What if I send in a squad of boyz to fight a SM dreadnought as a tactic simply to get it to stand still for a few moments so I can get a squad of heavy weapons trained on it? Those boyz are dead, I killed them intentionally to take down the dreadnought and had their permission to do so. What if our forces are having trouble seeing stealthed scouts but several members can see them properly due to extra skill points spent? Isn't it then a viable tactic to send in the couple of squad members who can see the targets and use them as markers, thus targeting our own units so as to take out squads that we can't see with AoE blasts? Both scenarios are valid tactics, both deliberately targeting our own units to ensure a greater gain than the loss we suffer due to those units dying.
The way i read this, both of these scenarios is about sacrificing troops in order to get the job done and have nothing to do with friendly fire, unless you plan to shoot them in the back.
Well technically the second scenario involves using his friendly units as spotters for the stealth units and then promptly dropping AOE attacks on them. So he would be shooting at his own troops.
It would be better to have a mechanic where those who *can* see stealthed units are able to flag their approximate location on the map, or that if one person spots an stealthed enemy then others in that person's immediate vicinity also see that person become visible.
Both tactics include shooting your own units with AoE weapons to take down the enemies that they are engaging and counting your own troops as collateral damage. It's a very Ork tactic.
I would assume for fighting a stealth unit that the observer could flag an area for bombardment or engage the enemy thus forcing them from stealth. A system to forgive the person that hurt or killed you would solve both scenarios.
I personally do not see anything wrong with deliberate friendly fire if used as a tactic that benefits the army as a whole, at least for Orkz and Chaos. I would say Eldar and SM have far too much respect for life for such actions.
Friendly fire is excusable if it is beneficial and that would be the main reason to allow friendly fire to be excused. You could also give squads the ability to turn off punishments for shooting squad members. If you don't have restrictions to friendly fire in place then you will get a lot of people shooting each other because they happen to be in the way when the shooter sees a target. Even the orks punish excessive friendly fire. I don't really see a scenario in which firing on your own side is beneficial, but that's why a system to forgive friendly fire would help.
