Reaver Jetbikes

So I'm thinking of strategies for my current Dark Eldar list (I want to hone everything before committing on too many models.  Cash is tight!) and I realized that the Reavers aren't particularly great at assault and I was contemplating scratching them from my list until I realized one very important detail: Jetbikes have special rules.  They can move 6" in the assault phase and not assault!  I totally forgot!  I'm swamped with schoolwork at the moment, so a new updated list won't be created until probably Wednesday but if I take a few Reavers, pop a Blaster or Heat Lance on them and give them cluster caltrops I can Turbo Boost over an enemy unit (36" might I add) and end out of LoS of anything particularly dangerous and then pop out in the movement phase, shoot, pop back into hiding in the assault.  Rinse and repeat. I think it would create a nice distraction for my other units and still be able to wreak some havoc.  Knocking a few jetbikes out of my list also frees up room for Nightshields on my Raiders which makes killing them even more annoying.

I am so pumped for this army!

Army Mojo: Heavy Support

And the last installment of the Army Mojo series… kind of. In the coming weeks I will be posting an army list for EVERY playable army using the general ideas that have been posted in this Army Mojo series. It should be fun for me to do but more importantly it should serve as a great example for how you can use these ideas and apply them to a list. Without further adieu, here’s the Heavy Support article…

Heavy Support tends to, obviously, be your support element in an army. Whether they’re tanks, powerful shooting units, ordnance or what have you, they help to put the hurt on an enemy at long range. Without long-range and steady support, your fast-paced army will get rocked by some pill-box tank sitting in a well-protected corner. It is crucial to have some long-range support element in your army to provide a softening “first-punch” before your fast and elite portions of your army get up close and most of the time this element will come from the Heavy Support slot.

Ordnance is incredibly useful on a battlefield (ask any Imperial Guard player) and if you have a viable option, it tends to be very wise to take it. Even if it isn’t all that powerful (Space Marine Whirlwind, for example) it can still dish out the hurt and force your opponent to spread his troops out which could potentially deny cover saves if you position your other troops correctly. Just the knowledge that your opponent has a tank that dishes out a 5” pie-plate is an advantage against most players. Plus, if this tank can dish out Strength 8 and above and AP 3 and below, expect a lot of mayhem to be had! Of course there are also the pill-box type tanks like Space Marine Predators. Not exactly the strongest tank in the bunch, but they can certainly hold their own positioned correctly and can dish out some nice damage. Infantry-wise, it all depends on your list and if you are comfortable playing with them. Heavy Support infantry can be tough to use in some lists since most of the times they’ll be the only infantry unit you have sitting back and shooting and thus they’re vulnerable. However, in the right hands they can be very useful, it’s just necessary to know the weaknesses of the unit even more than the strengths so you can keep them alive.

ADDENDUM: From Silent_P on the Astronomican Forums:
Artillery is designed to do two things. First it is utilized to soften up your opponent. Dishing out templates and blowing holes in the opposition's line will give your army the flexibility and room it requires to maneuver. Second, your artillery has the ability to help control the pace of the battle. By pinning enemy units you are allowing your own army to move that much faster. Converse to that, by shelling your opponent as he comes marching towards you forces him to speed up his movement. He can't pause to shoot at your own line because he knows the next round a pie-plate is going to be landing on his unit. In my opinion half of the battle is already won when you begin taking elements of control out of your enemy's hands. The biggest trick of the matter is keeping your heavy artillery alive while sneaky enemy units attempt to neutralize them.

Choosing Heavy Support units comes down to, you guessed it, what role they’ll play in the army. This MUST, MUST, MUST be determined while making your list, otherwise I can guarantee the tank will be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now if you make the tank versatile, just be sure you play it correctly. You need to know what is more of a threat to you and what you will have a better chance killing. If there’s a Land Raider in front of your Autocannon/Las Cannon sponsons Predator and a Dreadnought next to it, be damned sure you’re shooting that Dreadnought as you have far better chances of killing it than a Land Raider even if that is more of a threat at the moment. With versatile units it is incredibly important to understand the difference between immediate threats and real threats, but that’s a different article for a different time.

The thought process for Heavy Support is very similar to Elites. It all comes down to play style, unit preference, skill and how that unit will be a cohesive element within your army.

Well that's it for the article portion- now to put it to the test! Besides wanting to hear your thoughts on comments on this list, I want to know what army you think I should make a list for first so make sure you vote for your four army choices on the left hand side of the page!

