# Your art of war



## Frodo (Nov 13, 2007)

What is your art of war? what, no matter what army you have or are versing would you do every time to win the battle?, do you bother trying to use 'tells' poker term to fool your oponent?


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## Dartanyun (Nov 14, 2007)

I worship Khorn. CC chaos (usually world eaters, but black legion is not to be discounted) I even us CC guard, they're pretty nasty really. So my tactics are really a few good CC units backed up by heavy weapons fire; to take out the threats or soften up targets. This works pretty well against most armies. Having mobile units and static gun lines lets me do well at most missions. Oddly enough my opponents forget the objectives more often than I do, letting me race that squad that has been left out of the battle due to being outside the immediate threat. A couple CC units racing towards their line draws a lot of attention.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

I started 40k with Blood Angels, and the full frontal assault mentality never really left me. I've made attempts at more shooty armies, and they just don't hold the same appeal. Even though I haven't touched the Angel's finest in about five years now, I prefer a high-pressure, fast moving assault focusing on mechanized infantry and mobile close combat specialists, supported by things like Predators and Vindicators rather than Devastator lines, though I think Devastators have a valuable place in an army larger than 2000 points.


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

No "tells" or anything. I don't go for the fake out or anything or be very tricky per se.

I usually try and have a hammer and anvil sort of strategy: shooty anvil to hold units in place, and assaulty Hammer to crawl up in the enemy's shirt pocket and go to town.

I tend towards refusing the flank on occasion. I usually have a left or right side push, and simply hold or retreat from the opposite side.

I tends towards almost all infantry and maybe a few vehix for favor. I tend to have large standardized squads with standardized weaponry. For the most part I don't make specialized army lists for specific armies, trying for a balanced force that doesn't know what it's going to face and does the best it can with what it has.


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

It didn't occur to me to address setup and the like. I take a page from Hannibal's book most of the time, and go for a weak center and strong flanks. At first glance, it looks like a glaring deployment error, since you don't want to split Space Marines up. However, the weak center (which isn't that weak, really, but it's just not as heavily populated) can react to either left or right pushes, as I tend not to take static units. Enemy units have a choice to either react to the left or right flank rushes, which are generally pretty balanced in terms of overall threat. Moving to react to one side leaves the opposite flank open for an uncontested charge in, while trying to react to both flanks at once usually leaves the enemy spread too thin or compacted to where my superior assault units can easily consolidate into new combats, eliminating the ranged threat. 

That being said, that setup doesn't work against Tyranids, mobile assault armies, or Necrons. In the case of Tyranids, you're on the defensive by their very nature, and staggered firing lines are an excellent approach. With mobile assault armies, it's a question of outmaneuvering and charging them, rather than the other way around... it's just something that has to be played by ear. Necrons are tough enough to hold a strong center with a phalanx setup, so you kind of have to play on their terms. You'll take some casualties marching into them, but it's a hell of a lot safer than using Rhinos to get to them-- Gauss weapons will stop transports dead in their tracks. Fighting Necrons is, unfortunately, a war of attrition, and they're better at it than anyone else.


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## Ezekial Lightning (Oct 30, 2007)

Even though im new to 40k i have a art of war, I do this with my DA, i am so shooty that i have knocked a ton of my opponents forces by the time my assault untits get in range and then i fire fire fire until the enemy think that he must assaualt me and then i get him from behind witha assault units:grin:


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## Frodo (Nov 13, 2007)

NIce!, thanks for all the replies. I personally cant get out of the shoot lots and massed troops mentality., T'au....., Dwarves..... its all the same really


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## Ordo Xeno Commander (Jan 17, 2007)

im the kinda guy who likes it when my opponent says "wait, where the F*** did that blast come from" "ohh sorry didnt you see, yes thats what i like to call a basilisk, it makes things go bang"

or

"hmm right, 2+, 4+ right, you see your guy carrying the heavy bolter towards my guys, yea, well, he dont have a head no more"

but generally im into firing lines, swathes of fire mowing down prety much whatever comes my way :smoke:


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## wolf. (Nov 10, 2007)

hmm, usually i get pestered by friends about battling...then i battle..
i might not give too much away till nxt friday boys but ill give you this...
scorpions ftw. 
pester enemy lines.
^^


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## Elchimpster (Jan 31, 2007)

Oh...one addition since Wolf brought up the Scorps...
I love infiltration. LOVE *LOVE* *LOVE* Infiltration. Whenever possible I infiltrate at least something. Usually scout snipers. About eight of them.


