40k Reserve Manipulation

Hi everyone !! I've been quite busy the past two weeks with a lot travel for work and not as much time for 40k. I did manage to get in a few games this weekend with Tyranids to start practicing again for WarGamesCon (WGC) next month. I need to focus now on painting the last of my Tyranid units I'll be using for WGC. One game I played this weekend that stood out was Planet Strike versus a mechanized Blood Angels army (defender)... It was a lot of fun and I like the ruleset - if you're looking for something different to spice up your games this can be a lot of fun to play. In particular for me the stratagems can make things quite interesting. I think playing the defender is challenging as the attacker has access to lots of advantages and it certainly helped my Tyranids with a strong alphastrike to start the game. The FOC is different - for instance you field more than three elite units which is nice for Tyranids in general.

Six edition is right around the proverbial corner as well and I'm sure it's release will stir things up quite a bit - as usual whenever a new edition is released some armies take a hit while others get a nice boost. I'm thinking the newer armies for the most part should make out okay since their rules were probably written with sixth edition in mind... This obviously includes Grey Knights and Necrons but I wouldn't be surprised to see other armies such as dark eldar also get a bit of a boost as well. Of course there will eventually be some new codices released again - rumors tell us that Dark Angels and Chaos Space Marines (CSM) are next in line. I'm not holding my breath for a great Dark Angels codex as they usually seem to get the proverbial shaft from GW... Oh well maybe I'll be in for a surprise. I think if the new CSM codex is good that could bring a lot of older veterans back to the game, which could be a good thing. I'm just hoping we don't end up with another overpowered army fiasco again. It would be nice if CSM get some new abilities to negate some of the Grey Knights' over the top strengths and bring back some balance between armies.

Anti Deployment

What is anti deployment? Anti deployment is starting with units in reserve. It used to be that each player would take turns deploying one unit at a time. Now one player first deploys their army then the other player deploys theirs. I have noticed a lot of players don't use the ability to hold units in reserve and I think they are missing out on a great tactic. I sometimes like to hold my best assault units in reserve and then bring them in. For the spearhead deployment your reserves can come in across the entire long table edge, not just your table quarter. This prevents the opponent from shooting them. This is a fantastic tactic for orks... Basically you take a strong unit such as Nobz with a warboss and put them in a trukk or battlewagon, don't forget the red paintjob. The turn they come in the transport moves 13" then the squad disembarks another 2". The warboss then calls down the Waaagh for a d6" fleet move and then they can charge up to 6 more inches. 13" + 2" + d6" + 6" = 21" + d6", or all the way up to 27" total. If it were me I'd always run Ghaz for this style army, you can't beat the guaranteed 6" fleet. Suddenly enemy units over halfway across the table are getting pounded by a huge power klaw. I think of this as an advanced anti-deployment tactic since I don't see many ork players using it. If the mission is objective based then place one of your objectives to lure in the opponent.

Using anti deployment has been with us a long time... Wolf Scouts, webway portals, terminators, drop pods and the monolith all come to mind. I personally think that drop pods were played out a long time ago but for some it's a brand new way of playing SM. I even used the old rules for drop podding prior to the release of the 4th edition SM codex... You had to go all drop pod though and there have always been some restrictions on what you can place in a drop pod. It was a great way to quickly close with the old static armies such as Iron Warriors. I have always been a big proponent of anti deployment and it only makes sense that I play daemons now as just like an old drop pod army everything starts in reserve. Deployment is meaningless to a daemon army and this is one of their biggest advantages.

G