My New BA Forces

[Martyn]

Hello,

 

I recently joined up the forum to include myself into this great community. So, I recently purchased a Death Company and Tac Squad ( also a Sanguinary guard on the way).

I was just wondering what kind of gear I should equip all of my guys, at the moment I'm giving my tac squad bolters, 1 flamer, and 1 rocket launcher.

Then my Death Company will be given Jump Packs with Chainswords & bolterpistols, and 1 Thunderhammer.

 

I was also wondering whether it would be ok to just equip my sarge with just a bolter than a sword, as I would prefer they all shoot in the tac squad.

But I chose equipment by just reading things here and there. Maybe anyone could give me an idea if they should be equipped more ideally?

 

Thanks! :lol:

[Brother_Byhlli]

Hello,

 

I recently joined up the forum to include myself into this great community. So, I recently purchased a Death Company and Tac Squad ( also a Sanguinary guard on the way).

I was just wondering what kind of gear I should equip all of my guys, at the moment I'm giving my tac squad bolters, 1 flamer, and 1 rocket launcher.

Then my Death Company will be given Jump Packs with Chainswords & bolterpistols, and 1 Thunderhammer.

 

I was also wondering whether it would be ok to just equip my sarge with just a bolter than a sword, as I would prefer they all shoot in the tac squad.

But I chose equipment by just reading things here and there. Maybe anyone could give me an idea if they should be equipped more ideally?

 

Thanks! B)

 

Hey! Welcome to the forum and the army!

 

*Swoooooooooooosh!*

 

(That's the sound of me and my cider sweeping in with answers to your queries!)

 

Ok. Tactical Squad. I would recommend equipping them with bolt pistols, jump packs, two meltaguns and a power fist. :P

 

I'm only joking. Well, only slightly. One of the main strengths of Blood Angels is the ability to take Assault Squads as troops. That's unique among Space Marine chapters at the moment and I personally think it should be taken advantage of.

 

However, if you want to run Tactical Squads, then I won't stand in your way. But: it's extremely difficult to give a person advice on gearing and equipment for a squad in isolation. We need to know about your army - what kind of list you want to play with, what armies you've played before (or even, oddly, if you have experience or history of playing computer games in a certain way - plenty can be gleaned from hearing how a person games generally), whether you'd like to dominate the game through shooting, smashing tanks and infantry aside with massed ranks of fire-power or whether you prefer to dominate through combat, sweeping all before you in a dizzying melee of chainsword and bolt pistol. Your preferences will help us to help you shape your forces and work out how to blend the elements that are available to you into an army that represents you and the way you want to play.

 

The one piece of advice I will give - which I give to everyone who suggests Death Company with jump packs - is that for four jump packs you could buy three Death Company. Or four power weapons. Or a Rhino. The point is that jump packs on Death Company are heinously expensive and the points are - in most cases and in my opinion - better spent elsewhere.

 

So far as gearing your Sergeant is concerned, if we're not talking about special weapons then while the bolter/bolt pistol/chainsword debate can go into intricacies that become quite detailed, the simple fact is there extremely little difference between the various weapons load-outs in terms of your squad's performance. If you're not putting a power fist or whatever on the Sergeant, then whatever combination of the three weapons you want is going to be absolutely fine.

 

Hope this is helpful and I look forward to hearing more about how you want to work your list!

[JamesI]

Welcome to the forum.

 

For tactical marines, keeping the bolter is fine (or upgrading it to a combi weapon or storm bolter) but I would recommend also adding a power fist.

[Martyn]

Thanks for the hearty welcome!

 

To answer your questions now, I have to completely honest I've never played a single tabletop game before and this is really my first time gearing up. But I had plenty of playing time on DoWII!

My usual preference in that kind of play-style would be to create a strong center (my tacs in this instance), and let my Death Company come to the side and eventually when the Sanguinary Guard comes in, flank the other side. I would think having the tacs equipped for en masse infantry and tank busting would be efficient. At least that's how I would attempt to make my first BA army. I'm pretty sure that's how you don't normally play.

 

Or a Rhino. The point is that jump packs on Death Company are heinously expensive and the points are - in most cases and in my opinion - better spent elsewhere.

