Elementary, my dear Watson
I recently ran across an interesting discussion online that categorizes 40k armies in terms of the basic elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water.) Like almost any classification system, it does break down at some points, but it is pretty consistent and offers some very good insights into the various types of armies. I'll be doing in-depth articles on each one in the coming weeks. When I have finished them, you will be able to click the link here. If you wish to check them out from the start, please click here.

Earth Armies
Earth is strong and resilient. It doesn't move much, but it can weather almost anything. The Earth army wants to outlast it's opponent. Earth armies tend to spend most of their points on resilience, either through tough troops or numbers. They typically don't have much mobility and often focus on shooting to wear their opponents down through attrition.

The Archetypal Earth armies would be Imperial Guard with tons of grunts and guns and tanks or Shooty Space Marines, with lots of heavy weapons and plenty of bodies in powered armor to keep them firing, usually with a small counterassault force to hold back the enemy when they do get to the lines.

Earth Tactics
Earth tactics revolve around limiting casualties and protecting units. These may include concepts such as denying flanks and stalling the enemy army. There are two primary strategies that most Earth Armies use to win their games: Massive Shooting and Shooting with Counterassault. Although these strategies are related, they handle a bit differently, so I'll cover the tactics involved for each in it's own separate section. The distinction between Massive Shooting Armies and Shooting with Counterassault Armies is that of sacrifice. A Massive Shooting army will have relatively weak close combat units, such as Imperial Guardsmen. With no powerful assault reserves available to repel an assault, units may need to be sacrificed to keep other units from being assaulted. A Shooting with Counterassault army will usually have strong close combat units, so they may counterattack almost any incoming assault. Some armies can force the Massive Shooting Army to sacrifice units, while almost no armies can force a Shooting with Counterassault Army to sacrifice units. Please note that not all of these tactics will be present or available to a given army, they merely show the range of possibilities.

Massive Shooting
The Massive Shooting Strategy is simply to shoot the enemy. Shooting is used to destroy enemy mobility by wrecking transports and to slow the enemy assault by taking down enemy jump troops with massive small arms fire. Similarly, shooting is used to thin out concentrations of assault troops or to overwhelm any enemy shooting units. An army based around Massive Shooting will be more effective at shooting than a standard army, and can thus force the enemy to come to them. (As if they just stand and shoot, they will lose.) Given that they can expect the enemy to come to them, there is very little need for mobility. The more a Massive Shooting army moves, the less it can effectively shoot. However, armies designed around the strategy of Massive Shooting are vulnerable to assault. Once the enemy manages to get units into close combat, the shooty army will be at a disadvantage. The models in combat can no longer shoot and may now be blocking Line of Sight for other units that could still shoot. Thus, many of the tactics involved in Massive Shooting revolve around keeping the enemy out of Assault, or getting back out of assault once they have been engaged.

Numerous High Toughness Creatures/Numerous Vehicles
Using multiple Vehicles or High Toughness creatures increases their survivability. If you only have a few, it will be easy for enemy heavy weaponry to pick them out, concentrate on them and annihilate them. If you have a lot of them, they can hide behind each other and their sheer numbers overwhelm the enemy Heavy Weapon capabilities.

Cannon Fodder
Most of a Massive Shooting army will be made up of "fodder" units. These are typically basic infantry. They are placed in front of more expensive units to give them cover from shooting. In addition, these units are generally used similarly in assault. The fodder units are placed between more important units and enemy assault units, such that that enemy is forced to assault the fodder unit first. The important unit may then move to a better position or simply prepare to reduce the assault unit by fire once it finishes with the fodder unit. Sometimes fodder units are deployed in a spread-out fashion, so as to cover a larger area with a single unit.

Tight Deployment
Sometimes it will be an advantage to deploy the models in some or all units close together. This allows a unit to take up very little room, which may allow it to get behind cover or may allow you to place more units in one area, creating one kind of local superiority. This also creates a smaller area to defend, allowing a smaller unit a chance to block lines of advance to other units or to channel assaults. Another trick this allows is the Split Deployment. Placing your army into two, widely separated clumps forces an enemy army into a decision: Pick a side, or split and go for both. If they attack one side, both sides concentrate on destroying enemy mobility. Once the attacked side falls, the enemy army will have to slog across the board without any transports or jump troops while it is continuously fired upon. If the enemy splits to attack both sides, both sides will concentrate on reducing or wiping out one prong of the enemy army. While the other side will decimate the part that it hits, it will then find itself in the same position of having to slog across the board under fire.

