Deployment and Reserves

[joeshmoe]

Generally what strategy do you have for deployment / reserves?

 

What do you put out first?

 

What do you usually keep in reserves and why?

[Giga]

It depends a lot on the opponent and his army if I'll have anything in reserve or not. Against my khorne marine opponent I generally consider having some more fragile or just plain anti-infantry stuff such as small bike squads or sternguard with heavy flamers in razorback in reserve to be a good thing, so they'd avoid getting blasted to shreds by his oblits and defiler before they can get to shoot. Against necrons who usually don't have much if any long range shooting, I prefer to overrun my opponent by getting into charge range as soon as possible and hoping to perform some sweeping advances and engage as many of his units as possible, so I deploy everything.

 

Generally, I tend to deploy my land raider with vulkan/termies and my tacticals in rhinos/razorbacks on the table at the beginning. Sometimes, when the opponent has lots of shooting, I tend to keep one tac squad in a rhino off the table, for later-battle objective snatching/contesting.

[Koremu]

Reserve pretty much everything. I fight against Eldar a lot, so there is no point deploying and letting them pick and choose their targets. Keep your forces in reserve and force the xenos scum to develop their attack before you respond to it.

 

That's pretty much standard practice (or should be) against every enemy who is faster than you.

[Jezroth]

I normally start with infantry that have long range weapons (devs, scout snipers with camo, etc) and stick em in good cover then as I see what they're doing I'll determine what to do next

but it does depend heavily on your opponent and what they do/use

[Ming]

I try to get the opponent to setup first and then decide. Where possible, I start with everything I can on board, especially stuff that cannot do anything if it moves.

 

I typically only reserve terminators, speeders, and assault troopers w/ jump packs. Again, depending on the game and scenario, they deep strike or run in from the board edge.

[ShinyRhino]

I always leave my Terminators in reserve, as well as assault Marines and sometimes a bike squad.

When I use Terminators, I use them as reinforcements to something else, so I try to have teleport homers on my sergeants.

Assault Marines tend to cmoe in from the board edge, because it's hard sometimes to hide them behind enough terrain to keep them safe til they can get moving.

Bikers are also nice coming out from the board edge, as you get that 12" move.

I also leave choppy scouts in reserve to outflank.

[DarkGuard]

I will tend to always deploy my multi-melta attack bikes in reserve, especially if I set up first. This allows me to see where my opponent deploys his tanks, and so they can react to them without being blown off the table. Their speed allows them to get to the right position to unleash melta death.

 

Also, depending on the situation, a Rhino squad may find themselves in reserve, so they can also react to enemy movements.

 

I find that keeping things in reserve can really help with some Spearhead games, as you can still deploy your reserves down the entirety of one table edge.