Too expensive you say? I've read also somewhere else that you could get them a drop pod and I think a beacon to drop them right where you need them behind enemy lines. So I'll rearm them with bolters maybe? Or just put on the chainswords and bolter pistols?

If you're not putting a power fist or whatever on the Sergeant, then whatever combination of the three weapons you want is going to be absolutely fine.

Ah, so from what I understood, I can have three power weapons? Like rocket, flamer, and melta for example? I just kind of assumed that the sarge should do his part in the battle and not wave his fancy sword around. But hey that's just me.

 

I''m pretty sure I'm rambling too much, if you answer the rest I'll buy you the next round of cider. B)

Cheers!

[Talnox]

Magnets are your friend. I magnetize jumppacks on all infantry that can swap for backpacks and some arms for weapon swaps.

[Brother_Byhlli]

Thanks for the hearty welcome!

It's what we're here for!

 

To answer your questions now, I have to completely honest I've never played a single tabletop game before and this is really my first time gearing up. But I had plenty of playing time on DoWII!

My usual preference in that kind of play-style would be to create a strong center (my tacs in this instance), and let my Death Company come to the side and eventually when the Sanguinary Guard comes in, flank the other side. I would think having the tacs equipped for en masse infantry and tank busting would be efficient. At least that's how I would attempt to make my first BA army. I'm pretty sure that's how you don't normally play.

The problem with Space Marines attacking the enemy's centre is that we're almost always incredibly outnumbered. As a general rule it tends to be best to find a weak point in your opponent's flank and strike it with all of your forces. Then you can roll up his edge of the table, sweeping him away as you go. This is basically working on a flank denial basis - if your opponent has spread his army out, then by ignoring half of it and focusing on the other half, you can heavily unbalance the fighting in your favour. Don't be fooled into thinking your Space Marines are unkillable. A headlong charge into massed enemy will almost always end with a lot of dead Space Marines.

 

Or a Rhino. The point is that jump packs on Death Company are heinously expensive and the points are - in most cases and in my opinion - better spent elsewhere.

Too expensive you say? I've read also somewhere else that you could get them a drop pod and I think a beacon to drop them right where you need them behind enemy lines. So I'll rearm them with bolters maybe? Or just put on the chainswords and bolter pistols?

Arming Death Company is actually quite tricky. This unit, if armed properly, can out-kill literally anything in the Codex. Because you can grant them rerolls to hit and to wound (from Astorath, Lemartes, Reclusiarchs or Chaplains) and you can kit them out with power weapons, power fists and the like. But they do get very expensive very quickly.

 

Because you're looking at a close-combat unit, it would generally be my advice to use close-combat weapons, ie., pistols, rather than boltguns. However, the Death Company are a tricky bunch and have the Relentless special rule, which allows you to fire boltguns and still charge the enemy. It's a conundrum that I think makes the Death Company a fun challenge to equip. In my own opinion, I generally stick with the bolt pistols but I would never tell someone they're wrong for using boltguns (except situationally!).

 

Remember as well that you get access to power weapons in your Death Company unit. Generally one power weapon per three or four Death Company is enough to get your (extremely violent) viewpoint across to other units, but if you have points kicking about, feel free to apply them liberally. Death Company with rerolls and power weapons will annihilate almost anything they come across in close-combat.

 

Drop Pods do indeed let you fairly reliably drop units behind enemy lines, but they have a few problems, too. Because of the Drop Pod Assault special rule, half of your Drop Pods (round up) have to arrive from reserve on turn one. If you have one Drop Pod, that means your Drop Pod must come screaming down from the heavens on turn one. If you're planning to stick that unit behind your enemy, you've suddenly got a massive rent in your forces: you're split between two sides of the table. That means your opponent can completely ignore one half of your army and focus on the other. And, given that's what we're trying to do to our enemy first, that's not particularly useful.

 

Another problem with Drop Pods is that units are not allowed to assault on the turn they deep strike (with a few exceptions). That means that your lovely, shiny, frothing-at-the-mouth lunatic unit will arrive behind your enemy, wave hello, fire off a few (generally ineffective) bolter rounds and then stand around like chumps. Your enemy gets one full turn of shooting at you and the opportunity to charge you before you can move and for almost all units, that is an extremely bad thing.

