Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[J Gregory]

I've played SW for a few years now, but am only just getting around to trying it for tabletop games. Reading through the Showdown rules, it's not really clear to me how Units work.

I understand that the whole unit (say, 4 models) activates as one and has to stay in Cohesion. But what about other actions? Do the models all act as individuals (this is how it seems to me) or as a unit?

Take ranged combat for example. Can a unit fire on another unit (as is common in other squad-level games)or does each model in a unit have to declare which model in the enemy unit it is targeting? I can't see how the Shaken/Wound system can function at a unit vs. unit level, but doing each model separately seems like it would really slow things down (especially if a unit of, say, 5 Extras with identical stats are firing together - you can't roll them all together unless they're all targeting the same model, or you have some other way to differentiate who is targeting who).

And what about coordinated fire (a staple of squad-level games)? Is this only achieved by all the models in a unit targeting the same enemy model an resolving the individual attacks one at a time?

Am I missing something? Or is it just a feature of Showdown that the only thing that Units consisting of multiple models do as a Unit is activate?

[J Gregory]

*** sound of pin dropping***

No-one can confirm that this is how it works, or point me on the right track?
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the cake is a lie

[Clint]

Sorry! Looks like you got caught in the black hole of posting just prior to Gen Con.

Yeah, units just act on the same initiative. Characters within the unit then resolve individual actions (that's why they are expected to contain around 5 for ease of resolution).

Since all figured in a unit have the same Traits and abilities, typically this is as easy as picking up 5 dice and rolling them for individual results. There may be situations where modifiers may be different for different attacks and require differentiating.

For instance the 5-figure unit is firing at 5 foes. 3 have minor cover (-2) and 2 have substantial cover (-4). Roll three dice for the minor cover attacks, and then two dice for the others. It doesn't require targeting each one individually since the modifiers and dice rolled are the same for each group. Just decide who was hit or missed after determining the results.

Hope that helps.
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Clint Black
Savage Worlds Core Rules Brand Manager

www.peginc.com

[KhyberJoe]

We have played it pretty much the same way, though all characters in a unit have to fire on either one individual target or the characters in one unit.

If the characters want to split their fire on two different units or a unit and an individual target, some of those characters get a -2 for Shooting.

Joe