Wow, away for a day and this gets 20 replies.... Didn't quite expect that. Now before I reply with a more measured response I do feel the need to reply to one post in particular.
No no no! This is all wrong, the whole point is that you can bring down a heroic creature by weight of numbers!
Don't be fooled by cartoons, it's not that hard to land a blow on someone. Even in Kung Fu movies (where things are highly stylized) most of the fighting involves blocking blows rather than dodging them outright. The 40k to-hit chart reflects this, even against a DE Wych Succubus, when there are ten of you and you're leaping out from behind rocks and bushes, you're going to land some blows; even if they could dodge all of someone's punches, with that many someones, there's nowhere to dodge to. Or in the case of the Avatar, yes it possesses the martial skill of a god, but it's a giant metal statue! Do you really think a full platoon of guardsmen would be unable to land more than a handful of blows? Ridiculous!
Also, don't forget that close combat takes into account more than just fists. There are grenades, point-blank shooting, and a whole gamut of things that skills in hand-to-hand combat would not protect you against.
Plus, the other stats involved in CC cover a lot of the issues and occurrences that the detractors in this thread are thinking about. Yes, a wych would be able to dodge many of her opponent's blows... and look, she has a 4++ save that represents what? Oh yeah! Likewise, an Avatar probably could walk through a full platoon of IG (as long as they didn't have a bunch of JOs with fists ) because even though the crush of bodies would mean that the Guardsmen could land some blows, they still have, what, like a 5% chance to wound after to-wounds and saves?
Khaine and IanC covered it pretty well, I think. The current system is fine unless you want the game to be based mostly around incredibly powerful hero units. Which I certainly don't, they're already powerful enough, if you ask me. If you think it's not "realistic" enough, then it's more likely that you're just not being imaginative enough about what's actually happening in CC than that there's a flaw in the basic mechanic.
Have you studied kung fu? Or boxing? Maybe Aikedo or Karate? Even something like fencing would highlight the point I am about to make.
In
real life the hardest possible thing is to land a solid "hit" on a person. Blocking, dodging, redirecting a blow is
always easier than taking a hit and moving on...
I say this with extensive experience of 2 decades studying karate. As well as years practicing many other sports like fencing, shooting, boxing, aikedo, kendo and bo-jitsue (Though not all at once I hasten to add
).
Yes in a fight you will "eventually" be hit, but a drunken fool isn't going to hit me with 1 out of every 2 strikes... or even 1 out of every 3.... He will miss with most of his attacks because contray to your opinion moving away from an oponent is the most EFFICIENT and effective way to counter an attack. You waste no energy, they waste striking energy. You can resposition yourself, you don't have to rely on matching your strength against their strength... If you err on the side of caution it also means a misjudgement doesn't end up with a fist plowed into your face.
Anyways... I didn't consider real life because 40K was a game. What I considered was the math. Primarily what bothers me isn't not being able to hit on a 2+ BUT not being able to have a high enough WS to force people hitting you on a 6+.
THe current system actually makes combat MORE brutal because it always comes down to weight of numbers... Incubi, Paladin and such units can ALL be countered by an equal number of points. I mean a unit of Paladins costing 500 points has every chance of losing to 100 Guardsmen. Or an equal amount of orks... Because they are being hit on 4+ despite having a good increase in WS.
Instead then the current system encourages blindly charging forwards to get into combat to, as another poster here said, "Kill things because thats the fun part". When you speak to GW about any of this you get an uninterested response even if you are being polite and genuinely engaging... All they say is "It makes the game epic".
How does 2 armies running forward pell mell into combat where numbers and dice are more telling than any quality troop make the game in anyway "epic"? It just means everything is off the silly small tables they play on by turn 4. (which again favours CC and making the game as short as humanly possible).
Finally to represent High Elves, or Wyches, or other Highly skilled Assault troops they then have to give them ward saves, or special rules... Which makes the game more complicated and so harder to balance... In effect that proves me point... The WS table is broken.
EDIT:
The WS table wouldn't have to work like the to wound table... Really it's quite simple.
Same WS: hitting on 4's.
1 Higher WS: Hitting on 4's, being hit on 5's
2 Higher WS: Hitting on 3's, being hit on 5's
3 Higher WS: Hitting on 3's, being hit on 6's
4 Higher WS: Hitting on 2's, being hit on 6's
Not being funny that would mean even a WS3 trooper would need to be attacked by models with WS7... Of which there are precious few around.
However units like Incubi, Paladins etc would finally have a little bit more of a chance. Note you could easily reverse the table forumla so you started to hit quicker instead of being harder to hit... However that would make combats shorter and thus keep the game favouring assault.
Thats another note... Assault really should be done like in LotR with only 1 phase due to both sides striking.