Combat Tactics

[Mycroft Holmes]

I've seen people mention one or two of the possible uses of Combat Tactics, but never all together and my searches haven't turned up a full list in a single thread. So I've decided to write up the list of possiblities I know and see if there are any others that people would like to share for everyone's benefit.

 

General Rule for all uses of Combat Tactics:

Be sure that your retreat movement will not take you with in 6" of an enemy unit or you'll be forced to continue Falling Back, instead of being able to regroup and continue fighting.

 

1) Intentionaly Fail the Moral check for losing in an assault. Should only be used in your enemies turn so you're free to shoot/assault. Carries the possibility of being caught in a sweeping advance and being forced to roll for No Retreat. If you've managed to break base-to-base or are fighting something that may not sweaping advance, such as Terminators, then feel free to use this without worry.

 

2) Intentionaly Fail the Moral check for losing 25% in a shooting phase. This is particularly good to avoid being assaulted. Possible that you may only roll for a few inches of movement and not escape being assaulted.

 

3) Losing an assault with multiple units. If one of your units has passed it's Morale Check, or even better are Fearless, your other squads my fall back with no possibility of being Sweaping Advanced, as the enemy must continue fighting the unit that stayed in combat. If using a Fearless unit, roll it's No Retreat rolls before deciding to fail the Morale checks in case the unit is kill by the extra armor saves.

 

4) Breaking Pinning. Situation: Your squad has failed a pinning test and has Gone to Ground. The squad has also taken 25% casualties. At the end of the enemies shooting phase, instead of rolling for falling back, intentionally fail the Morale check and Fall Back. In your turn your squad is Falling Back, so it automatically Regroups and may move/shoot/assault as normal instead of still being in the Gone to Ground state. Obviously this will only work if you've taken 25% casualties as well as being Pinned.

 

These are the 4 that I know of. Any more that people would like to share?

 

Mycroft

[PrivateLucky]

With number 4 pinning overrides fall back

[Mycroft Holmes]

With number 4 pinning overrides fall back

 

Pinning forces you to Go To Ground. Go To Ground specifically states that you still take Morale Checks as normal.

 

Mycroft

[Bannus]

A possible addition for your point #3 above:

 

You may leave one unit locked in combat and have any/all others fall back and recharge again to gain additional attacks as the enemy cannot move away.

[waaanial00]

One thing you should be careful of with 1. When you intentionally break from combat the enemy can still d6 consolidate towards you thus forcing you to run further. If you are up to 12" from your board edge consider carefully the fact that even average dice rolls can send you over the edge if you dont roll high enough the first retreat.

 

Reason just in case people dont see it.

 

You retreat up to 6" from combat and the enemy consolidates towards you.

Your turn you do not reform because there is an enemy 6" from you so you run 2d6"

You cannot reform in the enemy turn so if they are within 6" of you they can move towards you and force you to run again.

 

Fair enough you can still shoot on the move but my friends daemon army chased one of my tacticals off the board after I pointed out the fact that they only auto reform when there are no enemies within 6" (you have to be honest or the victory means nothing).

 

#5 is withdrawing your squad with attached IC so that he can split from the combat next turn and fight someone else. This tactic is great for tarpit units who have your very expensive HQ locked in combat whilst their other guys are running rampant. It also allows your attached squad to get right back into the action.

 

#6 Free up firing lanes. Force an assaulty enemy unit to charge into a squad in your firing lane, break then use the beauty of a gun line to teach them the error of their ways. Then charge your original unit back in to further plug the gap. This only works if your unit is hard enough to take the initial assault and you can do enough damage for the second assault to be worth it.

 

Wan

[maniclurker]

This is all very informative...

[Koremu]

Things that should be noted is that ATSKNF and CT do not provide you with any protection from being wiped out by being trapped during a Fall Back move. In addition, you are not permitted to rally with an enemy within 6".

 

Either of these, especially in combination with the relative lack of numbers we face, mean that the minor flanking units some enemies can field can just hustle you either off the field, into dense terrain, out of a significant role in the fight (especially true if you've lost the transport vehicle), or trap and kill you without you ever being permitted to take a Regroup check. Most enemies will also be faster with a 6+d6 run move than your 2d6 fall back move.

 

Also, remember that you cannot reliably break from any enemy with an equal or higher Initiative than us, since the Falling Back unit must win the Sweeping Advance roll. Failing this leaves you worse off than if you had passed your Morale roll. Traitors, Eldar, most Demons and Tyranids pose this threat.

[bystrom]

What's also worth noting is that in 5th ed. the whole base-to-base business is gone as well; I at least can't find it anymore. So its only safe to try and flee if you're facing units that can't sweeping advance, not if you're no longer in base-to-base like in 4th. I think, that the 25% shooting casualties will simply force the opponent to opt to not shoot with units that are going to charge, since for example, howling banshees are going to do much more damage in assault than outside; why risk a couple of shuriken pistol shots (instead exchange it for fleet) for wiping out a tactical squad in two close combats.

[travh20]

I had a captain retreat off the table in a scenario like this, very deppresing.

[Captain Cabble]

Something that worked niceley for me today was choosing to fail a morale test for 25% casualties from shooting by a necron warrior squad, and falling back out of range of a second squad of warriors firing range after they had moved forward to double tap the unit, leaving them exposed having no targets.

This choice largely turned the game in my favour and I went on to cause a 5th turn phase out.

 

Hope that helps.

 

CC.

[IvanMcK]

"Something that worked niceley for me today was choosing to fail a morale test for 25% casualties from shooting by a necron warrior squad, and falling back out of range of a second squad of warriors firing range after they had moved forward to double tap the unit, leaving them exposed having no targets."

 

Except that you only test for morale at the end of shooting, not as soon as they're down. That second squad should have been able to get it's shots off. CT only saves you from being assaulted, not from further shots.

[Sternguard sergeant McColl]

In a battle against slaneeshi chaos i tied up Oblits with outflanking CC scouts, intentionally failed moral at the end of their assault phase and got the charge again three times. It's a useful rule at times. But I'v also had it fail miserably for me, many units retreating off the table or IC dying of no retreat wounds.