# Learning from History...



## PadreJim (Dec 19, 2006)

So, here's a neat trick that's worked fairly well for me, and worked extremely well at Cannae for Hannibal of Carthage a few thousand years ago,* and I thought "Why not share it?" So here goes.

*NOTE: Works best with large, infiltrating, shooty armies vs. smaller armies (Guard, Orkses, Tau, etc. vs. MEQs)


Here's the basic gist:

*Deployment:* Infantry squads (Two with heavy weapons, and the rest without, just assault and rapid fire/pistol weapons) deploy in a long double (or triple, if you can) line stretching from end to end of the board, as close to the centre as possible (if you don't infiltrate, then go to the furthest point of your deployment zone). The heavy-weapon equipped units should be at the extreme ends of the line.

Armour and other fast-moving Cavalry-type units (Sentinels, War Walkers, Assault Squads, etc) should be deployed just behind the line. Heavy Weapons squads (Support squads, Dev. Squads, Broadside teams, etc) should be interspersed behind the line of infantry, providing overlapping fields of fire.


*Initial tactics:* Armour and Cavalry should zip forward and make themselves a nuisance to the enemy, specifically to enemy armour and heavy weapons teams; those guys will be key to get rid of. Once they've gotten the enemy's attention, they should begin to move backwards slowly, making sure that they bring the enemy with them.

Now, turn one for your infantry should be either a movement forward (if you're not playing infiltrators) or a holidng phase. Fire at whichever targets of opportunity present themselves, but don't get carried away. Heavy Weapons teams should also keep the heads of whichever enemies are in range down. The more you can get rid of now, the better this tactic will work.


*Springing the Trap:* Once you're at roughly the centre of the board, yoru enemy should have adavnced sufficiently to begin putting the plan into motion. Begin to pull the centre of your lines backwards, creating a parabola formation, all the while firing at anything within range. This is why you keep your heavy weapons on the flanks: They're not moving for the duration of the battle, and can now fire for effect and take out either any remaining armour or any big baddies that need attention (Mostrous creatures, daemons, assault specialists, etc).

Your armour and cavalry should now, if possible try to get around the flanks of the enemy infantry and engage and destroy whichever heavy support is left. The heavy weapons teams that were deployed at the beginning of the game should still have a good bit of range left for them to attack the enemy, as well.

*Endgame:* Hopefully by now your men haven't taken too bad of a pounding (due to your armour and cavalry units taking out the enemy big guns) and you can now bring the full effect of your weapons onto the enemy. Move any flank units that aren't in Rapid-fire range up so that they can blaze away, and watch as your foes are cut down.

*Notes:* Your centre will, in all likelyhood, take one hell of a beating throughout the game, which is why it's important to keep as many support squads as possible where they can support the centre units.

With an assaulty army, this won't work so well, I don't think. However, I haven't tried it out with one, so who knows?

Armour and mobile units are key to making this work. Your vehicles should be your first line of attack, wasting any enemy armour or assault specialists they can, as quickly as they can.

You can have heavy weapons in your regular squads, if you want. The only reason I didn't is because I figured that higher mobility would serve better than sheer slug-festery. Feel free to adapt!


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## jigplums (Dec 15, 2006)

i could see this maybe working for tau, as there suits etc, can fire whilst moving backwards. However they dont have much ability to infiltrate. at least not with the kind of "bait units" you suggest. It is however a very do-able warhammer tactic, fleeing as charge responses with central units to leave the enemy over exposed


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## sangunius' chosen wing (Dec 21, 2006)

Pie plates will take them out, plus you would need to be playing a fairly large size battle to go from one side to the other. This is one of those tactics that worked well in Hannibals time but isnt relevant in our day and age and especially not on the table top

Good try though


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## PadreJim (Dec 19, 2006)

Well, yeah, there is the danger from templates, but hopefully, the armoured units and support units would have gotten rid of the threat by turn 2 or 3 at the latest.


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## DireAvenger (Dec 27, 2006)

This idea would work fairly well for the eldar too id think. Use some jetbikes and infiltrate some ther troops such as rangers or scorpions or something, and then use the speed of eldar tanks to get into position.


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## uberschveinen (Dec 29, 2006)

Unfortunately for Hannibal, people in 40Kland are not restricted to hitting each other with pieces of metal. They can now project pieces of metal at long range.

This tactic only really works against melee armies of smaller numbers.


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