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## Ordo Xeno Commander (Jan 17, 2007)

ahh yes, i infiltrate like almost all my infantry with a variety of anti-something weapons

and then theres the stormtroopers, well all i can say is, watch the f*** out tanks


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## Red Robe (Nov 18, 2007)

I use the Tau..Kayon "Patient Hunter"..put out the bait..and wait and see what comes sniffing around.

While the enemy is checking out the lure..the Hammerheads are swinging around wide..the piranha's are dashing here and there..all waiting for the kill.

This seems to work very well...most of the people I play against are rushers..no tactics at all..I served in the military and small unit tactics are in my blood..very easy to convert over to the gaming arena.


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## freaklord (Sep 13, 2007)

use my tanks to soak up fire as their just too tempting for the enemy not to shoot at. run my infantry into cover and hold there waiting to die. I try and use my mortar team to break up the enemy before he gets to assault me. my current record is played 15 won 0 drawn 1 lost 14. pretty poor. i've got a 1000pts of guard and always play eldar.


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## Logain_85 (Nov 27, 2007)

When playing nids i tend to move up in stages fleeting from cover to cover so there are enough there for the charge, i allways try to put some really topped up genstealers behind some basic termagaunts, and then the termegaunts get to charge and soak up fire, and then the stealers come in and finish the squad, i play almost exclusively against space wolves, or black templars when im nids

When im marines i tend to stay in cover shooting alot, and send out squads behind vehicles.


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## squadiee (Nov 4, 2007)

speed and mobility are the way I win my battles. Keeping on the move with static firbase support usually works like a charm

in Apocolypse, I follow a similar sort of tactic, except I use an armoured spearhead with deepstriking units dropping in behind or in the middle of the enemy to sow confusion and puncture their lines. Worked in the last five apoc games


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## The Wraithlord (Jan 1, 2007)

> speed and mobility are the way I win my battles. Keeping on the move with static firbase support usually works like a charm


That is how I play my games as well. My Tau do this exceptionally well but it is a principle I follow even with my Thousand Sons.


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## Sister Sin (Nov 27, 2007)

Sustained and concentrated mid-ranged firepower. Battlesisters do this very well, along with envelopments at the proper time. Given the longest range available comes from the Exorcists followed by the Retributors with Heavy Bolters, it is also a layered sort of offense/defense. Overlapping fields of fire.

Same with Salamanders. With World Eaters it's just charge. 

With my Panzers it is Blitzkrieg, or as near as I can make it. With infantry support to secure objectives/create disruption.

What can I say? The former Marine in me shows itself in my 40K. 

Sister Sin


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## Yarl (Nov 24, 2007)

With my Marines I like to sit and shoot, grabbing as much cover as I am able.
I keep a squad of Scouts w/sniper rifles and a Heavy Bolter next to a 2 Heavy bolter/2Plasma Cannon Dev squad for horde control. 3 tac squads with Las cannons and a 4 missile luancher dev squad handle armor/HEAVY infantry and my 2 Hq slots (Jump pack equipped chaplain and Bike mounted Captain) handle counter assualt duties and watch for flankers/deepstrikers.

I'm looking hard at drop-podding in a squad of hand to hand vets for some added mayhem, break up the enemies squishy shooting lines and draw some of the heat from my shooty squads.


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## Handbag of Joy (Dec 1, 2007)

Sister Sin said:


> Same with Salamanders. With World Eaters it's just charge.


Funny you should mention that, my two 40k armies of the current time are Sallies and Khorne, although I use both somewhat differently and yet with a striking similarity in tactics.

For my Salamanders I designed my list with lots of troops and lots of melta, teleport homers up the wazzuh, two terminator squads one including a chaplain the other being an assault squad and an infiltrating thunder hammer totting master with a command squad also bearing a fair amount of melta.
O of course almost all seargeants bear a thunder hammer as well.
The list was ment for Cities of Death type missions with short range firepower backed up with some devastating assault, which does great against other CC concentrated armies and poorly against mobile lines of fire companies.
The general gist of it is the army is at its optimum killing potential when at arm's length of the enemy, sort to speak.

