The 4 Things Every 40K Army Needs To Have

by SandWyrm

Sometimes, you look at the army the other guy is putting on the table, and you just go "What the...?" That happened to my twice this week. So I thought I'd go over some of the things that every army needs to have in order to be effective. (more...)

Turnout was a bit light at BMG for the escalation league, but we still had 6 people show up. The league mission was Capture and Control with a Dawn of War deployment. Here's the list I took, which is identical to the one I took last week.

    HQ
70    Primaris Psyker
   
    Elites
65    Marbo

    Troops
155    Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera
155    Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera
155    Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera

    Fast Attack
120    3 Scout Sentinels w/Autocannons
130    Hellhound
   
    Heavy Support
150    Leman Russ Battle Tank w/Hull Heavy Flamer

Total: 1000 pts. 

The First Whaaat...?

I got to the store at 6:00, hoping to get started early. But while there was a table open, there was nobody left for me to fight. So I decided to help with the rules for the two games that were already going on while I ate my Chinese take-out. At some point a new kid I'd never seen before walked in and started making an army list using Kriegle's newly painted Nurgle marines. I'd find out later this was his 5th game of 40K. I'll call him Tall-E.

Once Tall-E's list was ready, I unpacked and we rolled off. I won first turn and set up a single Chimera in the middle of the table to force him to deploy further back. The rest of my force would roll on, with Marbo in reserve. Fairly straightforward.

It was when I saw Tall-E's army being deployed that I groaned. I really should have helped him with the list composition. He had:

1 Daemon Prince
2 Units of Plague Marines in Rhinos. One model had a melta.
2 Obliterators

And that's it.

I slaughtered him of course. The Oblits took out a couple of Chimeras, while the Daemon Prince shook a Hellhound. And hey, he killed Marbo. But that's it. Plague Smurfs are fine troops, but given enough shots I will kill them. What Tall-E really needed was more numbers and some better anti-tank ability.

And the Second...

After that game was over BlueMoon wanted to get in some tourney practice, so we pulled out our 1750 lists. Here was mine:

    HQ
175    Company Command Squad w/4 x Melta, Astropath, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
   
    Troops
155    Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
155    Veteran Squad w/3 x Melta, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
170    Veteran Squad w/3 x Plasma, Chimera (Hull Heavy Flamer)
115    Veteran Squad w/Shotguns, 3 x Flamer, Demolitions
115    Veteran Squad w/Shotguns, 3 x Flamer, Demolitions

    Fast Attack
130    Vendetta Gunship (Demo Vet Ride)
130    Vendetta Gunship (Demo Vet Ride)
120    3 Scout Sentinels w/Autocannons
   
    Heavy Support
165    Leman Russ Demolisher w/Hull Heavy Flamer
160    Leman Russ Eradicator w/Hull Heavy Flamer
160    Leman Russ Eradicator w/Hull Heavy Flamer

Total: 1750 pts.

Now, BlueMoon has some pretty good armies already. He took his Eldar Mech list to the 'Ard Boyz Semis, where he made the second table for the last game. He's also been running a cool new Ork force lately that I have a lot of respect for. This time though, he wanted to play me with his new Marines in an Annihilation mission.

I rolled up another Dawn of War deployment and lost the roll for first turn. So I cooled my heels and waited to see what he put down.

I saw Termies... walking.

Huh?

He was running a foot list with 2 Librarians attached to a 6-man TH/SS Termie squad, 2 Ironclad Dreds in drop pods. Two tactical squads without rides, and one in a pod. Plus 2 Speeders with MM/HF.

His basic idea with this force is to teleport the Termies around with one of the Librarians, while the Speeders, Dreds, and 1 Tac Squad drop onto the enemy. The other two tac squads get to stand around and shoot missiles.

Now, if there's three things that I LOOOOVE to fight as guard, it's:

1) Foot-Sloggers
2) Termies
3) Deep-Strikers

Foot-Sloggers won't make it across the field alive, while Termies are easily killed with concentrated firepower (Given enough wounds, he will roll 1's). And Deep-Strikers? They're basically jumping into my most lethal kill range.

