Putting the Ploy into Deployment 
by TheAngelR

In mid-battle when it's close, a single tactical error could cost you the game. In the end-game when it's close, he who has not conserved his force well could lose the game. At the beginning of a game it's deployment. Set up well and your enemy could end up eating dust.

But what makes a good set-up? And what makes a bad-set up? Easy. A good set-up immidately allows the player to gain the upper hand. His units can shoot easily and his more vunerable units are well protected. A bad set-up doesn't allow the player to do this. He will have to work very hard to gain the advantage.

How to perform a good set-up with varying conditions:

First even before a battle, you must consider two things:

1. Terrain
2. What do I need to do in this battle?

This is vitally important. Both of these factors can easily change your stratergy's in battle. You will always need to adjust things on the spot. So I'll write up some basic stuff for deploying offensive and defensive. You'll have to adjust since I don't have the time to write every single possible scenario up!
 

Deploying when on the defensive
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Setting up to play defensively is difficult. You need to able to hold ground on all flanks. So what do you do? Use cover. If it is a terrain heavy-board so you can afford to put your troops behind walls and forests. But make sure they can see! Otherwise you won't be able to whittle the numbers down and you'll be run down. Blockcading your objective is a very good idea. Stick a couple of tanks in front of it with a shooty squad on top and let them fire away. The rest of your force should set up so that they can take enemy fire and return it. I'll leave it up to you on how to do this! My prefered method and this works very well for BA is the defensive-offensive move. Set up with your fast moving stuff on the flanks. Your troops should hold centre. Now simply take the fight to the enemy! I find that in this game playing pure defensive doesn't really work. You need to able to take the fight straight to him. So to sum up:

1. Make sure your units are well protected
2. Use cover and bunkers all the time.
3. A strong foundation at the objective is a good way of keeping the enemy in check.
4. Don't spread you forces out too much, but don't bunh them in. Spread them out too much and your force becomes weak and cannot concentrate it's firepower well. Bunch them in and your vunerable to flank attacks. Keep them evenly balanced.
5. If you can, take the fight to them. It simply works better.

How to set-up offensively:
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A much easier task. Most players prefer to attack than to defend. Now here's a tactic that even vets fear(me included). It's perhaps the best offensive tactic in the entire game. Still stuck? Gorkamorka. Ork players use it time and time again, and time and time again it works! But you don't need to play Orks to do this. The basic tactic is to have a solid force going down the middle(the Gorka) and the faster more agile units go down the flanks(the morka). And what makes it so good is that it can be moulded into variations for different effects! What makes it so effective that often the commander doesnt know which part is more dangerous, the huge numbers coming down the middle or the fast moving stuff coming down the flank. In haste he splits his fire and ends up doing doing very little damage. And this causes chaos until everything is in range for assault. Of course if you are not an offensive army(Vanilla Marines, Tau, craftworld eldar and so on), this tactic won't work (Dark Eldar are an exception,Gorkamorka doesn't work with them even though they are an offensive force). I have never played as a non-offensive force so my experience is limited at best. All I can say is hit them fast and first. The codex in fact has some tactics, you might wanna try them. Sorry I can't be of more help!

Summary:

1. Attack quickly
2. Remember Gorkamorka. It's real winner against an unprepared opponet
3. Make sure you squads are mobile and don't crash into each other.
4. Keep your troops under cover(again!), you are probably out-gunned!
 

OK there goes the bell for me to stop, I hope this is handy for some people, mainly for new players!

AngelR
4/8/02 3:04:57 am