Army Mojo: Fast Attack

Fast Attack happens to be a FOC slot that many armies either take full advantage of, or they don’t even tough it. This has everything to do with what your list looks like and how you plan to play said list. Fast Attack units usually can be separated into two sections: close combat and guerrillas. In reality, you kind of want to think of all (well, nearly all) Fast Attack choices as guerrilla units. They excel at attacking swiftly, and then finding protection or attacking swiftly and hope they did enough damage that they don’t die next turn. I’ll separate these off and talk about both.

Close Combat
This, generally, is where you see the bulk of Fast Attack choices on the table falling under. For obvious reasons, their specialty is close-combat. However, these units are also generally less powerful in hand-to-hand than an Elites choice that would be chosen for the same purpose. However, what they lack in power they make up for in speed. A Fast Attack infantry unit will, in most cases, have an 18” assault range (either 12” or 6” for movement and 6” or 12” assault). This enables them to get into combat earlier, and thus neutralize a potential key unit on the enemy team. A good example of where this is useful is if you are a Space Marine player with an Assault Squad. Your enemy is playing as Eldar and they have a Dark Reaper team hidden in some cover. Attempting to out-shoot these units to death can be costly since you are sacrificing shots that could be used to take down assault units such as Howling Banshees and you have a very low chance of killing them as you are against a 3+ armor save plus a probable 4+ cover save if you happen to be shooting with AP2 or less weaponry. However, if you are able to Assault these Dark Reapers, you neutralize their strength (killing marines with their AP3 guns o’ death) and simultaneously take advantage of their weakness which is close combat. This idea can be applied to many more similar situations and is how you tend to see Fast Attack close combat units played.

Guerrillas
This particular division of Fast Attacks, while still applying to the Close Combat division somewhat, takes the most advantage of the biggest strength these units have: speed. No matter what your Fast Attack choice, if you are not darting around the field every turn, you’re doing something wrong. This applies even more for Guerrilla units as their mission is to get in, put the hurt on, get out. It’s a cat-and-mouse like game where you are the mouse that’s toying with the cat, but hiding just well enough so the cat can’t get you back. It’s all about positioning both your unit and the rest of your army. Guerrilla units never (or, well, rarely) succeed on their own. They rely on other units providing just enough distraction to the enemy to make him question what is more effective to destroy, the guerrilla unit or the other dangerous elements of your army? Not only that, but the other units often provide passive protection for the guerrilla. How? Well if you are able to position your unit correctly, the enemy will be in a lose-lose situation. If he kills the guerrilla he will end up getting shot to pieces or eaten up in close combat by another unit, however if he kills those units the guerrilla will be free to roam and wreak havoc elsewhere. It is a very frustrating situation for your opponent, and one that will be advantageous to you no matter what he chooses.

In closing, Fast Attack units have one general strength, and that’s speed. If you are not constantly taking advantage of this or your list isn’t able to provide enough protection and support for these units you need to either re-think your list or just ignore Fast Attack altogether. After all, they’re not for everyone.

Only one more section to go, Heavy Support! What are your thought not only on this section, but all of the rest? Is this shaping up to be a useful article series?

Army Mojo: Troops

Ah, troops. The centerpiece of every army (thanks to the FOC). Most of the time people will choose troops that are cheap and fit in their list just so they can add more Hammer units (as mentioned in the Elites Mojo post) to pound the ever-living crap out of the other army. While this tactic can be great (not so much for the opponent though) giving thought to what Troops you are choosing can be even more valuable. Fifth Edition, as we all know, pushed the emphasis on Troops more than ever because only they can capture objectives. When the rulebook first came out many lists just started to Troop-spam which, as they found out, wasn’t a great idea. When you take too many troops (this is not true for some armies but is an apt generalization) you tend to weaken the potential of your list. When you take too few troops you risk doing the exact same thing. Well, then, where’s the balance? That’s not a question that has a single answer. Like everything in your list it depends on the purpose and how the troops will be cohesive with your army. If you haven’t noticed yet, cohesiveness is a MASSIVE part of list building and the more you recognize how one unit performs alongside another, the sooner you will be able to create a perfect list for your needs (remember, though, list building is only a small part of playing games. Experience and generally good tactics are far more important, but a good list helps compliment those two things).

