TACTICA: Grey Knight Deployment & Maneuvers

[Doomaflatchi]

TACTICA: Grey Knight Deployment & Maneuvers

 

The proper employment of troops in battle is a study that has captivated warriors as long as there has been war. It is no different with us, for we too are warriors of a fashion, taking to battle with miniatures and dice rather than sword and spear. Nevertheless, our war is no less real than those of our forefathers, and so it does us well to understand what makes armies succeed or fail in war. Many military strategists over the years have attempted to encapsulate a successful strategy in a set of principles – Sun Tzu defines 13 principles of war in his book The Art of War, while Napoleon identified 115 maxims. The United States Army Field Manual of Military Operations lists nine principles which I feel are well adapted to warfare on the tabletops of the 41st Millennium, so I’ll list them here:

 

1. Objective (Direct every military operation towards a clearly defined, decisive, and attainable objective) - Also known as the “enemy’s gate is down” principle

2. Offensive (Seize, retain, and exploit the initiative)

3. Mass (Concentrate combat power at the decisive place and time)

4. Economy of Force (Allocate minimum essential combat power to secondary efforts)

5. Maneuver (Place the enemy in a disadvantageous position through the flexible application of combat power)

6. Unity of Command (For every objective, ensure unity of effort under one responsible commander)

7. Security (Never permit the enemy to acquire an unexpected advantage)

8. Surprise (Strike the enemy at a time, at a place, or in a manner for which he is unprepared)

9. Simplicity (Prepare clear, uncomplicated plans and clear, concise orders to ensure thorough understanding)

 

In this Tactica, I have attempted to compile a list of various general principles and specific tactics for use in Warhammer 40k. This Tactica was specifically written with the Grey Knight army in mind, and is geared towards armies using multi-Raider, or “Water Warrior”, lists – however, many of the items discussed here are applicable in many alternate circumstances. So, if you see something that looks good, don’t be afraid to adapt it to other armies! Also, this work is intended to be a living document designed to compile the ideas and tactics of many generals, so if you have anything you would like to see added here, just send me a Private Message and I’ll do my best to include it. Enjoy!

 

(All externally cited entries are used with permission)

[Doomaflatchi]

Deployment Patterns

 

Stacked Flank

“Where you see the enemy to be empty, proceed; where you see the enemy to be full, stop.” – Zhuge Liang

 

The Stacked Flank is an opening deployment in which you concentrate the offensive bulk of your force on a single side of the board (thereby “stacking” it), while placing no troops on the opposite side (thereby “refusing” it). This is particularly effective when the opponent has deployed in an open, or spread, fashion, as it then allows you to concentrate the entire weight of your army’s offensive power against a small percentage of your opponent’s army, thus achieving localized numerical superiority.

 

In a Grey Knight army, this is one of the most effective opening deployments, and is achieved by placing your entire force on the side of the board where the opponent has deployed either their weakest or fastest units. By deploying on the side where they are weakest, you ensure your ability to inflict heavy casualties with almost no losses in return on an early turn in the battle, which can give a great long-term strategic advantage. On the other hand, deploying on the side where the opponent has placed his fastest troops, you can engage those troops immediately, thus effectively negating their advantage of maneuverability, since they become engaged before they can use that mobility to cross the field. This has the added benefit of leaving the opponent’s slowest units farthest from your army, thus increasing the amount of time and movement required for them to engage you. This will allow you to use your own mobility to the fullest, by either withdrawing or picking off specific units of a slower force with your high-speed armor.

 

The Stacked Flank is primarily a “going second” deployment – it can be used if you have first turn, but allows the enemy to stack in reaction to you. Thus, as a first turn deployment, it’s really only viable against armies much larger than yours, where their great size naturally forces them to be more spread out. If you’re going first, you’re probably better off using this in conjunction with the “Bait & Switch” deployment (below).

