# A Basic Guide to the Teams



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

This is for new players only. If you already know about each team's strengths and weaknesses, this is not for you. It is meant to be a basic guide of each team.
TEAMS:
Orks:
Orks are tough, brutal greenskinned monsters who excel at close combat. They have massive weaknesses however, and these can be exploited. To sum Orks up, they can wipe you out easily in close combat, but their armor is terrible and they simply can't grasp how to aim a gun. As such, the best tactic to fight Orks is to shoot from afar; Heavy weaponry and Snipers do an excellent job of dispatching the average Ork. This team is the polar opposite of the Tau, who stink at close combat but are actually well suited to take out orks with their exquisite array of ranged weapons. I have played against Orks and my snipers and heavy support made them mincemeat. Another weakness is their armor save. Orks are tough, but luckily for us, their armor is cobbled together from pots and pans. It is not tough to shoot an Ork.
Chaos Space Marines/Space Marines:
Space Marines are very versatile, using heavy weaponry and close combat weapons and excelling at all. With horde armies, you swarm Space Marines with as many shots and attacks as possible. This is supported by heavier stuff; Imp Tanks, the more powerful Orks, and Gigantic Tyranids. Krak Explosives also work quite well against them, as do power weapons, plasma weapons, and heavy antipersonnel weapons. I would recommend both Space Marine Armies because of their versatility and overall high stats. A good tip for the Imperial Guard Players? Use heavy weaponry. You can lay down more cannons than they have troops. Put down some serious ordinance.
Tyranids:
A 'Nid alone is very easy to kill, however they move in swarms and try to overwhelm you. Most likely many of the Tyranids in an army will be simple fighters skilled in close combat and not much else. However, there are special Tyranids that can really damage you. While most of the unimportant 'Nids are swarming, other, more dangerous foes can advance or stay back and fire incredibly effective bio-cannons. In particular, I have seen that a lascannon works wonders with the larger 'Nids such as Carnifexes. The Swarming Fighters become exceptionally reliant on fleet rolls.
Eldar/Dark Eldar:
The major weakness of the Eldar is their overall fragile nature and lack of resilience. They don't have the numbers, armour and the toughness to sit in a drawn-out firefight and slog it out like most other armies.
Space Marines can rely on their good toughness and armor save, Imps and 'Nids rely on their numbers to get them through. Eldar, like their Dark Eldar cousins, rely heavily on their speed and specialisation to see them through. It is very rare that an Eldar unit will stay in combat longer than 2 turns - and by then they usually are fated to die. (Scorps and Harlequins units can be an exception).
Tip for defeating Dark Eldar: Kill the transports, the Dark Eldar rely on transport rushes for speed and quick attacks. (Credit to Maelstrom)
Necrons:
Necrons are very hard to kill because of their many Death-Related rules. They can lay down serious anti-personnel fire and are also accomplished tankbusters (Credit to Antonius). They are a very fast-moving army if used correctly with Monoliths (Monoliths can also lay down a lot of firepower). They don't have many good longe-range weapons, so your snipers and heavy support will have that advantage. (Please help me with this section, I have very limited experience with Necrons; feel free to comment) :scratchhead:
Tau:
The Tau are a very good ranged team who have a great arsenal of weaponry; awesome tanks, amazing long and short range guns, and a lot of special gear. However, their real weakness is in close combat. If you can get your men close enough to assault, there is pretty much no hope left for the unfortunate Tau. However, one thing is clear: Don't stay in the range of their guns for long, or you'll be shot to bits.
Imperial Guard:
Alone, the Imperial Guardsman has not a chance of survival. They are pretty weak (sorry) and they travel in large groups that rely on firepower and numbers to see them through rather than individual toughness. If you have a good close combat or ranged army, they are pretty easy to take care of. However, the Imps are not reliant at all on their troopers. They use MASSIVE tanks, artillery cannons, and other heavily armored vehicles to destroy you. My advice? Get some tankbusters, you'll need them. The Imperial Guard are another ranged army, their troopers are each equipped with good anti-personnel weapons that can do damage from long and short range. They also have good heavy weaponry and armor that is not the best, albeit better than the Orkish Armor. Although a single Imp can shoot a lot, he is relatively easy to kill. You will not find the challenge in the troops, but rather the support. Rockets and other high-powered weapons will do well against the Imps.
SUB-TEAMS:
(Such as Blood Angels, Space Wolves, etc.)
Credit to Lipsidius1, Feel free to help with the pros and cons.
Blood Angels:
Blood Angels are a very close-combat-oriented army. They prefer generally to destroy in close range, and most Blood Angels armies don't have the extra "Umph" of the ranged weapons that the Tau and Imps excel in. For this reason, they are vulnerable to long-distance shooting and heavy weaponry.
Space Wolves:
From what I've gathered, Space Wolves are even more close combat oriented than the Blood Angels! They like to use massive, powerful close combat weapons like claws, axes, Wolf Teeth shok and other brutal weapons. Even if you are an Ork, I'd suggest you think twice about crossing them; they have amazing close combat AND great armor! The best tactic seems to be the same as the tactic for the Blood Angels; Nail them from afar with heavy long ranged weapons.
Grey Knights:

Please help me add to this section. I don't know a lot about Grey Knights, so comment please.

Grey Knights are a powerful team. They have powerful mid-ranged weapons, such as the Storm Bolters. They also have powerful long-range heavy weaponry. Each Grey Knight is extremely tough to beat and the Grey Knights have many Psychic abilities. Also, they have powerful Force and Power Weapons for Close Combat. So how to beat them? Well, many Elite armies suffer from bad dice rolls. Doesn't matter how good they are, a roll of one and the knight is dead. Also, their armies tend to be a lot smaller than ork armies and adding anti-psykers can shut down many of their abilities. Grey Knights do well against Hoard armies; their abilities tend to make destroying a whole bunch of unskilled soldiers easier than armies such as Eldar and other Space Marines (non-hoard Armies). Also, heavy firepower from longrange (artillery, tank cannons) will kill quite a few. (Credit to Deus)

This Article is not Finished, Feel free to comment and oppose whatever I say, I am VERY open to advice.


----------



## Antonius (Jan 10, 2012)

Decadion said:


> Necrons:
> Necrons are very hard to kill because of their many Death-Related rules. They can lay down serious anti-personnel fire but don't have many defenses against tanks and other heavily-armored models. They are a very fast-moving army if used correctly with Monoliths (Monoliths can also lay down a lot of firepower). They don't have many good longe-range weapons, so your snipers and heavy support will have that advantage.


Hmm. I concur quite strongly on such a matter, particularly against vehicles. they are THE BEST tank killers out there (be prepared to have every infantryman with a gun that can kill even the biggest scariest tank Imperial Techpriests could conceive). They also have awesomesauce stuff, although i agree their weakness might be high toughness (they have their own in that department). 



> A good tip for the Imperial Guard Players? Use heavy weaponry. You can lay down more cannons than they have troops. Put down some serious ordinance.


Pro tip - Battlecannons eat SPACE MARINES FOR BREAKFAST. 
1) Put two in opposite corners (in a nice killzone). 
2)Profit

Also IG infantry are bad per se, but having 100men rolling stupid numbers of dice per game is NOT bad . Only that any Imperial guard army is likely to pwn your bank balance as much as your foes .

Nice article though (needs some formatting, but i understand its still WIP). Anything for beginners and summaries is never a bad thing (there is too much jargon that you pick up from the forum, when sometimes a very very very brief summary is not too bad).


----------



## Lipsidius1 (Apr 24, 2011)

I agree with Antonius, even though it's still a work in progress it is an excellent topic and a great start. You may want to add sub-topics to the Space Marine segment as some of the Chapters, (i.e. Blodd Angels, Space Wolves, etc.) are a little more tailored than say your basic SM like Ultra Marines.

Ex.
Blood Angels
Pros - Excel in close combat
Cons - Cannot match ranged weapons vs Tau, or IG.

