What is your favourite tactic?

[Hilly]

The aim of this thread is to allow players to describe there favourite tactic and how you use it against different armies. Hopefully this will give some readers a few new ideas on how to approach their army tactics and composition as well as getting people to post up counter tactics as well.

So to kick this off:

The Phalanx - this has been a bit of a favourite of mine since I used Necrons back in 3rd ed, where the phalanx was extremely effective.

Basically the idea of the Phalanx is to block your forces together so that all your elements can be brought to bear on a small portion of the enemy army. So for example if you have Necron warriors, immortals and destroyers, you would place the warriors at the front, immortals in the middle and the destroyers at the back, this way you can ensure that you will a) protect your important units (immortals and destroyers) and b) maximise the use of your weapons ranges (warriors can only fire 12" if they move or 24" if they are stationary, so they must be up the front to enable you to get the most out of them).

Positioning the phalanx is critical, if you put it in the wrong part of the battlefield you can miss objectives or limit the ammount of the enemy that you can engage, rather than enabling you to destroy it completely piece by piece. Also with the generally limited manouverability that these types of units have you can run the risk of being outmanouvred, which will limit your ability to effective use your weapons. This may also allow your opponent to get his close combat elements into your lines. Some armies using the phalanx will find this a bad thing others will not be as effected. Armies that lack close combat ability should always look to ensure they support the phalanx with a close combat unit. In the case of the necrons this was Tomb Spyders, this also assisted the WBB rolls for each of the necron units as well (a nice combined combat multiplier).

Ok well that is a quick look at the tactic of the Phalanx, so what do you guys have as your favourite tactic? Look forward to seeing your posts.

[The_Outsider]

Divide and conquer.

It is very similar to the phalanx, but is more offensive orientated. It favours fast armies, and particularly dark eldar (which is the army I use it with).

It basically involves splitting your army in half and attacking the flanks of an opposing army simulatenously, thus attemtping to deny the enemy the ability to use combined arms versus your fragile units.

A nice bonus is this tactic is the only static fire support you typically need is anti tank, which is my case is two warrior squads euipped with darklances.

All other fire support should be mobile to provide short range cover for your assault units (again, using dark eldar as an example my assault units would be wyches and a lord with incubi).

Many armies can do it, its jsut it can really favour dark eldar if done right.

[lorak]

my favorite tactic is frenzy. it works with any army with fast moving tanks ( i play tau but eldar, dark eldar or marines (especially blood angels)).

the principal is to surround the enemy with three tanks 1" away (two might work) then tank shock the unit. the No Retreat! rule applies so the whole unit dies. watch your opponent's jaw drop (:O) as his tooled up HQ or unit of terminators gets annihilated.

if the opponent has a transport (which he should) cover all the access hatches then tank shock the tank. the tank blows up and thepassengers cant get out so they die (he-he).:yes:

[Malaky]

Flanking usually works pretty well for me. I usually have a squad and meabe a bit more establish a base of fire, their task is to fire all their weapons as much as they can so they usually have bolters, heavy bolter and a plasma. * ( I play Word Bearers btw.)

Two squad of 6 give good results on this. You have a special weapon and a heavy in each of them, and enough meat around it (4 bolters) to take some hits before you're down. Basicly, their job is to dish out massive fire and take a lot of it too as they won't assault except if assaulted and or if the enemy gets too close.

It's a very good idea to get them in cover to get those invulnerable we all need.

Then I get to the enemy flank with a squad or two either mounted in a Rhino or not. The Rhino provides protection for the advancing troops and can fire a little bit. Usually drop at least 12" from an enemy unit and get the squad out and rapid fire on the poor squad that is within my range. Then, as soon as I can, I engage an enemy squad in CC so that I can't be fired at. At this point my Terminators should have arrived and have been deepstriked to get the enemy position in a pincer movement. Then it's just a matter of wiping the models in CC.


A squad of havocs clean out mostly anything that tries to amper the assaulting squads.

Of course this strategy is far from fool proof but it's a good guideline and worked pretty well on the few occasions I used it.

