What's your Style?
There are different styles of army in 40k. One way to break them down is to compare their playstyle. While some armies can be played in different ways, most of them are best when played in one particular style. Sorting out which style your army plays best in is very helpful in getting started. If you are new to the game, it can be difficult to figure out which style your army is. I'll try to lay down some very basic guidelines to help you get a handle on it.

Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun.

Shooting
You've got big guns and lots of them. You want to burn the enemy down and scour the earth. You also want to do this before they can close in and stick you with pointy things.

If your army is a shooting army, you will have access to big guns and lots of them. You will have a variety of weapon options to choose from and you will probably have options that aren't just in one portion of your force organization chart. You also probably don't have any real assault or counterassault units. In general, if your best assault units are Toughness 3 and WS4 or less without power weapons or special rules that give them an edge in combat (such as Dark Eldar Wyches or Eldar Harlequins,) you really need to be shooting. Click the link to read the shooting armies tactica.

Lunchtime!

Assault
You want to get up close and personal. You want to lop off heads and stick pointy things in the enemy. You generally need to do this quickly, before those big guns over there polish you off.

If your army is an assault army, you will have a fairly wide array of assault units, and they won't be just in the Elites section. In general, units that are WS4 and T4 or better with extra attacks make fairly good assault troops. If you are a real assault army (not the combination army below) these will be more or less your standard troops, and you will have much more elite assault units as well. In addition, some of these units shouldn't have to rely on vehicles for movement better than the infantry standard. On the other hand, you will probably have very few shooting options. Click the link to read the assault army tactica.

Combination
The idea is (typically) to use your shooting to pummel the enemy army, while your assault units keep the enemy at arm's length so you can keep doing it. Many armies in the 40k universe work best in a variation of this fashion.

You may have some good shooting options, but they'll probably be primarily limited to a single slot on your force organization chart (likely the heavy support section.) You may have some good assault options, but they'll probably be forced to rely on vehicles for mobility and may also be limited to a single slot on your force chart (typically the elites section.) If you are interested in this style of army, please check out this combination army tactica.

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