[Cheredanine]

Split Deployment – The art of firepower

Split deployment is a tactic princely for use in static firepower armies against assault armies. It can be adapted and used for many other situations, but that original concept is where it is at its’ most eloquent.

The best article to date I have seen on split deployment is in WD(UK 295) but since not everyone has this, and since my friend, Jon, needs to know it.. this is 101 split deployment.

First Principles

The principle of a static firepower army is simple – shoot your opponents, generally the more firepower you have the better. But certain assault based armies or short range firepower armies are damn quick and will be on you before you get to wipe the floor with them in sufficient numbers to make them ineffective.

The first thing any firepower army must learn is fire discipline – the correct prioritisation of targets, I am assuming you have mastered this to a large degree and will only illustrate where this tactic enforces a change on target priorities

The principle of split deployment is this: I am going to split my army in to two halves, I am prepared to lose one half, I don’t care wich, but in so doing, I will wipe out my opponents entire force – think of it as a two for one offer!

So what do I do?

OK well the basis is, as above, firstly split your army into two equal halves, try and have a similar amount of firepower and if present, counter assault in both half, ensure you have a good mix of anti tank and anti infantry in both half.

Now when you deploy, put one half on the left hand side of your deployment zone and the other on the right. The bigger the gap, the better.

Lines of sight: This is the numero uno important thing, 99% of the time it takes consideration over all other things, each half of your army must have three good lines of sight:

1: It must be able to shoot in front of it at what comes at it
2: It must be able to shoot diagonally at what comes at the other half
3: It must be able to shoot at the other half

Failure to meet all three of these can be exploited by your opponent, this is not necessarily an earth shatterer but it can diffuse the efficiency of the tactic which is rather the point.

Cover: subject to the above, if you can do it, deploy in to cover, doesn’t really need explaining for any firepower army commander.

What he does: here is the beauty – I don’t care, other than obviously being as far away from him as possible, I really don’t care!

The Next step

OK we are going to split your army, to make this easy to explain, one half is called the victory flank, one is called the sacrificial flank (volunteers please).

So you have the army in two halves, you have both deployed, now. Based on the assumption he is an assault army, you can see what is going for each half, he may be split in some degree or may be going all for one flank. You can judge, with ease, which half stands the best chance of surviving yes? Well done, you just identified your victory flank, commiserations to those in the other half of your army . But wait I hear you say.. I really cant call it! – not to worry, of you feel it is about even, pick one, if it is that close it really doesn’t matter, go for the best painted, that would be my advice – you want your survivors to look cool!

OK so now we know which half is which, and it is very important we have done this before we start shooting.

So now we change target priorities:
You shoot everything that can at his units going for the victory flank. Everything, ignore the 30 genestealers bearing down on your sacrificial flank, shoot the victory flanks opponents with both halves of your army until everything going for it is dead. If your sacrificial flank has units that don’t have the range then fine they can shoot at what is going for them. If your sacrificial flank has a load of bolters and the only thing going for the victory flank is a Land raider crusader then fine again shoot at what is coming your way, but excepting that sort of easy decision, shoot at what goes for the victory flank.

Once your Victory flank is free from threat, if you have the time before he reaches you, start shooting at what comes for the sacrificial flank.

Your sacrificial flank then sells their lives as dearly as possible, if you can do it, move units further away from the victory flank.

As Victory flank is now free it can pick targets going for or finishing with your sacrificial flank.

Net result:
Normally you have the time it takes his army to cross from his deployment zone to yours to shoot him
With split deployment, you have the same time, plus the time it takes for him to cross from one side of your deployment zone to the other, with half your army shooting him, plus he has to do this as his units become free from combat, which means it will happen peacemeal rather than the big rush on turn 1

Word to the wise
We all know tactics and strategies go out the window on turn 1, those of us with static fire power also know that you must keep fire discipline, but because of the out the window thing, you need to be adaptable – same is true with split deployment, try it, learn how to use/adapt it

 

[cebwj]

Yes this is really good! I have read a similar (suprisingly good) article in White Dwarf. *rep*
I think this works really well if you have what it takes, and as an Imperial Guard player, I have nothing against watching my own men die...

