Killhammer Strategy: Using Reserves

[Warp Angel]

If you can't shoot it, you can't kill it.

 

One of the things that takes some getting used to in Warhammer 40k 5th Edition, is the idea that any or all of your forces can start in reserve. While this isn't always a good idea, and in some cases it's a bad idea, and in others it's forced upon you, for certain units, it's a fantastic option.

 

Power armor armies tend to have some units which move quickly, strike hard, but are overall expensive to field and degrade quickly when subjected to enemy fire. A lot of them are even very fragile.

 

The important trait of these units is that they strike hard!

 

At it's core, Killhammer is about killing. And about not being killed. You know, that whole "kill gap" thing I keep talking about. There's a handful of things that you always try and do with your best units every game.

 

1) If you're able to protect a unit that strikes hard, moves fast, so that when it engages the enemy, it's able to do so at full strength.... that's usually something that we, as gamers, can refer to as "totally freakin' awesome".

 

You can absolutely, 100% guarantee that the first turn that you can achieve this "totally freakin' awesome" effect by keeping that unit in reserve. When they arrive on the table, they do so on your turn, never having been shot at.

 

2) You want to deploy the units in such a way that you can bring the firepower of multiple units to bear on one or a handful of enemy units, allowing you to completely table them or render them ineffective for the rest of the game. Due to limited deployment area (especially in table quarters) or in situations where you go second, you don't get a chance to do this without presenting a great big target for your enemy.

 

You can almost guarantee that when you bring a unit on the table from reserve, that it's going to be in support of (and supported by) other units that compliment it. There will be the rare cases where your opponent can limit the area where you can deploy, hence the "almost".

 

3) You want to screen your valuable unit from hostile fire with terrain or lesser units. After the first turn, this becomes difficult to do because your opponent has started to develop his battle plan and maneuver his units, which change the field.

 

You can guarantee that if a screening unit is available, and you want to screen your valuable unit, you'll be able to do so if you bring it in from reserve.

 

If you're a veteran player, you're probably drooling at the idea of being able to do all of these things. And if I throw in the added bonus that you are now inside your opponents decison loop (OODA for you Boyd fans), it'll be like you grew up with a guy named Pavlov and I just rang a bell.

 

In order to get these advantages, however, you can't just bring any unit in from reserve, and you can't use all of the deployment options that are available to you. You need to be selective.

 

Deep Strike eliminates the ability to charge your opponent, reducing the options (and potentially the K) to most units and additionally, it provides less control over location, minimizing the benefits of 2 and 3 from above.

 

Kahn is a popular choice for bringing units in from reserve, but suffers to some extent from the same issues as deep striking because you arrive on a semi-random table edge instead of exactly where you want your unit.

 

So what you're looking to do is to deploy from a known table edge to a position of your choice on the board.

 

You can't do this with all units effectively.

 

- Vehicles count as moving, reducing their overall firepower in most cases

- Most infantry can't fire heavy weapons

- 6" is not a lot of movement.

 

With those limitations in mind, the ideal options for deployment ,in a power armor army, from reserve are:

 

Bikes

Attack Bikes

Land Speeders

Assault Squads

Land Raider Transported Assault Units

 

All of these units have a high potential K, and when supported by a character, can be absolutely devastating in assault.

 

Bikes, attack bikes, and speeders have the additional advantage of being able to move up to 24", giving you the ability to completely reconfigure the battlefield situation, and further flush your opponent's game plan down the toilet.

 

In vanilla SM armies and in Ravenwing armies, bikes can be scoring units. In a BA army, those assault squads are scoring. The ability to bring on an untouched, durable, high Killhammer, SCORING unit onto the table to rush an objective that your opponent thought was under defended or safe from attack cannot be discounted.

 

Bikes and assault squads have the added advantage of being able to shoot with all of their weapons and still charge their opponent. This can mean an effective 18" advancement onto the table, from reserve. If you win combat, you're able to advance d6" further across the table, or into cover. This means that your opponent now has to deal with the real possibility of an assault next turn deep into his support units.

 

Most armies, and many players, can't handle this well. You're inside the effective decision making loop and they are forced to play completely reactively to what you're doing.

 

To fit all this into Killhammer formulas, keeping a mobile, high Killhammer unit in reserve does the following:

 

Preserves K1 and provides minimum K2 on the turn they arrive, increasing overall kill power.

Increases D2 by ensuring that you've got a full strength unit in the later turns of the game, unharmed by first turn pie plates.

Dramatically improves S (situational usefulness) for your army.

Reduces enemy D2 by allowing you to concentrate firepower.

