Tactica - Army list building

Army list building

1. Preambles -Taking units you like
The first thing to remember when preparing for a game is that, well, it’s a game. I like my army, and within this army, there are specific units that I love, I won’t leave home without them. Most Codice are relatively balanced, and apart from a few, most units are playable in a semi competitive environment. This article is not about making the best cheesy list ever, spoiling fun by spamming boring units all over the place, being ready to beat anyone at any tournament; it is rather about helping to build semi competitive lists, by bringing the models you prefer on the table and make the most out of them.
So take your favourite units – mind you, some are VERY BAD – and make your army around them.

2. Choosing your units and evaluating them
Choosing a unit because they look nice is a good start, but now you need to know what they do, how efficient they are, what will be their role once on the battlefield. Are they here to do some damage, protect your units, score?

Making your points back
The most straightforward way is about making your points back. You unit costs X points, so in theory it should be able to kill about X points as well. This is obviously not true in general, but it is rather accurate for the purely offensive units – the one that kill stuff, and that’s it – and it’s a good way to evaluate your unit: obviously, a HQ worth 1150 points, although they are tougher, they’re going to have a hard time making their points back by just killing squads of Termagants. On the contrary, Marbo – I had to mention him - 65 points, will do just that.

You will need to differentiate them: are they focused against vehicles, light transports, heavy infantry, blob squads... And then you need to think: over the game will they be able to kill enough? Does my unit hit really hard but is too fragile and will die on the first turn? Are they better than the units my opponent will bring?

Damage soak
Of course some units will never reimburse themselves, they’re just too weak in close combat, don’t have nasty enough weapons, well, this is just not their job... In this category you’ll find the units that are just here to take some damage.

Their primary role will be to take some damage, so that your other units can make it; they will distract your enemy by showing they’re a bigger threat and/or will serve as a shield for the rest of your army. They’re here to take an awful lot of beating before going down.

These units can be tough like Ogryns or Plague Marines, or just have a good “staying power”, like fearless Gaunts, big mobs of Orks.

Stalling units
Sometimes, some opposing units are just too good. You look at them, a 1000 points HQ with power weapons, magic gauntlets, massive weapons, invincible armour, or whatever else, and you know you just won’t be able to take them down.

As well as slowly doing them some damage you also have units designed to tar pit them. After all, if his 1000 points unit stays in close combat for 3 turn with you 100 points squad, it means you have 900 points extra somewhere else, killing the rest of his army. Most of the time it will concern close combats, by creating an interminable melee and your opponent just won’t be able to get out. These units need to be cheaper than his, need to be able to absorb a good deal of damage, and have a great staying power.

Walkers are probably the best for this role, as most infantry units just won’t be able to hurt them – don’t try to tar pit a Hive Tyrant with a Sentinel though... But apart from them you find Wyches with weapons that reduce the attacks, big Fearless or Stubborn units.
In the stalling units, I’m going to add Snipers and all sort of Pinning weapons. By forcing your opponent to take Leadership tests, he will eventually fail one, forcing a unit to go to ground and not do anything the following turn.

Objectives
Two third of the standard missions are based on objectives, so it is VERY important to bear this in mind when building your list, as if you don’t table your opponent, the winner will be decided by the number of objectives he holds. There are three way to play around with objectives: you can hold the ones not far from your deployment zone, grab the ones that are further, or contest them.

It will obviously affect your list building, as you need to remember that only non-vehicle Troops and embarked Troops can hold an objective at the end of the game. Make sure you have enough!

To hold an objective your unit need to have a good staying power, need to be resilient. Plague Marines for example are a better than regular Marines at this, having Feel No Pain. They usually are your troops that have the less mobility and it’s obvious of course to leave them in cover: usually the objectives around your deployment zone will have been placed by yourself, so use the terrain in your favour and make this objective hard to take. But don’t waste your points on a unit that will just stand here either! Make sure they have ranged weapons to keep doing some damage. Examples: heavy weapons squads in the Imperial Guard, Termagants under synapse, Dark Eldar Wracks and Warriors, Space Marine Combat Squad with a heavy weapon, Tau’s Kroots...

Now that your objective is secured you might think about grabbing the other ones. You now need mobile Troops. Embarked ones are the best, they’re resilient AND mobile. But you’ll also find outflanking troops really useful here for these objectives on the flanks. On the contrary to your objectives holders, these units will also need some punch, they’ll have to dig your opponent out, clear around to make the place secure and then stay there. They usually can’t do it on their own and you will need a lot of support; this is when your best assault units – HQ, Elite - come in play. To grab objectives: Wyches, Armoured fist squads, Fire Warriors in Devilfish, Dire Avengers in Wave Serpent.

And in games with multiple objectives, don’t forget the last turn run. Have some highly mobile troops ready to grab these objectives from far away. Jump packs are great here, Bikes and Jetbikes, Troops in fast Skimmers...

Although only Troops are scoring and can hold objectives, any unit can also contest one as long as they’re within 3” of the marker. If you can’t have it, nobody will! Make sure then you have some fast units ready to dive and contest the opponent’s objective during the last turn. These units are Bikes, Jump Pack, Skimmers and don’t have to be scoring...

3.Synergy within a unit
Let’s talk a bit now about synergy. Synergy is adding two numbers and finding something greater than the sum. It’s making parts of your army work together to increase their efficiency.

The first thing is not to contradict the unit itself. If my Veterans are going tank hunting with Meltaguns, I will not give them a Heavy Bolter. A unit can have several possible roles, but you do not want to waste points on expensive upgrades and not using them; they have a primary focus and sometimes some secondary targets, but the more “roles” you try giving them, the more the unit will contradict itself.

It does sound obvious, but if your unit is focused on assaulting, they want Assault weapons or Pistols, do not give them Heavy weapons or Rapid fire weapons that will forbid them to assault. I personally sometimes like mixing some anti tank weapons to my assault units like Meltaguns as I will not “waste” the points if I swap targets: this assault unit will be on the front line, so I’m not worried about the range, and if I’m not targeting a tank, a Meltagun is at least as good against a Space Marine as a Shotgun!

It is the same with ranged weapons, when you buy several special/heavy weapons for a squad, make sure they work together nicely: do you want to go anti tank, light transport or infantry? Don’t mix a Flamer with a Lascanon, you will never be able to use both. Also for Heavy weapons, don’t take a Heavy Bolter and a Lascanon in the same squad, they’re not designed for the same targets and they’re expensive: one expensive shot of Lascanon against a squad of Guardsmen or three shots of Heavy Bolter against a Land Raider?

You also need to find synergy in the range of your weapons? Is a Meltagun (12”) really going to be useful in a squad with Lascanons (48”)?

You also need to consider your mobility when choosing your weapons. A Heavy weapon will have to stay put in order to fire, so bear this in mind when kitting your squad out: are you happy with this configuration, did you want them more mobile?

And lastly, make sure of the roles of your transports and other vehicles. If it’s a gunboat you might not want to use it as well as a transport for your assault squads as you most likely won’t be able to do both. If you’re mobile, stay aware of the number of weapons you will be able to fire, and again, make sure the weapons are in synergy.