GENERAL STRATEGY & TACTICS |
TACTICA ASTARTES IGNIS By Johann Reidel Edited by ( Shadow Guard ) |
This article has been reproduced with kind permission from the author. It's use here is not intended as a challenge to the original authors copyright and is reproduced here for the sole purpose of enhancing the Dark Angel spirit and the warhammer 40,000 experience |
ELITE CHOICE: (Just a little extra bite!) Veteran squads: (Not applicable to the Unforgiven) To expensive for my taste. Those extra points can be spent elsewhere although they do have their uses as a counter-charge unit. Since you can give them close combat weapons and heavyweapons they can hang back and shoot and then be used to counter attack with. Terminators: Many generals argue there worth as a defensive shooty force. I'm not one of them. I think that they are a waste of points since they will be shredded by most races elite assault troops. (I know! I just love setting up terminator traps!) I'd rather spend the points on more troops! Dreadnaught: This is one of my great loves! I usually have one with a plasmacannon. This is another mobile shooting unit that is hard hitting and perfect to tie down a flank with. In short, get one! They are worth there weight in gold. FAST ATTACK CHOICES: (The mobile response) Land Speeders: This is one of the best units in the game! A squad of three Land Speeders with heavybolters is great! They give you an awesome degree of mobility that allows you to move 24" in the last turn to take objectives and hold or contest a quarter that the enemy thought was safe! Not to mention the significant troop killing potential. Most troops not clad in power amour will die on a 2+ to wound with no armor save! You just got to love them! Assault squads: There is a specific role for this squad even in a firepower-oriented army! That is the mobile counter-assault role! A squad of seven and accompanied by a Chaplin will be devastating in such a role. Just keep the unit out of LOS until it's time to charge something! Bikes: In my opinion they are not worth their points in the firepower army! For the same price as three bikes you get seven marines! You do the math. Attack Bikes: These on the other hand are really good. I use one or two with multi-meltas. They basically hang back and make a dash for the enemy amour when they get too close. In addition they are also great for tying up units like aspect warriors! HEADQUARTER CHOICES: (The serpent's head is deadly) There are basically two ways of using you HQs in a firepower army! I suggest that you do both. Tooled up Chaplain : Easily the best HQ for the points! Arm him with a bolt pistol and jump pack so that he can patrol your lines and beat off the enemy assault specialists.(I like using him with a dreadnaught in support and setting up traps with empty razorbacks. Terminators charge the razorback and destroy it. Then the chaplain and dreadnaught make a dual charge killing off all of the terminator squad ) The Chaplin can also be given an assault squad for a little extra punch! Firepower HQ Command squad: Get a Leader, yes a leader! Support him with a TechMarine with a signum. Give him a command squad of five men give them two hevyweapons and load them in a razorback. They are now a very heavy firepower squad and can fight in close combat effectively too. STRATEGY AND TACTICS OF A FIREPOWER SPACEMARINE ARMY If you are like me and have a solid firepower force with some transports that can both shoot and move your units around, you are in luck! Now you can both assault and defend using these units. Tactics against the assault oriented spacemarine army The firepower army mostly wins through smart deployment. I can't stress this enough! If your deployment is bad then you will suffer for the entire game. To begin with, take a good long look of the opponent's army list and try to imagine how they would work. Then look at the table from the enemy's point of view, try to imagine where you would setup. This will give you a pretty good picture of how his army will be deployed. Once you do this it's time for you to counter this. You do this by either deploying most of your stationary troops where they will have a good view of all the best deployment spots in the enemy deployment zone. Then you can easily make a lot of his units worthless. This is done by deploying most(if not all) your stationary units as if you where playing quarters missions. Then make sure to deploy your mobile units such as empty Razorbacks and speeders on the other half of your deployment zone. This is done to make the opponent believe that you are spreading your forces thin, making them easy targets to pick of one by one. Little does he know that he is walking into your trap where you will be the one picking off his units one by one. I just love the look in my opponents face when half of my units move over to support the other half and refusing his flank and ruining his plans. This also gives you a great psychological advantage. Use it to your advantage. As everyone knows you have to deny your opponent his mobility thus crippling his units. What ever you do don't let him use his units in support of one and other. Rather let one rhino reach your lines then spread your fire to different targets. By doing this you are stretching his lines thin allowing your close combat specialists take out one unit at a time giving you the upper hand in numbers and power! Always remember to have at lest 4" between your units so that the enemy can't consolidate through your army. This forces him to make sweeping advances where you will have the upper hand and the guns needed to shoot out even the most durable units (I've done this many times with the Death Company killing them with massed bolter fire!) Most important though is that you remember mission objectives. They can make the difference between total failure and supreme victory! And last but not least, Make sure he engages you in close combat where you want him to. Where you have the upper hand in terms of numbers and specialists! Tactics against the firepower oriented spacemarine army This is a tricky one. Deployment is even more tricky and important now! If you get to pick tablesides don't try to pick the one that offers the most cover for your forces. Instead try figuring out with side the opponent would want and then you pick it. This is to minimize his advantages in deployment, if he gets a bad deployment it can win you the game! If you don't go all out for firepower in your army you can never win a shootout against another firepower-oriented force! If you fall to temptation and bring that terminator squad and an assault squad you will be lacking in firepower. As most able generals know you must excel in your area of expertise if you want to be successful. The most important thing is to concentrate your fire into his most shooty squads! If he has devastator squads take them out. Don't waste too much fire on the tanks. If you get the shaken or stunned result on the damage table stop shooting the tank and move on to the next target! The tank is now harmless to you and your fire is better needed amongst his troops. In the last two rounds of the game make sure to bring all his squads below half, even if it means missing the opportunity to wipe a squad out. Three enemy squads under half strength is worth more then one that is wiped out! If you by some chance are out gunned (as in when playing against a super shooty Iron Warriors army) then I'd recommend using your mobile units to assault! This may seem unusual for a firepower oriented army but it will work. Trust me! Take your time and move up behind cover. Leave your slow footslogging units behind and let them target all the tanks and close combat specialists they can find. Then when your troops hit the enemy lines move the foot slogging troops up to take any mission objectives they can. Now your mobile units are engaging the enemy making him panic as you arrive en masse. Their main objective is to hold the enemy's troops away from objectives and giving him something else to think about. |