[The Toon]

The spacemarine assault tactic.
This is my favorite tactic in all of the spacemarine one. You have two or more assault squads one of them with chaplain maybe two for one with decoy chaplain. Keep jumping them behind cover. The next turn assault the closest unit with the weaker chaplain if in use. Then if another squad comes to help them in assault, assault the good chaplain over to take care of that squad. (Each squad is full 10 marines.) Then you move on to the next units. While they are focusing on them you bring up your bikes and take care of some of the units shooting them.

[Diggums Hammer]

My favorite is my 'Basilisk Two-Step'.

The game must be on a 4' x 6', but I have two Basilisks that I put in opposite corners of the long board edges with a Leman or a Chimera in front if there isn't adequate blocking cover. I put the rest of of my IG fire power in front and around the Bassies, saying 'come and get me if you can'.

With the Bassies in opposite corners, there isn't a spot on the board I can't hit with indirect Ordnance blasts, forcing my opponent to come into my fireing lanes of Lascannon and Plasma death:D.

[LordLink]

lorak you're thinking of Trapped not no retreat, still works though. I'll have to try them some time with my mech eldar (does the trapping transports thing work?).

My favourite tactic is deliberately taking last turn then trying to keep my skimmers alive (i.e hide them). On the last turn I fly out and take every quarter/counter (or deployment/centre) with ease.

So even if I have something like a falcon full of avengers left and my opponent still has 2k points I can still usually take the objectives and force a draw at the least.

[Tenozuma]

I've got 2. Is that okay?

1. Grotesques and archon charge a unit of necron warriors (make it 20)... With the archon's awesome CC prowess, the dark eldar will win combat. Because of the grotesques special rule, the necrons will auto-fall back when losing combat. The archon will automatically catch the remainder when they flee as even if he rolls a 1 and the cron roll a 6 they are caught.

2. Scourges (Yes, OMG, someone uses them!) Against black templars. The scourges deepstrike (Yes, OMG, someone uses that option!) behind the black templars lines and hopefully kills one of the enemy with their 4 splinter cannons (if not, another squad will do it for them). The templars with their righteous zeal will be running d6" backwards towards the scourges away from your army, which means that if they want to keep moving forward they are moving at 6 minus d6 inches which won't get them very far. This works because templars run towards the closest enemy as I recall. This also works on khorne but they move 6+d6 in that direction (templars can do this too), not trying to run both ways at the same time so the scourges might be caught fairly soon.

In general with tactics I think it is *usually* but not always better to have most of your army in the same place so your units can all support eachother if need be. Often you need to split up though to take objectives or attack multiple enemy squads.

[NiteRabbit]

A tactic that I would like to make use of (but haven't had much luck so far) is the concept of lateral firepower (though it might be known by a different name normally) in which I try to bring all of my firepower to bear against a limited portion of the enemy's army while simultaneously causing an entire flank to suddenly be left useless. Admittedly, this only really works with loads of turbo-boosting bikes or Jetibkes or extremely fast transports, but I would like to think that it could work with a slightly slower-moving army like my Thousand Sons (mechanised, of course). A timely application of The Key would be helpful as well, but that's hardly a legal option under the current circumstances...

As an addendum to this tactic, I also make use of my Predators, not to cause any real damage to the enemy but to give them a more appetising target to position their high strength weapons against than my oh-so-juicy Rubric Marines.

EDIT: I notice that what I describe is similar to Hilly's original post and probably works far better with Necrons than with an army like Chaos Space Marines, but the key difference is that I would rather try to trick my opponent into deploying things against units that are really irrelevant in my grand battle plan in order to ensure that they don't threaten the rest of my army, and to prepare the enemy's troops for a major assault against the bulk of my troops, only to run up against air.

[lLonginus]

My current favorite strategy (Tau) is having several squads of crisis suits wielding targeting arrays, twinlinked plasma rifles and a team leader with a plasma and a fusion blaster, and deepstrike them onto my enemy using the Pathfinder Devilfish beacon. One of these squads of three will almost always hit (re-rollable Bs 4) using 7 shots that wound marines on a 2+ and ignore terminator armour. The beauty of it is that the Pathfinder Devilfish allows me to re-roll deep strike so that if I scatter onto my enemy, I can take a second try at it. It's great for quickly eliminating portions of the enemy force, a Devastator squad was taking shots at my Hammerheads and I dropped in right next to them, annihilated the squad and then ate through my opponent's terminators and marines.