As for my Khorne force, what can I say, it does one thing and one thing only and it does it excellently, thats of course CC.
With Kharn, a comet style Lord (bloodfeeder and wings), raptors, termies and bezerkers (not to mention troops with the mark of khorne) aplenty, it better do well in close combat. As for armour I choose to use a dreaded combination of Twin Land Raiders which are deployed as walking walls of fustration for my opponent. This list however is quiet undeveloped on the battlefield and tends to fall short in many areas. e.g. Dark Eldar Mech lists rip through this list, so do Cult lists of pure Emperor's Children and Shooty armies with long range guns (again Tau comes to mind). So for Khorne I have not yet seemed to have gotten the hang of the tactics involved but I have made improvements on its use, however minuscule.


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## Alexander_67 (May 5, 2007)

My school of war is merely patience and observation. Let the enemy make the first move, let him get close. Make him move to where you want him. Sure playing the waiting game loses me a few troops in the run up but when the enemy moves where i've been waiting for him too i can return the favour. As i've fought necrons alot my tendency is to focus hard on one unit till its finished off before moving to the next. 

(My favorite tactic).I know pretty well what my troops can do and what they really cant. Damage wise my Sororitas are better rapid fire/flamer range, they are bad at CC so therefore my favorite tactic is the transport rush. Two transports move up about 5 inches apart and deposit their troops into the middle directly infront of an enemy squad. Basically shielding the sororitas flank from fire and from most charges. And damning the squad directly ahead with two squads of rapid fire and flamers. Also a perk is the transports themselves can fire at flanking enemies or at the one in front adding more dmg.


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## Initiate (Mar 25, 2007)

as strange as it sounds... i think the Alpha Legions way is the best. Attack from all sides. What happens if you take an aggressively armed (meltaguns)squad, stick it in a lazerback and charge towards the enemy? It blows up. Now what if that razorback were to be followed by several others striking in different places? 

Close ranged firefights and assaults are what i fancy. A bloody, aggressive yet tactical fighting strategy... MOBILIZE. stick the squad somewhere for a while, let it shoot everything out with its transport and obliterate everything nearby. I have tank hunters so tank shocks dont work, troops will die becuase of the squads fire power and the tanks will die cause of the lazerback. Hit and run, except a bit slower.  I also do keep a devastator squad with a razorback as well, give em quad multi meltas and stick stick them as far as the weapons let me and fire away at the tanks. Lazerbacks once again eliminate far away threats.


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## Frodo (Nov 13, 2007)

I also take infiltrators whenever I can. 4 squads of fw holding the fire line (with assorted tanks) and then 30 odd kroot and stealthsuits infiltrating and battlesuits filling in where needed.


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## Isafrehn (Dec 5, 2007)

it really depends on the army but just an everyday tactic would be to bombard them with fire while using my guardsmen as meatshields for the advancing grey knights.

If they have alot of tanks and heavily armoured men deep strike LAst chancers by them with half of them equipped melta guns the other half plasma and they're all mastercrafted, use the melta to maul the tanks and the plasma to destroy their heavy armoured men.


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## kh4054ng3l (Nov 23, 2007)

When available for my IG, deepstrike or infiltrate (light infantry) my vets squad with 3 meltas so that even if they scatter can still make it to cover if needed if they survive. I can't imagine any army enjoying seeing that near any of their major vehicles or expensive units.

2 basilisks (usually my only vehicles), in each corner of my deployment zone (isnt this standard for all ig though?) with one just behind cover looking open as bait so that my squads by my other bassie can hit them trying to get to it.


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## Frodo (Nov 13, 2007)

niiice. one tactic that often works is simply arranging your troops unequally on one side of the battlefeild so that your opponent leaves enough room for small squads of infiltrators to annoy your enemy. it also means that you can hit from two sides or if the enemy deploy as if you had deployed across the table half their army has to move to get into optimum firing/assaulting position. 48 fw = 96 shots a turn that can take half an army pretty quickly and then re-group to take the others.


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