Most basic troops are pretty mediocre. They don’t have the muscle that Elites do, they don’t have the speed the Fast Attack units do and they don’t have the fire power that Heavy Support has. Why on Earth would you ever take troops? Well they are the backbone of your army. Sure, they may not be as powerful as Unit X or Unit Y, but their skill lies in their versatility. For example, I can make a Guard squad anti-tank by giving them a Melta gun. Boom goes the dynamite. Obviously that’s a simple example. Now something I like to do with my lists (that many people will cringe at) is throwing an anti-tank and anti-infantry weapon into each of my Tactical Squads. Sure, I kind of go against the “what is the purpose of this unit” rule but it allows for massive tactical flexibility on the table so every squad can fill any role that’s needed based on the situation. This is something that I feel Troops choices excel at. They have a great ability to be flexible on the unit-based level so depending on what type of game you’re playing and what type of list it is, you can always fill a needed role. What some people will claim is that if I have a Melta Gun and a Heavy Bolter in my squad and I’m shooting a tank, that Heavy Bolter is going to waste. They’re right. But so do the eight other Bolter shots. And if I had a Multi-Melta, sure I’d have more of a chance to kill the vehicle but what if I’m against a horde Ork list? The Meltas are useless and I sure would be wishing I had that Heavy Bolter back. This of course is just my play style and not something everyone should follow, just an idea worth tossing around while thinking up a list. Some armies simply don’t work like that, but others, Space Marine especially, can do very well this way.

Besides the ability to have unit-based flexibility, you can also craft specially-designed roles for them. Are they going to camp and objective? Give them some heavy fire power. Are they going to rush an objective to clean-up after the Hammer squad swept through? Give them a transport. Are they going to be a sacrificial unit that is shielding a more important squad (such as Heavy Weapons teams or Dark Reapers)? Give them some Close-Combat weapons. The possibilities are endless. You Troops will almost never be the most efficient unit at the job you give them, but they can definitely be incredible strategic assets if you use them in the right way in your lists and in game. They key to Troops selection, just like any unit you will take in an army list, is determining their general purpose. From there you can figure out what wargear to give them and then whether or not you want to make your squad malleable (the can perform wither Task A or Task B) or hardened to one specific purpose. Without Troops, even the strongest list can crumble.

Like always, I’d love to hear your thoughts! What do you guys do when you select Troops?

Army Mojo: Elites

Elites are commonly looked upon as the Hammer of an army. Some lists rarely use them (I almost never see Elites selections in Imperial Guard armies, for example) and others use them extensively. A very common tactics in using Elites are to pound the crap out of the enemy and then use the rest of your army do the cleanup (stray squads, models or objectives). This, of course, means you’ll drop a lot of points and trust in those units but the advantages tend to outweigh the consequences in most lists.

It is incredibly important to know the strengths and weaknesses of your Elites units more than any other in your entire army. Not only that, but it is even more important to know what the purpose of the squad will be when you create your list. Other units, such as Troops, can have malleable purposes based on a situation. This is not a good idea with Elites. Why? A big reason is because they’re generally expensive. You never want to pay a butt-load of points for a unit without even knowing why said unit is in your army- it betrays logic. While building a list, a good way to figure out what Elites choice may work is to build a “core” force of Troops and other necessary units and then see where your list’s weaknesses are and fill those holes with your Elites choices. They are meant to be the sword of your army: useless on its own, but held by a skilled fighter, it can do a lot of damage.

Another necessary thing when determining what Elites choice to take is that you need to constantly weigh pros and cons such as how fragile they are, how powerful they are and what cohesive element do they add to your army. When you finally have found a good balance, you have to think about how they will work into your list- whether they’ll be tank-hunters, hammers, anti-infantry, or a shielding unit (in that they draw fire away from the rest of your army) all comes into play when you are deciding whether “unit x” is really worth more than “unit y”. A lot of this comes down to play-style and, even more importantly, play-testing.

Toy with new ideas, build new lists, but be sure you are looking at your Elites for what they are: Elite units meant to soften the enemy enough for the rest of your army to take care of them. With that very basic concept in mind, you can begin creating new tactics for your army to take advantage of and be able to accurately determine where Elites fit into your strategy.

Next up are Troops choices…

I’d love to hear your comments on this, so fire away!

Army Mojo: HQs

An army’s HQ choice is one of the most important you can make in an army list. They serve as a unit (usually only one model) that helps increase the effectiveness of the army as a whole. If the troops are the glue for your army, the HQ is the duct-tape you wrap around it to make it stronger… Ok, maybe not the best analogy, but you get my point, right? With every new codex, we are seeing a trend towards special characters that act as “keys” to an army allowing for different types of lists to be created that wouldn’t be as effective otherwise. A good example is adding Kor’Sarro Khan to a Space Marine list because you will tend to hold most of your army in reserve to capitalize on their new-found ability to outflank where otherwise that would be an impossible tactic. A lot of people choose HQs based on their army’s theme (referring to fluff here), but when you get into a competitive circuit, this type of thinking rarely succeeds. An HQ choice, to be most effective, must help the army as a whole in some way. It needs to be cohesive with other elements in your army to be effective.