 

Refused Flank

“Before fighting, first assess… the relative strength of the enemy, the sizes of the armies, [and] the lay of the land… If you send troops out only after making these calculations, you will never fail to win.” – Liu Ji

 

The Refused Flank (also known as the “Oblique Order”) is similar to the Stacked Flank, except that in the Refused Flank a small unit is left on the “refused” flank of your deployment. This unit then serves to anchor the opponent’s line of assault, preventing them from properly wheeling ‘round to engage your “stacked” flank, and thus decreases the overall mobility of their army and makes them less able to engage you on their own terms. The Refused Flank was historically first used at the Battle of Leuctra, where the Thebens under Epaminondas used it to defeat the Spartans. It was later heavily used by Alexander the Great, and achieved particular notoriety by Prussian Generals under Frederick the Great.

 

Another “going second” deployment, the Refused Flank is a great way to use a small unit of inducted Guardsman, or Inquisitorial Stormtroopers if you have them. If you attempt such a maneuver, do not be afraid to sacrifice these soldiers! String them out along your refused side, and use them in an early assault to anchor central or key units in the opponent’s line for a turn or two so they can’t redeploy to engage your force properly. Employed thusly, they will almost certainly be destroyed, but the idea is to make their sacrifice more effective to the overall outcome of the battle by protecting your main force from counterattack. Generally speaking, this tactic is not worth making extra space in your army to take such a “sacrificial lamb” unit (if you don’t take any of them, the Stacked Flank works almost as well), but if you already have the room in your army for this type of unit, then the Refused Flank is an excellent way to make use of them.

 

This tactic is especially effective when deploying first in a Dawn of War scenario – by stringing the unit of Guardsman out in a single-file line across the center of the board, you force the opponent to place his entire army in a 6” deployment zone (since they have to deploy 18” away from you). Such a narrow zone forces him to spread his troops out more, thus increasing the effectiveness of the forces on your “stacked” flank. However, take caution to only use this against aggressive opponents! Passive foes will simply decline to deploy any units at the start of battle, and instead move everything in from the table edge, which can completely negate your first turn advantage. Properly used, however, this tactic is devastating.

 

Bait & Switch

“Those whose extraordinary shifts are unfathomable, whose movements and responses are multifaceted, who turn disaster into fortune and seize victory from the jaws of danger, are called clever generals.” – Zhuge Liang

 

The Bait & Switch is used by armies with superior mobility to coax the opponent to move or deploy out of position to engage, then quickly repositioning their entire force to attack one of the vulnerable flanks.

 

This is a great deployment method if you decide to deploy first, but requires a high mobility force (like Land Raiders). By placing one Land Raider centrally towards the rear of the board, and placing another Land Raider towards the front on one side, you can create the illusion of a Stacked Flank. Your opponent will then deploy his forces to engage you on this flank. Then, on your first turn, you move the rear Land Raider 12” forward and towards your “refused” flank, and move the other “stacked” Raider 12” towards the rear center of the board, where the first Land Raider just left from. By doing this, in one turn of movement you completely flip which flanks you have “stacked” and which flanks you have “refused”, thus leaving your opponent completely mis-deployed to properly engage you.

 

Screening

“Git thar furst with the most men.” – Nathan Bedford Forrest, American Civil War General

 

The technique of Screening (also known as shielding) dates back to the antiquities of formation warfare, where it is the philosophical successor to the hand shield carried by soldiers. In this technique, the most heavily armored soldiers (or, in certain regimes, the most expendable soldiers) are deployed in a long, sweeping formation out in front of the other troops, in order to offer cover and protection from enemy fire to the weaker (or more important) troops. This was used most prominently on a wide scale in World War II, when infantry units would enter occupied cities ahead of their armored support. That way, the infantry could clear out anti-tank nests in the city, and the armor could offer supporting fire.

