The role of deployment has changed quite a bit with the advent of 5th edition. There was a time when you coukd setup a serious gunline and blast away. Back then a game could well be decided by whoever got to go first. To me these were the most boring games and could be tough to win. I rarely ever play gunline but I have, mostly with Dark Angels or vanilla SM prior to the release of their new rules and 5th edition. Now the ability to hold your entire army in reserve really can befuddle any opponent running a gunline army. Cover saves have also hurt gunlines. I am all for the new rules and think the more dynamic 5th edition has been a great change for the game.
Deployment is still very important and I think it's still the most important phase of the game. Look at this way, a bad deployment can kill you before the first dice is rolled. I believe an army should always be deployed such that your units can support each to the hilt. Tyranids have always been about sending in several waves... Tyranid players that can't grasp this important concept rarely if ever win versus a good player that recognizes the Nid army was hastily deployed. Nidz are pretty much designed to be played in waves with synaspe. One big change is how does the Nid player go about using their troops. I see a lot of outflanking genestealers, it sounds like a good idea but it is random in that your bugs might come in on the wrong side or your opponent simply castles in the center position of their DZ
Back to first turn and gunlines before 5th edition. I remember reading a batrep from an old White Dwarf. This was back when the studio produced goof batreps with complete army lists and it wasn't decided prior to the game who would win. The mission was victory points and the two armies were guard and dark eldar... More to come soon!
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Okay so the old White Dwarf batrep was dark eldar versus IG. This is back two codices for the IG. It's kind of crazy how long it has been since the only dark eldar codex was released. I really believe GW has pulled the plug on this army but don't want to publicly admit it. Phil Kelly at Adepticon two years said they would get a new codex but that's a long time in and of itself. What was interesting about the game is that the dark eldar player decided to sit still and trade shots with the IG. Both armies fired twice and then the dark eldar began to quickly crumble. My point is at that time that's just how popular it was to play gunline. Obviously the dark eldar should have launched assaults but the player thought he could outshoot the guard.
Now we see a lot of movement following deployment and there are units that deep strike into the game such as drop pods and Monoliths just to name a couple. There are still times when it's best to castle up such as versus dark eldar. Dark eldar played best use the Divide & Conquer strategy, there are is very fast and hits hard so they deploy then move to bring to bare the majority of their army versus a portion of yours. If you circle the wagons then they have no choice but to face off against everything you've got.
When I deploy in objective based missions I do so in a manner to setup my army to quickly grab my objectives and then go after the other objectives. Against a very fast army such as mech orks I might deploy as far away as possible from where they deploy. Mech orks have problems taking out transports unless they have lootaz. If they have no lootaz then it's okay to start away from the objectives. As they move they will spread out and you can then fight with several of your units versus one of theirs... It is basically another way of applying the Divide and Conquer strategy. You just have to be sure that you can still reach the objectives as you grind though the opponent's army.
In killpoint missions again I will typically deploy my units that start on the table so they can support each other. This makes it harder for the opponent to decide what to attack first. If your opponent has to think about it then there is a much better chance they will make a mistake. When you are a playing an equally skilled or better player the game can all come down to who makes the most mistakes.
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