 

So in my opinion, if you're going to use Drop Pods you need to consider two things:

1. Keeping your army together as much as possible. To do this, consider taking large numbers of Drop Pods so that lots of things can attack together. When you get into larger points games, it becomes less important to keep your entire army together and more important to keep small groups of synergistic units together that help support each other. So, bring larger numbers of Drop Pods to keep those groups together and attack with enough stuff to actually have an impact.
   
2. Using units who don't necessarily need to charge. Units like Sternguard (in fact, pretty much just Sternguard!) can excel coming out of Drop Pods. Because they have enough basic attacks to be a threat in combat even if they get charged but, more importantly, because of the ranged threat they bring. Drop a unit of ten Sternguard with combi-meltas and you've a good chance of destroying two tanks or putting a serious dent in one or two units. Dreadnoughts carry a decent ranged threat and are scary enough in combat that many units will think twice about engaging you. Just make sure that you don't expose yourself to too much incoming threat and use the Drop Pod to provide some measure of protection (cover save) from as much of your opponent's army as possible.
   
3. Empty Drop Pods. If you give your unit Drop Pods, you don't have to use them as transports. If you use Drop Pods empty, you can place them to cause maximum disruption to your enemy's plans and battlelines: blocking line-of-sight or open movement channels means you can give yourself extra turns to cross the board before your enemy manages to reorganise and strike back.
   

 

If you're not putting a power fist or whatever on the Sergeant, then whatever combination of the three weapons you want is going to be absolutely fine.

Ah, so from what I understood, I can have three power weapons? Like rocket, flamer, and melta for example? I just kind of assumed that the sarge should do his part in the battle and not wave his fancy sword around. But hey that's just me.

You've got yourself confused over words here. There are different types of weapons that kick around a Space Marine army. A Tactical Squad can upgrade with one special weapon (flamer, plasma gun, meltagun) and one heavy weapon (multi-melta, heavy bolter, missile launcher, plasma cannon, lascannon). Special weapons will let you move and fire and - often - charge into combat, all in one turn. Heavy weapons cannot fire if you've moved and cannot assault if you've fired. A power weapon is a completely different kettle of fish - it's a specific type of close-combat weapon which negates armour saves. The Codex occasionally says "power sword" instead of "power weapon" but it's a purely superficial distinction - they all work in exactly the same way. The exception here is a power fist, which - like power weapons - ignore armour saves. But they also make you strike at initiative one in combat (ie., last) and double your strength (normally to 8).

 

So, when we talk about your Sergeant, he can be upgraded with a selection of special weapons (storm bolter, combi-flamer, combi-plasma, combi-melta, plasma pistol) and he can be upgraded with a selection of close-combat weapons (chainsword, power weapon, power fist). Generally your Sergeant should be supporting the rest of the unit if you decide to upgrade his special weapon so, for example, you might take a meltagun and multi-melta with the unit and a combi-melta with the Sergeant, or a flamer and heavy bolter for the unit and a combi-flamer for the Sergeant. In terms of close-combat weapons, these come into play only during close-combat and they can make an absolutely massive difference to combat. Like JamesI said earlier, Sergeants are absolutely ideal recipients of power fists. Although you strike last in combat, being a unit upgrade in a large unit almost guarantees you're going to get a chance to strike. And if you do strike, you're going to do massive amounts of damage. Having a power fist in the unit means that if you get charged by a Dreadnought or a monstrous creature, for example, you can actually hurt it back in combat with reasonable reliability. Sergeants of ten-man squads are pretty much the best place to put power fists in the Blood Angels codex.

 

When I talk about the Sergeant supporting the rest of the unit, what I mean is that generally speaking a unit should be specifically designed to do one thing and do it very well. If you give your squad a flamer and a multi-melta, you've got a little bit of anti-infantry and a little bit of anti-tank. The problem is the flamer will never hurt whatever you want to be pointing the multi-melta at and the multi-melta is wasted firing into massed units of infantry. So, in the two examples I gave you above, a meltagun and multi-melta in combination will do horrible things to tanks quite reliably, while a flamer and heavy bolter in combination will whittle down massed ranks of infantry with aplomb. Always have a clear idea what your unit is expected to do when you're building it and it will help you design an army with focus.

