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

==A guide to Strength and Toughness==
*'''2:''' HA HA HA! No. Just no. S/T 2 will most likely deal no damage, or protect against anything. You could argue that with the wounding system, if you had enough bodies or attacks you could overcome any target, but chances are you will be paying more for those wounds and attacks compared to S/T 3.

:S/T 2 is generally only found on swarm units, whose entire purpose is to deny deep striking space and slow down units. In an actual fight however it’s about as useful as swearing at your opponent.

*'''3:''' Your GEQ’s, lasguns etc, the stuff normal humans and elves carry around in the 42nd millennia. In normal tabletop games these stats are weak, but useful for fighting other weak units. But in the world of apocalypse S/T 3 might as well not exist, as like S/T 2 you will be wounding the things that matter on 6’s, and being wounded on 2’s.

:However, S/T 3 is cheap, and readily available. A guardsman only costs you 5 points, and you can get S/T 3 units which are tougher than your normal guardsmen, and have multi damage weapons with ap.

*'''4:''' Your MEQ’s, and that point of S/T over 3 buys you... not much really. Generally you will come with a better armour save, ap on some of your guns and extra wounds, but most of the time you will die as fast as your GEQ counterparts while costing more.

*'''5:''' The first useful number, your CEQ’s. Now that there is nothing higher than toughness 9 in the game you will wound everything on at least a 5+, and wounding toughness 5 on a 2+ requires strength 10, which is uncommon. However, S/T 5 isn’t cheap (especially if your getting it in the form of custodes), with the exception of the heavy bolter (S5 ap- 1 D2 goes a very long way), and there are a lot of things in apocalypse which can still wound you on a 3+, and wounding on a 5+ is still a bit meh.

*'''6:''' Rare case, only seen on light vehicles and [[Guilliman|non-demonic primarchs]]. Like S/T 5, it’s more awkward to wound and wounds more successfully. However, the only benefit you have over S/T 5 is that you wound and are wounded by S/T 3 on a 2+ and 6+ respectively. And as already stated, S/T 3 isn’t going to be common in apocalypse, and you can achieve the same effect by using S/T 7 and above.

*'''7:''' Your auto cannon variants and rhinos. These sit in a really weird position as you are easily harmed /struggle to harm S/T 8 units, while the only infantry you will truly shred are the GEQs. Generally has very low ap values associated with it as well.

*'''8:''' The most common stat you will see on the apocalypse battlefields. Think of this as the S/T 4 of this scale. Incredibly flexible as it will shred all infantry, do something against most vehicles, while providing reasonable protection.

*'''9:''' Your new toughest toughness on the block, but strength stats still go higher than this. Weapon wise you will only see lascannon variants and high power plasma with these stats. Provides protection against the very prevalent S8 and S16 weapons, while on the offensive it makes a mockery of the very prevalent T8 vehicles.

*'''10:''' Not particularly common, usually found on things like doomhammers or custodes who learnt that they have power fists in their cellar. In the current edition this will wound everything in the game on a 3+, making it a very desirable stat to have for simply pew pewing everything. Strong enough to get the job done, not so strong that it feels wasteful against light vehicles.

:Be warned however, you will only be wounding Infantry on a 2+, so what you gain in being versatile you will lose in not being super effective against heavy stuff.

*'''11:''' [[Malal|Doesn't exist. Bugger off!]]

*'''12:''' Like S10, but now you'll wound T6 on a 2+. Not very common

*'''13:''' Only [[An'ggrath]] gets this on his axe, and as it stands provides no benefits over S12 due to odd numbers providing no benefits to wounding except against toughness values 1 less than them, and as there's no toughness 12 in the game it doesn't matter.

*'''14:''' An incredibly useful number, as now you can wound the likes of rhinos on a 2+, leaving only the category of super heavy units at your (slightly reduced) wrath. It is, however, not very common, being mainly seen on the knights chainsword variants.

*'''15:''' See 13, except no profile is strength 15.

*'''16:''' This, my dear generals, is what you want. Strength 16 (as this edition there is no toughness 16) is your most plentiful, and reliable value. With it, you can wound everything (minus warlord titans, the eldar titans and a few space marine super heavy tanks and the brick which is the Sokar flier) on a 2+. Combine this with the fact that you can get S16 in reliable rates of fire means that it is also versatile, exactly what you want in a apocalypse setting.

*'''17:''' See 15.

*'''18:''' I have become death, the destroyer of worlds. The destructiveness of S18 (allowing you to wound '''everything''' on a 2+) is matched only by its rarity. You will only find this on titans, and only then on their most powerful weapons. The downside of this power is the low rate of fire it comes in. This is not for taking on anything less than toughness 8. This is what you use to take on Titans. Anything less is blasphemy.

*'''19:''' See 17, only rarer.

*'''20:''' For when GW doesn't understand how its own wounding system works. S20 does exactly the same as S18, but that hardly matters as it only exists on one weapon, Belicosa Volcano Cannon, which, to be fair, does deal a truly insane amount of damage.