So this was, in many ways, my dream opponent.

He left the 2 tac squads spread out in a long line in the middle of the table to force me back, deployed the Termies on his table edge, and deep striked everything else. I decided to not deploy and just roll everything onto the board on my first turn. He then drop-podded his two dreds about 9" from my table edge.

I deny-flank and roll on in a castle formation on the left side of the board right in front of his pods and open fire.  One Dred and a Drop pod go down immediately to Chimelta/Vendetta fire while I whittle down the mid-field tac squad in front of me with the Russes.

BlueMoon then teleports his termies up near my line. One dies to a failed Vortex roll (Yay failed psyker tests!), while I kill 5 more with a flamer/demo charge assault from one of my Vendettas. It went downhill for Blue Moon from there.

Final score was 11-7.

And now to my point...

Both of these armies were missing some key elements that every army needs to have in order to handle all the threats it will face. These key elements are:

1) Long-range Light Anti-Tank

I don't care if you're Grey Knights or Nids. Every army needs a way to kill light armor (AV10/11/12) while it's still on the other side of the table. This forces some or all of your opponent's army to walk piecemeal into your guns, instead of swamping you all at once.

In a guard army, this is handled by autocannons and lascannons. With multi-lasers as backup for dealing with Trukks.

At 1500 pts, you need to be able to reliably kill at least 2-3 Rhinos on the first turn, and double that for Ork Trukks. If you can handle that you'll also have the weapons you'll need for taking down Daemon Princes and Tyrannid Monsters.

The only long-range AT that BlueMoon had was a couple of missile launchers on his tac squads and the multi-meltas on his speeders. That's 2 dead tanks on the first turn and one every other turn after I kill the speeders.

In my 1000 pt. force (listed above), the long-range AT is handled by the Sentinels and the Russ. Which will give me 1-2 dead Rhinos on the first turn. My 1750 point tourney force has the ability to take down 5-6 transports (including Land Raiders) on a favorable turn 1. I'll let you guess how. :)


2) Close-Range Heavy Anti-Tank

This might be meltas, or it might be the Power Klaws in an Ork mob. Either way, you need some way of popping any armor, Monsterous creature, or annoying hero that you meet in mid-field. Got a Russ or Land Raider to kill? Lascannons aren't reliable for this. Melta is.

This was Tall-E's major failing, as he had just one lone melta gun to threaten 8 armored vehicles with up close. That's not even good enough to take out a single tank reliably.

In both my forces, this is handled by the Chimeltas. 


3) Close-Range Anti-Troop

How do you plan to kill a 20-30 boy Ork Mob that you meet in mid-field? How are you going to kill at least that many Termagaunts or Guard foot troops? What if they're in cover?

Flamers work wonders here. So do assault units and massed bolter fire.

BlueMoon had a TH/SS Termie unit for this. But that's still just one unit that can be overwhelmed.

Tall-E had his Daemon Prince, which is also vulnerable to being swamped or simply shot to death.

In my armies this is also handled by my Chimeltas. Helped in my 1K list by the Primaris Psyker and the Hellhound. The 1750 list has Chimeltas plus a Demolisher and 2 Eradicators. In addition, I can use the Sentinels in either list to tarpit problematic assault units for 2-3 turns.


4) Manueverability

More than any previous edition of 40K, 5th has become a game where the ability to move is critical. Whether it's seizing an objective, or just moving a tank to get/deny cover, effective movement will win you the game. While poor movement on your part will lose it.

This is why every unit in my army is mobile. Nothing stands still. This gives me the ability to adapt more quickly to a changing situation than most of my opponents. I can chose to get up in my enemy's face, or I can chose to avoid him if need be. But what I won't do is hand him the initiative by standing still.

So bring on the Rhinos, Trukks, Chimeras, Speeders, and Vendettas! Get across that field and into my face with Power Klaws and melta weapons. That's how Farmpunk kills me with his Sisters, and how BlueMoon beats my face in with his Orks.

Real challenges are much more fun. :)