Hmm.. you really seem troubled about it. Maybe it's something in the tactic that goes wrong and not the power of the unit. Been there, done that !
Nah, I just tend to get a bit obsessive about these kind of things And I dislike mechanics I can't actually interact with, like this crossbow, and most mortal wounds mechanics in general. There's no option like "bring in a horde" or "bring in elite forces" or "flank the unit so you can kill that 1 special dude first" to actually minimize casualities. In between it having range, mortal wounds & hitting based on unit size there just isn't all that much counterplay beyond just "murder everything in sight" which is kinda lame... Ah well.
Well, this is also a game based on objectives, so tactic and movement covers a good half of the battles.
True true, I just dislike mechanics like this where the defender has no real options apart from suffer through the attacks or kill the source. There's no armor for protection, there's no dodging, there's no seeking cover, there's no option like swarm with a horde or send elites. There's just "be in range and get shot at until the thing dies"
What about the gold battlemage? Doesn't he targets an especific model with the final transmutation spell? Or the spell Hands of Dust from the Death heroes (don't remember who has it)?
No, the Batllemage player only picks the unit, his opponent picks the model. Hand of Dust (Nagash's ability) works though, you really pick a model.
Thats kind of hypocritical, if you're going to house rule something like this at least make it include everything to be fair. I'm sure an ork army( or really any army with below average bravery) would love to get rid of your banners.
True true, the rule would need to cover all. I simply meant that for some of them it isn't the end of the world that you can't target them, whereas for others it is immeadiatly noticeable. I tend to not be Always equally coherent in what I write sorry for the apparent hypocrisy As for specific spells.. I don't want it to be "take this specific model who has this specific ability that can do it. I want a more general strategical solution. E.g. the look-out-sir rule in 40K alongside you just target whatever is closest would be fine as this'd allow for flanking and the like to get to the special target.
I feel like a generalized rule that allows for certain ranged units to snipe, and certain melee models to challenge specific models in combat would be nice, though such a rule would naturally be reserved for heroes or high cost units (Oxyotl regrettably doesn't have such a rule right now, but he's an excellent example of a unit that could make use of and fluff wise could have a sniper rule). At the same time though, it makes sense from a fluff perspective that a person with a special weapon would be protected by allies, and his compatriots in the unit would try to keep him alive as long as possible
IIRC Shooting from other units (archers and similar): not possible Shooting from warmachines: they work on a straight line or with a template, if the hero was hit, then it gets a "look out sir" save (which fails only 1 on 6) and another one takes the hit Melee: you can target the hero
meh, I like the look-out sir rule for warmachines, and would even put it for archers and such. But I don't like the melee approach. Too easy get an assasin near it and kill the 1 special guy and then just not care about the rest of the unit. Meh.. makes me wish we were using individual models instead of units with the cover rule from the lotr game (whenever somethings in the line of sight there's a 50% chance you just hit that thing instead, check for every single object in the way). Ah well, I'l see if I can come up with something or not.
Well, it's not so unbelievable. I'm here, you are here, I hit you with my sword. It was a thing in 8th (when the hero was "inside" the unit), it's even more a thing in AoS (where the hero cannot be attached to a unit). It's even more difficult to hit in melee the hero in AoS, 'cause you can screen it with troops, while in WFB the hero must be in the front line.
That only goes for ranged heroes, melee heroes have no such protection. And yeah, it makes enough logical sense as a representation of the "real" world. It's just that it doesn't allow much leeway in the game to proect your character with. Hence I don't like it much This is also part of the issue I have with these special models. On the one hand there's stuff like a judicator with his fancy exploding crossbow of doom has a great deal of protection because he's in a unit and liable to be the last one to die, while you don't actually care much about the other judicators. While on the other hand you have 1-model units like a skryre weapon team or certain wizards that can be sniped/assasinated far too easily because they don't have a unit to catch a bullet for them.