroy it from the inside.
For this example, picture that, in a prior turn, the marines player has cleverly positioned two Tactical detachments within 5cm of each other so that the first Captain-led Tactical formation can drag the second Chaplain-led Tactical formation along with him when his formation performs an Engage order (this is the Commander special rule, which Captains enjoy). Imagine also that, in his prior activation, the marines player positioned a Devastator detachment within 15cm of the Great Gargant in order for it to provide Supporting Fire. Clever indeed, as we’ll see.
The marines launch their combined assault
The marines player has the initiative. He activates the Tactical detachment (six Tactical stands with three Rhinos, led by a Captain) and performs an Engage order. With an Initiative rating of 1+, the marines pass their activation test automatically and the player moves his troops up to 15cm toward the Great Gargant. The front three stands, including the Captain character stand, manage to get into base-to-base contact so that the Captain gets an additional macro weapon attack.
As mentioned, the Captain is able to drag the second Tactical detachment along for the Engage action, and the marines player moves that formation now. None of these units are able to get into base-to-base contact with the war engine, so the Chaplain’s extra macro weapon attack is lost, which is a pity but not a deal-breaker.
The Ork Great Gargant has 9 powerfields (thanks to an earlier roll of 3 for the number of powerfields) and a DC of 12, but is currently carrying two blast markers. It has reinforced armour and is Fearless.
Because he’s a nice bloke, the Ork player allows the marines player to resolve his attacks first (except for units with the First Strike special rule, the order in which you resolve attacks is not important--all units in the assault will get their attacks). The first Tactical detachment can roll six dice needing 4 or better for the Tactical stands and three dice needing 6s for the Rhinos, and the second Tactical detachment can roll the same again. So that’s 12 dice hitting on 4s and six dice hitting on 6s.
Worth noting here that the three marines in base-to-base (close combat) contact bypass the Ork powerfields, and so are rolled separately.
The marines player rolls 1, 3, 6 for the close combating marines (one hit), 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5 and 6 for the firefighting marines (four hits), and 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 for the Rhinos (one hit).
He also rolls a 4 for the Captain’s extra macro weapon attack, so that’s a save the Ork player will have to take separately as it will not get the benefit of a reinforced armour re-roll.
So we have a a total of 1 close combat (bypasses the powerfields) macro weapon hit, 1 normal close combat hit, and five normal firefight hits.
The Ork player removes five of his powerfields for the (four of those left, so not a huge loss), and then starts attempting to save the close combat hits. For the normal close combat hit, he rolls a 2. Failed. But the armour is reinforced, so he gets another try. He rolls a 5. Saved. Next, he rolls for the macro weapon hit, which negates his reinforced armour so there will be no re-roll if he fails. He rolls a 3. Failed--the Great Gargant has taken a hit. It is now at 11 DC and must take a critical hit roll. The marines player rolls for the critical hit and scores a 5. Close…but no cigar.
The Ork strikes back
Now it’s the Ork player’s turn. For the Great Gargant, the close combat and firefight values are both 3+, but for war engines the player must allocate before hand which dice will be close combat attacks and which will be firefight attacks. He decides that five will be close combat attacks, so the remaining seven will be firefight attacks.
The Ork player rolls the first five dice needing 3 or better to hit, plus one die for the Lifta-Droppa’s extra macro weapon attack. He rolls 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5: a total of three hits. For the macro weapon, he rolls a 3, so that’s one marine who won’t make it home right there unless the marines player decides to attempt an Invulnerable save with his Captain (that needs a 6, so not good odds).
For simplicity, the players decide to resolve the close combat saves now. The marines player opts to take the macro weapon hit on his Captain, and attempts an Invulnerable save. He scores a 2. Doh! Goodbye Captain Wossname. The marines player then rolls for his Tactical marines’ saves and scores 2, 3 and 4, so two more marine stands are destroyed for a total of three marines casualties, which is all of the remaining units in base-to-base contact. Three casualties in total.
The Ork player now rolls the seven firefight dice and scores 1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Four more normal hits the surviving marines must save. In our group, we allocate wounding from the front of the target formation to the back, so the marines player must allocate the four hits to the closest units. In this case, these are the three remaining Tactical marines stands and one Rhino from the first formation.
The marines player rolls three dice for the Tactical marines’ saves and scores a 3, a 4 and a 5, so one more marines stand is destroyed. He then rolls a 5 for the Rhino, so it is saved by its armour.
Supporting fire
Remember the Devastator detachment the marines player had cleverly manoeuvred into position 15cm from the Great Gargant? Now is their time to shine, and they unleash a barrage of heavy weapons fire upon the Ork war engine. Supporting formations use their firefight value, which for Devastators is 3+, so the marines player now rolls four dice (one for each stand in the formation) needing 3s to hit. He rolls 2, 3, 4 and 5, so scores three hits. These are taken upon the Gargant’s powerfields, whittling them down further but doing no actual damage.
Resolving the assault
So the Great Gargant has taken one casualty--the 1 DC lost by the Gargant, lost powerfields don’t count--while the marines have taken four casualties. In the assault resolution, the marines roll 3 and 4 (so they take the 4) while the Ork player rolls a 1 and a 6 (and takes the 6). The assault resolution tally looks like this, then:
Marines -- 4 (the roll) + 1 (for the casualty inflicted) + 1 (for the inspiring Chaplain) + 1 (more units than the Gargant has DC) +1 (no blast markers) + 1 (enemy has more blast markers)
Orks -- 6 (the roll) + 4 (casualties inflicted)
The Ork player has won by one, so the two Tactical marines formations are broken and must withdraw while the Great Gargant takes a single blast marker for losing 1DC. Also, the assault resolution score difference of one translates to one additional blast marker on the already-broken marines. For other armies, this would mean an additional casualty, but for marines with the They Shall Know No Fear special rule, this number is halved (and rounded down if appropriate), so no additional casualties are suffered.
So, at the end of the assault, the Gargant has lost four powerfields and a single DC, while the marines player’s Tactical formations are broken and forced out of position, and a Devastator detachment that is now just begging to be assaulted by the Great Gargant. I reckon we can chalk that one up as a win for the Orks.
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