Hullo, All.
Just thought I'd share my disappointment at the understandable lack of vox-sets in Guard armies these days...including my own.
I'm happy to admit that in the last incarnation of the Codex, the vox-caster was over-powered. Being able to use the commander's Ld from across the board - whilst a nice nod to battlefield communications - made Guardsmen too steady in the face of casualties.
BUT...in the current Codex they are seriously, seriously rubbish. I get the 'Orders' process, and (whilst it's a little fussy at the start of the shooting phase with a lot of infantry) it's fun and works at the right 'level'. I get that the range is 6" or 12" and I'm happy for that to represent an abstraction of the effective range of officers' shouts/charisma/authority. But what on Earth do voxes do these days?
They offer you a re-roll on an orders check.
So...if the squad's within 6" of the issuing officer, and they don't quite catch his yells of "Shoot the buggers! Fire by ranks! Kill them! Kill them all!" then they can call him up on the vox net and clarify just what it is they so urgently need to do. But only if they're already within shouting distance.
Bloody ridiculous.
And it costs 5pts per squad.
What's more is that - for the most part - the troops you often really want to issue the juicy orders to aren't allowed vox sets (heavy and special weapon squads; maybe snipers). The only notable exception is veterans, who have the potential to really benefit from almost every order.
I'm fairly sure I'm not alone in enjoying many of the various Guard vox miniatures, and I'm still using mine, but even though I like to try and make my forces fairly fluffy, I'm still not wasting points on vox-sets.
If I had the ability to re-write the rules, I'd do it very simply: orders have a 6"/12" range unless both units have a vox, in which case there's no range limit. Y'know, like what they designed radios for.*
Any other thoughts on the matter?
- Drax.
*It's worth pointing out that British Army radios traditionally seem to have a real-life working range of only about 12". On a 1:1 scale. But only whilst the batteries work.