 

[Master Lucius]

Spoken like a true guard commander.

This tactic does work very well with any army that tends to lack in fast counter assault units. For Tau this works wonders, and Imperial Guard too in many armies, same goes for Iron Warriors. Because lets face it, they may be the exact same thing as the next chaos marine, but their fluff makes them suck in close combat for some reason. I've seen this tactic work wonders though, has lead to many victories. Heck, I even do this with my marines sometimes if the terrain doesn't work to my advantage.

 

[Naurhir]

Is this viable for Eldar? I have been under the impression that Eldar are not the type you want to sacrifice for any cost, and are too few in number to give any away.

 

[Master Lucius]

This tactic can work very well with Eldar, in fact it could work extremely well. If you take into account their tanks mobility, and their versatility against enemy fire. Especially with the force fields. Also, if you load up a transport with some Howling Banshees they work wonders in this tactics. This is the only way to really make this effective for them. If you get into close combat as the eldar, it will go bad, it's like getting into Close Combat with Tau. The Eldar are much more fragile in this sense.

 

[Grey]

Not bad at all except perhaps when facing an extremely FAST enemy force.

For example: I"ve also found that split deployment works well for my KoS (Kult of Speed) list for different reasons.

1. I set up on two sides of the board hopefully getting my opponent to do something similar.

2. On my first turn, I rush all my 24" moving vehicles to one side leaving half of his army doing much less that it would otherwise.

3. Battle is joined with 100% of my army fighting (hopefully) 50% of his, decreasing my losses and accelerating the enemy flanks destruction.

4. When that half of the enemy force has been destroyed, remount and go after the other flank if my force is still over 75% intact.

If they have been reduced to less than such, I retreat to my side of the board and hide behind cover typically giving me the victory if it is only focused upon VPs.

 

[Cheredanine]

to be fair, the tactic is about principle, we have all encountered situations when tactics go out the window on turn 1.

By its self, this tactic will tend to give static firepower armies a high proportion of wins, but a really good commander adapts it, I use it occasionally iwth my highly mobile eldar army, it is also the same principle that assault armies can use (you can kill half my army but the other half will get you)

Not bad at all except perhaps when facing an extremely FAST enemy force.

if an army is fast enough to reach you without you doing enough damage with split deployment, then it is sure enough fast enough to reach you whatever you do

 

[Whitz]

Not to state the obvious or anything but this does tend to rely on passing a LOT of leadership tests to shoot at an enemy which isn't the closest. With someone like guard you'll really want the half of the army with the general and standard to be the 'victory' half.

 

[Cheredanine]

Not to state the obvious or anything but this does tend to rely on passing a LOT of leadership tests to shoot at an enemy which isn't the closest. With someone like guard you'll really want the half of the army with the general and standard to be the 'victory' half.

Not strictly true, your victory flank dont need to pass leadership tests cos they are shooting at the nearest enemy - easy

The other half, well vehicles dont need LD tests so any tanks or basilisks on that side are fine, the rest you are probably talking about a quater of your army, of which you pass over half, even for IG, with a master vox and HSO/JO or with most other armies, you are unlucky to fail more than the odd one

 

[Malaky]

Hi there, it's not my first post on these forums but almost... anyway, I've been playing wargames for quite a while now and I currently play a Word Bearer army which is a work in progress. I find that splitting the firepower of an army is a good way to make your opponent do what you want even if HE wants to direct you by forcing you to a certain way.

I almost always leave a squad and a bit more in cover to provide a base of fire on one side of the battlefield. Usually this side will get more casualty than the other side. People feel they are weaker but they usually hold long enough for me to get the winning side in a game changing state. Heavy Bolters and Missile Launcher with Krak works a plenty to hold off on the loosing side. Plus knocking a battletank from 48 inches away with a squad someone thought they would not have any problem with is a pretty good feeling I must say.

Although I usually play against Tau, Imperial Guard and Necrons...