 

Screening has a very limited effectiveness for the Grey Knights, but can be useful against shooting-focused opponents. In most Grey Knight armies, our most well armored units (our Terminators) are simply too expensive and too important to risk in this kind of maneuver. However, this type of job is perfect for the relatively cheap Inquisitorial Stormtroopers or Inducted Guardsmen, especially in a footslogging army, or one that contains heavy-hitting melee units like Thunder Hammer Terminators. Simply deploy the Stormtroopers in a wide line on the forward edge of your deployment zone, and then mass your squads behind them. This way, the Stormtroopers afford a 4+ cover save to the main units of your army. By pulling casualties off the sides of the line, you can save that protection for as long as possible, and your entire army can advance as a single unit. If the Stormtrooper squad is killed, the units behind it can charge forward, being that much closer to the enemy. On the other hand, if they survive, then they get to take the first assault from the enemy soldiers – this effectively stops their advance dead, and when the Stormtroopers are killed, it leaves the enemy open to a full turn of shooting from the squads behind the screen, followed by an assault!

 

However, the troops behind the screen can’t shoot without affording their enemy a cover save either, so when you finally get in range of the enemy and decide it’s time to open fire, you’ll need to perform a maneuver called “Opening the Lotus Petals” (the name is, obviously, Chinese, taken from an archaic formation called Eight Gates, for those of you who are interested). When you decide to shoot with the screened units, simply move the screen 6” backwards through them. So long as the screened units aren’t grouped too tightly together, the screen should be able to move its soldiers interspersed through them while maintaining coherency. Then, the screened squads can make their 6” move forward (which should put them completely clear of the screen) and open fire. This maneuver allows one turn of movement to alternate the positions of the screen and the screened, thus allowing the fresh troops to deliver their fusillades of fire to the enemy. This approach does not maximize the efficiency of such Stormtrooper squads, but it’s not supposed to. The idea is that it will save enough of your screened troopers to render them more effective than the Stormtroopers would have been elsewhere.

 

If you plan on taking an Officio Assassinorum Operative in your force, then the screening line is a great place to put your required Inquisitor Lord. By attaching him to the screen, you ensure that the screen will always pass its morale tests in the shooting phase, and will never flee when you need them. Additionally, the Warrior retinue units also allow you to take a weapon that otherwise gets very little use in the Daemonhunters force: plasma. Plasma guns on the screen make a great opening gambit to shred your enemy’s heavily armored assault units, like Terminators, before they ever reach you.

[Doomaflatchi]

Combat Maneuvers

 

Echelon Formation

“A soldier’s greatest strength is the man next to him.” – Spartan Military Doctrine

 

An echelon formation is a military formation in which members are arranged diagonally. Each member is stationed behind and to the right (a “right echelon”), or behind and to the left (a “left echelon”), of the member ahead. The name of the formation comes from the French word échelle, meaning ladder, which describes the staircase effect that this formation has when viewed from above. Historically, the Echelon was first used at the Battle of Leuctra, where the Theben cavalry under Epaminondas used it to outflank and defeat the Spartans in conjunction with the Refused Flank.

 

Primarily an armored cavalry formation, the Echelon is a great way to move your Land Raiders together around the board. By keeping the rear-right corner of one near or touching the front-left corner of the other (or vice versa), both Lascannons maintain their full field of fire. Additionally, the Raiders are positioned so that one of them can move up in front of the other to offer it cover, or they may both pivot on the spot to face directly at the enemy, thus instantly bringing all of their guns to bear against an oncoming opponent.

 

As an infantry formation, the value of the Echelon comes in receiving an assault (remember – for Grey Knights, the best way to enter an assault is to receive it in cover). By placing only the leading unit of the Echelon within range of the enemy’s assault, you force them to attack the unit of your choosing. Then, if the enemy survives the assault, the new changes to consolidation moves prevent them from consolidating into an assault with the next unit, granting all of the other units in the Echelon a full turn to turn their guns on the weakened enemy unit. By keeping your leading units within range of covering fire from the other Echelon units, very few enemy units will ever survive long enough to make a second assault. Additionally, if necessary you can also collapse the Echelon, allowing the foremost unit to give cover to the units behind it (see “Screening”, above).

