Topic: W:AoS 3rd Edition Back to Ranking Figures ...

[GamesPoet]

Looks like W:AoS seems to be returning to "rank and file" because coherency now seems to require a tighter placement ...

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dtYFjVR-p4

[Gankom]

Its pretty interesting. There actually has been a lot of rank and file rules already. Several units get various kinds of bonus if their bases are touching, their in a shieldwall, or stuff like that. This is a pretty interesting change cause mostly what its doing is shortening the existing distance. Conga lines across the board should be impossible now.

[Gankom]

The video is pretty good. I like how he actually sets the models up to show how it works. Very helpful.

[GamesPoet]

I agree.  The idea of those conga lines was a bit off putting to me.  I get that in military situations skirmish lines were used, but it seems unlikely such long lines could really exist from a command and control perspective.  And yes, that video seemed very helpful.

[Artobans Ghost]

I thought there was a rule about engagement. You could crash the line and disengage next round and continue on to where your destination was. Either way the Congo line reminds me too much of when slayers could line up in wfb and hold you up for a good amount of time. Perfectly legal but the piss off factor was no less

[Gankom]

There was some truly stupid ways of abusing conga lines. I once saw someone who got into a fight and used their reform to stretch into a line half way across the board to snag an objective no one was near. Technically legal to, albeit something that would result in a lot of hurt the next turn when someone in the middle dies and half the unit ceases to exist. This is kind of just cleaning up previous efforts to get rid of that stuff.

Interesting to see how displeased a lot of the comments are. Personally its how I always played units anyway so I'm not really that affected, but it does seem like an unfortunate hit to skirmishers and cavalry. I wonder if they'll have some kind of built in exception because of the larger bases.

[GamesPoet]

My sense is it is hurting the hitting ability of cavalry, unless there is a rule in the new book we just don't know about yet for counting cav that can't make contact but are in the same unit.  It just makes sense to let them attempt to score.

Skirmishers not being able to hit, doesn't bother me as much at the moment, yet some how I can see that being able to count them only makes sense as well.  Plus regular units of infantry attacking in column, so to speak, hopefully there's some ability to have a real melee.

[KTG17]

I don't like AOS, but I do think this is an interesting rule. I wonder if they had done something like this for WFB back in the day, if it would have helped spark interest in the game. I have see some weird things involving flank attacks and so on where I was like, in real life, the defender wouldn't have just sat there and been pounded on the flank. The strict rules on moving, the facing of the unit, and all that, I think it made the game complex. This removes much of that. I guess instead of rank bonus you could just reward based on the unit size or something.

I really wonder what would have happened to WFB had they not destroyed the old world, but changed the mechanics to allow troops to move like this. Of course, moving around 20-man units one model at a time would also be annoying too. But I think this makes a lot more sense given the scale of the game, than the rank and file WFB has done.

[Old Stonebeard]

Positioning and movement has always been incredibly important in AOS. I honestly don't see this rule changing much.

Conga lining was something I did in WHFB with gunlines. In AOS it was mostly used to tag two objectives with the same unit.

Old Stonebeard

[GamesPoet]

Well if ya conga line under WAoS 3rd, and ya lose a figure, according to the video ya keeping losing figures until the remaining figures are with in the rules governing coherency.  That's quite a way to lose most of the unit.

Maybe they'll be an update on that though, GW doing what it does.

[Old Stonebeard]

Well if ya conga line under WAoS 3rd, and ya lose a figure, according to the video ya keeping losing figures until the remaining figures are with in the rules governing coherency.  That's quite a way to lose most of the unit.

Maybe they'll be an update on that though, GW doing what it does.

That's very true. Yes, you're absolutely right. Thank you for enlightening me 

Old Stonebeard

[Old Stonebeard]

Although their site appears to have been crashed by the traffic, Warhammer Community has all 44 pages of the new rules available for download as PDF:
https://www.warhammer-community.com/2021/06/14/download-the-new-edition-warhammer-age-of-sigmar-core-rules/

The Goonhammer articles Gankom linked to all cite the new "ranking" rule as a stumbling block in an otherwise tight rules set. While conga lining was BS in both WHFB and AOS, I can see where this coherency rule might not have been the silver bullet they were hoping for.

Old Stonebeard

[GamesPoet]

Yep, the video link provided above in the initial post addresses the various issues with the new continuity rule.

[Old Stonebeard]

Thanks for letting me know, never would have found it otherwise 

Old Stonebeard

[KTG17]

Something just occurred to me. What if you are down to 3 guys from a 10 man unit and you lose a casualty? Does that mean the other 2 are wiped out?