THIS VINTAGE JUNGLE POST first appeared in 2015. Because it was popular with visitors, I am sharing it again now. I have made some revisions to the original post to account for changes to the game.
I PLAYED HUNDREDS of games of 40K since I started with the hobby back in 1987, but you don’t have to have been playing for long to realize that proper deployment is at least as important to winning as having a good army list is.
Having played so long, though, I have come to realize that correctly, skillfully positioning my units at the start of the game so that they can be most effective is probably my greatest weakness. I cannot tell you how many times poor deployment has had me scrambling to keep up with my opponent, and has usually resulted in my defeat.
Hence, this series of lessons learned the hard way. Though I am by no means a master tactician, I will share with you what I’ve learned by trial and error. The guidance in this series won’t get fancy or complex: this is basic information that new players or dumbasses (like me) need to know and remember so as to better their chances at victory. Accordingly, we’ll follow the KISS principle: Keep It Simple for the Stupid.
With each post, I’ll talk about general principles one should use for deploying each unit, based on its type and function. I’ll offer examples of deployments that you should use (and why), and those you should not (and why not). Deployment and army lists go hand-in-hand, of course, so I’ll have comments on list-making as it pertains to placing them on the table.
As I just mentioned, the focus is going to be on general principles–overall concepts and approaches–rather than specific rules, because rules change all the time, often greatly so.
Indeed, in revising this and the subsequent articles, I was struck by how much the rules had changed in less than 10 years.
Even though 10th Edition 40K has gotten rid of the Force Organization Charts that it used from Editions 3 to 9, it’s still useful to categorize units into certain roles so as to maximize their deployment. So, yeah, technically, there aren’t any “Heavy Support” units in the game, but they still have that function, and that function influences where they should be placed on the table. Understand?
If you’re ready, then, off we go. Hit the links below to start learning and stop being as much of a dumbass as I am.
- “Heavy Support” (Shooty) Units
- “Heavy Support” (Non-Shooty) Units
- “Troop” Units
- “Elite” Units
- “Fast Attack” (Assault) Units
- “Fast Attack” (Shooty) Units
- “Character” Units
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