9th Edition - Unit Coherency and Screening

By now I imagine most folks have noticed that the 9th edition rules are out.  At least, the short ones are - we haven't seen all the detachments yet, or the core stratagems.

I've already done a bit of thinking about the impacts of them - and if you're like me, you like not getting charged right off the bat.

This means you bring screens.  And if you like screens, you're definitely going to pay attention to the new unit coherency rules.  I figure that a visual demonstration is going to be worth a lot more than a few words.

The Old Rules

-horizontal coherencies is 2" between models

-vertical coherency is 6" between models

-if you are out of coherency, move into coherency next time.

The New Rules

-horizontal coherency is 2"

-vertical coherency is 5"

-if you are out of coherency, there's a coherency check during the morale phase - and those units just bail out. (But aren't casualties for Morale purposes

-Units with 6+ models treat coherency different - models must be in unit coherency w/ 2 models instead of one.

This last one is the biggest change for large units.  I think the easiest way to show it is visually.

A Brief Demonstration - Admittedly in a Vacuum

Our Stars

 I'll start with a typical unit employed for screening - a minimum-sized unit of cultists.  Everyone knows and loves them.  They're cheap.  They fill a troops slot if you need that.  Their main strength is that they take up space - if they're here, you can't deep strike close to them, and unless you kill them first, they might block an assault for a turn.

If anyone's asking, these are some of my cultists I use with my Alpha Legion - filed off the GSC logos.

If there are several squads of them, ignoring them means they might claim objectives or eventually chip away at something.

Screens in 8th

Putting the 'chain' in Daisy Chain

 Ten guys on 20mm bases two inches apart can spread out about 25-26".  No one arrives from reserves within 9" of them - so one unit can deny a heap of space.

9th Edition Coherency

More daisy, not so much chain

 This is a unit with more than 6 models, so they have to be in coherency with 2 models instead of one.  This gets a vote on how much we can spread out.  As you can see, it's not as much.  I'm not sure I could spread out a ton more - I might eke out a fraction here and there and make it exactly two inches, but that's about it.

As you can see, we're less than half as broad - we're 11" and change wide, and 4 inches deep.  The depth part is negotiable if you want to slap them on the front line - but that's about as wide as a 10-man unit gets.

How Do I get Back to that Sweet, Large Footprint?

Phone a friend time!

 So I grabbed another cheap screening unit - if you look closely, you'll notice that's a ten-pack of brimstone horrors.  For the sake of this experiment, it's deployed in coherency with the cultists as though it was one unit.

Initial Thoughts After Seeing Pictures

1) Screen Footprint Reduction - Ouch

Ok, so this one's obvious - especially from the pictures.  Your large screening units are not going to cover as much ground.  They're going to a little less than half of it.

2) 12" Denial Bubbles Are More Valuable

Some troops have an innate "no one comes in from reserves" bubble of 12" due to abilities.  Others can get it from stratagems.  As screening units get smaller footprints, anything that increases it becomes more valuable.

3) Screening Is Still Important

Lots of armies already have units that hop out of reserves - terminators and Crisis Suits fall out of deep strike.  Demons hop out of the warp.  Necrons hop out of...wherever they do.  The list goes on.  Also, note that you can pay CP to walk on a table edge in 9th.

Screens matter because screens push that out.  Melee units and short-ranged shooty units care about screens, but anyone with 24" guns is most likely to just laugh and shoot anyway because they've got range.

4) You'll still probably want to bring some screens

Obviously it's a bit early to make predictions about the meta for 9th - but considering that there's even more options for deployment shenanigans than before, I'll be surprised if we don't see mid-field infiltrators or a couple cheap backfield squads.

Next Steps

Obviously, we'll still need data on what point costs turn into.  Cheap screens are useful.  Multi-purpose screens are great too - if you can take up space and kill things, that's useful.  However, the big question is going to be "what do cheap units like Brimstone Horrors and Chaos Cultists cost?"

Because honestly, those guys exist to take up space.  You bring them to fill out a force org chart and to take up space - either on objectives or in front of something important.

A final bit of a laugh

So I've played the game off and on for a minute - I recall blast templates being a thing.  Ironically, now there are large units clustered together - what used to be spray and blast weapons are more effective against them - AND no one's gonna waste time arguing about who's under what stupid template.  GREAT SUCCESS.