Following along with my axiom of ‘The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war,’ I offer you some suggestions on how to prepare yourself for coming battles. I’ll be using my Tyranid army list for concrete examples throughout. Now, this doesn’t mean that I’ll always win, but it does help me find weaknesses in my army and give me a fighting chance against any opponent.

“What’s my motivation?”

Let’s start with why you’re fighting the battle. Although it is sometimes fun to just line up at the edges of the board and bash each other until only one side is left standing, most people play missions of some sort, and those missions have objectives. The most common objectives are Table Quarters, Claiming or Touching Objectives, or Victory Points. Victory points are essentially just bashing each other, so I won’t cover the details here. On the other hand, Table Quarters require you to move a unit somewhere and hold it’s ground. You can do this by hiding the unit in terrain, or by moving a unit swiftly in at the last minute, or simply by using a unit that can take a lot of punishment or will be ignored. Claiming or Touching Objectives may require high mobility or a very tough unit, both would be even better. So, look at the different kinds of objectives and see what units in your army would be able to be used for securing them. I would recommend having more than a single unit be able to take care of each type of objective. In my Tyranid army list for example, my Monstrous Creatures can claim Table Quarters and are hard to kill without a concerted effort. In addition, My Hive Tyrants and Slashers (leaping gaunts) are fast, so they are good at Claiming or Touching Objectives.

It takes all kinds

The opposing force may have all kinds of different units available, so you should have something to counter each type of threat. You should have something that can handle Vehicles, such as the all-too-common Rhino APC. Vehicles usually require high strength weapons. You should also have something that can handle Light Troops, such as Imperial Guard or Dark Eldar Warriors, which, since they are usually many, generally require a lot of shooting or assaulting. Something to handle Heavy Troops, such as Space Marines will also be most useful. Usually this would be something that pierces their armor. Finally, you should bring something to deal with any Monstrous Creature type models you encounter, whether they are Wraithlords or Bloodthirsters. In my Tyranid list, my Monstrous Creatures are very good at taking out vehicles, either with their shooting, or through close combat. My Slashers and Genestealers, on the other hand, are very good at carving up tons of Light Troops, since they have lots of attacks and high initiative. My Monstrous Creatures and Genestealers can scythe through Heavy Troops, ignoring their armor, and they can also do quite a number on Monstrous Creatures, being able to ignore armor or counter high Toughness or lots of Wounds.

Plan Ahead
There are many different kinds of army.
You should look at some of the different general armies available first, then move on to the specialist armies, to give yourself the benefit of planning ahead and avoid any rude surprises. Pick different armies and decide how you would handle their main threats. Against Necrons, my Tyranids will ignore any C’tan monsters or Monoliths and go straight for the Phase-out rule.While I expect my smaller creatures to die to their Gauss rifles, my Monstrous Creatures will wreak havoc in their lines, ignoring armor saves and preventing the I’ll Be Back rule. Against Blood Angels, my Tyranids will try to pop a few Rhinos and split their forces. Then my Slashers will draw their charge and my Genestealers and Monstrous Creatures will Counter-charge, using the bulk of my army against a fraction of theirs. Against an Ulthwe Army, my Slashers will hit the Seer Council right away, both tying it up and using their many attacks to overwhelm the rune armor saves. Any Aspect Warriors will be dealt with by my Monstrous Creatures, since the Aspects will have a hard time wounding them. Any Vehicles will be hit by the shooting of my Monstrous Creatures as well, which should ground even their grav tanks swiftly. Against Imperial Guard, my Tyranids will weather a few Ordnance templates on the way in, but my Slashers should clean up the rank and file troops, while my Monstrous Creature shooting will take out their vehicles and big guns. After you have worked through many of the general armies, you may also want to take a look at specialist armies. These are armies that use a more limited list than normal, either due to player choice (Troop Heavy Imperial Guard Army) or to list limitations (Deathwing, Ravenwing, etc.) or they are armies that use a very different type of list, such as Armored Company. Against Deathwing, my gaunts will be almost useless, so I’ll use them to claim objectives and possibly draw fire. My Genestealers and Monstrous Creatures should do very well against the Terminators, however, though I’ll need to keep them together to support each other. Against Ravenwing, I would use my gaunts to tie up units for my Genestealers and Monstrous Creatures to kill. Against Armored Company, I would use my gaunts to limit the vehicles’ movement and chew up disembarked infantry. Once they are penned in, the shooting and assaults of my Monstrous Creatures should take out the vehicles rapidly. Versus an infantry heavy Guard army, my light creatures will have a field day, since they are so fast and have so many attacks, while my Monstrous Creatures will take out any support they have before wading into the fray. Against an infantry heavy Space Marine Army, I’ll use my gaunts to tie them up and my Genestealers and Monstrous Creatures to concentrate on small groups at a time. Again, these preparations are far from a straight victory, but they give the advantage of seeing any major flaws (“Dang, I forgot to include anything to take out vehicles!”) and giving you the luxury of not having to figure it all out on the fly.

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