Using Reserves

[Apogee]

I had a game recently against Orks, at 2k. Both me and my opponent had fairly well balanced armies. I had a Sister army with an emphisis on mobility and flaming - great against orks, but fragile:

 

Jump Cannoness

Walking Cannoness (LD/antitank support for stormtroopers)

 

2 Celestian squads w/ MM, riding in Immolators

2 Rhino Squads w/ dual flamers

1 Stormtrooper squad

2 Seraphim squads with dual flamers

2 Exorcists

1 Retributor squad with 2 MMs

 

I wasn't sure what to expect (or even what army), hence the variety of weapons.

 

My opponent had:

 

Warboss w/ Nob retinue w/ Painboy

Wierdboy (the Character one)

 

30 Shootas

30 Sluggas

12 Tankbustas

12 Burnas in a Trukk

Battlewagon

Looted Tank

 

He deployed first, and I tried something new: I deployed only my Cannoness(es), Troopers, and Exos. Everything else I held in reserve. We did Spearhead deployment, and so I was counting on him taking the easy way into my lines - my side of the board, where I would have my reserves come on from. It actually went pretty badly, mosly due to some terrible, terrible rolling on my part. An entire squad of Serphim (8 of em) was lost to 9 wounds from shootaboys, my divine guidance dakka against his Nobs failed to roll a single 6, my exos rolled triple ones to wound his nobs.. the list goes on.

 

Anyhow, in THEORY, this worked very well. I had a lot of flamer templates on his boys, lots of rapidfire. My Seraphim deepstriking didn't work so well, but that was a bit of bad luck - one scattered far away (into cover) and the other was shot to pieces in a round fo bad luck. So: does it make sense to, in the case of an aggressive opponent (anything choppy) to instead of Rhino-ing your way forward, simply hold in reserves and await them? It means they can't shoot you mid-field, and you get to pick them off with longe-range fire as they advance, since your rhinos wont be blocking LOS at all. You also get to flame thigns right on turn one, if they come to close to your edge, particularly if it is Spearhead deployment.

 

So, thoughts? This is a new thing in 5th, so I'm guessing most of you haven't done it much... Any other attempts?

[Clishay]

While the idea of keeping a large part of your force in reserve in order to protect it from the opponent as well as open up clear lanes of fire for what you do deploy sounds tempting, I've always been leery of doing so. For me, the risk of my units coming in piecemeal and getting ripped to shreds by the enemy was always too high. I've seen games where multiple deep striking/reserve units didn't come onto the board until round 4, severely limiting their effectiveness and giving the other force a huge advantage since they're basically fighting against a reduced force (easier to pick targets and focus fire). This is also the biggest problem I have with the way the Daemon army works in 40k.

 

If you had a way to give yourself a bonus to your reserves rolls, it might be less tricky (ala an Autarch in an Eldar army), but without that I don't think I'd hinge my battleplan on a few crucial die rolls.

 

Just my $.02

[Apogee]

I wonder... if I ally in some Imperial Guard, would Improved Comms on a Chimera work on my Sisters too? A hefty price tag for just improving my rolls, though.