Counterassault
The standard concept of Counterassault is to allow the enemy to assault a fodder unit, then use a unit of assault specialists to assault the enemy unit. This way, the weaker unit absorbs the initial attacks and allows the stronger unit to do more damage (the bonus attack for assaulting, for example) to the enemy unit. However, the units used in a Massive Shooting army are not generally effective in assault, so they will provide little support to the counterassault units. In fact, given the new rules about the number of casualties affecting both winning combat and morale tests, they can be quite a liability. It is therefore vital that the counterassault units employed be able to destroy the enemy unit on the charge. This will allow the counterassault unit to withdraw to a more protected position and possibly then move a fodder unit forward to re-set the trap.

Indirect Fire Weaponry
The use of weapons that can fire without Line of Sight can be important to a Massive Shooting army. Given that they can be hidden from direct attacks, they provide an advantage over other shooty armies, in that they provide firepower that cannot be directly answered. In addition, they can fire on enemy units that would be hidden from the rest of your firepower, making fragile units that rely on hiding and terrain much more vulnerable. It is important to note, however that these units are not invincible. Sometimes fast-moving enemy units or those that can enter play from areas other than the enemy deployment zone can target these units. Given that, it can be very effective to place a unit of fodder to guard them, which might tie up an enemy unit long enough that a counterassault or shooting unit can be brought to bear on them.

Template Weapons
Template weapons are used to destroy large formations of troops. In addition, their presence may cause enemy units to spread out a little, which can make them less effective in initial assaults, or even in shooting. Note that mobile units with flamer templates are particularly effective, as they can provide support in multiple areas and can generally line up for the best possible shot.

Shooting
The purpose of shooting in a Massive Shooting army is to concentrate on and eliminate strategically important enemy units. The most important targets are typically enemy transports, followed closely by enemy jump troops or fast-moving units.

Suicidal Close Combat or Tank Destroyer units
In the absence of Indirect Fire weaponry (or in addition to) Suicidal Close Combat or Tank Destroyer units are used to hit hard to reach or hard to kill targets. These are typically fast-moving or transported units that have high firepower or good assault power, and are generally fragile.

Shooting with Counterassault
The Shooting with Counterassault strategy is to use superior firepower to force the enemy to close for assault, then uses specialist assault troops to destroy the enemy. The effective assault element allows close combat to be managed better than with Massive Shooting armies. However, armies relying on Shooting with Counterassault can run into trouble against Massive Shooting armies, as their firepower is significantly less and their assault elements are generally elite and thus will likely be mauled by the enemy firepower.

Suicidal Close Combat or Tank Destroyer units
Fast-moving, hard-hitting units are vital to take down key enemy targets, especially those that cannot be reached by traditional units (such as indirect fire weaponry that is hidden from view.) In addition, such suicidal units can be used to take down strategically important targets in an enemy that could otherwise overwhelm the Shooting with Counterassault army (such as taking down important shooty units in a Massive Shooting army, or taking down assault units that would otherwise be nearly unstoppable.)

Cannon Fodder
Much like the Massive Shooting army, the Shooting with Counterassault army utilizes fodder units. While they can be used to provide cover for more important shooting units, they are more often used to provide cover for the counterassault units. The lead units will absorb the charge and then the assault specialists will charge in and gain the benefits of charging. It is not as important to wipe out the enemy unit on the charge as it would be for a Massive Shooting army. Here, the standard units of the army are typically more effective in an assault, so they can provide more long-term support for the assault specialists.

Indirect Fire Weaponry
Useful for all the same reasons that it is useful to a Massive Shooting army, Indirect Fire weaponry is even more important. The additional survivability of IF weaponry is vital against Massive Shooting armies to help even the odds in the shooting match.

Tight Deployment
Clumping models and units tightly together works a little differently for a Shooting with Counterassault army than a Massive Shooting army. While it can still effectively channel assaults, it is primarily used to castle up so that all the units of the army can support each other.

Counterassault
As for the Massive Shooting army, with the exception mentioned above in Cannon Fodder.

Template Weaponry
Similar to the use in Massive Shooting armies, template weaponry is used to thin out lots of enemy models. Templates can particularly effective right before an assault to thin out enemy units, or to thin out the units that would be supporting the ones that have already hit the lines.

Shooting
Similar to the Shooting in a Massive Shooting army, the goal is to use superior firepower to force the enemy to close, then damage their mobility and thin them out on the way in. One particularly effective way to do this is to hit the _second_ line of transports. Then the units that reach the lines have no support while your counterassault units take them down.

Playing against an Earth Army
Playing against an Earth army requires either massive power or finesse. If you can outshoot them or wipe them out in assault, you will have a tough game, but you can win. Alternately, if you can manage to outmaneuver them, you can cause some damage to them while taking little in return. Earth armies are typically well-designed to take on other Earth armies or Fire armies, but they usually have a much harder time against the mobility of Air and the flexibility of Water.

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