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I was looking through the tactics thread but there are no overall just good "tactics" thread which can generally be supplied and used by most armies.

Please feel free to post your own tactical techniques and tips. Related to set up , whatever. Try to follow the format of being generalistic and not army specific .

This is just advice and lessons learned.

The best lessons I ever learned was from my friend Ward who got me into 40k and wargaming and all things GW at my FLGS many years ago. He had the simplest philosophies.

Do not be afraid to lose the game

Play the game your way and make your opponent play the game your way as well
T
first is pretty easy; Being pretty calm and enjoying yourself is what the game is about. You'll play better and as a better opponent if your relaxed and enjoying yourself rather than fretting about the end results.

The second one is a little more involved and more of just a general philosophy of strategy.
It means ultimately you should be the one to decide what models your opponent chooses to not only shoot at but also assault and which direction he moves his models.

So here are my basic tactics that I use during a game.

My basic shooting strategy is to start small and move up. What this means is that you should fire shorter range lower STR fire power before longer range / higher STR fire power. Why ? Because if the lower str/ range is successful in eliminating the threat you have a longer range more powerful weapon that can fire at other parts of your opponents army where as the Shorter range just would not otherwise reach / harm. It allows you to optomize your firing and allowing each unit to fire. If you do it the other way around then your longer/more powerful weapon can eliminate a threat or neutralize one and leave your shorter range / STR unable to have a target to fire upon.


Going second and having your opponent deploy before you is probably one of the best tactics/ strategies. It's also increbily useful as you will have the last turn to attempt mission objectives and / or contest your opponents.

Why is this useful?

Alright your opponent has two objectives held you have two objectives held. You go last , you do not have to assault those objectives and ensure your opponent can take them back he has no more turns . Where as if you go first your last turn will be spent not only trying to contest those objectives but also ensuring that your opponent during his turn will not be able to contest yours and take them back.

GlenGary GlenRoss has the best saying by Alec Baldwins character " Always be closing". The idea of always doing something and being proactive. You should never let a unit just "sit there"


Being able to guess ranges or "eyeball" ranges is a very important skill. This is omething you actually will eventually just "develope" playing the game. The trick I learned was to visualize the board in grids of 12 by 12. 1 foot is really easy estimation distance. generally people can guess with in 1 to 2 inches of a foot. If you can visualize a 12 by 12 squad you can pretty effectively guess ranges from any position and angle on the board.

Thats pretty much it; just post your list of strategies to add to it.


Try not to make this a discussion; either expound upon or provide a different aproach or philosopy but don't get in arguments of philosophy.

Scenarios are so different from game to game because of differences in army lists, terrain setup, and mission that much general "tactical" advice isn't really very helpful. That being said, these are some simple tips that are not specific "tactics" but will apply to almost any situation:

Know the rules.

Know your army.

Know your opponent's army.

Be good at estimating movement and shooting ranges.

Shoot his/her cc units and charge his/her shooters.

Here is a tactical screw-up that I see people do ALL THE TIME and I take advantage of.

Why are you setting up across your entire deployment zone?

This is a very elementary tactic. Easy to start using.

My last game went like this. I was playing my Grey Knights (basically a miniature gunline that is very resiliant at range) against Tau. We set down our objectives for a DoW Capture and Control mission (2 objectives). I place first, my objective is on my far right hand side about 10-12" from the right table edge. My opponent places his objective directly across from mine. He sets up. 1 Troops choice on the objective, and 1 troops choice and his HQ covering the left side of the board. I refuse to try and steal. He brings on his army on the first turn. His deployment covers the left side almost as much as the right. (most of his anti-tank covering the right but only one troops choice to cover his objective).

I roll on with my loaded Landraiders and Grand master/retinue.....all on my right half of the board and concentrate fire against his right flank. Terrain is blocking veiw from a vast majority of the other half of his army. In effect, I have isolated half of his army and are engaging that half with my entire army. Its essentially 2 hammerheads, a unit of Stealths throwing Markerlights, and a unit of Firewarriors against 3 standard Land Raiders, and 4 psycannons firing at maximum ranges (under cover of shrouding). Who is going to win that contest?

He did have a flanking unit of Pirahna's I had to deal with, but as soon as the Hammerheads were stunned/destroyed/guns blown off the pirahna's were easier to deal with. 3 of them flanked me...only one was ever able to fire.....they never did anything.

2 Broadsides were never able to fully engage my army. 2 units of firewarriors were never able to engage, His army commander never engaged. I BARELY won the battle after fighting off his right side firebase and faster elements of his army that were quick enough to move in on me.. (after scads of unlucky rolling and my final mobile LR immobilising itself in terrain before an attempt for his objective could be made) I was able to shoot him off of his objective while retaining command of my own for the win (barely!) If he had deployed his army properly and powered his objective, the results would've been AT LEAST a tie for him, but more likely a win considering his entire army could've been in position to inflict damage.

Basically, if you power a side of the board, and your enemy doesnt, you isolate a portion of his army and he is 'in effect' facing your entire 1850 pts with only a portion of his 1850 putting him at a disadvantage. Against some armies (extremely mobile or extremely tiny armies grouped together) this will not work, obviously. However, its one of the most basic tactics to use on the board, one that you should always be aware of.

Another tactic I use is to set up atleast one of my infantry units so that it has a backline of troops, only a couple, at coherency which you can use as a marker/gauge. To help with that 12"x12" visualisation thingie.

Dont always shoot the biggest threat. Quite often armies that have big-beastie things usually have weaker units included as a result.

Hope thats an additon to the above!