 

That said, there are a couple of things to be aware of:

 

1) You cannot build your whole army to deploy from reserves using these principles.

2) The army you deploy normally must be an effective force on its own.

3) It's not a tactic that you can use in every battle or against every opponent.

 

This is not new stuff that I'm inventing.

 

Necrons have a similar technique that they can use to deploy an untouched warrior squad where they want by spitting it out of a Monolith. They've been doing this for years.

 

Dark Eldar have Webway Portals they can dump on the table that have allowed them to do the same thing for years.

 

Eldar can effectively do something similar by deploying hard hitting units in Falcons during deployment (a near unkillable unit) .

 

Ork Nob Bikers, with their amazing durability are currently wrecking opponents in the tournament scene by doing the same thing. They might as well be off the table for all the good that shooting them at long range is going to do.

 

Daemon armies with Icons are effectively doing the exact same thing every battle, but with lesser benefit.

 

All I ask is that you think about it.

 

Like everything else killhammer, you know your army best, and everything is situational. (Always remember that S)

[robdark1]

man resevere kill hammer woow that a artice i wish could write. very much on the money in everything that you present so far an i must say that right.

deep strike is random as the outflank and there are no save bets being placed when you play that way but you can always cruve the the porblem with stuff that make it easy to play.

hey warp angel could write the next series of post on equiment confiuguration and unit tactics in list build for kill hammer which could form good list writing overall.

yes i know it a lot to ask but i thing you on something here with the artices so far...

[ShinyRhino]

This article I really enjoyed. I'm currently working on a Flavor-of-the-month bike-centric army. Everyone seems to be doing bikes at the moment. But, I'm deviating by making it a Rhino-mech army with bikes as reserves.

The article helps solidify my thinking that the lure of Khan list isn't that everything can outflank, but that everything has the ability to throw a wrench into the opponent's gears. I love me some physchological warfare.

[ShinyRhino]

Warp Angel, would you care to speak to the Legion of the Damned in Killhammer reserves terms? I know you immediately put the kibosh on deepstrikers as an effective wrench-throwing selection, but does the LotD's reroll of scatter, and invulnerable save make them a more reliable choice, despite their points cost?

[Warp Angel]

Warp Angel, would you care to speak to the Legion of the Damned in Killhammer reserves terms? I know you immediately put the kibosh on deepstrikers as an effective wrench-throwing selection, but does the LotD's reroll of scatter, and invulnerable save make them a more reliable choice, despite their points cost?

 

The reroll means that you've got less randomness to your roll... essentially a 2/3 chance of landing where you want to, and a greater chance of landing more or less where you want. So they aren't that bad in terms of accuracy.

 

LOTD has several problems from a Killhammer perspective.

 

1) They don't have a high K rating against most things. Sure they can have some relatively impressive firepower in an expensivve unit, but that's very much balanced out by the fact that they have very poor maneuverability once they hit the table (librarian tricks not withstanding).

2) They can't assault on the turn they arrive on the table. This is a huge negative from a Killhammer perspective, since it eliminates a potential tool for manipulating opponent's D2, and increases their K2, already somewhat reduced by the nature of being reserves in the first place.

 

I'm not saying that they are a bad unit, but in my army, I find it hard to justify putting them in most army lists.

 

I'd rather have a 300 point bike squad which can move 12" onto the table, rapid fire 7 twin linked bolters, rapid fire a plasma gun, burn with a flamer, fire a multi melta, and then assault with 18 attacks and 3 powerfist attacks. Even if I can't drop it behind the enemy. And T5 is better against most weapons and hand to hand than a 3+ invulnerable.

[ShinyRhino]

I'm not saying that they are a bad unit, but in my army, I find it hard to justify putting them in most army lists.

 

That was about my evaluation as well. Relegated to the "fluffy, fun" list instead of the tourney list. Which is too bad, because it's SUCH a fun, sexy unit choice.

The bike squad can reach pretty much anything the LotD can, minus the exact center of the opoonent's backfield.

 

This whole Killhammer series has been a very enlightening read, btw. Thanks for penning it up.

[Warp Angel]

Thanks for the positive feedback. It's hard to tell whether or not I'm benefitting the community sometimes, or if I'm just performing intellectual exercises for my own amusement.

[Roland Durendal]

I saw you mentioned LRs coming in from reserve. Whats your opinion on this?

 

I ask because I typically run an LRC w/ 13 Blood Claws and a Lord as my big bad nasty assault unit, but I've been finding it hard to utilize effectively when it starts off on the field cuz the enemy either: avoids it like the plague; or shoots it to death.

