Editing Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Shooting(7e) (section)

==AOEs==
*Generally speaking, don't rely on blast or flamer weapons to rack up large numbers of kills, as an enemy general can easily spread out his models to minimize potential damage. More than anything, they exist to keep the enemy honest and prevent an extreme concentration of forces. That said, there are four major scenarios for enemy models to bunch-up.
**When the enemy is displaced from one or more Tank Shocks.
**When a unit emerges from Deep Strike, and either rolls poorly to Run, forfeits running to-shoot (though a lot of Deepstrike units can reliably "Fire & Run" with the right power combinations), or is targeted by an Interceptor Weapon beforehand.
**When the unit rolls poorly to consolidate after an assault (of note is the fact that models cannot consolidate after assaulting a vehicle). Don't forget your flamers for the second wave.
* When the unit loses its transport, either to a wreck or explosion. A classic "one-two-punch" for a Marine army is to use heavier weapons to destroy enemy transports, then immediately follow-up with the Thunderfire cannons before the surviving passengers can spread out!
* If you want to maximize the amount of damage done to bunched-up models, four AOE weapons firing from the same unit will inflict more damage, than from four different units. To use a (very vacuum) example, let us compare two (vacuum) scenarios, with Orks as target practice:
**Four units of Chaos Space Marines, each with one flamer and 4 Bolters, fire at a unit of 20 Orks. All other things being considered, each flamer-equipped model can hit roughly 5 Orks apiece. The first unit fires, with one flamer hitting 5 Orks. After rolling to-hit and wound, the flamer kills about 2-3 Orks. The remaining models fire their Bolters, and probably kill another 4 Orks. The next unit fires, and is lucky if there is even one Ork in range of its flamer.
**On the other hand, let us suppose a unit of Chaos Chosen with four Flamers was firing at the unit of Orks. Each one hits 5 Orks, for a total of 20 hits. You now roll to-wound and the flamers themselves kill an average of 10 Orks, for a fraction of the investment.