 

Rack ‘Em (credit Silent Requiem)

“Those who do not sort out the levels of skill among their own troops are the ones who get beaten.” – Sun Tzu

 

Taken from Silent Requiem’s “Way of the Water Warrior”:

Tank shock with your Raider along one flank of a unit. The unit will then bunch to the side to let the Raider past, probably forming a short, compact line (depending on the angle). When your PAGK disembark, the guy with the incinerator will find that this line fits neatly under the template. Changes to template rules in 5th edition make it worth considering whether to bring a second incinerator, and thereby have a decent shot of wiping out even MEQs. Doomaflatchi’s Note: It is for this reason that the inside of a Land Raider is where Incinerators truly shine. They should always be considered when fielding Land Raiders, especially since 5th Ed allows you to lay both templates down on top of each other and still get maximum kill efficiency for both – my record is 21 dead Orkz from just two Incinerators in one Raider using this technique.

 

The Flying Wedge

“The significance of One Count is that when you have closed in on the enemy, you hit him as swiftly and directly as you can… so as not to give the enemy time to consider his next moves.” – Miyamoto Musashi

 

The Flying Wedge (also called the “Flying V” or “Boar’s Head) is a formation in which a unit moved in a V-, arrowhead-, or wedge-shaped formation. This allows a great deal of force to be focused on a single point in the enemy line and then be supported by the ranks behind him, thus allowing a small force to pierce a large well-fortified line or shield wall. As successive ranks engage, they draw attention away from previous ranks, thereby protecting them. The wedge was first used by the Scythians, then the Thracians and from them Philip II of Macedon took it to use as the main charging formation of his companion cavalry. It was also used to great effect by the Roman Legions, with the wedge proving critical in campaigns in Britain, such as Boudiccas Revolt where a Roman army defeated Boudiccas Army against 20:1 odds, primarily thanks to the wedge formation.

 

The Flying Wedge is one of the staple maneuvers in any multi-Land Raider force. Water Warriors would do well to learn this tactic, and employ it! Land Raiders accomplish a Flying Wedge when they Tank Shock into an enemy unit from two different sides at oblique angles, thus creating a pincer-like move, coming together at their leading corners to form the point of the wedge. To ensure that your Raiders come together properly, Tank Shock one into the unit, guessing the range. Then, point the other Raider at it so that their corners will line up, and declare a 12” Tank Shock. The Raider will move forward through the enemy unit, and stop as soon as it contacts the other Raider, leaving them flush at the corners. This way, when you disembark your troops, the wide angles and high sides of the Land Raiders can protect your troops by shielding them from enemy lines of fire.

 

By Tank Shocking with the disembarkment hatches facing forward, you allow both Land Raiders to empty their troops into a single small deployment zone, concentrating your forces together and essentially forming two small squads into one large squad. By using the Rack ‘Em technique (described above), this puts you in a perfect position to wash twin jets of Incinerator flame down each side of the wedge, which can account for absolutely devastating amounts of casualties. However, when disembarking out the front, you must make sure that the tip of the wedge pierces all the way through the enemy unit and out the other side! The last thing you want is to attempt a Flying Wedge, only to find that your unit’s can’t disembark because the exit hatches are surrounded by enemy troops!

 