 

Given that the occupants basically have a 18"-20" assault range, would be viable to hold it in reserve and have the rest of the Army hang back and wait for it to arrive, while simultaneously allow the opponent to rush forward toward my lines. In my mind it seems like a goo tactic because it forces the opponent to come to you and gives you the advantage of initiating the charge instead of being charged.

[Warp Angel]

It's a brilliant tactic. Even if you don't get the charge with the Blood Claws for some reason, you can still put it on the table in a place where melta weapons can't get to it easily.

 

And if for some reason you only need to move it 6" on to the table, you get to flood an enemy squad with its massive firepower and assault a different one.

 

You know it's coming in, but your opponent can't plan for where, so his anti-tank is going to spread out on the battlefield, so when you arrive, he's not going to be able to react to it the same way he could have if you started with it on the table.

 

I can't emphasize enough that the rest of your army MUST be able to do well for the first 3 turns of the game without the Land Raider and its contents. It's a powerful pair of units and a significant percentage of your army that you aren't going to have to kill the enemy with for a few turns.

 

But when it does arrive, intact, on turn 3, hitting already weakened units, it's like the fist of god.

[Jackelope King]

I'm becoming a big believer in this as well. A bike captain rolling onto the board turn three with five ordinary bikers is dead, dead killy. They hit pretty hard, can scoot around the edges and play coy while shooting the enemy up all day and night, and then swoop in with a turbo boost to grab an objective with a nice invuln save on the last turn. And unless you devote an inordinate amount of firepower to stop them before the final turn turbo-boost, you can't prevent it (remember, they're scoring with a bike captain). And what's best: the bike captain, even when equipped with just a modest power sword, will do a ton of damage on the charge, and he's got a few nice T5 ablative wounds hanging around him. Perfect for knocking soft targets off of objectives or picking apart the remains of whatever the rest of your marines have been shooting at since turn 1.

[Warp Angel]

Ah... but think about the dead killyness of a full bike squad with an attack bike.

 

And for 10 points, hellfire bolts are a no brainer. BS5, twin linked.... hit on 2, wound on 2.

 

Yes please.

[Koremu]

In my opinion, Land Speeders are under utilised (both in general and as Reserves)

 

Land Speeders function as a Deep Striking Heavy Weapons Platform. They make for a very nasty surprise when dropped in to support a Tactical or Assault Squad on the loose, and once on the table they are very easily redeployed to new table quarters. When Deep Struck in, they count as cruising, but as fast vehicles still retain the ability to fire once. I usually equip Land Speeders with a split weapon combo of Multi-Melta with one of the two anti-infantry options - Heavy Bolter or Heavy Flamer (this doesn't really reduce K1, because K2 assumes that the LS is always moving at cruising, but does increase the tactical flexibility of the land speeder)

 

They fulfil both sections 1 & 2 mentioned in the OP. As a screen they leave a lot to be desired, as they have relatively weak armour and easy to damage, but because they have so much potential damage and high speed they are often prioritised as targets by your opponent (that is, D1 and D2 are very low, but K1 and K2 are extremely high). If you are cunning, you can even pull your opponents battle force into disarray by leaving him an opportunity to fire at the land speeder unit... but only by moving troops towards them.

 

One cunning tactic is to lure an enemy infantry unit into chasing the Land Speeders, then blowing their transport before leaving at high speed - with the result that you've dislocated an enemy squad from the battle line and stranded it in a useless position - effectively destroying the unit as a significant fighting force by reducing its K2 value.

 

They make a perfect support foil for Tactical squads in significant positions, contrasting the Tactical Squads relatively high D with the threat of the high K Land Speeders. If a Land Speeder is on the table, anything within 12" plus template range has to be wary of the LS sweeping in for a Flamer Attack to weaken the unit before a Tactical Squad moves in to clean up.

 

And there's the traditional anti-artillery role.

[Warp Angel]

My scatter dice hate me too much to like deep striking, but everything that you say about land speeders is pretty much true. Though as a Killhammer unit, a similar amount of points worth of attack bike squadrons carries more firepower than a landspeeder, and tends to be overall more durable with the additional ability to assault, bogging down units in a way that vehicles can't, giving them a different S value set.

 

Again, that's my philosophy for my army. Land Speeders certainly have their advantages, especially in smaller games where you've got more area to deep strike and your enemy has less units to go after you.

[Koremu]

My scatter dice hate me too much to like deep striking, but everything that you say about land speeders is pretty much true. Though as a Killhammer unit, a similar amount of points worth of attack bike squadrons carries more firepower than a landspeeder, and tends to be overall more durable with the additional ability to assault, bogging down units in a way that vehicles can't, giving them a different S value set.