I must admit that Close Combat is usually my kind of stuff as chaos and I try to force my way of Close Combat on other players. :shifty:

 

[Gardeth]

As a ardent Dark Eldar player I have come across this tactic and its a real tough nut to crack. Sure smashing one flank is easy, but getting across to kill the other can be a bear, especially if he's halfway smart and shoots down my raiders after they deploy their contents. So far I've been lucky enough to beat this tactic, but its generally a close call. I have seen this beat several other assualt armie's handidly (done it myselft with my IG). Many assault armies have a hard time with splitting their forces (ei nids synapse) and either bunch up on one flank or try to split their forces and end up with 2 ineffective strike forces.

 

[Doomwaker]

I like this guide - it's good advice to new players (especiialy new Tau and IG players), considering that new players now seem to lack any sort of discipline and strategy when commanding a static firepower army. 8Y

 

[CaptainSarathai]

So if they try to split their army evenly and drop both halves of your army at the same time, you have to keep firing at the force assaulting the Victory flank? Then just pray to the higher powers that in CC you can do SOME damage to the foe.

And if he puts the whole army into one flank, you fire and fire some more until hopefully he's toasted?

So my counter tactic would be to run straight up the middle, hit his back field, and then go from there for the attack, or just get a fast unit into each pocket- because the shooting pretty much stops when the slashing starts.

Sounds good overall- how's it work for bolters and rockets?

 

[frozencore]

I helped a friend of mine devise this strategy for his guard army a couple years ago when someone started fielding a really nasty khorne list that involved a daemon prince AND a bloodthirster in 1000 points. It really does work wonders, it gave him the fighting chance to do what none of use could...win. He still uses it to this day when he faces an army that wants to get up close. Just kinda seemed like common sense to me...

 

[Cp_Morgan]

Hmmm....can this tactic be reliable for necrons? I mean if i play against a black templar army this maybe will be kind of suicide for my necrons army no?

 

[Cheredanine]

it can work very well against templars although Vows can make it harder. But the issue is more about can necrons use it? The issue is that the sacrifical flank need to pour fire on those going for the vicotry flank, for crons, with a 24 inch range this can present problems, however there are ways round it such as redeploying using liths and viel

 

[Weaf]

Not bad at all except perhaps when facing an extremely FAST enemy force.

For example: I"ve also found that split deployment works well for my KoS (Kult of Speed) list for different reasons.

1. I set up on two sides of the board hopefully getting my opponent to do something similar.

2. On my first turn, I rush all my 24" moving vehicles to one side leaving half of his army doing much less that it would otherwise.

This also applies to Necrons, even though they don't have great long-range weapons. Destroyers and Veiling Immortals can all shift from one side to the other rapidly without losing their firepower. I've set up at times with those units on one side to entice the opponent to split his forces and other times in order to be able to pick the strong side early on. The Monolith is also useful here, as it can draw a unit of warriors out of either side. The part I've ignored is fire discipline. I'm often too tempted to stay put and go after tanks, especially those with template weapons, thus splitting my fire. At that point the split deployment becomes a weakness, as assault units get into contact with my warriors on BOTH sides and march towards phase out. I'm definitely going to try this tactic with strict fire discipline. I'm a new player and hadn't really considered how to stick with the tactic beyond deployment.

 

[Akumakaji]

Also one point of advice for fast armies like
eldar or Dark Eldar: when you use this tactic you can redeploy half your sacrifice force to the winning side when the enemy has finaly come close while engaging the enemy CC with the puny rest of the sacrifice force ... the next turn your enemy will stand in the open and 3/4 of your army will be able to fire at him

 

[DieHardSaintKildaSupporter]

Can mech eldar use this? I usually get my bikes to lure the enemy towards me, i'll lose a squad or 3-4 bikes, then ill disembark with my dire avengers/ fire dragons and kill everything that is within range, there shouldn't be much in range to hurt me back. if i split my army in half will there still be enough numbers? Just wondering if anyone has tried this tactic with mech eldar.

 

[Cheredanine]

it can do, what I have presented here is the basics of a static shooting army, it can be expanded and changed to mobile shooting armies with a high degree of sucess