Speed, the lifeblood of any army
Prior to the invention of the battleship in the late 19th century, naval combat was decided at short ranges by boarding. A British visionary, Adm. Jackie Fisher, changed that by building H.M.S. Dreadnought, one of the few ships that could be said to have changed everything in an instant. She was an "all big gun" ship, meaning she had pretty much only large guns to fight other ships with and they could all lob a shell quite a long way. Her invention led to a drastic change in naval tactics. Where before gun crews trained for ranges of about 2000 yards, they now had to train for 15,000 yards and be able to hit the target. Dreadnought was also armored to be able to duel with another ship throwing shells as big as she herself carried.
For all of the above obvious features of Dreadnought, one thing that is usually a second mention in discussing H.M.S. Dreadnought is the fact that she was driven by a steam turbine. Why? Because that was the only way to make her fast enough in Fisher's eyes. Why did this floating citadel need speed? Therein lies the point of this post.
Speed, as Fisher pointed out, allowed a ship to set the range of the engagement, by which he meant, absent an objective that needed to be defended tying the ships in place, the faster ship would always be the one to choose the range at which a naval battle was to be fought. If the faster ship wanted a long range duel, then it could successfully sail away when the enemy closed, thus keeping open the range. If it wanted to fight a close action, it could close and the enemy could not escape. For Dreadnought, this meant that she could stand off an enemy ship and fight at the ranges she was trained at rather than allow the enemy to close to the ranges the enemy was trained at. Likewise, it also meant that enemies could not simply avoid Dreadnought by sailing away from her.
In Warhammer 40K, we play on a table, usually 4' x 6' or 4' x 8', which means we don't have the unlimited free movement provided by an expanse of open sea. However, some of Fisher's principles still apply; the faster army can do a lot to choose the engagement range. If the faster army is shooty, it can do a lot to stay away from the enemy and allow the maximum amount of shooting for as long as possible. Tau do this. If the army is built around the assault, then it benefits from being able to close on the enemy and catch up as fast as possible. Blood Angels do this (or at least used to with their vehicle turbo boosts). Because the board is finite, you cannot employ speed completely -- Imagine what it would be like if your shooty army could keep retreating and firing as it goes for oh, say, 24 feet before the assault elements could finally come to grips with it. (Likewise a bigger board would reward a faster army because you would have room to really develop a flanking maneuver and string out a slower enemy which just can't happen on a normal sized board.) Still, even with the limits of the board in mind, it seems to me that speed is one of the most decisive factors in an army, every bit as important as armor or weapons.
All of the above said, because of the limitations imposed by the board, VOLUME of fire becomes a huge issue as well. Since you can't move as much, you need to make it hurt more that you can move.
Comments?
For all of the above obvious features of Dreadnought, one thing that is usually a second mention in discussing H.M.S. Dreadnought is the fact that she was driven by a steam turbine. Why? Because that was the only way to make her fast enough in Fisher's eyes. Why did this floating citadel need speed? Therein lies the point of this post.
Speed, as Fisher pointed out, allowed a ship to set the range of the engagement, by which he meant, absent an objective that needed to be defended tying the ships in place, the faster ship would always be the one to choose the range at which a naval battle was to be fought. If the faster ship wanted a long range duel, then it could successfully sail away when the enemy closed, thus keeping open the range. If it wanted to fight a close action, it could close and the enemy could not escape. For Dreadnought, this meant that she could stand off an enemy ship and fight at the ranges she was trained at rather than allow the enemy to close to the ranges the enemy was trained at. Likewise, it also meant that enemies could not simply avoid Dreadnought by sailing away from her.
In Warhammer 40K, we play on a table, usually 4' x 6' or 4' x 8', which means we don't have the unlimited free movement provided by an expanse of open sea. However, some of Fisher's principles still apply; the faster army can do a lot to choose the engagement range. If the faster army is shooty, it can do a lot to stay away from the enemy and allow the maximum amount of shooting for as long as possible. Tau do this. If the army is built around the assault, then it benefits from being able to close on the enemy and catch up as fast as possible. Blood Angels do this (or at least used to with their vehicle turbo boosts). Because the board is finite, you cannot employ speed completely -- Imagine what it would be like if your shooty army could keep retreating and firing as it goes for oh, say, 24 feet before the assault elements could finally come to grips with it. (Likewise a bigger board would reward a faster army because you would have room to really develop a flanking maneuver and string out a slower enemy which just can't happen on a normal sized board.) Still, even with the limits of the board in mind, it seems to me that speed is one of the most decisive factors in an army, every bit as important as armor or weapons.
All of the above said, because of the limitations imposed by the board, VOLUME of fire becomes a huge issue as well. Since you can't move as much, you need to make it hurt more that you can move.
Comments?
Comments
Still, a unit with speed has greater potential to get somewhere and if that somewhere has no cover, they can possibly hide from fire for an extra turn.
I'm not a fan of random length games and was a big fan of the Salamanders' ability to extend the game 1 turn.