[Skrivus]

With Black Templars (with the vow the gives them preferred enemy), I love to have 6 assault terminators, along with an emperor's champion and a tooled up chappie in an LRC. Have another tooled up chappie with jump pack join a full assault squad. Run the LRC up first turn, use smoke launchers, pile in assault marines behind them to block LOS. Meanwhile, I have 4 Land Speeder Tornadoes to harass the enemy and kill specific targets.

It also depends on the enemy not killing the LRC that first turn, with a glancing 6. I also gave it blessed hull against people who use lance weapons. Most of the time, it'll get shaken or stunned or even a weapon destroyed, which doesn't matter, I drive it up 12", disembark and assault into an enemy lines, with the assault marines going into another squad. They just massacre lots of stuff in close combat, meanwhile the rest of my army is shooting up the remainder of their army.

I know it's not the normal way to play Black Templars and that assault terminators are unpopular, but I have lots of fun playing this way, win or lose.

[Soldat]

in my mind, since ive only started building up my Valhallan Red Army, i picture basically using mainly tanks, massed infantry, and artillery in many ways. One of the simple ways i plan to defeat my opponents is to basically have a large force of tanks in somewhat of a long extended front followed by my massed infantry which are following right behind the tanks. As the lines advance and the enemy is within range of the enemy force, my tanks completely unleash thier weapons on the enemy, most likely killing and destroying a decent amount of the enemy. Once enough of thier force is reduced, and my lines are close enough, the infantry following the tanks come out from the cover of the tanks and finish off the rest of the enemy under the cover of my tanks gunfire. Every chance that my infantry get to take a shot at the enemy, they do it, and considering the large amount of troops im able to cheaply field while still keeping them effective (platoon=345 pts) , i will most likely be able to take care of the remaining foes. Thats only one of the ways i might be able to deliver a heavy blow to my opponents, my other methods involve carefully directed infantry assaults supported by groups of mortar teams, artillery, etc. Also im still working on starting my plan for getting squads of heavy infantry who basically have the same stats as a regular guardsmen but carry a heavy bolter and are clad in extremely heavy armor ( save of 2+). Im anxious to see my friends face or opponents face when he sees those massive hordes if infantry and tanks or whatever steaming towards him. thier face will proboly look like this:O or tmaybe this:cry: OR for some reason this:x.... lol

[LittleBlueMan]

Fish of Fury

A Tau Tactic.

Take a 12 man firewarrior squad in a devilfish. Move the devilifish forward so that the front burst cannon is only a little bit aways from the enemy (this may take some practice). Then you need to disembark your firewarriors in the back and rapid fire into the enemy.

If you did this right, the enemy will not be able to assault the firewarriors the next turn, as they must stay an inch away from enemies unless they assault them, so they have to circle around the devilfish, making the distance they need in order to assault greater than 12". If you are nervous, you can detach your gundrones from their little holes and put them next to your Devilfish, increasing the distance the enemy has to move in order to assault.

[drdapoo]

Ive found in the past using Imperial Guard armor as mobile cover is the way to go. I play a IG/DH mix and in the past ive been known to use my sentinals as mobile cover. This works great against static gun lines or for taking objectives. Position a unit of grey knights right next to a unit of sentinels. Use the sentinels scout move to move them ahead and away from the grey knights. If you do this right then you will always have the sentinals inbetween you and some nasties. Then a turn before you want to assault move them aside to make a clear path. If you play smart, it works every time.

[farmpunk]

I gotta say my favorite trick might just be the hit-and-run hopscotch.

take a unit with hit-n-run. I use Seraphim for this. I move them forward, and usually allow them to be assaulted. (invulnerable saves help here) Sometimes, I assault a squad, then stick it out until the opponent's turn. After your opponent's assault, hit-n-run out of the combat.

Hit-and-run lets you move in ANY direction. them when you set down, you can either move again and fire, or you can double tap with pistols. it's an effective way to get some shots across the board, especially to the nasty indirect fire tanks.