 

Again, that's my philosophy for my army. Land Speeders certainly have their advantages, especially in smaller games where you've got more area to deep strike and your enemy has less units to go after you.

 

To some extent it depends on the type and quantity of the available cover which is best.

 

As cover becomes heavier, the Land Speeders supermobility over the Attack Bike becomes a greater and greater advantage (within reason - total dense cover favours neither)

 

You also have to remember that while bikes being able to lock an enemy in Close Combat is an advantage, it also means you can be locked in combat.

 

You can't rely on Combat Tactics to totally pull your bike unit out all the time - even with a 3D6 fall back move and Initiative 4, you can't be 100% certain that you'll be able to pull out of combat. Especially against high initiative armies like Eldar, losing the sweeping advance roll and getting combat locked despite Combat Tactics is painfully common.

 

And of course, the unthinkable could happen - you might win the combat round :)

 

In addition, the Marines lack of numbers really works against them, as a canny enemy can get a blocking squad behind the combat specifically to counter you - because the one weakness of the tactic is that ATSKNF and CT do not provide any safety from being trapped during a fall-back.

[Warp Angel]

Which means that the difference between the Killhammer ratings of the units is really in the S. :)

[rat of vengence]

Nice article mate. I have been using this tactic as occaision demands with my Vindicator and TL Las Predator. If there isn't anywhere 'safe' to deploy them I put them into reserve; the opponent doesn't know when or where they will roll on to flank shot his own armour.

 

I will have to try this with bikes; I might do that instead of one of my drop pods.

 

RoV

[Warprat]

Dreadnoughts are especially good in Drop Pods, because they can enter turn 1 and not lose a single shot having been in Reserve. Or, with multiple pods, they can delay thier arrival to better support a swift advance they could never normally keep up with. The Deadnought can even be deployed in cover, and the Drop Pod land empty.

 

This allows incredable flexabilty... and should introduce some amount of uneasyness into any opponent.

 

 

If running multiple Drop Pods, good options are Sternguard and Tactical squads, armed with melta weapons. Or perhaps combi-plasma Sternguard. Three Drop Pods of Dreadnought, Tacs, and Sternguard can be configured to any enemy by choosing which to deploy on the 1st turn, and which to land later. Any of them can simply be deployed without pod, and have options for ranged fire.

 

Again, some nice flexability... lots of "S".

 

 

 

To add some controversy, I think that Devestators might provide another good support unt. They can't bring thier big guns to bear when they land, but they could support with 14 bolter shots and a combi weapon. Part of the problem with Devestators is that the bolters are wasted. If armed with long range weapons, they could land on a flank and still support long range fire after the drop. A full squad could combat squad, and half of it continue to rapid fire advance, while the heavies stay put and blast away, with mimimal loss of range for both demi squads. The heavy demi squad could run into cover, to give it protection.

 

Or, if armed with Multi-melta, they could land centrally to threaten with all the weapons of the squad. Or, they could simply be depoyed conventionally into cover and shoot mainly heavies the entire game. The empty pod can be used to allow other pods to land 1st turn, or later on.

 

There is more flexability here than one might initially think, especially when other Drop Pods are used...

 

 

Warprat ;)

[prose.]

This is probably pretty obvious to some as Special Characters are the new pink, but ever since reading the Bell of Lost Souls article about the tactics of a mechanized eldar army with 2 autarchs (everything in reserve, almost everything comes in turn 2, kills stuff with concentrated firepower etc) I've liked this kind of army. Marines can actually pull off something similar (debatably better) with Tigurius.

 

A captain's bike army with three full bike squads and 9 multimelta attack bikes is about 1,500 points. Add Tigurius gating around with a squad of tactical terminators or sternguard and you're at 2,000. Every squad is hard hitting and very mobile and with Tigurius' reroll will likely come in on turn 2 if you want.

 

BUT!

 

If you're playing the Tigurius-bike-reserve army, I can see why it might even be helpful to use those rerolls to try to keep all your reserves off-board until turn 3, denying 2-3 turns of enemy shooting.

 

Thoughts?

[Warp Angel]

There's no good reason for delaying your army's arrival to turn 3 if you can bring it all on at once. You're either going to cripple your enemy's army and win out, or you're going to fail and have a fight on your hands.

 

In the former situation, where you're able to concentrate firepower and achieve the majority of your victory on arrival, there's no effective difference. In the latter case, the more turns you have to exploit your superior units in concentrated fashion, the better off you are.

 

There will be situations where staying off for an additional turn might make a difference, but I wouldn't build an army to do so. Not enough payoff for the points.

