Editing Warhammer 40,000/9th Edition Tactics/Apocalypse (section)

==Plasma, is it right for Me?==
Plasma, is, in its basic principle, a really cool idea. You take a weapon which performs reasonably well against low toughness units, then you can overcharge it at the risk of suffering damage yourself, for increased strength and damage, hopefully resulting in a dead/deader enemy. What's not to like? Well, as you may have noticed if you have looked at the rest of this page, things are not always that simple.

To assist us, here is the damage rates for the warhound plasma blastgun, one of the biggest plasma guns you can get in the 42nd millennium.
{| class=wikitable cellspacing=0 cellpadding=4 align=left
|- valign=top
! - !! - !! Warhound  !! Warlord !! Heriophant  !! Phantom !! Baneblade !! Land Raider !! Rhino !! Imperial Knight !! Guilliman !! Custodian !! Guardsman !! Space Marine
|-
! Weapon !! Stats !! T8 W50 2+/5++ RInvuln, 2 VS !!  T9 W120 2+/5++ RInvuln, 8 VS !! T8 W34 2+/5++ !!  T9 W60 3+/4++ RInvuln !! T8 W26 3+ !! T8 W16 2+ !! T7 W10 3+ !! T8 W24 3+/5++ vs ranged !! T6 W9 2+/3++ !! T5 W3 2+/4++ !! T3 W1 5+ !! T4 W2 3+
|-
| Warhound Plasma Blastgun (Standard) || Heavy2D6 72" S9 ap-4 D4 || (2.07)10.37 || (1.5)7.77 || 8.29 ||  4.66 || 12.44 || 10.37 || 12.44 || 8.29 ||  4.14 || (1.55)6.22 || 3.88 || (3.88)15.55
|-
| Warhound Plasma Blastgun (Overcharged) || Heavy2D6 72" S10 ap-4 D5 || (2.07)12.96 ||  (2.07)12.96 || 10.37 ||  7.77 || 15.55 || 12.96 || 12.44 || 10.37 || 5.18 || (1.94)9.72 || 3.88 || (3.88)19.44
|-
|}
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As you can see, when you overcharge the blastgun, its gets 1 extra strength, and 1 extra damage, becoming strength 10 and damage 5, a stat line which is easily the envy of other units, even when not overcharged. However, what is not noted in the profile listed here is that each hit roll of 1 results in 2 mortal wounds, which you cannot block by any means. So every time you overcharge your plasma, you are running a risk, and that risk comes in the form of wounds.

Now we have to consider the idea that the wounds you deal have a points representation, and the wounds you take also "cost" points. So to take a look at this idea, we shall look at the damage differences between normal and overcharged plasma, using the blastgun against the warhound and the warlord titans.

*Normal, warhound 10.37 , warlord 7.77
*Overcharged, warhound 12.96, warlord 12.96

As we can see, overcharging deals an extra 2.59 damage, not much but it might do something. However, overcharging against the warlord deals 5.19 extra damage, a much more sizable difference. This is because the extra strength against the warhound doesn't do anything extra, so the damage increase is only due to the damage increase from 4 to 5 on the gun. On the warlord however, S10 allows you to wound the warlord on a 3+, instead of a 4+, which is why the damage increase is so much larger.

Now lets look at this from a points perspective:
*Normal, warhound 10.37 (414pts), warlord 7.77 (356pts)
*Overcharged, warhound 12.96 (518pts), warlord 12.96 (594)
*Overcharged difference, warhound 2.59 (103 pts), warlord 5.19 (237 pts)
*Overcharged shots rolled 1, 1.16, mortal wounds 2.33 (93pts)

Looking at this, we can see that the extra points of damage you deal to the warhound is only slightly more than the firing warhound would take itself. In a fight this might be worth it, but what if this was against a far less valuable target, like a baneblade? In that situation the mortal wounds the titan would take would be worth far more than the extra damage. However, overcharging against the warlord results in the firer almost doubling their points game, as the warlords wounds are worth far more than the warhounds.

This makes plasma a lot less appetising than it first appears, as you may be dealing more damage, but unless you have a way of mitigating the mortal wounds (by rerolls, repairing or a feel no pain save) chances are the damage you deal will cost you far more. So, when should you use overcharged plasma? When overcharging:
*Would cause your attacks to wound on an improved roll (such as going from 4+ to 3+).
*Or when the firing unit would otherwise be destroyed anyway later in the turn, and firing overcharged would allow you to make the most of an otherwise doomed unit.

Alternatively, there are few things less badass and cool than overcharged plasma. Just remember to warn everyone else so that they can run away first.

===Feel no Pain Saves, because Mortal Wounds are a thing===
Feel no pain saves are your last ditch attack to save a model from an attack. Once you fail your armour and invulnerability save and once damage is assigned, then each model may roll a feel no pain save if it has one to ignore the damage.

In normal tabletop this is great, as most attacks are only 1 damage, so your guardsman effectively gets a straight forward bonus save against damage (brilliant in a world where T3 and a 5+ save isn’t much). However, in apocalypse, even simple anti infantry weapons are multi damage, which is where things get complicated, so let’s look at a 5+ feel no pain save for a 1 wound guardsman, and the corresponding chance to survive:

*Against 1 damage, 33% chance.
*Against 2 damage, 10% chance.
*Against 3 damage, 3% chance.
*Against 4 damage, 1% chance.

After 2 damage you’re looking at a command point sink. This is alleviated by the model in question having more wounds, but feel no pain saves are generally only found on low wound count models.

However, mortal wounds cannot be blocked by any save other than feel no pain saves. Mortal wounds are incredibly dangerous as it doesn’t matter who you are, from guardsman to Titan, you will take the same amount of damage from it. Mortal wounds also “splash”, making them extremely dangerous to hordes, as the mortal wounds will always be efficiently used.