I prefer it with inferno pistols, but it does work nicely with twin hand flamers against troops as well. Opponents that have seen this end up placing top priority on killing the Seraphim. even to the length of ignoring my tanks.

[Stunted_Merc]

My favorite tactic is to shoot lots of stuff, since the enemy generally likes to run at me and I'm happy enough to oblige :yes:

[StevenSane]

Favorite tau tactic: Reverse Flank. Its a really simple manuvere for Mech Tau, it helps if you have a standard 6x4 board. I castle the bulk of my force on one side of the board. After this 1 of two things happens.

1. My opponent spreads out anyway to cover the whole board.
Reaction: Blow the hell out of the nearest flank, the rest of his army is probably out of position.

2. My opponent piles his army in across from me on the same side.
Reaction: Get in a little shooting till he gets in position to shoot/assault and swing everything over to the opposite flank.

We call that a Kouyon in Tau. It works great for that army because many of our supporting units can move 12" a turn and still fire at maximum distance (as well as our great aversion for close combat).

[Tyrius]

Fish of Fury

A Tau Tactic.

Take a 12 man firewarrior squad in a devilfish. Move the devilifish forward so that the front burst cannon is only a little bit aways from the enemy (this may take some practice). Then you need to disembark your firewarriors in the back and rapid fire into the enemy.

If you did this right, the enemy will not be able to assault the firewarriors the next turn, as they must stay an inch away from enemies unless they assault them, so they have to circle around the devilfish, making the distance they need in order to assault greater than 12". If you are nervous, you can detach your gundrones from their little holes and put them next to your Devilfish, increasing the distance the enemy has to move in order to assault.

Can also double up on warfish to do this tactic allowing you to disembark between the 2 and behind. Works with piranhas/warfish similiarly. I like this tactic alot. I however have sms instead of drones and use terrain to weaken the enemy with sms then disembark for the "killing blow" :ninja:

[1939away]

I havent tried this yet but some of you guys must have.

Split my army in half making sure the gap is as big as possible.
Then put my non mobile units on one flank and my mobile units on the other.
Hopefully my enemy will match my deployment (although his mobile/ non mobile units are all over the place).

Then i zoom my mobile stuuf over to the non mobile stuff while non mobile stuff shoot hardout at the approaching flank. Then the mobile stuuf goes in and attacks them.

At this point half his army will be gone, my casualties will be losses in assualt and a few dead marines maybe from enemys advancing fire.

Then i should overwhelm his oncming flank from the other side of the board.

[buttersthewarder]

my favorite tactic is frenzy. it works with any army with fast moving tanks ( i play tau but eldar, dark eldar or marines (especially blood angels)).

the principal is to surround the enemy with three tanks 1" away (two might work) then tank shock the unit. the No Retreat! rule applies so the whole unit dies. watch your opponent's jaw drop (:O) as his tooled up HQ or unit of terminators gets annihilated.

if the opponent has a transport (which he should) cover all the access hatches then tank shock the tank. the tank blows up and thepassengers cant get out so they die (he-he).:yes:


LOL i love these tactics

[sunnyside]

Well I feel a lot less origional with the "put all of my army on half of theirs" bit.

I also wonder if people are actually reading the thread or just posting as it's been suggested maybe four times so far.

By the way that's also the way to counter the "basilisk two step" if your army is fast. Pile on to one of the two groups. Most of half of the bassie army can't really contribute and for a while the other bassie is of limited effectivness because they'll be about as likely to hit their own troops as yours.

Anyway a specific tactic I'm really enjoying.

Take a tricked out unit of Eldar Shining Spears and a jetbike farseer with fortune. At the beginning of the turn fortune the spears and then have them turbo forward.

3+ invulnerable save with a reroll.

Next use the eldar jetbikes 6" assault move to let the farseer keep up.

On the next turn, typically, you'll have the farseer fortune them again and in the move have the farseer rejoin the unit and charge.

If you're charging something that has no powerweapons/rending they're pretty well screwed. If they have ONE powerweapon have the farseer get in B2B with them. They're forced to attack the multiwound model with the 4+ invul with reroll instead of the squishy spear.