 

I''m pretty sure I'm rambling too much, if you answer the rest I'll buy you the next round of cider. :lol:

Cheers!

Too. Much. Cider. Never again. :(

 

Hope this is helpful, brother!

 

Edited for formatting.

[SamaNagol]

If you have boxes for Death Company and for tactical marines then you will have ALMOST enough parts to build 2 good units.

 

You will need to order some more bits though...

 

While Tactical Marines are ok, Assault Marines are the real stars of the Blood Angel codex due to their ability to carry 2 special weapons at 10 or 1 special weapon at 5 man squad size.

 

As someone mentioned, Death Company with Jump Packs are incredibly expensive points wise for what they do, and you are far better off having them on foot.

 

Which means if it were me I would go on eBay and order myself 5 Marine Jump Packs like so: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Space-Marine-J...=item1c1da4491c

 

And I would also order myself 5 Chain Sword and Bolt Pistol arms here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Space-Marine-Ass...=item19c726ed25

 

And finally to round it off, these Meltaguns from GW which you will use a lot of as you build up your army: http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/...dId=prod1400031

 

Now this gives you everything you need to turn your tactical marine box and your Death company box into a 10 man Assault Squad with jump packs, 2 Meltaguns and a Power Fist, and a 5 man Death Company on foot with a Thunderhammer, a Power Weapon and 3 marines with Bolt Pistol and Chainsword.

 

Bolters are very weak in Warhammer 40k and are not very useful when it comes to actually doing serious damage. They area jack of all trades weapon and suffer from that.

 

I know I am advising you to buy more stuff than you have, but in the long run it will be cheaper than you buying entirely new units when you realise you want better choices.

 

ALSO I would recommend that you go onto youtube and watch some tutorials on magnetizing space marines. And then magnetize all of the Jump Packs and special weapon/special close combat weapon arms. Again it is a bit pricier and time consuming in the short term, but in the long run it will save you a lot of money and let your army be very flexible should you want to try other options. This is a good guide

 

And also, in future if you ever go to buy vehicles... ALWAYS buy Razorback kits not Rhino kits. You can make a Rhino with a Razorback kit and have the option of using either.

[Martyn]

Thanks for all the great replies my friends!

 

I've taken all advice to heart and I'm messing around with my options as of right now.

Thank you Brother_Byhlli for all your wisdom concerning how to use them. Also thanks for the general strategy in how to use them. I will defiantly utilize the advantages of the BA to my advantage, other wise I would have ended up with some mediocre cannon fodder. This will help me on my path of world domination.

I'll make sure to pester you when I get more units. Just kidding. B)

 

You will need to order some more bits though...

That's is absolutely fine and even encourage that I put in some more time and effort in my models. I caved in this morning and bought enough magnets for my forces. That way I can adjust to any situation. But unfortunatly I already glued on a backpack to one of my tacs, time to get the knife... Atleast I'm ready to modify the rest of my tacs.

Also thanks for all the links and equipment ideas, I've been looking at all of them. Great stuff.

 

And also, in future if you ever go to buy vehicles... ALWAYS buy Razorback kits not Rhino kits. You can make a Rhino with a Razorback kit and have the option of using either.

I will defiantly go with this as then I can also magentize the parts for a Razor and Rhino.might as well make the most out of my magnets!

 

My thanks to everyone so far. If you have anymore wisdom to give me, I am more than willing to listen. :woot:

[SamaNagol]

The thing with the Razorback/Rhino kit is you dont need to magnetize ANYTHING. Just do not glue on the roof of the Rhino and you can simply switch it out for the Razorback turret roof mount and turret instead. It won't fall off in play so dont waste those precious magnets

[Martyn]

That's great news SamaNagol!

That will save me some work. I love shortcuts. :D

[Brother_Byhlli]

I love shortcuts. :P

 

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_from=R40&am...-All-Categories

 

:P

[AustonT]

Defiantly buy bolt pistol and CCW arms for those tactical bodies. Take any section in the army book that claims Blood Angels are a codex chapter with a large grain of salt, or cross it out. BA is an assault army.

 

Death Company has taken a serious hit in this iteration of the codex in that putting jump packs on them is painful. Relentless makes putting bolters on them a possibility.

 

I reccomment putting them in a Rhino so thier Rage rule is under control until you unleash them.

