5th God of Chaos! (Yea'rly!)
The Great State of Texas
|
(Special thanks to Manchu and Reecius)
Guidelines for posting questions and answers in the Tactics section.
The purpose of this guide is to improve the quality of both the questions and answers posted in the tactics section of Dakka Dakka.
Titling.
It is important to accurately title your question in order precisely communicate what information you are looking for. Some of this information seems superfluous such as the game system and edition. This is included in order to optimize Dakka’s search function.
Include the following information using brackets as illustrated: Tactic name or question.[Army][System][Edition]
Formatting Your Question or Tactic.
Once you have correctly titled your post, now you must be sure to include all of the necessary information in your post to enable your fellow Dakkites to either give you the information you are seeking or understand the context of the advice you are sharing. Remember, questions you ask and answers you receive will also help future Dakkites looking for the same information. It is important to take the time to do things correctly.
Be sure to include the following information:
1.) Your question or tactic, stated clearly. What information are you seeking?
2.) Your army list or basic army structure, such as Drop Pod Marines, Mechdar, Dual Lash/Oblit Chaos, etc. Why is this information important? Because no good advice comes out of thin air. Your fellow posters must be able to see what type of army you are using in order to contextualize their advice. If they give advice that pertains to a Mech list when you run a Foot list, their advice will be useless to you. They won’t know what you are using if you don’t specify to them.
3.) Your most common opponents. The metagame environment you play in is just as important as the list you use. What works in one region may not work in another due to the differences in the metagame. Again, you must include this information so that other posters know how to understand what you are communicating.
Answering Questions.
Giving good answers to questions is what makes the Tactics section useful. In order to provide valuable information, follow these guidelines.
Do not give very short answers. If someone asks if they should use unit X over unit Z, do not respond with a one word answer. This helps no one. Be sure to include the reasons why one unit should be used over another.
In order to properly support your answer, you cannot simply state your opinion. You must give answers that are grounded in factual evidence. You may know a lot, but you cannot assume other posters will know what you know. You must provide specific, factual evidence to support your position.
Tactics Etiquette.
When discussing the finer points of tactics in this section of Dakka, you may find that you disagree with another poster. This is fine. Through the friction of debate, great ideas will emerge. It is important that if you find yourself debating with another poster that you only use logic, math, and experience to support your claims. Do not defend an untenable point simply to be stubborn. This helps no one. It is encouraged to passionately defend your ideas but you must have hard evidence to back your assertions or all you really have is an unfounded opinion.
If during the course of a debate someone questions your information or opinion, do not take it personally. It is your responsibility to prove your position. If you cannot, then it is equally important to acknowledge that you made an error and bow out gracefully. We are all adults and this is only a forum on the internet. It is not that serious, after all. Do not get defensive or emotional if someone tells you that you are incorrect or that they believe you to be incorrect. That is their right, it is not rude, simply the demand for evidence. If you properly support your claims, you will find that your opinions will be both respected and useful to your fellow Dakkites.
So follow these guidelines to improve the quality of information that will help all of us to improve our game and to make Dakka the best place on the internet for 40K.
Examples of proper formatting:
Titling a thread:
How do I play Speed Freak Orks?[Orks][40K][ 5ed]
Land Speeder Typhoon or MM/HF Speeder for my Mechanized Marines? [Space Marines][40K][5ed]
How to properly implement a forced flank deployment. [All Armies][ 40K][5ed]
Bad Examples:
Lootas or Burnas?
Should I use a Land Raider?
Could Leman Russ p0Wn all other d00dz?
These are bad titles because they do not give enough information and they do no assist in optimizing our search function. The last question and those like it are simply a waste of time and do not belong in the tactics section.
Example of a good question:
I am looking for advice on whether I should use Typhoon Land Speeders or MM/HF Land Speeders in my Vanilla Marine army. I have 210 points to spare, which would get me either 2 Typhoons with some spare points or 3 MM/HF speeders. Also, is it better to run them in a squadron or separately? If I take the Typhoons, what should I use the extra points on?
Here’s my list:
2,000pts
HQ:
Librarian; Gate, Null Zone
Elites:
Ironclad, H.Flamer
Ironclad, H.Flamer
Ironclad, H.Flamer
Troops:
Tac Marines x 10; Flamer, L.Cannon, Razorback
Tac Marines x 10; Flamer, L.Cannon, Razorback
Tac Marines x 10; Flamer, L.Cannon, Razorback
Tac Marines x 10; Flamer, L.Cannon, Razorback
Fast:
Heavy:
Vindicator; S.Shield
Vindicator; S.Shield
Vindicator; S.Shield
I play mostly against other MEQ armies, Nids and Eldar.
Thanks!
This is a good question because it is very specific and it gives other posters all of the information to accurately answer the question as it pertains to this specific situation.
Example of a bad question:
What’s better, Typhoons or MM/HF speeders?
Why is this question bad? Because it is too vague. Without context other posters will not be able to give you information that will be useful for you. You will end up with 50 different questions, many of which will not pertain to you at all. You are also likely to get one word answers which are not useful to anyone.
Example of a good answer to a question (using the above example of the Typhoon vs. MM/HF Speeder):
In your list I would say the Typhoon is the better choice since you already have a lot of close range heavy hitting firepower. The Typhoons will give you a mobile, long range anti-armor/anti light infantry gap filler that your list lacks right now. Two Typhoons nets you 4 Missiles and 2 Heavy bolters which I think will compliment what you already have, plus their mobility goes well with your static Las Cannons. I use Typhoons in my Marine Army and I love them. I never had much luck with the MM/HF version, always seemed to just fly up and die. I would run them as a squad if I were you as it cuts down on KP’s and it also allows you to stack a lot more wounds on a unit if you are firing frags. A smart opponent will pull casualties out to minimize any further template damage after you fire the first one. Also, running them in a squad means if one is in cover, they both are. With that last 30 points, I’d think about putting some meltas on your tac squads, maybe even some plasma for Heavy Infantry and MC’s.
This is a good answer because it gives specific information from the writer’s personal experience. It answers all points of the question directly and supports these answers with factual evidence.
Example of a bad answer using the same example:
Typhoons. They rock.
This answer is bad because it gives no evidence to support the position.
MM/HF are the best. If you don’t use them you are really shooting yourself in the foot. They are one of the best units in the dex.
This is a bad answer because while it makes several assertions, it doesn’t support any of them with facts. Only opinions are offered. The advice is not pertinent to the OP’s list nor does it answer any of the OP’s direct questions.
|
