My 1. Am game

[Ferox]

Hi I had my first Astra militarum game, and first game in 15 year

I played 2000 game 2vs1, 2 new players against 1 experienced player. It was fun but i ended up with som questions.

 

The troop choice platoon, can i place each unit where i want ?

 

And it my mob up unit with 25 units got shot away in 1 turn.. Any advice on keeping them alive?

 

And how do you transport ure tanks and HWT ?

[Apothecary Meros]

Always happy to assist a fellow guardsman.

 

1) As far as I know, and I haven't received any complaints about it, each squad in a platoon is an independent, so they can be wherever they like. Think of the infantry platoon as a formation, where a platoon command squad and two infantry teams are the minimum, but you can purchase more, in a similar way to proper formations. This means each guy in a unit has to stay with that unit, but the entire units themselves can do different things to over units in the platoon.

 

Also to clarify, even though they can be 'wherever you want' in relation to each other, make sure each unit is within your team's deployment zone.

 

2) I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here. Are you referring to a 25-man platoon? Assuming you are, I'll need to know what your opponent was and what kind of units killed them. Some people might give you advice to help against any foe - anyone who suggests that one list is effective against every army has probably only ever used that list against two or three different armies, so take their advice with a pinch of salt. Every codex has various tricks up it's sleeve that have to be dealt with in different ways, so by knowing your opponent, you can take the necessary steps to preparing a list to be the most efficient against that particular foe.

 

3) You can't transport tanks. Tanks are pretty much their own transports. Assuming HWT means Heavy Weapon Team, they're not the kind of unit that should be moving around a lot. They're very much a long range defensive unit, so it's often recommended to put them in a building or an equally defendable location and keep them where they are.

[Doctor Perils]

3) You can't transport tanks. Tanks are pretty much their own transports. Assuming HWT means Heavy Weapon Team, they're not the kind of unit that should be moving around a lot. They're very much a long range defensive unit, so it's often recommended to put them in a building or an equally defendable location and keep them where they are.

I think he means transporting the tank models in the real world ;)

[WarriorFish]

15 years is a long time, quite a bit has changed - 2,000pts is a bit of a deep end for your returning game :P A platoon is a single choice in an army (Troop), but function as independent units. The only exception is combined squads, where Infantry Squads in a single Platoon may merge. Only the Infantry Squads can do this, but as it's not an army list thing you can decide each game.

 

Could you give us more info on the game? Sounds like some big guns were out, which can make things difficult for the humble infantryman. I'm assuming you mean transport as in to and from games, in which case some form of carry case with a larger foam tray works nicely or a boot box with foam/bubble wrap :)

[duz_]

I use the new GW carry cases. The largest one (Crusade I think?) will let me fit in 8 tanks of various chassis, up to 5 taurox, 3 HWTs (could probably get another 3 in to), 35 scions and 50 odd guardsmen. And that's me packing fairly comfortably.

At one point I had 3000+ of guard in there but it was fairly crammed and I didn't use it all so dropped some out for ease.

 

They are one unit for Force Organization, but individual units for all purposes of the game, unless of course you blob them.

The platoon and command squads however cannot blob up with squads. So for a minimum platoon you could have 1 5man platoon command squad and 1 20man combined infantry squad.

An Aegis defence line will help in most cases to keep them alive (4+ cover, 2+ if you goto ground). That is unless you go up against an army with easy access to ignores cover and Ap5 (ie Tau).

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

The troop choice platoon, can i place each unit where i want ?

As WarriorFish stated, the infantry squads in the platoon structure are independent of one another. Unless you combine the squads at deployment, in which case the infantry squads work as one big squad.

 

 

And it my mob up unit with 25 units got shot away in 1 turn.. Any advice on keeping them alive?

While the total number of models in your platoon will be 25 at minimum, combining squads only works for the Infantry squads. The Command Squad, and any special or heavy weapons squads you take in the platoon, will remain independent. As for keeping them alive, an aegis line as Duz_ suggested is a good way. The only other way I know of to keep them protected is to put them in a transport. That either means you'll be getting a Stormlord, Crassus or Gorgon if you want them to be combined, or you'll be getting a taurox or chimera for each squad. Without knowing what your opponent had, I can't really help you any better than that.

