The Voodoo Formation

Since I haven't played any games here yet, I was wondering what the local opinion is of manoeuvres such as the Voodoo Formation?

For those who may not have heard of it, that's the idea that two interleaved units provide mutual cover saves to each other since more than 50% of each unit is behind members of the other.

Well I'm not really considering it for use really, I just wanted to gauge the "roll with it"-ness of the gaming league I suppose. Figure out where on the RAW spectrum the league lies.

Yeah, that's the Voodoo formation, you interleave the models of two units so that more than 50% of each unit is behind or between members of the other unit. The easiest I have seen it done is with vertical ranks like so:

Code:

XOXOXO
XOXOXO
XOXOXO
      XO 

Still a pain to turn around or whatnot , no real benefit from the flanks and of course blasts and templates would be a weakness.

I for one will call you on any cheesy maneuver that takes away from the fun aspect of the game. and if you are spending the time to interweave your men then i will probably not be very happy and might not even play you again. the league here is about fun and getting together with friends, not racking up the wins to prove you are better than every other gamer around. (That's for finals and tournaments)

So what counts as a cheesy manoeuvre? What counts as following the rules?

And bear in mind that with the vertical column formation that I posted above, it wouldn't take any longer at all to move the units. They're in columns and they move in columns.

This maneuver kinda is. And it takes away from the flavour of the rule. The idea is that a unit shooting at a group of beings that are blocked by another group would get a cover save because the shooting unit is trying to avoid hiting what's in front of them in favour of hitting their intended target. This would mean the shooters would withhold pulling the trigger, shoot too wide, etc.

I didn't mean for my last post to sound so negative and accusatory. I didn't realize how it came off until i just reread it.

I'm going to have to say its outside the spirit of the rules, because I'm assuming that the front row of that column formation is all plasma/melta guns that you're not going to let me get a cover save from for you shooting through the other unit. Better off to be less cheeze and make a distiction about which unit is actually covering the other. Like operation black shield (south park):

XXXXX
XOOOOX
XOOOOX
X OO

as someone who foot slogs ALOT of boyz I can definately say that even that will get some eye rolls at the den, I wouldn't even dream of using the voodoo formation with 120 orks intermingled... however kickass it would be.

Another downside of the formation....

Everything those units fire at will get a cover save as well.

Unless you only fire the front rank.

I think you could do this, but as Robyn said, not much point. Its easier and safer to use cover, and if you need a 4+ that bad, you most definitely don't want that many weak armor units near each other (your opponent would be mad not to use blast/template on you).
With my guard, I often use the 'black shield' maneuver Tom is referring to with my guard: My body shield infantry in front, command behind, then have, as godhead pointed out, a high AP weapon move ahead of the shield while the meat of it stays behind to get cover. Its rule'sy and fluffy: what 40k commander wouldn't have his expendable men in front?

what 40k commander wouldn't have his expendable men in front?

one who cares about the lives of his men. Someone with a heart. Someone with a sense of honour.

The problem I see with the 50/50 split tactic is that it isn't consistant. While it would provide a benifit for the firsttime the pair was shot at, as soon as one of the units dies, your opponent simply targets the other squad which is now out of cover.

I pesonally think it goes against the spirit of the rules - they're using Each other as human shields? I could see one squad of 'high ranking' or important troops using another as human shields, but two squads mutually doing it? just doesn't make sense. I'd defenitely consider it cheesy, and if someone tried it against me I'd have no problems being cheesy in return.

Veyure wrote:
one who cares about the lives of his men. Someone with a heart. Someone with a sense of honour.

You... have read the 40k fluff though, right Greg?

Q and A covered it saying that only the furthest squad gets cover.

Where? I have looked specifically and found nothing.

Where did you find that stash, i checked the GW faq page and could not find anything on it.

Paz wrote:

Veyure wrote:
one who cares about the lives of his men. Someone with a heart. Someone with a sense of honour.

You... have read the 40k fluff though, right Greg?

Have you read any of the books on imperial guard? Every heroic commander wants every man to return safe. And they always freak out when they lose too many men. At least the battlefield commanders are like that. The Army commanders like Generals and such just care about objectives. I however see the battlefield and know what it's like when all my little men end up in a box. I shed a tear for every one.

I know it is in a clarification somewhere, since that is how I first heard about it.

I don't want to say you're making that up, but you're making that up.

It was in a clarifcation for a GW sanctioned tournament. So that is how it gets played in GW events, but the official errata has not addressed it.

GodHead wrote:I don't want to say you're making that up, but you're making that up.

lol not making it up...might not have the source straight, but I am SURE that I heard about this twice: Once from a rules clarification and once from this topic