 

Welcome to the Blood Angels! Eat, drink, and be merry. And thats just in the assault phase!

 

The advantGes of this book are that you may form a mechanized, jump pack, or gunline. Although gunline armies are a part of the standard Space Marines.

[toaae]

Take any section in the army book that claims Blood Angels are a codex chapter with a large grain of salt, or cross it out. BA is an assault army.

 

I have to wholeheartedly disagree.

 

Allow me to provide the counter-argument here, Martyn. In my own, humble opinion, Tactical squads are the most underrated unit in our codex. Many of my fellow brothers are caught up in the glitz and glammer of being the only chapter capable of fielding Assault marines as troops. The stalwart Tacticals are often overlooked, and sadly, even mocked.

 

This is a unit that simple shouldn't be resigned to being the "codex unit we have for fluff purposes." It very much is a Blood Angel unit. And, honestly, our tacticals are actually better than codex ones, other then maybe ones led by Vulcan. This is because:

 

1. Their Transports are fast

2. They have the potential to be very durable.

3. They have the potential to be fairly good at assaulting.

 

Point three relies on Red Thirst roles, or a supporting priest (as does point 2). But the first point is always present in our Tactical squads.

 

Tactical squads should always be mechanised. The fact that they score doesn't make them a better choice over a Devastator unit for a long-range, sit-back-and-shoot unit, and footslogging anywhere is just going to get them killed. They also need to be fielded in full units. Small units are just better replaced by Assault Squads, due to their cheaper transports and 1 special weapon.

 

Tacticals should be given a role, and geared to maximise it. I outfit mine as close range support and objective holding. Powerfist, Combi-Melta, Meltagun, Multi-Melta. If I do not find myself lacking in anti-tank, I'll switch out the the meltagun for a plasmagun. As long as all the weapons mesh, you can't really go wrong on choosing a set-up.

 

What tactical squads do well is hold objectives. When you shoot, you aren't providing your opponent a chance to swing back, unlike in assault. Bolters should not be simply ignored. Firing 7-8 bolters in rapid fire range is sure to add some wounds, and have a chance to really shine, given good dice rolls.

 

And if there is a target you feel you need to assault, they can do that as well. We are Blood Angels, and we are the originators of Furious Charge. With that, the squad can put out 18 S5, I5 attacks, as well as the sergeant attacking. Yes, this is only 2/3rds the attacks that Assault Squads generate, but they are not exactly inconsequential.

 

 

Finally, the important thing to remember is they are not assault squads. They are premier close range fire support squads. We are a codex chapter, but we are an aggressive one. Use fast vehicles to bring them to the front line. Use their guns to support the assault elements of your army. And then, once the objective has been cleared, sit them on it, and use them to score, and win.

 

 

 

Now, again, I am in the minority. And it is an awfully small minority. But at least think about your Tactical squads before you simply lay them to the side. They are a great unit, that is tragically overlooked.

[AustonT]

Take any section in the army book that claims Blood Angels are a codex chapter with a large grain of salt, or cross it out. BA is an assault army.

 

I have to wholeheartedly disagree.

 

Allow me to provide the counter-argument here, Martyn. In my own, humble opinion, Tactical squads are the most underrated unit in our codex. Many of my fellow brothers are caught up in the glitz and glammer of being the only chapter capable of fielding Assault marines as troops. The stalwart Tacticals are often overlooked, and sadly, even mocked.

 

This is a unit that simple shouldn't be resigned to being the "codex unit we have for fluff purposes." It very much is a Blood Angel unit. And, honestly, our tacticals are actually better than codex ones, other then maybe ones led by Vulcan. This is because:

 

1. Their Transports are fast

2. They have the potential to be very durable.

3. They have the potential to be fairly good at assaulting.

 

Point three relies on Red Thirst roles, or a supporting priest (as does point 2). But the first point is always present in our Tactical squads.

 

Tactical squads should always be mechanised. The fact that they score doesn't make them a better choice over a Devastator unit for a long-range, sit-back-and-shoot unit, and footslogging anywhere is just going to get them killed. They also need to be fielded in full units. Small units are just better replaced by Assault Squads, due to their cheaper transports and 1 special weapon.