On the other hand, if you Tank Shock with the disembarkment hatches of your Land Raiders facing backwards (by Tank Shocking with the rear end of the Raider first), you can deploy your troops in two small groups on either trailing edge of the Flying Wedge. By using this tactic, they are split into two smaller groups and therefore more vulnerable, but they gain the vantage point from which to level their devastating firepower on the poor units caught in between the two Land Raiders, in the crux of the V! This can allow not only for the infliction of many casualties, but also the likelihood that there will be far fewer enemy troops (if indeed any at all!) left after your turn to counterattack you (be sure, however, that when you disembark your troops they are far enough away from the far Land Raider to be able to place the template down without hitting it, as being too close can prevent them from firing). This is especially potent when the Raiders are used to “scissor” off a small group of a larger unit. By using the pincer of the Flying Wedge to separate a few troops from rest of their unit, you gain several advantages – first, remember that because of new 5th Edition shooting rules, you get to fire all of your shots at the men inside the V, but if you inflict more casualties than there are models in the V, the rest are taken from the remainder of the unit, even if those models are outside of the wedge! Second, if there are any models left inside the wedge at the end of your turn, it leaves the unit out of coherency, meaning that they can’t fight back or shoot you until the other members of that squad run all the way around your Raiders to rejoin their companions. Finally, if you use favorably placed cover to block off the open end of the wedge, you are afforded another opportunity: if you assault the unit inside the wedge and force them to fall back, they then have nowhere to go, being caught between the Raiders, your soldiers, and the cover – then the entire unit is destroyed, even the models not inside the wedge!

 

The Inverted Wedge

“A wise prince will cunningly provoke opposition and then, by routing it, increase his own stature.” – Niccolo Machiavelli

 

The inverted wedge is a military formation resembling a "V" or inverted triangle, and is sometimes known as a "V-formation". In the inverted wedge, two units advance abreast of each other, and a third unit follows behind and between the two, in reserve. It is roughly the reverse of the flying wedge formation.

 

This tactic can be particularly useful in a force that is not fully contained within your Land Raiders, or when a unit of your force is most effective on foot (Psycannons, for example). The footslogging unit advances up the middle of the formation, and the Land Raiders flank it slightly ahead, Tank Shocking their way through the enemy formations and forming an armored corridor for the footslogging unit to shoot down. This can not only section off and group up targets for the footslogging unit, but also allows the heavily-armored Land Raiders to help protect them from incoming fire.

 

Wedge Bunker (credit Silent Requiem)

“In any battle, if another is the aggressor and you are the defender, you should not be too quick to fight… When they do not succeed in drawing you into battle… wait until they are worn out and then strike them. If you so this you will always win.” – Liu Ji

 

Taken from Silent Requiem’s “Way of the Water Warrior”:

Two Raiders in a shallow V, about 2.5 inches apart. Your GK in the V. They can fire past the Raiders (and be fired upon) at anything they can draw LOS to. However, as the enemy may not approach closer than 1" except in the assault phase, and the standard base is ~.98", they cannot pass through the gap between the Raiders, and have to try going around. Your Raiders and GK can reposition each turn of course. Don't stand too close to the gap, though, or they will just assault through. Doomaflatchi’s Note: Remember that your Grey Knights can still be shot at through the gap, as well, so this tactic is best used against opponents where you have ranged superiority but will get swarmed under in an assault, like Tyranids or Orkz. Use your Raiders to control the angles of fire so that you get to choose what can shoot at you.

[iamnothere]

Excellent tactica Doomaflatchi. Without knowing what half of these were called I've been using:

 

Refused Flank and Stacked Flank as the basis of my game. The Stacked flank technique of deploying opposite the opponents weakest/fastest units was especially interesting for the reasons you stated.

 

I've also tried the bait and switch before now but not got it to work properly. I can see I'm going to have to revisit it and put some more effort in.

 

Kudos to you.

[Lungboy]

Assaulting From Land Raiders (credit Silent Requiem, included for reference)

“You can feign weakness to entice opponents who will think little of coming to fight with you. Strike them with your best soldiers, and their forces will be defeated.” – Liu Ji

 

Taken from Silent Requiem’s “Way of the Water Warrior”:

1) Open the front hatch (yours does open, right?).

2) Place your first man so that the near edge of his base is 2" from the assault ramp/access point.

3) Place others as appropriate.

4) Make assault move.

 

This isn't right, the rulebook says you deploy 2" from the access point, not from the door itself. The drop pod would have a huge advantage otherwise.

