Warmachine: Way of the Gun
Ranged attacks are a valuable source of damage in Warmachine/Hordes (WM/H). Here are some tips for getting the most out of them in your games.
Stacking Bullets:
One of the most important and useful rules that ranged attack based models can have is the “Combined Ranged Attack” (CRA) special rule (represented on unit entries with a little symbol that has two guns on it).
Units with CRA are valuable because they can readily scale their accuracy or damage (since models in CRA attacks add to both at a rate of one per model involved in the attack). This allows CRA units to threaten a wider range of models than they would be able to otherwise; very few models are safe from a full 10 model CRA from a unit with this ability.
The important thing to bear in mind with CRA attacks is that you are often trading efficiency for the boost you’re getting from CRA. For example: when you combine up attacks to hit high DEF models, you often are “wasting” the damage (as high DEF models frequently have low ARM and few boxes), or vice versa (high ARM models often don’t have problematic DEF values).
Be mindful of how much you really need to swing your odds with the dice when making CRAs (i.e. don’t CRA more than you need to in order to accomplish what you want to).
At Arm’s Length:
Obvious-but-important thing to bear in mind: ranged attacks are especially valuable and effective because they allow you to attack models…
…at range.
The reason I mention something so stunningly obvious is that it is very easy to overlook in lieu of just getting damage/kills on the table. Ranged attacks allow you to frequently hit your opponent first or drill deep into their lines to attack key targets, consequences be damned.
While that can sometimes get you fantastic results, getting greedy with early ranged attacks can often cost you significantly in the long run. Getting those early ranged attacks in can often leave those ranged models isolated or in threat ranges of other models, which can either lead to them being killed or neutralized.
When using ranged models and units, resist the urge to commit your ranged models aggressively. Try to make the most out of the range on their guns; this will not only help to keep your models safer in the long run, but it will also often force your opponent to commit more aggressively (and possibly more recklessly) to try and neutralize those ranged models.
Chip Damage:
Some armies can leverage ranged attacks to do remarkable damage to the opposing army. However, most of the time, ranged attacks are there for softening your opponent’s army up before you finish them off (either in melee, or with more ranged attacks).
Always look for ways that your ranged attacks can pay dividends for you in the long run. Getting damage onto an enemy warnoun (‘jack or ‘beast) can make finishing it off later much easier (particularly with Huge based models). When looking at the game this way it can be useful sometimes to think of units as a single entity with multiple wounds (and movements…and attacks…this analogy only works at the highest levels).
Lining Up Shots:
Ranged attacks have some significant inherent drawbacks to keep them in line: you can’t do them when you’re in melee, shooting into melee is more difficult, and terrain gives you decent-to-great bonuses against ranged attacks and is almost always a big part of the game.
However, those downsides exist to offset remarkable benefits. One of the most important of those benefits to bear in mind is that all you need to make a ranged attack is: a) have the target in your weapon’s RNG, and b) have the target in your line of sight (LOS).
That gives you tremendous flexibility when picking targets and making ranged attacks, and conversely it makes it very difficult for your opponent to always protect themselves from all possible attack angles. It gets even more complicated when you add your own model’s movement into the equation, special rules your models have, or just flat out having a big base to draw LOS from (Huge based models in particular can draw really remarkable LOS lines).
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Have a ranged model that is a favorite of yours? Share it in the comments!
Also, check out Sticks and Dice for more WM&H content!