 

Tacticals should be given a role, and geared to maximise it. I outfit mine as close range support and objective holding. Powerfist, Combi-Melta, Meltagun, Multi-Melta. If I do not find myself lacking in anti-tank, I'll switch out the the meltagun for a plasmagun. As long as all the weapons mesh, you can't really go wrong on choosing a set-up.

 

What tactical squads do well is hold objectives. When you shoot, you aren't providing your opponent a chance to swing back, unlike in assault. Bolters should not be simply ignored. Firing 7-8 bolters in rapid fire range is sure to add some wounds, and have a chance to really shine, given good dice rolls.

 

And if there is a target you feel you need to assault, they can do that as well. We are Blood Angels, and we are the originators of Furious Charge. With that, the squad can put out 18 S5, I5 attacks, as well as the sergeant attacking. Yes, this is only 2/3rds the attacks that Assault Squads generate, but they are not exactly inconsequential.

 

 

Finally, the important thing to remember is they are not assault squads. They are premier close range fire support squads. We are a codex chapter, but we are an aggressive one. Use fast vehicles to bring them to the front line. Use their guns to support the assault elements of your army. And then, once the objective has been cleared, sit them on it, and use them to score, and win.

 

 

 

Now, again, I am in the minority. And it is an awfully small minority. But at least think about your Tactical squads before you simply lay them to the side. They are a great unit, that is tragically overlooked.

 

T I'm going to shock the :D out of you and agree. Tacticals are a fantastic unit and were a staple of my PDF army. When used correctly they are a DEVASTATING basic unit. But the transport credit that Assault Squads get makes them superior to me. The BA dex is optimized to assault but by no means solely relegated. If I were to advise a player to take Tac squads in a mech force I'd go 50/50 to mech RAS.

 

Personally I shy away from fielding tacs in a BA army the way I do from Sternguard. They work, and work well but then you are just playing Red Marines with special rules. That's fluff based. The other part is tacs are much more multidimensional and require this thing called "strategy" which I abhor. Push em in roll the dice.

 

I am of course being sarcastic to a point but I usually introduce people to the game with assault armies: Orks or BA.

For a new BA player RAS is a good suggestion because they always have a place, but if you decide you need more Dakka a tac squad is only a paintjob away...or a Baal

[Martyn]

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/i.html?_from=R40&am...-All-Categories

^_^

 

I'm glad that Tahaal put his opinion in here as it was an interesting view on the advantages on the tactical squads. As for myself, I love the use of strategy in the use of Tactical marines. Even though having assaults is a very nice addition to such tactics. I found your post interesting use on the use of them, now even convincing me that they are indeed a sturdy unit to field. Though I was thinking of taking a droppod, you convinced me otherwise and would rather field the Razor/Rhino.

Thanks for the insightful post Tahaal!

 

Personally I shy away from fielding tacs in a BA army the way I do from Sternguard. They work, and work well but then you are just playing Red Marines with special rules. That's fluff based. The other part is tacs are much more multidimensional and require this thing called "strategy" which I abhor. Push em in roll the dice.

 

Is that how the assault works with the BA? Taking the previous wisdom of Brother_Byhlli, would it be more advatantages to overload a flank with, lets say, assault marines and make them just sweep along the enemy lines and using strong support from tacticals? Or even as you mentioned, rolling out a Baal tank in order get the full effect of the BA?

 

Though now I'm a bit mixed on the current "flow" of my BA army should actually go. But that's perfectly fine as I know now of all the advantages that I have now over most.

Thanks for all the input! ;)

[Brother_Byhlli]

The reason I so strongly advise Assault Squads is that we do it better than anyone else. Tactical Squads we do - at best - as well as some others. However, if you're wanting to run Tactical Squads, then Ultramarines (due to Cato Sicarius' unit buff), the Crimson Fists (due to Pedro Kantor's Stubborn rule, his scoring Sternguard and the increase to the number of attacks the squad gets), the Imperial Fists (due to Darnath Lysander's bolter to-hit rerolls), the Salamanders (due to Vulkan He'stan's twin-linked multi-meltas, meltaguns and flamers) and Space Wolves (due to counter-attack and significantly cheaper units) all arguably do Tactical Squads better than Blood Angels.

 

None of them, however, can field an army of Assault Squads.

