So I've come to realize that my priorities don't necessarily align with my blog, and when I do have the time, a lot of my image editing takes up far too long for me to continue as I have. From now on, I am going to have a change of style. Instead of simply writing out army info and how to use it for every piece in the game (as was the original intent), I will leave it open to send in questions for specific pieces. I will email with the person, and, should that correspondence prove fruitful, and allow insight into playing, I will post conclusions and summaries of what to do, as per this discussion. This allows a change from filing through tons of links and posts for each army, to finding a specific question. If you can't find something, just send an email, I will be happy to either answer it, or, if I have already talked about it, send you a link to the discussion. Aside from that, I will be doing my older, random, general tactics posts. Speaking of which...
Offensive, Defensive, and Midfield playing:
BAM! Bigger text. Means that $*!t is important. Not really. But kinda. This can also be re-described as aggressive, defensive, and mixed, or any other number of things. What it boils down to, thought, is how you are focusing your army. I prefer Midfield, but that's personal preference. None of them are better, but if you pick something that translates better to your thought pattern, it's easier to form strategies.
Defensive Strategy:
I'm going to start with Defensive strategy, because, simply put, this one is the easiest to implement and carry out. Armies meant mostly for Defensive strategy are Tau, Necron, Codex Space Marines, and Imperial Guard. The most defensive-oriented army would have to go to Imperial Guard, so I will be using them as the example throughout my assertions here.
Let me start this by saying playing defensively is more than just castling and fish of fury, or any idea of just setting up and letting your opponent charge you. There is that element, but it is not limited in that fashion. Instead, I'm going to go through and discuss the typical characteristics for fighting defensively:
Offensive Strategy:
As Defense is not merely sitting and waiting, Offense is not merely charging into the line of fire, and is definitely the middle child here, as far as ease of pulling off. Offensive armies are Blood Angels, Sisters of Battle, Dark Eldar, Orks, Chaos Daemons, and Tyranids. This has more of a set of rules to go by than characteristics:
Midfield Strategy:
This mixes ideas from both strategies, and favors mobility, firepower, and specialized or superior units over brute force or static formations. Midfield armies are Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Space Wolves, Black Templar, and Grey Knights.
Offensive, Defensive, and Midfield playing:
BAM! Bigger text. Means that $*!t is important. Not really. But kinda. This can also be re-described as aggressive, defensive, and mixed, or any other number of things. What it boils down to, thought, is how you are focusing your army. I prefer Midfield, but that's personal preference. None of them are better, but if you pick something that translates better to your thought pattern, it's easier to form strategies.
Defensive Strategy:
I'm going to start with Defensive strategy, because, simply put, this one is the easiest to implement and carry out. Armies meant mostly for Defensive strategy are Tau, Necron, Codex Space Marines, and Imperial Guard. The most defensive-oriented army would have to go to Imperial Guard, so I will be using them as the example throughout my assertions here.
Let me start this by saying playing defensively is more than just castling and fish of fury, or any idea of just setting up and letting your opponent charge you. There is that element, but it is not limited in that fashion. Instead, I'm going to go through and discuss the typical characteristics for fighting defensively:
- Heavy use of cover: This goes without saying. Keep your men in cover, because that extra 6+ is better than nothing. Aside from that, being in cover makes your men a much less ideal target for assault, as it screws with your opponent's ability to charge and Initiative. Calculate every move out of cover. Run, if that helps. but you want to keep more static positions. If at all possible, Transports for Everyone! It gives you a mobile piece of protection, no matter what it has for weapons.
- Forming a Wall: This is one way of taking care of things. Form a solid wall of your men, with everybody supporting everybody, and make your opponent pay for every inch. Basically, you want him to come to you, and whittling away at his troops in the process.
- Trapping your opponent: This is a simple concept. Set up bait, like, say a unit your opponent will take risks to kill, and placed somewhere to emphasize that (like an objective). Now surround that unit, at a distance, with ranged support, so that when your opponent attacks, his guys will be annihilated.
- Numbers matter: Best way to put this in perspective: I have a list written up for Imperial Guard. It is simply a Command Squad, and 4 Infantry Platoons (each have a full squad of Conscripts and 4 Infantry Squads). This totals in 385 models, for 2000 points. Yes, there is no anti-tank, fire support, anything to give them bonuses (except orders), but how much does it matter when you can literally just cover the objective with enough models to prevent your opponent from ever touching them?
Offensive Strategy:
As Defense is not merely sitting and waiting, Offense is not merely charging into the line of fire, and is definitely the middle child here, as far as ease of pulling off. Offensive armies are Blood Angels, Sisters of Battle, Dark Eldar, Orks, Chaos Daemons, and Tyranids. This has more of a set of rules to go by than characteristics:
- If you can't shoot, move: This is pretty self-explanitory. If you are out of range, probably out of range, not sure if you're in range, or, for ANY REASON WHATSOEVER,cannot shoot, Go a full move and run. Until you meet the above criteria. Avoid heavy weapons. Also, unless you have a VERY good reason, don't shoot a heavy weapon when the rest of your squad is out of range.
- If you can't move, shoot: See above, just the opposite.
- When in doubt, attack: You need to bring the fight to the enemy, every turn. If you can't decide on your actions, do the one that involves shooting/assaulting.
- Cover is your friend; difficult terrain is not: Because you need to be fast, weigh your options as to difficult terrain (push through vs going around). Then choose whichever gets you in range fastest.
- Numbers matter: you're going to lose a lot of your troops. Use caution while purchasing upgrades, that extra Shoota could be the difference between winning and losing an assault.
Midfield Strategy:
This mixes ideas from both strategies, and favors mobility, firepower, and specialized or superior units over brute force or static formations. Midfield armies are Eldar, Chaos Space Marines, Space Wolves, Black Templar, and Grey Knights.
- Move as an army: Never push your a unit out of support reach. When you move your army, do so in a way that keeps everybody together. If you have to overreach with a unit, make sure that either they can defend themselves, or your opponents will be tied up with other targets.
- Never play your opponent's strong suit: Don't let a defensive army build a wall, don't fall for the bait. Don't let an offensive army slam into you like a sledgehammer. Find your opponent's weakness, and exploit it.
- Divide and isolate your enemy: Look for that weak spot in your opponent's formations, and turn it into a chasm in the middle of his table. Make him adjust to what you're doing, not the other way around.
- Never get cornered: you should never wind up with your back to a wall. If that is coming, focus your efforts on creating a hole in his forces to escape through. If you do get cornered, assault first. At best, you will be able to break free. At worst, you will do more damage than if your opponent charges you.
That's about all I got, I understand I might have gone over this before, but I figured a little more depth is never a bad thing.
