I and my friends play differently, even if we are not sure if it'sthe right way: we TREAT every model like a singular unit, but in reality models with the same name (es. Skinks, Zombies, Chaos Warriors, ...) belong to a single unit.
This implies a couple of things:
- being a single unit, they CAN GET those bonuses granted by having more than X models in the unit (so 20+ Skinks get the first bonus, 30+ get the subsequent bonus)
- being a single unit, you are allowed to use the special weaponry following the rules which say "one every X models in the unit can be equipped with a Y", even if models appear as individual entities.
- being a single unit, special units able to cast a spell can still do it, but since it is often described only ONE spell may come from the unit in the Hero Phase, only one model in play can cast that spell.
In other words, playing Skirmish you could have let's say 15 pink horrors on the battlefield, but since they come from a single unit only ONE of them has the right to cast the spell its unit is allowed to cast (no more magic spam).
The only things this "treating a model like a unit on its own" changes from the AoS basic rules are:
- models with the same name (so from the same unit, in my view) can be equipped with different basic weapons (i.e. I have 2 skinks, I can chose one to have the boltspitter and shield and the other to have the javelin and club)
- models with the same name may be more than 1 inch away from each other
- models with the same name (so again from the same unit, IMO) can be in cover separately, which means a model does NOT need to have its entire unit in cover to get the +1 Save bonus, and different models from the same unit can be in cover or not independently.
Don't know if everything has been written in an understandable way