The Tank
‘Tank’ HQs are the Characters or Units that are really just there to draw fire and dish out even more. A lot of times they are taken to just fill the mandatory FOC slot and other times they actually add an element to your army that wouldn’t be there otherwise (such as unlocking a unit in a new FOC slot or helping keep your weaker units alive). A great example for this is an Ork Warboss. He is tough, mean and will put the hurt on if you allow him to even touch your lines. Not to mention that if you see an Ork Warboss on the table, you’re almost guaranteed to see a unit of Nobz right behind him. These two units combined are tough, but even meaner than normal because the Nobz increase the Warboss’s survivability (there is no longer one target) and the Nobz can capture objective thanks to the Warboss (who allows them to be taken as Troops). However, as a rule of thumb, it is a good idea to avoid Tank HQs as they tend to be loners and not really help the army as a whole.

The Helping Hand
This tends to be my favorite type of HQ. It’s a unit that is not all that great on his own, but is able to dramatically increase the effectiveness of another squad. Space Marine Chaplains are a good example as on their own they are not the greatest, but with, say, an Assault Squad they prove to be worth far more than their cost as the Assault Squad gains the ability to re-roll failed rolls to hit when they charge into Close-Combat which usually results in far more deaths than what you’d see without the Chaplain. Now these ‘Helping Hand’ units may not increase the effectiveness of your army directly, but if you have a strategy in mind that uses a squad with this type of unit, your strategy is guaranteed to be far more effective (of course you also have to be an apt general, so we’ll assume that’s the case).

The Glue
Glue units are the ones you see in weaker armies like Imperial Guard or Tyranids (weaker as in their basic troops die more easily than other armies). They’re the HQs that hold an army together through, usually, some sort of special ability. For Tyranids this is ‘Synapse’ and for Imperial Guard it is ‘Orders’. These particular units have the ability to increase the effectiveness of multiple squads in one turn and, thus, be able to either survive longer or dish out more damage than what they normally would. While their effectiveness increase generally does not reach levels that “Helping Hand” HQs provide, the idea that it can be spread through multiple squads more than makes up for it. A lot of practice is needed for most ‘Glue’ HQs to really understand the “mojo” he brings to the army. As with everything, practice makes perfect and when you practice enough with ‘Glue’ HQs your metagame will get more perfect as well since you will start to develop an knack for thinking turns ahead of where you currently are.

The Key
I touched on this unit at the beginning of the post: they ‘unlock’ certain army attributes. Whether this is allowing a unit to be taken in a different FOC slot or giving certain weapons better stats, Keys can be great weapons to have at hand. The problem with them, however, is that people often overlook their weaknesses and focus in only on their strengths which can cause an otherwise great list to fracture easily at the mercy of a smart opponent. A quick (not necessarily good, but it gets to the point quickly) example is if a Space Marine army takes Vulkan He’Stan then all of their Melta and Flamer weaponry is twin-linked. However, in taken Vulkan you are paying more points than if you took a cheaper HQ and thus cannot have as many models or weapons in your army as usual. A sacrifice that could be made is a unit has one twin-linked Melta weapon with He’Stan rather than two normal Melta weapons if said Character was not taken. While a twin-linked weapon does sound great, statistically you will hit about 40% more with two Melta shots rather than one twin-linked one. On the same note, you are more likely to spread Flamer and Melta weaponry throughout the army so that sacrifice may be made up for in the end, but it depends on how you create your list. I should also note that many ‘Key’ HQs have a “coolness” factor about them that may not be the most tactically sound choice for your army, but be so cool you want to take them anyways (I have done it with Khan multiple times!). The problem is that on paper their abilities are absolutely amazing, but in game this ability tends to perform less-than-adequately. As I said before, ‘Keys’ can be very useful choice for an army, but there are just as many, if not more, non-useful ones and you must be careful when evaluating which one will help your army’s performance more.

Last Words
In closing, many HQs fall under more than one of these broad generalizations. It is crucial that when making a list you can recognize the pros and cons of each choice and determine which one will have the biggest positive impact on your army with the least sacrifice. Generally this will boil down to “Which does the most for the least amount of points”. HQ choices, obviously, depend on what type of list you’re building, what type of play style you have, and what you anticipate its role to be, but having a cohesive effect with your army is always one of the most important factors and should be looked at thoroughly when creating a list.

Next up on in the “mojo” series… Elites.

Feel free to put in your thoughts/additions. Any really good ideas and such I’ll add into this little article with your comment name. I’m hoping to create a really nice series that helps newcomers to the hobby build effective army-lists so anyone and everyone’s input is most welcome!