If the model is an IC hopefully the star lance at S8 can down them.

If it's a hidden powerfist than you have to make a hard call. Farseer would likely survive, but might get instakilled. Obviously you'd be trying to use your turbo move to engage somethign other than a unit like that (as what you really want are dev squads), if you must try and soften them up first.

[Weezhard]

Divide and conquer.

It is very similar to the phalanx, but is more offensive orientated. It favours fast armies, and particularly dark eldar (which is the army I use it with).

It basically involves splitting your army in half and attacking the flanks of an opposing army simulatenously, thus attemtping to deny the enemy the ability to use combined arms versus your fragile units.

A nice bonus is this tactic is the only static fire support you typically need is anti tank, which is my case is two warrior squads euipped with darklances.

All other fire support should be mobile to provide short range cover for your assault units (again, using dark eldar as an example my assault units would be wyches and a lord with incubi).

Many armies can do it, its jsut it can really favour dark eldar if done right.


This is a vaild tactic, but is actually a Pincer movement. Divide and conquer would require you to isolate one of his flanks, then destoy it or the heart of the army.

[omgitsduane]

My strategy is roll four 1's in a group of 9 dice.

[Soul Reap]

My strategy is roll four 1's in a group of 9 dice.
Hmm . . .Its crazy, but it just might work.:P

My favorite strategy is deepstriking combi plasma terminators from whatever suits me best. The looks from the other player's face is priceless.:)

[omgitsduane]

Youd be surprised how well it works ;)

[Tenozuma]

Anyway a specific tactic I'm really enjoying.

Take a tricked out unit of Eldar Shining Spears and a jetbike farseer with fortune. At the beginning of the turn fortune the spears and then have them turbo forward.

3+ invulnerable save with a reroll.

Next use the eldar jetbikes 6" assault move to let the farseer keep up.

On the next turn, typically, you'll have the farseer fortune them again and in the move have the farseer rejoin the unit and charge.

If you're charging something that has no powerweapons/rending they're pretty well screwed. If they have ONE powerweapon have the farseer get in B2B with them. They're forced to attack the multiwound model with the 4+ invul with reroll instead of the squishy spear.

If the model is an IC hopefully the star lance at S8 can down them.

If it's a hidden powerfist than you have to make a hard call. Farseer would likely survive, but might get instakilled. Obviously you'd be trying to use your turbo move to engage somethign other than a unit like that (as what you really want are dev squads), if you must try and soften them up first.

That's a pretty good one, I like it. On the powerfist thing I'd like to add that if you give your farseer mind war that could become a whole lot easier. It's also nice to get rid of the powerfist sarge via mind war and then charge them with a wraithlord. They can't hurt it so it will just keep tying them down killing one or two a turn.

[Imperator100]

Favourite tactic has to be break and shoot.

[omgitsduane]

Is that sarcasm? Cos doesnt breaking let you get cut down by the enemy?

[Imperator100]

You obviously haven't face break and shoot. It's sacrificing a squad, getting it killed, then rapid firing the cra* out of your enemy's assault squad. Any respectable IG player uses it.

[omgitsduane]

I've done that before, but not as a strategy. But there was too many orks anyway :(

[Intrepid]

I like the Bunker Rhino. Drive it forward into a clearing, jump out behind it, let the inevitable death happen then climb the CSM squad on the wreckage for a cute save. Proceed to spam the las/plas IG squads as the Raptors use the wreck to screen their advance! Works with Princes, too.


the hit-and-run hopscotch
*pang of nostalgia for third edition Raptors*

[LoneFang]

My favorite tactic is playing the Wolves is when my scouts come up from the backside of my opponents table edge and annihilates a squad of my opponent and get a D6 inch consolidation roll and if I get enough distance get base to base with another squad. Yeah, I lose my bonus attacks, but it sure does beat getting them shot up!!!

[Legion Of Light]

Mine's got to be get some thing big to use as a distraction and then flank the enemy whilst they deal with the Distraction :C.

