Advantage of Group Movement

[mabon5127]

I may be missing something but I see no value in using group movement. You have to use a Leader's action, the group moves at the highest quality # of the group, and what do they get to do? Roll once for actions as a group.

I know that there are gregarious creatures that group move more easily but for most troops there is no advantage that I can figure.

I'm sure I am missing something, please let me know!

Morgan

[mikedemana]

Well, it guarantees that however many activations you do succeed in, ALL the figures in the group will get to do them. So, if you have a leader and a bunch of Q4 troops, and roll for 3 activations, you are likely to get 2 actions for them. However, if you tried to roll for 2 (or 3) for each individually, the chance of having a turnover (2 failures) before you get to the last one is pretty high. Dice are just that way...you have good rolls and bad rolls. And the more rolls you make, the more likely you'll have one of those "bad" ones that result in a turnover.

That said, if you've got a wide mix of quality in a group, I wouldn't necessarily try them as a group. Let's say, for some reason, you have 2 Q5, 3 Q4, 2 Q3 (one of which is your leader). Depending on the tactical situation, I would probably go ahead and activate the other Q3 first (if he's within range of the leader, he fails on a "1" only). Then, I may do single activation attempts on the Q5 guys -- all this, of course, depends on the tactical situation. If they succeed, great. If they fail -- you only tried for one, so it's no turnover. Then, I'd do the leader, and use one of his activations for the group of Q4 guys.

And as always, your last activation attempt, go for 3 activations. It's your last try, so no biggie if you get a turnover.

[Boromirkermit]

I think sometimes that is a common first impression of the group activation.

Where it really comes into its own is where you have several models that you want to move into combat with a high C opponent.
You don't just want one in there, you want to move two or three and then attack with the last to get the outnumbered bonus.

If you roll for each one, you aren't you might get one in and then the second one fails. You have a weak warrior in contact with a tough model - that model is gone.

By doing a group activation, you know where you stand with all those warriors at the start of their activations. This lets you decide what to do. Whether to pile on in and make the last one attack or try a different strategy.

I think it basically allows you to have more control over what those models do in relation to each other.

I suppose I've answered similarly to Mike, but just wanted to help clarify its merits. Remember that they still get the leadership bonus to their quality for this group activation as well.

Cheers,
Ben.

[richjones]

Like they say - I use group movement when I want to be sure all the characters either 'go' or 'not' - only way to co-ordinate 'ganging up' on tougher enemies ... nothing worse than charging someone in but not 'attacking' so they are there for the support only to then fail to get anyone else in. Also when facing shooty enemies or playing FL you don't want to have one member out there by themselves if they have to charge in etc.

[mabon5127]

Thanks all! The bottom line it seems is you know exactly what you have to work with all or nothing within that group!

Morgan

[Forage]

Also, when you're making activation rolls with 2 or 3 dice, group actions will give you more actions, on average.

When you roll a group action any successes mean that every model takes action. If you activate individually on 2 or 3 dice for 5 models, that's 5 chances to end your turn: you can't move the rest of the group, and you can't try to move any other models. A group action only has to pass one roll. Getting 2 failures on a group roll is no worse than 2 failures on your first roll when activating individually.

Also, if you're activating with 3 dice and you get a single success, all models act once before you hand over teh dice. If you had been activating individually, you would not get any actions for the models that had not already activated.

Both ways give you the same average actions when activating with a single die. Individual activations will let you move some of your models all the time (more or less), group activations will move in an all-or-nothing fashion, and of course have the advantages that the earlier posts mentioned.

[Forage]

Whoops, just saw that my point had already been covered. And I can't erase it because I posted as a guest. How embarrassing.

Time to learn how to read.