Army Advice
This past weekend I got in a game against a new player. I was in the Bremerton area and Discordia was closed. I knew there was another store in town, and I found Comics Keep. They have a friendly forum, so I registered and posted there to see if I could get in a game. Anthony responded to me and challenged me to a 1500pt game. So I loaded up for the Greater Good and got on down to Bremerton!

As we were setting up for the game, Anthony informed me that this would be his first game that wasn't just squad-on-squad. I'll actually write up the Battle report for next time, but this time I want to focus on his army. After our game, he commented that he probably didn't stand much of a chance against a chaos army that he'd be taking on this week. I offered to send him some advice and so I did. I actually sent this to him ahead of time so that he could use it in the game.

I had to take several things into consideration when I came up with this advice. First off, the models he has available.

It doesn't do any good to tell someone to take units x, y, and z if they don't have them. Anthony has these models available...

1 terminator chaplain
1 chief librarian Tigirius
1 librarian in terminator armour (has familiar)
1 terminator squad (2 chainfists 2 powerfists 1 assaultcannon and
sergeant with power sword and fist)
1 scout bike squad of 2 bikes and 1 bike sergeant
3 tac squads 1 has missile launcher and flamer, 1 has plasma gun 1 has meltagun and missile launcher 1 has plasma gun
1 combat squad of 4 men and 1 seargent 1 man has melta
1 dev squad 2 lascannon 2 multi melta
1 dev squad 4 heavy bolters
2 assault squads of 5 men (2 meltas)
1 5man scout squad with 3bolters and 1 heavy bolter and 1 sergeant with chainsword and pistol
1 5man scout squad has cc weapons and bolt pistols
1 whirlwind (storm bolters)
2 rhinos (storm bolters)

Next up, I had to take into account his playstyle. Telling someone that they need to play in a certain way won't work if that's not their style. Based on my observations during our short game, Anthony is more interested in standing back and shooting, with some assault capabilities. Fortunately, his army supports that in terms of playing Space Marines, which have both capabilities and usually work best when incorporated together. In addition, his choice of units also backs this up: Devastators and Tactical squads with heavy weapons, plus some small assault-capable units (Terminators, Assault Marines.) This is great, because many new players will sort of buy units indiscriminately, based on whatever looks cool or what somebody said worked really well, and they end up with a mish-mash of capabilities and an incoherent list. Note that since I sent him this advice, Anthony has told me that he'd like to utilize other capabilities with his models as well, and I will be giving him advice on that as well at a later date.

While I can give pretty coherent advice based on army choices and playstyle, it is really most effective if there is also some indication of what opponents an army will face. Effective Army advice against Tyranids is entirely different against Imperial Guard. Knowing that his opponent is Chaos gives me some idea of what he'll be facing. Admittedly, there are very different styles of Chaos. Comparing, say Iron Warriors with WorldEaters you come up with vastly different styles. Most chaos armies fall into sort of a middle ground. Typically, they feature a fair amount of assault capability with some good shooting to back it up. They also usually have small, hard squads that have a very powerful character at their core. If even one member of a squad reaches the lines, they will do a significant amount of damage.

Taking all these items into consideration, I have drawn up a recommended force for Anthony and a way of using his units that I believe will fit his style of play. First off, the list. This is based on his list on Sunday, with the addition of a few units since he may be playing at 2000pts this time.

Terminator Chaplain
Terminator Librarian with Familiar

Terminator Squad

Tactical Squad: Missile Launcher and Flamer
Tactical Squad: Meltagun and Missile Launcher
Tactical Squad: Plasma gun (and a heavy weapon if available)
Scout Squad: 5 scouts with Bolt Pistol/CCW

Scout Bike Squad (3bikes)

Whirlwind
Devastator Squad: 2 Lascannon, 2 Multimelta
Devastator Squad: 4xHeavy Bolter

(For a shorter, 1500pt game, leave out 1 Tactical Squad and the Librarian.)

Next up, the placement: First, we have the Wedge formation. Ignore how your opponent places. You want a fairly tight deployment, with a little bit of space between your units, but taking up a small amount of space on your board edge. The Whirlwind can be placed anywhere behind a large chunk of terrain, but everything else should be placed together in a relatively tight group. The 3 Tactical squads should be placed up front, with the Devastator squads behind them and slightly to the outside. In the center will be the Terminator squad and both HQs. The Scouts and Scout bikes will be slightly to the outside on either side. The more that can be in cover, but still have good line of sight, the better. Since there is usually limited cover, the Devastator squads and the Scouts/Scout bikes have preference. The placement should look approximately like this...



Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge Board Edge
(emptyspace)Devastator1 Chap Terms Lib Devastator2
Scout Bikes Tac Squad1 Tac Squad2 Tac Squad3 Scouts





Leave about 4 inches between the Tac squads and the Devastators, attempting to keep enemy units from running directly from one unit to another in assault. This entire placement should be about 2-2.5 feet wide.

On my signal, unleash hell
The basic idea is to use it in a Shooting/Counterassault mode. The assault units stay in place while you stand and shoot. The shooters first target fast assault units and transport vehicles, with the goal of minimizing or fragmenting any assault that reaches your lines. If assault units get to your lines, you have a couple of options. First is speed bumps. Move out the scouts or bikes to shoot and assault anything the turn before it will hit your lines. Since these squads are small, they won't hold the enemy for long. Move them up right in front of the enemy unit to attempt to force them to charge your scouts or bikes. (If you charge them, they'll probably win the combat in your turn and sweep forward, then move and assault in their turn.) After they finish with the scouts, you have a choice. If there aren't any other assault units nearby, you might want to move up the Tactical squads and Rapid fire them back to their Chaos gods. If there are other units nearby, stay in place and do your best to wipe them out. (Note: most of the squads you'll encounter are going to be a few extra guys supporting a character that is nasty in combat. Thus you want to keep shooting until they are all dead. Don't leave one standing and think that it's enough damage. The last one is always the most dangerous.)

When they do reach your lines (and they probably will) you should absorb the charge with your Tactical squads. They should hold the enemy unit for their combat phase. When your turn comes around, move up one or more of your assault units to charge the enemy unit. (This means that your assaulters get their bonus attacks against their assault units, very important.) Hopefully, having your Devastator squads slightly to the outside of the Tactical squads will allow them to still shoot while the tacticals are caught in the assault.

If you have taken care of the assaulting units, shift fire to the enemy shooters. Start with enemy vehicles such as Predators, then shift to small squads with multiple heavy weapons, such as Havoks (much like your Devastator squads) or Obliterators.

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

Return to Warpstorm!