Smagg's Small Soldiers

Shadow War: Armageddon

A Veteran Guardsman armed with a Lasgun sees two Orks: a Boy armed with a Shoota and a Yoof armed with a Slugga and a Choppa. The Boy is more than 16″ away from the Guardsman while the Yoof is within that distance, but is in cover.

First thing to do is checking which enemy can be shot. In Shadow War active fighter has to shoot the closest enemy to him, unless a different target is easier to hit. In Shadow War premeasuring is allowed (which I like), so the Guard player can check the distances: the Yoof is within Lasgun’s short range (+1) but in partial cover (-1) while the Boy is in long range (0). Because it’s both 0 modifiers to Hit total, the Guardsman must target the Yoof.

If there was a sniper Guardsman somewhere behind the Lasgun one, he could target the Boy due to Sniper Rifle’s ranges having a -1 in close. But in general one has to go through the closest enemies before he can target long-ranged threats.

The Guardsman fires at the Yoof. Let’s count the required dice rolls.

First roll is Guardsman’s to Hit. That’s a 1d6 roll and he hits on 3+.

If the Guardsman rolls a 6 he has to make an Ammo roll. That means he hit the target, but his Lasgun has malfunctioned and needs to roll 2d6 to see if his weapons is still functional. Because Lasguns are pretty reliable he only needs to hit 3+, so anything other than “snake eyes” passes.

If the Ork is hit, he is placed on his back to signify that he’s Pinned. Now the Guardsman player rolls to Wound. Lasgun’s Strength (3) is compared to Yoof’s Toughness (4). True to Lasgun’s reputation Guard player needs to roll 5+ to Wound the Ork.

Now that the Ork has been Wounded, the Ork player rolls a Saving Throw. The Yoof has basic Squig-hide Armour so he only saves on 6.

Let’s keep assuming the Guard player is lucky and that the Yoof has failed the save. He loses his only Wound, so now he’s Injured. To determine the Injury, the Guard player must make an Injury roll. On a 1 the Ork suffers a Flesh Wound and suffers a stat decrease, but regains the Wound and remains Pinned. On 2-5 he’s Down and put face down and all he can do on his turn is crawl 2″. On 6 he’s taken off the table. After all that the Guardsman is done for the turn.

So that’s typically 3-4 dice rolls by one player and 1 by the other. If there’s Close Combat or closeness to a terrain edge involved (causing a Fall), there’s even more. That’s a lot of rolling to remove one guy without any real decision made, since the player is forced to attack the closest enemy. Of course usually there would probably be multiple Guardsmen and they can be activated in any order as well as multiple Yoofs that could be as close (though I couldn’t find exact ruling about two targets within the same distance). All in all though there’s a lot of rolling with little in terms of tactical decisions.

Infinity

A Wildcat has two Fusiliers in his Line of Fire: a more distant Hacker in the open and a closer basic Fusilier in Cover. They’re all armed with Combi Rifles, so they have the same Range bonuses (+3 in 16″ and -3 above 16″). The Wildcat is in Cover as well. The models are placed more or less in the same spots as the 40k ones before. Similarly to the Shadow War example, the juicier target has been placed further away (as Hackers are Specialists and they can mess with heavier units, so you want to take them out if possible).

Let’s assume this is the situation before Nomad player spends any Orders. In Infinity whenever a trooper is activated, he provokes an ARO (Automatic Reaction Order) so the Active Player needs to keep in mind what modifiers the enemies get. Right now both the Wildcat and the closer Fusilier are both in +3 Range and -3 for Cover, so they hit on their basic Ballistic Skill (13 and 12), but if the Wildcat traded shots with the Hacker, he’s at -3 for Range and the Hacker would be at -6 for both Range and Cover, resulting in a 10 vs 6 Face to Face roll. However the Fusilier could also decide to Dodge, which he’d do on an unmodified PH 10, making it an even 10 vs 10. Note that the Wildcat has 3 shots to distribute while the Fusiliers only get one in return, so it can be anything between 1 and 3 dice vs just 1 for the Reactive Player.

