Probability of Failing Charges (including Fleet!)

Sadly with the demise of my local club I haven't been able to get in a game of the new 40k, so I haven't had much to post. I will say that I love most of the changes in theory, except the god-awful wound allocation rules and the game balance fucking of the flier rules. With all the new rules and dice rolling I thought I could help out by calculating the probabilities of a very important new mechanic.

Random charges have got to be up there in the list of most controversial changes in the new edition. Personally I'm on the fence, but then again I only play shooty armies. It's pretty harsh for assaulting armies to fail a charge. The rules now are that units roll 2d6 to determine their charge range (after a 6" move). Saving your jump pack for the assault allows you to reroll the dice. Fleet allows you either reroll both dice or just reroll one of them.

40k Battle Tactics: The Art of the Multi Assault

*** DISCLAIMER ***
Like all my 40k Tactics that I blog, it is important that you read the rule book yourself, I will make some basic assumptions on your knowledge, so please don't just try and do something and then quote this blog, make sure you understand it and can justify it with the rule book references.
*** END DISCLAIMER ***

If you play with us on a Wednesday night down at the Battle Bunker, or have been around combat orientated players, you would have heard many people call for another person's opinion on whether or not someone could do a multi charge that they were trying to do. So I thought that it was about time that someone explained each of the rules that you need to follow in order to be able to create a multi combat, and I will start by just going over these points, then give examples on when you can or can't do it. All relevant material is on page 34 of the 40k rules, unless specified.

I am going to start this tactic with explaining the rules of moving assaulting models in detail, then show 2 examples of almost the exact same scenario, and why one failed to multi assault and the other succeeded.

40k Battle Tactics: The Art of the Turn 1 Assault

One thing that people never expect, and hope never happens to them, is being assaulted by their opponent before they have even started their first turn. Most players don't realise it can even happen, and of those players who know that it can technically happen, most don't rate the unit they think will be the one assaulting.

There are a few key components to the turn 1 assault and making it work for you, and not all armies have the ability. The first component is a fast moving unit with scout. Infiltrate will not get the job done, nor will a unit on foot with scout, as you have to end your scout move outside of 12" of your opponent, so you will never be in charge range. So usually what this means is you need to have scout bikes, or something of the like. The second key component is to have an independent character (or multiple if possible) that has an assault vehicle. The most common army that can do this are Space Marines or Space Marine equivalents such as Grey Knights (ie. Land Raider). There are other armies which have the same capabilities, but I will focus on these for the examples provided. The final component is knowing how to sling shot independent characters.

40k Battle Tactics: Sling Shotting

Plague Marine has asked me to join the Plague Spreads team to provide some insight into some of my battle tactics in Warhammer 40,000. Here is the first of hopefully many techniques that can help get you across the line in a tough game.

So "Sling Shotting", what is it? Sling Shotting is when you use an independent character to get a unit closer to the enemy or an objective. The technique works exactly the same in reverse, using a unit to get an independent character closer to the enemy. This move can win games by itself. If you get to the last turn and you have a scoring unit just out of range for claiming an objective, if a fast moving independent character can get there to make coherency, it can be the difference of claiming or contesting an objective.