 

 

And how do you transport ure tanks and HWT ?

Right now, I use a citadel case (the old big one) with some trays removed and some egg crate style foam. I'll be upgrading to battlefoam as soon as I can afford it.

[Ferox]

Thank you for all ure time and

 

Short resume: I had 1000. Point with the following list

Hq 5 man 2 snipers

Platoon with 5ccs, 30 troops 3 GL, 3 hwt with autocannon, sws 3 flamers

Vets. 2 meltas In Chimera

Vets 2 plasma in chimera

Valkyrie with lascannon and rocket pod

Lrbt.

My friend had iron fist with focus on CC

 

Playede against eldar with no

 

Eldar got first round and moved in for charge and shooting, he blastet 2 Hwt and half my hq away. My own foult forgot to place them 2 inch from each other,( leason learned). And my sws got shot away ( forgot to go to ground).

Our first turn: we did a whole lot of shooting removed several of his units with our combined firepower. ( learned to use template weapons before range weapon) at the end of turn 1 we had a minor advantage. (Dice gods)

 

His 2 round startet with those swooping talons landing besides my 25 man squad and threw the 5 inch blast grenade in the middle killing 11. The rest got shot to pieces by 2 other units. ( the only thingi could have done different was using go to ground and remember to spread out the unit)

Our 2 round was fun, my valkyrie came in. But that movment was a bit tricky. We used 2 much firepower to remove 1 unit so to many of his units where unharmed.

 

We stopped at 2 round the time we had the location expired.

The game ended tie.

 

It was realy fun and im looking forward to have my own games with no nursing. And more focus on tactics and less on rules

[WarriorFish]

How did the filthy xenos get a first turn charge? Eldar are a top tier army though so I wouldn't worry too much especially as you're re-learning the game. Your list wasn't bad for a 1,000pts one, I'm assuming you'll be looking to update your collection?

[Emicus]

How to keep men alive 101:

- spread out (coherency limit is 2")

- sit in cover (3/4/5/6+ save trumps no save!)

- utilise Line of Sight to block off avenues of attack from your opponent

 

-if cover is sparse bring an Aegis Defence Line fortification for the best walls the Departmento Ministorum can provide. This gives a 4+ save to everything behind amd +2 rather than 1 when Going to Ground. You also get to place it wherever you want in your deployment zone.

 

 

Expendable men for real commanders' 101:

 

There's more men where they came from, and besides they're cheap in points so as long as they did their duty and meatshielded more valuable units their sacrifice for the Emperor was just and they shall seek welcome in His Light.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Thank you for all ure time and

 

Short resume: I had 1000. Point with the following list

Hq 5 man 2 snipers

Platoon with 5ccs, 30 troops 3 GL, 3 hwt with autocannon, sws 3 flamers

Vets. 2 meltas In Chimera

Vets 2 plasma in chimera

Valkyrie with lascannon and rocket pod

Lrbt.

If I may, I'd like to point some things out that might help:

 

If I were to run snipers, I'd probably put them in a vet squad (to make use of BS4) with an autocannon and forward sentries doctrine. Putting them in a CCS is probably not the best use of snipers. I like my Special weapons in command squads to be flamers to discourage charges, and to burn out cover campers. a CCS Heavy Flamer is especially useful, since it wounds eldar on 2's and ignores most eldar armor saves (most infantry get no better than a 4+).  I'd put the CCS in a Chimera.

 

The platoon is fine, and with proper use of orders should be able to move around the board pretty quickly (forwards for the emperor, or move move move). Combining the squad will let you take advantage of the single order the PC can issue.

 

The best use for the platoon is probably as bubble wrap for the Leman Russ. Don't take sponsons on the Battle Tank, as they cost a lot of points, for you to spend most of your time snap shooting them.

 

For the Valkyrie, take the multi-laser instead of the lascannon. More shots means more probability of hitting, and that's 10 points you don't need to spend.

 

Presenting your opponent with juicier targets than your infantry, is the key to keeping them alive. Use your infantry to capture objectives, or shield your tank. It's all about how you play the tactics.