Getting more from your Squadrons - Splitting by Immobilisation

Today's topic will be about getting more use of the new Squadron rules, firstly because it seems a lot of players are still unaware of how much more user-friendly they are (it's almost as if GW want you to buy more models!) and secondly because I'm going to be showing how you can exploit them to their full potential. And yes I do mean 'Exploiting' the rules, but I don't have even twinge of conscience over it since it may help combat the Necron Flyer spam lists that are currently causing a lot of people grief.

Update: Just a few days after this article was published GW in their infinite wisdom change the immobilistion rules in FAQ 1.1; if a vehicle suffers an immobilisation result it now also loses a Hull Point. With this change, it becomes a lot less viable to use the tactic of purposefully immobilising vehicles in order to split up a squadron into individual components, and the Hydra is probably the only case where it might be even worth considering.

Back-to-Basics: 6th edition 40k Acronyms

Okay guys, we've updated the Acronym page with everything you've given us and some more we could come up whilst editing the post. Here's all the listed ones currently so let's see if we cannot fill it out a bit more for all the new guys coming through.

General Rule Acronyms

Back-to-Basics: Pre-measuring

One of the major changes with 6th edition is Pre-measuring. There is only one thing you need to take from this:

• there are zero excuses for not being in the correct range band in a given turn

There are still lots of little intricities you need to understand when moving and planning turns ahead but if you find yourself in range of an opponent you didn't think you were or out of range when you thought you were...well, you're doing it wrong.

Winning 40K – What if it's just not that complicated?

Winning 40K – What if it's just not that complicated?

Today's article is all about dispelling a popular myth about 40K, and hopefully getting a vital principle of army design and game planning across. This came out of a forum conversation started by Stelek (author of 'Yes The Truth Hurts' 40K blog) yesterday, and since my reply was subsequently quoted by several other people I thought I’d drag it back here to 3++ where I have more space to expand on it.


Many people act like winning at 40K is extremely complicated, and that can cloud their approach to army building and playing the game itself. The truth is 40K is really a simple game, with a huge amount of window-dressing and obfuscation around it.

Back-to-Basics: 6th edition 40k Acronyms

A lot of assumed knowledge comes with Acronyms and I try as often as I can to spell those out in individual posts. I regularly fail at this though ^^. So, what I want to try and do is put together a post we can use as a reference for such which is easily accessible for newer players. I can't think of everything though so I'll get us started and then if individuals could help in the comments and I'll update the post regularly, that would be fantastic.

Back-to-Basics: Random Charge Length

So Random Charge Length (RCL) is still something which is causing headaches in this very young 6th edition. It's part of the game now though so like it or hate it, you need to work with it and around it.

Back to Basics: Valkyries & Vendettas in 6E

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it is a scout-outflanking Flyer gunship with Hover mode that can act as a Fast Skimmer and is an infantry transport.

 

Depending on its mode and speed it can fire four, two, none or all weapons at full ballistic skill, or fire two missiles (but unlike other Flyers, only one at full BS), or fire all weapons at BS1.

And since everybody and their pet-squig is considering allying one into their army, the above should be enough to convince you that it's high time we take a look at the rules and see how they actually work in 6th Edition.

Back-to-Basics: Creating Bubblewrap in 6th edition

I sort of did this the wrong way around - I showed you how to break a bubble-wrap before how to make one within the new paradigm of 6th edition. However, with past posts and knowledge most readers should know the basic premise of bubble-wrap regardless. Showing you how much easier it is to break with just the basic old bubble-wrap concept hopefully highlights how many of the rule changes have affected such tactics. In this post we'll lay out how to get the most out of such concepts and whilst it's still easier to break than before, forcing your opponent to expend more effort to do so.

Back-to-Basics: Breaking Bubblewrap in 6th edition

Be warned ye Internet users of slow speeds, beyond be pictures!