Sounds complicated yet? There’s more. Because the Wildcat starts in LoF and Shoot is a Short Skill (meaning it takes “half an Order”, though you can’t Shoot twice in the same one), the Nomad player can declare whom is he shooting at and with how many dice right away and then ask his opponent for AROs or he can declare “Idle” and let the PanOceanian player declare his reactions first. E.g. if the Wildcat player declares right away that he’s spending all 3 of his dice on the Fusilier up close (hey, could be a hidden Lieutenant), then the Reactive Player knows his Hacker isn’t in danger – meaning he can return fire on that measly 6 without fearing getting outshot. But if the Wildcat Idles first then the Fusiliers have to declare their reactions not knowing Nomad’s intentions. So the Reactive Player has to decide if he’s going to risk and attack with the Hacker or declare Dodge – to which the Wildcat could just decide to use full Burst on the closer target anyway. If both Fusiliers declare Dodge then the Wildcat could even decide he’s not going to shoot either and just Move into other cover. Note that premeasuring is not allowed in Infinity, so the Fusilier player could mistakenly believe his Hacker is in positive range (it’s about 18″, so rather easy to spot, but could be not obvious to someone not used to imperial units).

The Nomad player declares BS Attack with 2 dice on the closer Fusilier and 1 vs the Hacker, while they declare BS Attack and Dodge accordingly. Let’s count the rolls.

The Wildcat and Fusilier do a Face to Face BS Attack roll. The Wildcat rolls 2d20 (separately, not combining the results) and the Fusiler 1d20. Each of them needs to roll below their target BS value, so they measure distances and take Cover into account, which, as noted earlier, results in 13 for the Wildcat and 12 for the Fusilier. The target number is below that value but also above enemy’s roll.

The roll results are 6 and 10 for the Wildcat and 8 for the Fusilier. So one of the Wildcat’s shots is cancelled by the Fusilier, but that 8 is in turn cancelled by the 10 – it’s one Hit on the Fusilier. Now the PanO player rolls Armour. He has to beat Combi Rifle’s damage 13 with a d20 roll, adding 1 for his ARM and +3 for Cover.

If the Fusilier fails the ARM roll, he falls unconscious and that’s the end of the Order resolution for them. If he manages to save against all hits, he needs to roll Guts, which is an unmodified WIP roll. Basically he needs to roll 12 or under on a d20 to stay in place or move out of Wildcat’s LoF if possible. Know that he can decide to fail on purpose and just hide him anyway, without rolling.

With the Hacker the situation is similar, but if the Hacker beats the Wildcat’s BS Attack roll he moves 2″ away. If he’s hit he makes the same ARM roll as the other guy (without the +3 Cover bonus) and may have to make a Guts roll if he survives.

Note that in case the Wildcat would be hit, he has to make ARM rolls instead. Due to his Valor: Courage rule if he survives he doesn’t have to make a Guts roll and can just decide if he stays or hides. If the Wildcat is still conscious more Orders can be spent on him, assuming there are any left.

So it’s 2 Face to Face rolls (meaning both players roll off) and then one of the players makes up to two rolls for each Hit. That’s quite a few dice rolling, but the more important part is deciding what the rolls are going to be rolled for and the Reactive Player is involved in the most important ones. In a one-on-one situation it would be just one Face to Face and then one or more ARM and one Guts by one player.

This was quite a thing to write that will probably look obtuse to people not familiar with those games, but in short: in Shadow War active player has little say in whom he’s going to attack once he decided which fighter to activate and has to make multiple rolls while the opponent just waits for his Saving Throw. In Infinity there’s a lot of decisions to be made by either player before the dice are even picked up – and the players usually roll simultaneously.

Infinity certainly looks more complicated from the outset and certainly is in terms of decisions a player needs to make, but in my opinion that makes it more fun to play (although I have to say not allowing premeasuring is not something I’m too fond of – it creates arguments in what is allowed to measure or not, e.g. intent when moving or distance to closest enemy with Impetuous Orders). One thing I’d like to point out is that Infinity has rolled both To Hit and Save into one ARM roll, made by the Reactive Player, which IMO is an excellent decision. Because I like actually having a say in what I’m going to do during my turn and my opponent’s turn as well I prefer Infinity to Shadow War. I don’t know how close Necromunda: Underhive is to Shadow War, but if it’s like this (little decision making, a lot of d6 rolling for basic stuff like shooting an enemy), then I’m not interested.