 

I just figure, you know, if I wanted to play Tactical Squad's I'd paint my guys blue.

[AustonT]

No. Push em in, roll the dice is more a joke than a strategy.

 

Overloading a flank is a sound stategy, not always the right one. Sometimes spreading out the opposing army and breaking the line works. Army composition is a large determining factor in stategy.

[Brother_Byhlli]

No. Push em in, roll the dice is more a joke than a strategy.

 

Overloading a flank is a sound stategy, not always the right one. Sometimes spreading out the opposing army and breaking the line works. Army composition is a large determining factor in stategy.

 

Absolutely and I'm sorry if I gave the impression I was proposing the be-all-and-end-all, kill-everything-that-moves strategy. The dictionary (or, more accurately, a dictionary), gives this definition of strategy: "the science or art of combining and employing the means of war in planning and directing large military movements and operations."

 

You will not have one win-all-the-time strategy. It doesn't exist, unless your strategy is "only play against six-year-olds who've never played before". That might work. But generally speaking you will be planning; you will be considering your opponent's army list; considering his deployment; considering your battlefield objectives; considering the terrain features; considering your army list; etc.

 

Overloading a flank often works because a lot of people - newer players particularly - like to spread themselves out on the table. Because they actively isolate their units from each other, you can strike hard at one isolated unit after another. Alternatively, you might find that your opponent has focused everything in the middle of the table but there's a dirty great wall in front of his forces that you can hide behind, in jump pack charge range, without risk of being shot. In that case, ignore the flank and jump behind the wall, then charge his guns next turn. Maybe you have Dante in your list and your opponent has hidden a tank in his backfield, on its own. So drop Dante and some meltaguns right into the tank and melt it to slag. Etc. There are infinite strategies that you can employ, because we play a game which isn't limited by grids. You can split units up, keep them together, spread them out, castle them, reserve them, deep strike them, footslog them, jump them, put them in cover, keep them in the open, move them forwards, backwards, sideways or any way in between, you can shoot, you can run, you can move your full movement or part of your movement, etc., etc.

 

The only golden rule that I stick with near enough 100% of the time is this: if you can avoid it, never fight a fair fight. Always look for opportunities to unbalance the battle in your favour.

[Martyn]

You will not have one win-all-the-time strategy. It doesn't exist, unless your strategy is "only play against six-year-olds who've never played before". That might work. But generally speaking you will be planning; you will be considering your opponent's army list; considering his deployment; considering your battlefield objectives; considering the terrain features; considering your army list; etc.

 

Overloading a flank often works because a lot of people - newer players particularly - like to spread themselves out on the table. Because they actively isolate their units from each other, you can strike hard at one isolated unit after another. Alternatively, you might find that your opponent has focused everything in the middle of the table but there's a dirty great wall in front of his forces that you can hide behind, in jump pack charge range, without risk of being shot. In that case, ignore the flank and jump behind the wall, then charge his guns next turn. Maybe you have Dante in your list and your opponent has hidden a tank in his backfield, on its own. So drop Dante and some meltaguns right into the tank and melt it to slag. Etc. There are infinite strategies that you can employ, because we play a game which isn't limited by grids. You can split units up, keep them together, spread them out, castle them, reserve them, deep strike them, footslog them, jump them, put them in cover, keep them in the open, move them forwards, backwards, sideways or any way in between, you can shoot, you can run, you can move your full movement or part of your movement, etc., etc.

 

The only golden rule that I stick with near enough 100% of the time is this: if you can avoid it, never fight a fair fight. Always look for opportunities to unbalance the battle in your favour.

 

I know that not every battle with the BA will end in a victory, and that's part of the fun anyways. But all this information that I've been reading here and there will defiantly give me the little advantage for my coming match. I'll be facing this Space Wolf army, which I heard is pretty well equipped with predator and drop-pod. I'm still hoping for a six-year-old. So from all the things I've been reading here and there, I'll won't look silly when I try to roll out my troops.

Either way, I'll push them out there and know how to use everything to my advantage thanks to everyone here. :mellow:

 

Since you mentioned the usefulness of Dante, I might as well through him into my basket and hopefully in time before I face my opponents. Unless you advise a different leader, or even having multiple leaders for any given situation (which sounds a more solid choice).