[Killswitch]

Well, you see I run my HQ at the heart of the enemies gun lines, all the while my armoured spearhead of 5 tanks secretly, and silently if I may add, makes its way up the...no I'm just kidding. I really use cover and a heavy flank so my mech chaos army can get to comnbat, teleport in termies, and massacre half the opponents army in turn 2, while my AT Preds take care of tanks. Oh did I mention how awesome the look on an opponents face is when you go, here's 8 plasma shots, a heavy flamer, 4 autocannon shots, 4 lascannon shots, 40-ish bolter/bolt pistol shots, and a bunch of meltas. Oh, and thats just the shooting, here comes the assault...

-J

[LoneFang]

That's just plain nasty SWAT72!!!

[Imperator100]

I've done that before, but not as a strategy. But there was too many orks anyway :(
Under the right circumstances, break and shoot is arguably the best tactic possible for Imperial Guard armies against close combat squads like banshees or Assault Marines.

[Tenozuma]

You obviously haven't face break and shoot. It's sacrificing a squad, getting it killed, then rapid firing the cra* out of your enemy's assault squad. Any respectable IG player uses it.

Yeah, Triumph of Man (whom you may know from the forums) used that against me to great effect. Something I wasn't really fully prepared for at the time, I will be much more cautious next time... Damn cowardly guardsmen! :P It really is one of the great benefits of having twice as many units as your enemy, for an army like dark eldar against a shooty type army, combat = safety, because mostly our units are less vulnerable to CC attacks and this really turns everything on its head. I've always been cautious of not overkilling the enemy and then getting rapid-fired to death but this is something different - the IG players around here are pretty rubbish so hadn't mastered this tactic yet.

[Calaban]

My favorite tactic can also be called 'break and gun' (Tau firewarrior trick)

Firewarriors are spread out to max coherency when they know they are about to get assaulted. After the assaulters are done swinging, I remove casualties from the limited number of models that are eligible to take the wounds: those in base to base, and any within 2" of those in base 2 base. Those are the ONLY ones eligible to take wounds, btw, so as they are all spread out, at worst case I may lose half the firewarriors.

Then, after the bodies fall, I pray to FAIL the morale check for that combat [and get tempted over and over to take along an Ethereal, to reroll any checks I accidentally passed.. hehe].

Because, there wont be a sweeping advance and massacre, because: and heres the key rule; If there is no fleeing models in base to base with the enemy, then there IS NO sweeping advance, and there will be NO massacre! [class, open your rulebooks to pg 43, and read para. 2 under Sweeping Advance- if this rule mechanic was unknown to you]. My Firewarriors fallback 2d6", while the assaulters can only consolidate 1d6".. add to that distance the gap where the dead firewarriors used to be, and thats a guaranteed fallback and getting away!

Then on my turn, whether they rallied or not, the Firewarriors may STILL rapidfire those assaulters, who would most likely be within rapidfire range... to add injury to insult. :P

Any army/unit can use this trick, but it helps to be miserable at CC, while the assaulters are monsters at CC, because it is very important that those in base to base all die off. Carefull positioning can push the odds in your favor that the assaulters only come to grips with a few models at one time, to help force this tactic into happening.

:happy:

[stayscrunchyinmilk]

Overpower with armor - infantry held in reserve (D/St) to begin with, and too many armoured targets to destroy quickly. Grind down enemy - no fixed rule for targeting (exept transports. Get them 1st) Then drop in the men and try to clear up (their vehicles are best left until this point - rear meltas tend to work beter than any front facing ordenance - stun them to tie them up if there's no better kill)
normally the infantry do tend to die alot, however the general carnage normally results in a good game.

[onlainari]

A tactic I have been using extremely effectively recently is keeping my hammerhead out of range or los of enemy weaponry that would shoot at it. I consistently go whole games without my hammerhead being shot, it's not that hard.

This does mean I tend to get less offensive firepower out of my hammerhead. For example, sometimes I don't move it first turn and keep it hidden, making sure it fires next turn when I need it more.

[arachnid]

a little something i like to call

The backdoor bandit!

free choice of meatshield troops, preferably carrying heavy weapons to pose a threat.

a number of Chosen units..

infiltrate them in.. well Behind the opponents guys..