Bubble-wrap was one of the most common tactics seen in 5th edition. It was pretty simple too - protect your more important stuff with crap stuff by putting it in front. This ensured no assaults could get through past the first unit without dealing with it or in some way bypassing it. A lot of armies used this concept as part of their core tactics such as Tau, Tyranids and Imperial Guard. The great benefit for such armies was, bypassing it wasn't very easy and good bubble-wraps were often very resilient to shooting which made combat the best way to deal with it. This meant the main army behind the bubble-wrap was protected and allowed the shooting units to continue shooting and the assault units to be protected and thereby make appropriate counter-assaults.

Back-to-Basics: Dealing with Deathstars

Centives

Hello, Nikephoros checking in.  Remember in my older article about how to playtest for 6^th Edition in order to better figure out what is and isn’t competitive?  My advice was to start out playing your 5^th Edition lists and slowly make minor tweaks from there based on in game results.  I, for one, am thankful that everyone listened to that advice, and reacted to the new ruleset rationally!  Oh wait.

I admit I am guilty of bloviating on theory based opinions rather than empirical playtesting, thus feeding the noise machine that the 40k blogosphere has been for the past two weeks.  So sorry.

Back-to-Basics: Removing Models (from shooting) Part 2

Jersey General

This is a follow-on post from what we looked at before in relation to removing models and model placement. This post will still focus on shooting but look at two of the more complex processes - multiple wound models and Look Out Sir! (LoS) saves. Multiple wound models are pretty easy to understand for the most part so we'll start with them.

Multiple Wound Models:

We'll look at the same rules quote we started off with last time:

Back to Basics: How Rhinos, Razorbacks and Chimeras work in 6th

How Rhinos, Razorbacks and Chimeras work in 6th

As anyone who has received their rule book will know, rather than having 5th edition discarded and replaced there are a thousand tiny changes that add up to a very different picture. I've made a start at trying to compile how the new rules effect one of the most important factors in shaping the game: the imperial transport vehicles.
The psyker, flyer and ally rules are getting most of the attention, but it is the affect of the rules on the most common transport vehicles in the game that will really decide how this edition of the rules plays.

Back-to-Basics: Model Placement and Removing Models (from shooting)

One of the big changes for 6th edition is how models are removed, both in combat and shooting and how wounds are assigned to such. The inclusion of Look Out Sir! saves has also changed this. This was probably implemented to help the old system of wound allocation - which could take an annoying amount of time for individuals not intamately familiar with it to assign different S/AP wounds to different models within a unit, made units more survivable in many cases and made many multiple wound, multiple wargear models simply a pain to combat (Paladins, Nob Bikers, etc.).

40K ‘Netlisting’ on the brink of 6th Edition

 We are about to enter a whole new rules edition of 40K, and for many of us this means going back to basics and reworking our armies, list and even playstyle. For others, it will mean a frantic effort to try to keep up by reading forums, seeing other people’s ideas and trying to copy what works.

I’ve already started to see debates flare up again on 40K forums about the pros and cons of ‘Netlisting’ or copying other people’s armies and ideas. In case you’ve been living under an asbestos rock, these can very quickly turn into miniature flame wars where anyone copying portions of other armies gets described as ‘using someone else’s army’, ‘as boring as bat poop’, adding to the ‘blandification of the hobby’, ‘its bad sports’, ‘winning with training wheels’, ‘only winning because it’s a copy of a winner’ and my personal favourite ‘morally dodgy when you just duplicate what has been done a million times before’.

Back-to-bascis: Pulling Punches in Close Combat

Hi all!

Jason C here and I've been wanting to write an article on the concept and tactics of staying in combat for some time, and numerous night shifts have given me the time to do so!

I play a number of 40k armies - marines of many colours, tau, eldar, necrons etc... But by far I enjoy playing my guard the most. I run a mech-hybrid psyker list (you'll see two of my recent games vs Kirby's blood angels on here) and vs assault armies, it can be pretty devastating. At Cancon this year I was in first place for battle points right up until the last game, where I played a space wolf Logan/longfang/pod support list.

