The Three Levels of Generalship in 40k
Recently I've run across a couple of articles (which you can read here and here) that break down 40k Generalship into 3 levels of play, or understanding of the game. It's important to note that not everyone wants to 'level up' in this way. Much in the same way that some people are content to have very basic paintjobs or leave terrain-making to others, not everyone wants to improve their gameplay. For that matter, if they are happy with the way they play now, who am I to say that they should change? Personally, I want to improve all aspects of my hobby. Although I find painting to be a chore, I appreciate good paintjobs and I enjoy having good looking models that I painted myself. Similarly, I want to improve my grasp of tactical and strategic thinking, so I work at that as well.

That said, this is my understanding of the 3 levels of play in 40k. (As a note, I'm somewhere in level 2, but I can see how level 3 works and am working to get there.) I'll go into more detail on each level, but I want to lay out how I feel they break down, so you'll know where I'm going with this. Level 1 is raw numbers and hard counters. Level 2 is list efficiency and target priority. Level 3 is dictating the flow of the game and seeing the army as a whole in terms of strengths, weaknesses and synergy. Since I've already discussed each level in detail, I'll now be discussing how to improve within your level and how to level up. If you want to read the levels, please go here.

There is a big rock unit of Thousand Sons Rubric Marines and Ahriman (rock for this point level, anyway) in the forest after I wrecked their transport.

Leveling
There are two parts to leveling. Improving within your current level, and making changes so that you can begin the next level. We'll look at each level in turn and dicuss how to improve and how to move toward the next level. It's important to remember that you cannot skip a step. If you want to be truly successful as a level 3 player, you have to first understand levels 1 and 2. Each level builds on the tactical concepts of the last and also teaches you how to take on enemy armies of that level.

Level 1
This is the level of raw numbers and hard counters, heroes and deathstars. Level one armies tend to focus on individual units and assault. Improvement here is in terms of getting more out of your uber units. Leveling up will involve getting away from the focus on individual units and improving the efficiency and increasing the role of your support units.

Level 1 Improvement
You may be thinking to your self, "If I'm decent at level one, why don't I just go straight to the 'Leveling from 1-2' section?" There are two reasons. First, you want to make sure you have all of the concepts down before you head on to the next level, since you'll need them to progress. Second, being better at Level 1 will give you the best understanding of how Level 1 lists work, which will give you an edge in beating them as you continue on to Level 2. That being the case, let's get started on improving. First off, read and reread the assault rules and practice handling wounds on complicated units. (Your own and others.) Next, pay close attention to Multi-assaulting. If you only kill 1 unit per turn with your Deathstar, you really aren't getting the most use out of that unit. If you hit more than one unit, you can wipe out both units at once. The biggest drawback to multi-assaulting is the possibility of biting off more than you can chew. Fortunately, deathstars don't usually have much trouble with this, as they are very resilient and have a lot of assault power available. In a combat against a mixed group, hammer the little guys unless there's an enemy unit that can really hurt you. (Basically, you want to increase combat resolution as much as possible.)

Now this is how to stack an assault in your favor! (Too bad that was my FireWarrior.)

The trickiest part of multi-assaulting is actually getting into those assaults. You must declare a charge against one unit, then move the closest model into contact with the closest model from that unit. After that, you may move the remaining models into assault with other units they can reach. However, you must maintain squad coherency at the end of each model's movement. This means you will need to be careful about the order of moving the models to make sure that they stay in coherency even against different enemy units.

This is further complicated by the requirement that all models that can reach an enemy model _must_ do so. If the enemy units are very close together, this isn't a terribly hard task. If you are positioned well, you can do this to 2 units that are up to 4 inches apart (or 2 inches+2 of your bases, if you aren't using 25mm bases.) We'll say that Enemy Unit A is 4" to the left of Unit B. If you position a model in contact with the left side of a model from unit B, and another model on the right side of unit A, there will be 2" between them and coherency will be maintained.

If there is more than that distance between the units, you'll need a model (or more) to bridge that coherency gap. This model will not be in contact with any enemy models, which means one of two things. 1) It started your assault phase more than it's assault distance from enemy models from either of the targeted enemy units. Note that you can adjust your distancing or angle (or order of models) in your movement phase, so you may have to plan out these assaults a bit ahead of time. 2) You moved your previous models in such a way as to block off all of it's routes to enemy models. Practice this tricky maneuver at home so that when it comes time to do it in a game, it will be second nature.

Another well-planned move can allow you to charge units that are partially in cover without worrying about frag grenades or difficult terrain tests. If you are charging a unit that is partially in cover, but do not want to charge into the cover, you may be able to get around it with tricky maneuvering. You may use your movement or fleet distance (if appropriate) to move such that only the enemy models _not_ in cover are within your unit's assault range. When you attack, this will pull them out of cover and let you put the hurt on them unhindered by terrain.

Outflanking Genestealers collapse one flank of a gunline.

Going from 1 to 2
When leveling up from level 1 to level 2, efficiency and teamwork are your watchwords. One place to start is by breaking up your Deathstars. Instead of relying on one or two rock units, try to spread out your effectiveness. For example, if you normally run 7 Thunderhammer/StormShield Terminators with a Chaplain in a LandRaider Crusader, consider downgrading to 5 TH/SS Terminators and using the points and the Chaplain to add to another unit. Basically, try to get multiple small assault units to gain more flexibility. If they come across a target they cannot handle individually, hit it with more than one in a team assault. Among other things, having multiple units makes it harder for an enemy to block your assault or feed you cheap screening units. It also makes it more difficult to focus fire on your assault units, since you have spread them around. If you lose one, you'll still have others.

Another place to look is your support. You presumably already have some units to handle things that your uberunits can't handle, such as long-range antitank shooting. Try to improve the efficiency of your support platforms and even use them to assist your units by softening up their targets prior to assault. Determine what type of support you need, then start figuring out the cheapest way to achieve that support. (For example, if you decide you need Lascannons, go through all the available ways of getting Lascannons and buy up as many of the cheapest ones possible. If you still need more, look to the next cheapest, and so on.)

A next step would be starting to look at target priority for what units need to be targeted first by your support units, and what units need to be targeted first by your assault units. While I'll go into greater detail on target priority in the level 2 improvement section, I'll give you the quick and dirty version now. Figure out the enemy unit that is most dangerous to your army and that you have the best chance of killing this turn. The number one most dangerous unit might be too hard to kill, but if you kill a slightly less dangerous (but more fragile) unit, it will still cut down the effectiveness of the enemy army.

If you start toning down your assault and beefing up your shooting, you can start using the principle of 'dividing by fire.' Start by focusing your assault on one flank of the enemy army. Use your support units to soften up the flank your assaulters will be hitting. When your assaulters hit, start firing on the units in the center, so that they will be in no shape to support the flank you are assaulters. As you work your way down their line, keep softening up units for your assault teams.

Leveling Further
This article ended up being longer than I expected, so I'm splitting it into more easily readable parts. When I have written the next installment (I'm not sure if there will be 1 or 2 more yet) you can find it here.

Take that, you big rock!

If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know

Return to Warpstorm!