[Mal]

As an infantry formation, the value of the Echelon comes in receiving an assault (remember – for Grey Knights, the best way to enter an assault is to receive it in cover). By placing only the leading unit of the Echelon within range of the enemy’s assault, you force them to attack the unit of your choosing. Then, if the enemy survives the assault, the new changes to consolidation moves prevent them from consolidating into an assault with the next unit, granting all of the other units in the Echelon a full turn to turn their guns on the weakened enemy unit. By keeping your leading units within range of covering fire from the other Echelon units, very few enemy units will ever survive long enough to make a second assault. Additionally, if necessary you can also collapse the Echelon, allowing the foremost unit to give cover to the units behind it (see “Screening”, above).

 

Just as a note, you cannot consolidate into assault in 5th edition.

[Tauren]

Yes but where does the access point begin? The door when its closed?

 

Alternatively if the doors for a drop-pod where the access point then they are part of the vehicle, and could not touch any terrain without taking a test (I believe they take a test if they land in terrain).

[Lungboy]

Yes but where does the access point begin? The door when its closed?

 

That's what the example diagram in the rulebook shows.

[Doomaflatchi]

Just as a note, you cannot consolidate into assault in 5th edition.

I'm aware - that's what I said in the article. They are prevented [by 5th Ed rules] from consolidating into an assault.

[archangelCJ]

I would have to agree with lungboy on this one. Looks as though you cannot deploy from the edge of the ramp. You can argue all you like that it was a rhino shown in the picture, but it clearly shows from a closed hatch. i have always just thought that teh deployment point starts at the hinge rather than the edge of the hatch

[Marid]

Nicely done. Sticky?

[number6]

Nicely done. Sticky?

It's in the Online Resources topic, which is pinned up top. Considering the length of time between archangelCJ's post and Doomaflatchi's post, I suspect that's how it was discovered in the first place. :)

[JCarter]

I may be misunderstanding your descriptions and uses, but it appears that your tactica is oriented toward battles on desert terrain using mobile gun lines.

[Doomaflatchi]

I may be misunderstanding your descriptions and uses, but it appears that your tactica is oriented toward battles on desert terrain using mobile gun lines.

If by desert you mean free of terrain, then yes - within a certain set of understandings. There will always be terrain, and the terrain will always be different. Trying to create plans for each specific instance of terrain would leave you with a manual five thousand pages thick and counting; it's a practical impossibility. However, it is unhelpful to speak of tactics completely devoid of terrain as well, as this never happens. Instead, I've tried to describe deployments on a larger scale, taking the whole field (or, at least, the whole deployment zone) into account, being as nonspecific as possible. This way, I can allow for the deployment to be laid over the entire field, and each individual piece of terrain can impart its own ripples and eddies onto this pattern, changing it to suit the field. While I could have written a Tactica on how terrain affects deployment, it would be a very different work than this, and better men than I have written such things already. Instead, I wanted to provide templates that could be malleable to suit your needs and the needs of your battlefield each time you take to the table.

 

As for being oriented towards a mobile gunline, you're exactly correct. Almost everything in Warhammer 40k is a mobile gunline, really - and everything in our army is (okay, except maybe a few Elite choices that are rarely ever taken anyway). Anything with a Ballistic Skill can be treated as a mobile gunline unit, and I've found that treating them as such greatly increases my ability to adapt to the field. However, I suppose in hindsight that not everyone might take that view, so I realize that disclaimer might be helpful.

 

I would have to agree with lungboy on this one. Looks as though you cannot deploy from the edge of the ramp. You can argue all you like that it was a rhino shown in the picture, but it clearly shows from a closed hatch. i have always just thought that teh deployment point starts at the hinge rather than the edge of the hatch

Given the reasons posted by yourself and others here, I have to agree that particular piece is indeed outdated. I will make an edit to remove it so that it doesn't cause further confusion. Thanks for the catch!

 

Nicely done.

Thank you, truly. It's always nice to know one's work is appreciated. :P