Back-to-basics: Gameplans

Tim

One of the most game defining aspects of most tactical games, and 40k is no exception, is devising a game plan. Along with deployment (an extension of your game plan), this is perhaps one of the most important aspects of the game we enjoy. If you're going into a game without any idea of how to beat your opponent or how to simply win the game (i.e. kill more, claim more objectives), you're going to have a hard time playing well.

A battleplan gives you a framework in which to base your actions upon and you should often have a basic battleplan for your army before you even see your opponent. The opponent and mission simply adapts the plan to what is most suited for that particular game. For example, an army list based on 24" firepower will want to get to midfield more often than not, particularly against ranged opponents. Against an aggressive opponent though, moving to midfield and then retreating or simply not moving into midfield dependent upon mission, is going to be an adaptation of this generalised strategy.

Threat ranges - What are they?

I'm going to embark upon a couple of articles discussing threat ranges, specifically armies/units based around 24", asssaulting from stationary vehicles without assault ramps, meltaguns, etc. (if you want anything else discussed, let me know). Why? For a couple of reasons. One I see a lot of these concepts applied incorrectly or disparaged upon. For example, 24" range is apparently a huge limitation despite the fact that once the unit is in midfield, that unit can reach nearly the whole board with movement. Another example - meltavets being thrown forward to melta something and then dying a horrible death. We've already discussed this to a certain extent but more information can be provided. Etc. etc.

Hive Guard in the middle of the board with movement can nearly reach the entire board with their guns.

Back to Basics: Moving models during Assaults

This is perhaps the most complicated (not saying much) and poorly executed part of the game - moving models in assaults. This is seen particularly during multiple assaults and thus we are going to do another back to basics series on it.

There are some very simple and key rules you need to understand when making assaults.

1. To START an assault, move the closest model to the closest model of the intended target.
2. Every model which CAN get into base to base contact, MUST and MUST engage an unengaged model if possible.
3. If a model cannot get into base contact with an enemy it MUST get within 2" of an engaged model.
4. All models MUST end their move in coherency with another model with engaged models taking preference. This was the topic of the last back to basics. 

There are many implications of this. Let's take a look at a few.

Back to Basics - What am I missing .... ?

Hi guys, long time no see.
Well life has thrown me another bundle of joy, a son, Lachlan (or fester jnr as he may be known in time). He is great, but unfortunately eats into my hobby time just a little.
But back to relevance. What this does give me is a lot of list writing and perfecting time, even if I don't have to much time to actually blog, play, or paint such lists.

I am currently battling with a Loganwing list, and wanted to talk a little about my experiences building an elite army.

First: Purgatus is doing a Loganwing how-to on his blog Best Overall. If you don't follow this you need to, its in depth (so far), logical and well thought out. Now if he would just get onto the Troops section *nudge nudge*.

Back to Basics: New and can't win

This is a guest article by Willydstyle for players just picking up the game. Not ground-breaking obviously but a nice addition to the back-to-basics series whilst I work to get all the dice shipped out. For veteran players, whilst you may not gain much if anything from this post, look to apply this when teaching newer players. It could help you develop newer players into good gamers later and provide you with more competition and fun later on. Plus the altruistic side of helping someone is always nice.

Ok first off, you're new to the game. Expecting to win against people who have been playing for years, or even decades, is in many cases pretty unreasonable. However, there are some things you can do to vastly, and quickly, improve your game. Keep in mind the fastest I've ever seen a "noob" really catch up to the better players is about 1 year.

The first thing you need to do is learn the rules. I don't mean read through the rulebook once, then have the local "noobslayer" beat your ass while telling you how to play the game. There are guys out there who like to win so much that they attempt to *only* play against the noobs like you. Don't play against them, because they won't, and even don't want to, help you learn the rules. They also will bend the rules and take advantage of your lack of knowledge of them.