Okay....with Ard Boyz coming up, and with a couple people getting frustrated trying to learn the rules. I thought I would take awhile to put in some tactics that I have found very useful in games. The First is going to be your army list tweaking....
1. Until you lose, your never going to win...
Now a lot of people know that I play hard list. I use every trick and tactic in the codex to give me an edge. While some people think that this is cheesy or win at all cost, I wanted to let you guys know how I learned. I got back into the game at the end of 4th edition, I started a Tyranid army...my first game at 500 points I won...that was about my only win for another 4 months of playing every Saturday and Sunday religiously. I had a lot of draws and loses after that, but every game I learned...more and more. So I started making notes...real notes and mental notes. I ran over the battles again and again, never blaming my opponent, but I started looking where I was weak, what mistakes in movement, shooting and assaults that I had made. I think one day my Space Marine army was beaten 7 times in a row against the only other player in the store...but I never lost the same way twice. I changed tactics, deployment, went after units in a certain order.... got beaten. So I started to look at my list.
2. A weakness in your list is going to show up ten-fold on the board.....
If you build a list that is totally fluffy...you not going to win a lot of tournaments. So legions and factions do make good list...but as we read the fluff in the book, remember this, those legions are made to fight a certain threat on a certain planet. If the fluff says that a faction is wiping the floor with the Tyranids...and you put in an army that is great anti-infantry, they probably aren't going to find a lot of anti-tank fire-power. Take Ravenwing...I like the bikes and rules, but taking Landspeeder as a troop choice with a heavy bolter/assault cannon isn't the best against an army with Leman Russes. I like my speeders with a Multi-Melta and a Hvy Flamer, good fast anti-tank or a suicide flamer. If you take a Grey Knights....your not going to do much against a army with 3 Monoliths, since you don't get your extra rending dice. Not a lot of people have asked after a game how I came up with my list, or explain how my army works. I can tell you this...when you see a lot of anti-tank, ask me how I get anti-infantry. When I field Razorbacks w/ TL LasCannon with my SW most people thought it would lose against Nidz and Orkz, but they forgot I have 4 bolters and a flamer in each...and one or two with a Runepriest with Murderous Hurricane. Why? Because in the tank vs tank game, I never needed to pop them out. When looking at your choice...look at what the units do....count up how much anti-tank and anti-infantry you have, if its not close...it needs to be. If not then you might do well against armies that you are geared towards, but it only takes one loss to put you out of the running.
3. Best Choices for the Points.....
Some armies give you a lot of choices on how to arm your tanks and units. Here is the hard part, what do you take. A good example is Space Marine Tactical Squad. So for 170 ponts you get 10 marines....and 3 guys that can carry special weapons...2 regular guys and the Sgt. Most people right now are fielding them as 10-man Squad, with a Meltagun, Missile Launcher, and Sgt. With a Power Fist totaling 200 points. They combat squad the unit, Missile Launcher goes with 4 guys into cover, the "CC" guys go into Razorback or Rhino and go towards the enemy. No Problem Right?? Wrong...your wasting points. The CC guys aren't CC, they are additional anti-tank guys that are mobile. A 5 man squad isn't going to do much in CC with a meltagun, and the PF is I1...so you opponent is going to strike first and probably kill the Sgt. before he attacks, and if you do get to attack...well you got max 3 attacks that against a equal WS opponent are going to fail half of your attacks on average, so 1 to 2 hits. The points you just paid for that one marine is the same as a Terminator....just no invul. save and not 2+ armor. Will he work?, sometimes...but probably only once. So what would I take?Flamer....LasCannon....Melta bombs on Sgt., and save 15 points. The LasCannon is +1 Str and +1 AP better then a Missile Launcher, the Flamer is better at killing near CC, and the melta bombs are there just in case of a Walker, Unmoved Tank, Skimmer. Now 15 points might not seem like a lot, but if you take 6 units....that is 90 points, or a Predator, or a Land Speeder, or anywhere else you use those points for additional upgrades. At smaller point games and tournaments you really notice the difference.
4. Know the weapons/abilities......
Okay, here's the scene....you have just assaulted a Trygon Prime with a 5-Man Grey Knight Strike Squad...your Str 4, its T6...you need this thing dead. You use Hammerhead to even the odds a little bit. Now your S5, so you wound on 5s and 6s....you attack you cause 4 wounds...he attacks back killing 3 guys...you smile as you pick up the dice to roll the force weapon to Instant Death the Monster....what happens when you hear your opponent ask...."Didn't you use your psychic power for the round?". Yep you guessed it....you cannot use your force weapon now since you cast Hammerhead. Probably going to lose the rest of the unit next round. This happened in a tournament...at the final table...causing the guy to go from tied for 1st...to 4th.
The guy didn't stop to think about it....causing 3-4 wounds is great...but he only needed to cause 1. Most times when I pick up a new codex the first page I turn to isn't the models or troop choices...its the weapon reference page in the back. I want to know exactly what weapons are going to cause problems for my army. If a weapon is Str 10 Large Blast...that's a problem....but if its AP 4....my terminators aren't going to be exactly scared of getting hit by it. Make sure you know your powers/abilities/weapons, but also make sure you know the weapons your opponents can have.
5. Know the Math.....
Math Hammering as it gets called is a great tool...and can help out a lot with your list, but as we all know it isn't going to go average every time. The way I use math hammering is as a guideline on how things should go. So how do you use it....simply, you take the averages. For shooting lets take a Leman Russ Punisher...when IG codex got leaked...this tank was going to be the one you took. It has 20 shots at S5....OMG!!! But as we look to the tables...you don't see them often...for me, I have never seen one fielded. Why?? Okay lets hammer some math. The tank gets 20 shots, great...but at BS3...so average is 10 hits....decent....now shooting space marines its wounds on 3's so average is going to be 6 wounds....still okay....but with being AP - the Space Marine save 4 of those wounds...leaving you only 2 dead marines. So for 180 points you can kill on average...2 marines a round for 5 rounds...so one unit. Now is it still a great tank...not really against marines, terminators, or anything with a 3+ armor save. Using the Math Hammer lets you get a good idea on each unit in your army.
I hope this helps you in tweaking out your list to make them even better then what they originally are....a few tweaks can go a long way
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