Back to Basics: Part 1: Moving units

Hey guys, BroLo here! Thanks to Kirby for giving me a stage on which to humiliate myself. For some reason he's invited me (well, I think forced is probably the most accurate term) to post something on his blog. I'm not sure what to be honest, but I'm always up for a challenge.

Anybody that knows me should know I'm still lacking experience in 40k 5e. I played briefly in 3rd, skipped all of 4th and only started playing again just under a year ago. I've been pretty fortunate having some good players at my local club and I was lucky to be directed to some of the more 'enlightened' sources on the Internet - props to Messanger of Death - keep it up big-guy!

I've been interested in doing something similar to the 'Basics' articles posted here on 3++, but taking it even further 'back-to-basics'. Broader concepts are extremely important but the execution of a strategy also requires much finer detail. I'm going to attempt a series of posts that are aimed at people coming into the game and trying to develop from the most basic level.

My first is going to be on model placement. This is relevant to all of the phases of in the game as model movement is involved, as well as deployment. I'll try and use examples where I can, as I'm pretty terrible at explaining myself.

Okay... I'm a big fan of snooker and pool because of the incredible amount of forethought involved. 40k takes this to a whole new level, as your opponent will always have a go in-between yours. You may say this is more like chess, but as chess is boring (read: I'm bad at it) I'm going to stick with snooker. It is vital that you are always thinking ahead. Moving your stuff so you have line of sight is probably the most obvious example of this, but you also need to prepare yourself for your opponent's turn and your own next turn (etc etc.). Model placement is vital for this.

My first example is something I saw on Vassal a few weeks back. A unit of foot harlequins were deployed within 6" of Eldrad ready to be fortuned at the beginning of their turn (going 2nd). It just so happened that the Shadowseer was placed furthest away from Eldrad. When some wolves started dropping shots into the unit, wounds were placed on the regular Harlies and were removed from the Eldrad end - maintaining coherency. Come the Footdar turn, the Harlequins were no longer in range for Fortune. No biggie, the player realised the mistake immediately and I'm sure we've all made a similar mistake at some point. But there is a pretty simple way around this. If the Shadowseer had been placed next to Eldrad, it would never have happened. There are not many units that can put sufficient wounds on the squad in shooting to force you to place one on the Shadowseer, so the chances are, he'll be there next turn. Yes it doesn't matter if you do make the mistake, remove whichever models you please (you don't have to maintain coherency when taking wounds/removing models), but if you are taken out of coherency, your movement is forced in the next turn and if a bottle test forces you to 'Fall Back', you'll find yourself out of coherency and unable to attempt to rally.

Second example is something I've done (badly) before. When moving through area terrain, most people place models thinking about lanes of fire and keeping half of the unit in cover - which is very important - but don't think beyond that. What happens when you start taking wounds? Which models are going to take saves and be removed? I've seen many people just place any old models in cover and when injuries need to be assigned are forced into making difficult decisions. Remove the models that are keeping the unit in cover or risk putting wounds on those valuable members of the unit. So, that Sergeant or meltagun that is/are going to do nothing in the shooting phase are better off placed in terrain, that way, they can stay alive AND keep those models outside of terrain 'in' it.

The third example I'm going to discuss is about preparing for an assault. Again, more veteran players will have no problem with this. When I first got back into 40k, my over-zealousness made me push all of my guys as close to my opponent without any thought beyond actually getting into combat. With time I've started to think and plan assaults a lot more. Part of the planning is knowing exactly what you're assaulting (which is difficult for newbies, but there is no harm in asking your opponent what you're getting yourself in for) and the other part is rules knowledge. I'll discuss the rules part first as it's the easiest.

As we all know the order of movement is...

1. Declare assault
2. Closest to closest (rolling for difficult/dangerous terrain) using shortest possible route
3. As many models into BtB with unengaged models
4. As many models into BtB with already engaged models
5. As many within 2" of a friendly model within BtB with an enemy model
6. Defenders react

Steps 2-4 are the important ones here and mean that an assault HAS to be planned in the movement phase. If I put my powerfist sergeant at the front of the unit in the movement phase I have no say in which model I assault with him. If I put him one model back I can chose who I can assault which is important for engaging ICs with power/insta-kill weaponry. The other part to point 2 has given me draws in tournament games where I should have lost. If it is at all possible, leave your path for assault clear of are terrain. There is nothing worse than rolling snake eyes for a 2" assault that you could've avoided. If you've not done this, trust me, I have and it's annoying.

Points 3 and 4 are also all about planning. The best example I have of this is with my BT terminators assaulting those nasty lash whip 'nids. My lightning claws really don't like gaining some initiative just for it to be whipped of them by a lash whip tyrant. So, when I move my raider up I have to think a little about the assault ahead of me. If I move as close as possible and unload, it's likely they'll all be in base-to-base. If I move about 7-8" away and drop off my thunder hammer terminators in front I'm all good. The hammers can make base-to-base, the Ini5 lightning claws can't.... shame! Whip those initiative 1 thunder hammers all you please, the claws are about to pwn you (sorry Chumb)!

Anyways, like I said, nothing new for most experienced players, but I think it's little things like this that can really change games and I've seen even the most 'veteran' of players making very basic mistakes.

That brings an end to this first instalment. Thanks for getting this far. Please add anything you please, or tell me if my logic is incorrect. Fancy another dose of the 'basic' medication?