the General tactics thread.

[ModelCalamity]

Hi Guys,

with the new edition out there and with many of us getting a grip with the new rules, I think it is time to start a thread that deals with the general tactics of the game. I know we have a myriad of threads out there doing the same thing for each codex out there. But what i keep seeing in those threads is that they end up being more of a strategy guide. And in many cases even more of an army selection process. I know these type of threads have been done before but i have not seen one done for 6th ed yet.

What i am hoping to get with this thread is a massive resource of viable tactics that are not necessarily limited to a single codex. These could be how to make use of tanks in a most effective way, how to use two squads of infantry to shield an important objective. How to limit damage to your army when facing a Doom wing (loads of flyers) and how to place key models in a squad to make them more effective/survivable.

If you have a tactic that works well with your own army, think of ways that other armies could almost do the same thing. If you have ideas how to deal with certain tactics people post here, please comment on them and improve/counter them. thats what tactics are all about anyways

Post guidelines:

• When you post a new tactic. please give it a title by having one line posted in font size 5 at the start of the article and in bold like this:
• TACTIC: Shielding tanks with Smoke
• Be constructive, people posting their tactics most likely tried them once. and they worked else they wouldn't have posted them here. Comment like that idea is stupid will not help the discussion
• if you post diagrams please embed them in the actual text rather than as a thumbnail. It makes it easier to read if the diagram is next to the text explaining it, compared to having them at the bottom.
• please don't get into a debate about the viability of specific units. The idea is to get tactics that can be used with models once they are already chosen in an army. We know that Chaos spawn are considered a non-viable choice in many occasions. But people do get models in their army because they like them. And in some cases they appear because you turned an enemy model into one! So now that we have them in our army how can we make them work!
• Whilst some people will make mistakes interpreting rules. This is not the place to discuss rules. it is fine to point out some perceived flaws in rules understanding. especially if it is crucial to understand this is not the rules forum. So treat any such discussion as being off topic.

right with that all out of the way lets kick this thread off. Ill post some stuff myself shortly and cant wait to see what tactics you guys have up your sleeves!

[ModelCalamity]

Tactic: Dealing with Flyer Wings

I see a lot of people on these forums pooping their pant at the thought a facing a IG or Necron list comprised of large numbers of flyers. In a way they are not wrong. Flyers are fast, hard to hit and they generally pack a very heavy punch. So its only natural that people capable and willing to field flyers in large numbers, will appear and you are definately going to face one such army in this new edition. Now that we have accepted that we are facing a list of flyers, how do we deal with them?

THe first step is realizing how flyers work:

They start in reserve and thus arrive from turn 2 onward.
they all have sufficient movement to cover the whole board if they move in from
they will be able to get all of their weapons to bear without going flat out
they can only move in a straight line on turn one.
they get to turn 90 degrees and then go into a straight line again at a minimum of 18"

what this means is that the first turn a flyer moves onto the board it can almost always hit what it wants to hit. Tanks that are in the open will almost always suffer a side hit. and fliers with a lot of anti infantry shots can pick off units in the open easily.
Pretty dangerous indeed. So how do we save our precious models from this gruesome death?

firstly its important to realize this: xxx-wing wing armies (nu pun intended) have a distinct disadvantage. 1/3 to 1/2 the armies points are tied up in non scoring units. This means that you normally will have a numerical advantage on the table especially in turn one. Your strategy should be to deal with anything scoring first, anything denying second. and the actual flyers last.

Infantry
What would you do if you are infantry yourself? yes that's right! Duck and cover. In 40k this is really not different. The best thing you can do is sit your guys in area terrain and go to ground!. If you get your guys in a set of ruins and go to ground you will have a beefy 2+ cover save. that's means to get a single kill the flyer needs to cause a missive 6 wounds to cause a single casualty. Even most fliers wont be able to put that much hurt on your models. the return fire you will be giving back will be snapshots but that effectively means you do not suffer from the 6es to hit penalty from fliers. So returning fire with models that went to ground at fliers makes sense.

note here that you do not have to start inside terrain immediately. You have one extra turn with your army as fliers only show up on turn two. So you can get that important ruin in the middle of the field.

another trick to do is with cheap infantry leave 2 or 3 guys out in the open. Try not to put more than 25% out this way. This to lure your opponent to focus fire on the ones in the open. Yes they will die. But only them. which means that you dont have to go down to the ground and can move shoot normally next turn. the good thing here is that you can choose to go down so your opponent will have to worry about trying to make you go down or cause more damage. most of the time a flyer due to his movement will have 1 or two turns where it wont be able to get a target. Keep this in your mind as you decide to sacrifice a few bodies. Those flyers cant score and most of them dont come really cheap when compared to your few infantry models.

Finally if a flyer made its strafing run. there is a definite 2 turns before it can bring its guns to bear on the same unit. provided it is close enough. Keep this requirement of having to move 18 inches in mind. In most cases the fliers can only fire to their front ark. So moving within the 18inches of a flyer means he cant shoot at you next turn.

Tanks
keeping your tanks save from fliers is more difficult but not impossible. tanks tend to make more viable targets for fliers as the return on investment is high. Whilst some flyers are better at tank busting than others. The storm raven and the Doom scythe are notorious at this. but lets not forget that they are relatively expensive. So losing a tank to them is not immediate cause for concern. Just keep you head cool and make sure they only get to kill one tank every other turn. Both these fliers have short ranged weapons so they need to get close. Use that to your advantage and move your tanks close to them. Again only being able to fire snapshots is no penalty.

In many cases just causing that one glancing hit is good enough. Many opponents will try and jink save the shot as they don't have the luxury of taking too many hull points. And that means next round shooting from the fliers is going to be a lot less scary. In the case of the doom scythe he cant even fire his deathray anymore!

the real danger tends to come from the cheaper flyers like the nigh scythe that rely on a lot of shots to take out tanks. Their str 7 4 to 12 shots are scary on many tanks. Especially if those shots end up on the more soft side of tanks. Whilst most tanks like predators for example arent too worried about tesla destructors to the front. They die fast when those shots get to the side.

So here is how you can minimize the risk and damage. you use terrain
place your tank like so:



this way your one flank is protected by a 4+ cover save or in some cases is completely blocked. In which case you would get a potential +1 on your save as the front can be seen but the shot has to be in the side. the rear wont be shot as the angle should make it impossible. If you place your tank correctly the other flank should be similarly outside of the angle of fire.

in the above case you would have a good shot at something important in turn 1. an less ideal shot in turn two. and a good shot in turn 3. If you make sure you focus these shots at something important. (always go for scoring units first! denial units second). If they die afterwards they should have achieved with them what you needed them for in the first place.

Also not that where you are going to push your tanks towards is going to be the best place for an interceptor quad gun if you are going to bring one. in my diagram that would be in the top left corner.


whilst not fool proof these tactics can help you keep your units alive a turn or two more. or force where your opponent needs to place their fliers. Which with fliers means you might have already won yourself half the battle.

i hope you find this useful. comment as much as you want