[minigun762]

The focus of this article has been mostly on Fast Attack choices, but what about mechanized squads, specifically troop squads?

Maybe leave a pair of them in Reserve (so they can't be gunned down) and then bring them in later in the game and go straight for the objectives. It might be a method of keeping your troops alive longer and maybe even needing less to begin with.

[Warp Angel]

No reason that you couldn't. Just remember to make sure that the army on the table is capable of being successful for 3 turns without whatever you put in reserves.

[Gothical]

At the moment I am thinking of running a pair of Land Speeder Typoons for this purpose.

 

I was going to start them on-table (I play a fully mechanised army - yes, even my assault squads go inehinos, but I use them to counter-attack and not lead so they don;t need the packs/to charge out the Rhino), but now I'm thinking of keeping them in reserves.

 

Roll 12" and then unleash 2 Krak missile shots, or Heavy Bolter and 2 Frags EACH isn't too shabby, and could potentially shift the course of a battle (side-armour shots on a tank about to roll up your lines, finishing off the Ork mob that just broke through etc).

 

My only concern is it's 180 points - that would be a lot of bikes, which could perform a similar role (providing equipped correctly) and still be able to deal with the survivors in CC (whether that's a good idea or not, I don't know).

 

Basically, I'm agreeing that Land Speeders are under-played, particularly the Typhoon, but I am not sure than an equivalent points worth of bikes wouldn't be better (at far shorter range).

[Warchief]

I'm new to this KillHammer do hickey and the K and D and S confuses the bejezzes out of me!

 

BUT I am really appreciating the tactical advice that is encompassed within it. I have a few questions (and probably a few more on some of the other KillHammer article)....

 

I use a CSM BL army and was thinking of investing in a bike squad but very few CSM lists I see use Bikes. Is there an obvious reason for this that I am missing?

 

Would CC squads in Rhinos (eg Beserkers) work instead of a Land Raider?

 

What other squads in a CSM army would be the most effective coming in from reserve? Raptors kitted out for CC? I'm guessing even better if I added a HQ with Lightning Claws and jumppack?

[white radish]

What about Locator Beacons?

Empty points or do they measurably enhance the ability to put guns on a target? (Maybe I should not be so lazy and look for a beacon discussion rather than killhammer)

 

Pods scattering might not have a terrible effect, but delivering a Speeder squadron on target in melta or flamer range? Other shooty Deep Strikers? How's this for killhammer?

 

I was thinking about Scout Bikers. 4 Scout Bikes with a meltabomb sergeant and a beacon (plus an astartes GL if I have pts). They "make their points back" by putting Deep Strike teams on target, sort of like a meltabomb-armed dedicated transport. Does this make sense?

 

Beacons in pods are cheaper, but a little less mobile... Brother Aobrus (the black reach multimelta dread plus a flamer) needs his chariot though.

 

As for Speeders, I was thinking "cheap and cheery" rather than LST or Typhoons. Flamers and Meltas, coupled with Heavy Bolters, mainly.

 

I'd love to throw in a LS Storm with an outflaking Pfist, but a rapid rxn force has only 3 Fast Slots for non-Space Marine or Command Squad Bikers. *sigh* if only LS Storms could be dedicated transports.

[Warp Angel]

Replying to a few posts at once here:

 

If you're using drop pods or deep striking, having locator beacons is a really good idea. You maximize effectiveness for a relative few points. The problem with them is the platforms that they're on. Drop pods and scout bikers. You essentially have to use a force designed around them. If that's your game, go for it.

 

Land speeders are something I've been thinking about more and more (particularly the Typhoon). Aside from the Thunderfire, there's no more efficient anti-horde platform in the game. There's nothing wrong with keeping them in reserve and bringing them on normally. Heck, keeping them in reserve is a great idea regardless, since you can deep strike them if there's enough open terrain to land them someplace safe. The range of their weapon loadouts pretty much ensures that they'll always be effective. So if your table edge is safe, bring em in there. If it isn't, bring em in via deep strike. It's a win-win. And at under 100 points each, it's not a critical part of your army that you'll be crippled with if it doesn't show until turn 4 or 5. There's a dramatic D increase, but at the cost of early game K.

 

If the mission and opponent suggests it, go ahead and keep a Rhino in reserve with a squad inside. The problem with doing that for an assault oriented squad as a matter of routine, is that you're never going to be assaulting out of the Rhino on the same turn you arrive. That's at least one turn BEYOND the time spent in reserve where you're not using your K.

 

And the name of the game is Killhammer, not Reservehammer.

 

Feedback is always appreciated.