Now pray for reserve rolls/demon summonings en masse and... well, Force an entry from the rear 0:

(please dont hurt me, it's late)

[kevin vanrooyen]

For marines a great tactic is to put some assault troops or guys made for rapid fire range to the side ex: 15 marines in 3 squads each with a plasma gun. You'll only be using one of these squads. Now take 3 rhinos with smoke launchers 2 of them empty one with the rapid fire squad in it. Move them the full distance forward and use smoke. now your opponent will waste his firepower trying to destroy them. if he kills an empty rhino he'll think that they're all empty, in this case dismount and rapid fire on his most expensive squad. If he kills a rhino with the squad in it he will waste more firepower trying to kill the other rhinos, if he gets another one he won't know if the last one is a decoy and will probably shoot at it. Now most of your army has a whole round of shooting unmolested by enemy guns, this works best against armies like tau and guard who have lots of fire power and don't want you close. If you use this constantly against your friends it might be usefull to just use the rhinos once and a while if he keeps destroying them, or all three squads if he keeps ignoring them.

[TraitorBob]

A rush with a pincer manuver on the enemy position. Works well with armies that can field large numbers of expendable troops such as IG, 'Nids or LatD. The point is to overwhelm the enemy with large numbers of troops so that he wont know what to shoot. In this way you can move your men forward maybe losing a few men in the process then outnumber them in CC. If find this tactic works well with mutants and guants who have can get many members per squad or brood (I think). The point is to have the enemy closed in CC while your tanks can move up and use their shorter ranged weapons (Demolisher Cannon, Heavy Flamers) recking havoc upon the enemy formations.

[Jürgen Mutant]

Don't know. I don't think I've won, ever.

[RobtheGuru]

Operation Grot Shield is always an annoyance for the opponant. Two units of 30 grots spread right across the table with 4 full units of boys behind assissted by several units of stormboyz. Have brought about the demise of many other players.

[Alphatwitch]

My strategy is roll four 1's in a group of 9 dice.


hahaha! i've seen u use that tactic many a time duane!

[MadLarkin]

The Phanlanx works with lots of armies. Only works if you deploy second though, But if he deploys first he should spread out his guys and develop firing lines and such, just ignore everything and deploy everything to the extreme right or extreme left side of the board.

Thus your whole army is in immediate range of a fraction of his, the rest of his units will spend at least 2 turns getting into range/LOS of your guys and by then your army should have destroyed many of his guys

[Archnomad]

My latest would have to be something I know as:

The Tsunami

This differs when playing against combat or shooty armies. Against combat oriented:

Pretty much, I move everything forward towards the objectives, and sit on them, while summoning my Daemons and then moving them into cover. Then sit and pelt my enemy with bolters, and fight them off when they try and come wrest the objectives off of me. My 2000 point list has >100 models in it as Chaos Space Marines ;)

Against shooty armies:

I tend to run full pelt for the objectives on their side of the board. I place objectives quite close to home though, and will usually summon a unit of 6 daemons onto it.

Just ran out of time, back later ^^

[stayscrunchyinmilk]

For marines a great tactic is to put some assault troops or guys made for rapid fire range to the side ex: 15 marines in 3 squads each with a plasma gun. You'll only be using one of these squads. Now take 3 rhinos with smoke launchers 2 of them empty one with the rapid fire squad in it. Move them the full distance forward and use smoke. now your opponent will waste his firepower trying to destroy them. if he kills an empty rhino he'll think that they're all empty, in this case dismount and rapid fire on his most expensive squad. If he kills a rhino with the squad in it he will waste more firepower trying to kill the other rhinos, if he gets another one he won't know if the last one is a decoy and will probably shoot at it. Now most of your army has a whole round of shooting unmolested by enemy guns, this works best against armies like tau and guard who have lots of fire power and don't want you close. If you use this constantly against your friends it might be usefull to just use the rhinos once and a while if he keeps destroying them, or all three squads if he keeps ignoring them.
Not anymore chum, not anymore.

[stayscrunchyinmilk]

My favorite tactic can also be called 'break and gun' (Tau firewarrior trick)

Firewarriors are spread out to max coherency when they know they are about to get assaulted. After the assaulters are done swinging, I remove casualties from the limited number of models that are eligible to take the wounds: those in base to base, and any within 2" of those in base 2 base. Those are the ONLY ones eligible to take wounds, btw, so as they are all spread out, at worst case I may lose half the firewarriors.