Just some thoughts. Again, great topic and start.


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

Thanks for the feedback Antonius, I admit I do not have a Necron army and am limited to what I know about them. My specialty is Eldar, my whole army is outfitted to take them out. My brother plays Eldar 
Thanks Lip, I will edit them in.


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

Also, I have a question... What if you have to fight Imps vs Loyal Space Marines? Is that allowed? I mean I'm pretty sure it is allowed, but it contradicts every bit of lore out there


----------



## Lipsidius1 (Apr 24, 2011)

Decadion said:


> Also, I have a question... What if you have to fight Imps vs Loyal Space Marines? Is that allowed? I mean I'm pretty sure it is allowed, but it contradicts every bit of lore out there


A buddy of mine and I play IG vs Blood Angels all the time, he as IG of course. We look at it as very competitive training sessions :wink:.


----------



## Magpie_Oz (Jan 16, 2012)

No Grey Knights then?


----------



## HOBO (Dec 7, 2007)

Decadion said:


> Also, I have a question... What if you have to fight Imps vs Loyal Space Marines? Is that allowed? I mean I'm pretty sure it is allowed, but it contradicts every bit of lore out there


Lore has little to do with what armies you will face in a game. Hell, SM vs SM is extremely common, simply because SM armies make up 40/50% of GW's total miniature production.

Good review overall...basic, but that's what you were aiming for - at this early stage anyway.


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

Thanks for all the comments, I'll research Grey Knight, again, I don't know much about them.


----------



## maelstrom48 (Sep 5, 2012)

An addition for Dark Eldar in particular: Most lists rely on transport rushes. Kill those Raiders and Venoms immediately. They're a priority target. Don't let yourself get too distracted by Ravagers, Talos, etc (though those are a threat too). Crash the transports early on, and you've stolen the DE's mobility, which is their primary advantage. If you fail to kill them, you'll take a withering amount of close-ranged firepower and likely get bogged down in a Wych assault.


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

Thanks for the tips


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

Thank you Mael, I have edited it.
Please tell me if I forgot something or if there are tactics that are missing.


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

I would like to add to my Grey Knights and Eldar sections, any tips?


----------



## Deus Mortis (Jun 20, 2009)

Decadion said:


> Grey Knights are a powerful team. They have powerful mid-ranged weapons, such as the Storm Bolters. They also have powerful long-range heavy weaponry. Each Grey Knight is extremely tough to beat and the Grey Knights have many Psychic abilities. Also, they have powerful Force and Power Weapons for Close Combat. So how to beat them? Well, many Elite armies suffer from bad dice rolls. Doesn't matter how good they are, a roll of one and the knight is dead. Also, their armies tend to be a lot smaller than ork armies and adding anti-psykers can shut down many of their abilities.
> .


You are sort of right. Grey Knights are an elite build, and one of the main things that they suffer with is that they are easily out-numbered. One good way to bring them down is weight of fire. As you said, fire enough shots into them and they will die.

Another problem with Grey Knights is, for an elite army, they struggle to deal with 2+ armour. They have very little AP2 shooting or close-combat weapons. The same is true of anti-tank weaponry. A lot of heavy armour can really ruin a Grey Knight's day.

However, it's not all doom and gloom. One thing Grey Knights do very well against, in my experience is hoard armies. With powers like Holocaust, Sanctifying flame and Purifying flame, not to mention all the storm bolters, psycannons, psilencers and incinerators they can bring to bear is often enough to trouble most hoard lists.

Also, since they have a fair number of shots available to them, they are not totally lost with 2+ armour. However, heavy armour (i.e.AV14 tanks) still pose a bit of a problem. Generally as a Grey Knight <24" is your favorite place to be.

That is speaking as someone who plays a pure Grey Knight list, so no henchmen or inquisitors. If those are included, then it becomes a slightly different kettle of fish. Hope this helps.


----------



## Decadion (Feb 7, 2013)

I updated it with some of the info you gave me Deus, thanks for it.


----------

