If I have a unit that does two or three damage each hit, and I am hitting a unit that only has one hp apiece, does my attack damage hit multiple enemies, or is one grobbie just really, really dead?
Damage carries over - for example lets say your unit of three ballers that each deal two damage a hit all hit and wound for a total of 6 damage against a unit of wannabes that each have 1 wound, 6 of wannabes would die.
This is one of the things that always confuses me when going between 40k and AoS, as damage does not carry over in 40k. Not sure which version I prefer. On one hand having multi hits only hitting one target per hit makes a lot of sense, but on the other a big elite thing doing one massive strike wiping out a small unit also makes sense.
I think it should depend on the unit and the "range" of the weapon. If I have a blood thirster with a whip, It makes sense that I hit multiple enemies. If I have a carno, It makes sense that the carno's jaws only killed one enemy. Maybe the carno grabbed him and ate him. So I think it really varies.
I don't know, besides of it being simpler (the player doesn't have to check the type of the weapon) I can totally see a Carnosaur's jaws grabbing more than one, or maybe grabbing one, biting it in half and throwing the corpse into the other enemies, smashing one or two with it. Especially if it is a horde of Skeletons or so. Same for a mighty spear or so, it might pierce through several enemies in a unit, making a nice shashlik...
(yes, the only damage that carries over in 40k is mortal wounds) From a certain pov 40k is better, as you have to think to a more balanced list and you have to pick more carefully your targets.
Not just that, but it'd also give units clear roles more easily. Right now it doesn't matter how you do damage as long as you do damage. Outside of certain specific special abilities there's nothing pushing a unit towards being good at a specific thing. A unit with 1/3+/3+/-/D6 attacks is just as effective as a unit with D6/3+/3+/-/1 attacks at killing stuff. If wounds wouldn't carry over then one would for automaticly be pushed towards being a hero hunter or being good at killing fodder. Now for infantry this isn't too big a deal. But especially for things like artillery or behemoths this can be a very good way of helping with balance. Right now if we take a dedicated anti behemoth attack, that has to deal with buffed op re-rollable 2+ saves on monsters with 10+ wounds and we make an attack like 2/3+/3+/-2/d6 it'd be annihilating horde units, while barely scratching the targets its supposed to deal with. If damage wouldn't carry over we could easily make that attack more powerfull without causing it to be overpowered against specific targets. Similarly, it opens up the option for interesting tactics, bury that dragon under a horde of skinks, he can't eat all of em...