Then, after the bodies fall, I pray to FAIL the morale check for that combat [and get tempted over and over to take along an Ethereal, to reroll any checks I accidentally passed.. hehe].

Because, there wont be a sweeping advance and massacre, because: and heres the key rule; If there is no fleeing models in base to base with the enemy, then there IS NO sweeping advance, and there will be NO massacre! [class, open your rulebooks to pg 43, and read para. 2 under Sweeping Advance- if this rule mechanic was unknown to you]. My Firewarriors fallback 2d6", while the assaulters can only consolidate 1d6".. add to that distance the gap where the dead firewarriors used to be, and thats a guaranteed fallback and getting away!

Then on my turn, whether they rallied or not, the Firewarriors may STILL rapidfire those assaulters, who would most likely be within rapidfire range... to add injury to insult. :P

Any army/unit can use this trick, but it helps to be miserable at CC, while the assaulters are monsters at CC, because it is very important that those in base to base all die off. Carefull positioning can push the odds in your favor that the assaulters only come to grips with a few models at one time, to help force this tactic into happening.

:happy:

Hold up, in 5th the charged player moved his men up to 6" to get as many as possible into contact as he can. Then the charger moves an additional 6" to get as many into contact as possible. It's under the combat section of the rules.
(I don't have the rules on me, but i know this is true as i was a) surprised at this b) looked carefully at it to establish the sequence r.e. multiple combats c) realised medics are useless in melee (as most don't work if they're in base to base with an opponent, which is garanteed.) It does help confirm close order drills in my IG units though.

So this simply won't work anymore under 5th ed rules (If you're using them)

This would also have trouble when you roll an opposed initiative to stop being masacred. (as your initiative sucks), so no running off for you (You're just dead)

Edit: Oh, hang on, this thread's been about for aeons and this was posted during 4th ed.

[justiceisrelative]

My main army is sisters with imperial guard. Most of my oppenent say that my best tactic is cheating within the rules( poke poke) .

But seriously I use a modified pincer my 2 AFS squads sit at home being guarded by my cannones and her retinue. My calidus and seraphim come in behind their firebase . My BSS's squad backed by IMMolator and chimera's move up the side or middle working in concert to contest or clear objectives. MY excorcist and rus keep up a steady field of fire

[FXMorph]

Dunno if this is much of a tactic, but it is a pain if done right.

1.) Deploy\Infiltrate Scout Squad with teleporter homer.
2.) Deploy Librarian Terminator with Terminator Squad about 12-24 inches from Scouts.
3.) Give Librarian the "Gate of Infinity" Psychic Power.
4.) Line up devastators at my side of the board.
5.) Keep Assualt Terminators in reserve for deepstriking.

Well, not to say the obvious, but for those that can't figure it out. Gate of Infinity and the Teleporter homer on the Scout Squad work together. Move towards the enemy, and as soon as they come too close for comfort, bounce away with the Gate. I call this one Blinking Librarian.

[iCON]

my IG tactic is....
1) infiltrate objectives or half way up the board with light infantry thats half my army
2) drive tanks up to half way
3) have infantry digg-in plus camoline = cant be killed
4) shoot with demo tank and chimera filled with stormtrumpers
5) if anti tank show up, have infantry pop up and take it out
6) tech priest... best unit ever.... he or it (or even her, its hard to tell) can cc, shoot, survive, fix
7) for the win on last 2 turns jump out and drive up, kill or break or at least lock into cc

[Captain Jesus]

I stopped doing this when I bought Calgar, but.

- Lysander with a maxed Sternguard squad, and a librarian attached.
- Infiltrated scouts all with teleport homers.
- Twinlinked botguns all with special ammo.
- If the enemy gets too close, I teleport out. If I fail I move into rapid fire range or
charge (combi- weapons work better here as they are mostly assault, but it can only be used once, and only do it if
you have the points.)
- If i get charged i have Lysander to help me out, My sargeant may have a special weapon, and I have my librarian.