Why arent Paladins Fearless?

[Akela99]

I think maybe Mork hates you.

[Sam]

My worst morale story was at the last tournament I played in.

My Nobz are forced to take a morale test from the Howling Cyclone effect of Njal's Lord of Tempests. They fail, then fail the boss pole re-roll and fall back over 10. I test to regroup, fail, fail the boss pole, fall back. Then they fail a 5th and 6th test to bring one of them to the edge and fall off the board. I lost the entire unit without them ever getting shot at or taking a wound (thanks to the painboy and FNP).

I tried different sets of dice for luck after the first set of fails. There is only about a 1/200 chance of failing 6 Ld7 tests in a row. For comparison, this is about the same odds of passing 61 Ld10 tests in a row.

The boss pole doesn't let you re-roll the test to regroup, as the test to regroup is not a morale test.

[Yayula]

I actually kinda dislike the entire Morale system in general.

I kinda agree, but in the way that it should be more punishing like it is on fantasy, sure whenever you fail a ld test it hurts, but most armies usually have ways to override it, and you need to be really unlucky to fail them when near a table edge. On the other hand using Ld on fantasy is HUGE, you need to test it for lots of stuff and then the average is around 7 instead of 9 in 40k. Hopefully leadership will get more weight on 6th ed.

[Frankio9]

I actually kinda dislike the entire Morale system in general.

Yeah, I had my fair share of bad luck with the morale system. It is never fun having to watch Lelith and 14 Wyches run away because they lost combat by 1..

[DarkLink]

I mean, falling back from combat, sure. Same thing with No Retreat. But why would Space Marines run away from the whole battle? Or any of the other dozens of crazy units in the game that shouldn't run like chickens, yet still do.

I prefer Warmachine's morale system. If you fail a test, it doesn't actually force you to run off the board. It just prevents you from doing certain things, and instead of falling back to your board edge you fall back from the unit that caused the test. It really works more like a pinning test than a fallback move. It's still a big problem, but it doesn't screw you over.

[Transgressor]

You'd think they would be....

Biggest fail I've had with them:
Multi assault. Me: 10 Paladins + 7 Purifiers Them: Eldrad and locks.
Lose combat by 1.
Paladins fail morale and run.
Eldar can't chase because still locked with purifiers.
Next turn 10 Paladins run off the board....

GKs not being fearless has been the hardest thing for me to adjust to since the new codex. I typically run either GKs or Tyranids, both fearless (or used to be). The whole concept of having units turn tail and run away is really strange when you've been using fearless armies for years

[asteroidjawa]

Cause they don't know what fear is.

are there any non-IC Terminators that actually are fearless?

[Cuddy]

I like the non-fearlessness. Fearless units can be kind of boring once they get stuck in. The fact that they could fall back makes more tactics and decision come out.

[Bean]

I mean, falling back from combat, sure. Same thing with No Retreat. But why would Space Marines run away from the whole battle? Or any of the other dozens of crazy units in the game that shouldn't run like chickens, yet still do.

I prefer Warmachine's morale system. If you fail a test, it doesn't actually force you to run off the board. It just prevents you from doing certain things, and instead of falling back to your board edge you fall back from the unit that caused the test. It really works more like a pinning test than a fallback move. It's still a big problem, but it doesn't screw you over.

I generally agree. I think the pinning mechanic should be used more and the falling back mechanic should be used less. Seems like the first response you should expect from weakening morale is a unit opting to hunker down and stay put, while actually just breaking and fleeing the battle should be more dramatic and less common.

In fact, I think that I probably wouldn't even have a mechanic for falling back--the movement restrictions are messy (it's almost impossible to write rules which actually force a unit what it seems like the fall-back rules are supposed to force a unit to do, and the extent rules certainly do not) and unnecessary. You could just have units become pinned and stay pinned until they either rally or break--and if they break, you could just remove them from the board, presuming them to be irrecoverably dispersed.


Anyway, I'm with you--I don't like the morale rules. And this is how I would change them.


edit:

Also, I like how, in Warmachine, the failed leadership test lets the unit maneuver to an extent--to escape an assault or get cover--but still ends up working a lot like 40k's pinning mechanic in the important ways. I think I would carry this over to 40k, also, frankly.

[Duskstorm]

They don't need it. I would rather have ATSKNF.