The biggest problem I see is when people do not know how to set up troops properly.

People either spread out to thin or box themselves in to the point of the phrase fish in a barrel.

It's one of th reasons I mostly go second. I like having the ability to set up and see the board.

Concerning range.

Use a retractable metal ruler. Look at the bottom of the ruler and extend it (without looking at the numbers) 12", then turn it over. Repeat with 24" and 18". Switch between them.
It is best to do so sitting on the floor or someplace where you can't judge the distance relative to other things.

When I first started out, I used to throw games all the time by getting fixated on killing a particular enemy unit. Especially if it was one that had (1) just pwned one of my units and I wanted revenge or that (2) had been really annoying to me or that (3) I was following a rule of thumb that it was the biggest threat, even when the game changed such that it wasn't important anymore. So I'd get emotionally involved in killing that unit and expend all my resources, move things out of position and throw units away in futile attempts on the target and wind up losing the scenario.

When I finally learned to catch myself fixating this way and stop it, to stay detached in assessing what's left on the table in relation to the scenario goals, my gameplay improved a lot overnight. The ability to say "That unit isn't going to have any significant effect on the rest of the game" and ignore it is as important, IMO, as the ability to identify the biggest threat or the key scorer.

The thing I most often see my opponents doing that causes them to lose is they give up and stop trying too soon, especially after a big setback. Because of the tremendous amount of randomness in the dice and weirdness of particular rules, things can reverse really quickly in a 40K game if you just keep trying.

Deadshane1 wrote: details snipped...
Basically, if you power a side of the board, and your enemy doesnt, you isolate a portion of his army and he is 'in effect' facing your entire 1850 pts with only a portion of his 1850 putting him at a disadvantage. Against some armies (extremely mobile or extremely tiny armies grouped together) this will not work, obviously. However, its one of the most basic tactics to use on the board, one that you should always be aware of.

Yup! In military terms it's called "the refused flank" and is a basic battlefield manouver.
Simply stated, you "refuse" to engage one flank or side of his army and concentrate
everything you have on the opposite side to gain a local force superiority.

If your opponent spreads his deployment all across his side of the table, like you said, try
to deploy a couple of cheap screening units as "speedbumps" in the middle to keep the
rest of his army occupied and then put everything else you have on one single side of the
board and hammer his suddenly isolated units flat.

For Orks, I like shoota boyz as my speedbump as the unit can soak up 20-30 wounds before
it runs or gets eliminated and has lots of dice to shoot back with. If you toss in a few extra points
and give them 3 rokkit launchas, then not even his vehicles can safely make it past them.

Don't be afraid to not use your abilities. I have no idea how many times I've seen people so hard up to use the abilities of one unit or another that they put them in some really bad situations. Infiltrate and deep strike are the worst examples of this that I can think of. So many people I see end up using these abilities and just end up with one unit or another completely isolated from their support and in range of way too much of the enemy army.

a good bit of advice to remember bout strategy is tht if yours relies on you making specific rolls specifically for outflankings ; succeeding at a specific test; or having a unit accomplish a task not really related to moving or shooting but to successfully making a dice roll. It's not a strategy its gambling.

A strategy is something you can perform without a failing and repeat. If you require a dice roll to accomplish this then eventually you will fail.


Basically when coming up with your strtegies and what you are going to do do not base them round successful rolls of the dice. This isnt to say that taking hances is something you should avoid ; but instead have it so accomplishing this task gretly swings a advantage your way bt if fails does not leave you high and dry

I know its been mentioned higher up but I think it's really important...know your enemy. I only play nid's but when I'm in my flgs and not playing I spend my time flicking through all armies codex(es?). Knowing what your opponent is fielding really helps dictate your strategy. As an example:

I recently had a game against an ork player and we regularly play. I knew he would be fielding his shiny new battlewagon so I decided to put in a surprise of my own...a tyrant with 3 guard. He was so used to seeing me field a flyrant he completely ignored my much slower tyrant in favour of carnifexes. By the end of the game my tyrant had claimed his warboss, about 20 boys 2 mega nobs and a trukk - and scoured an objective clean to boot.

Let that be a lesson, take the time to know what your opponent could be fielding and when it makes an appearance you will know what to expect.

This was a good thread about tactics, not to old either.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/222076.page

My tactic is to make it up as i go along, i watch what the enemy does and plan a couple of turns in advance. I just apply what is needed at the time rather than a hard and fast plan. Although if i do make a plan i attempt to crush one flank then roll up to the next whilst a keep a copule of units back to distract the enemy.

Keep your units in support range of your army at all times. Never send a unit out by itself unless you have a clear reason for doing so.

That being said, never be afraid to send a unit to die horribly if it furthers your goals.

My tactic is play to lse your opponent is not expecting it and as such I ussualy win its easy throw away an expensive unit to defend a rubbish one and your pponent generally thinks its better than it is expensive but it works

Focus firing is one of the most important things to learn. Alot of times I see many players just firing at what presents itslef. volume of fire on one target to completely eliminate it is incredibly important.

i think a larger strategy to learn is actally learn the different amries out ther know your enemy is a important factor in winning in Warhammer 40k. The more knowledgable you are about what is on the battlefield the better you will perform.


Threat priority is something to learn as well. often times people will fire at what they feel is the biggest "unit" and only have their enemy take their army apart with something greater.

The big thing I see a lot is people forgetting the objectives they are playing for.

Play to your objectives and don't get lost into the annihilation rage.

One good tactic is to give the enemy lots of targets. To confuse said "target priority".

I think this has become the most important rule in 40k 5th ed. Don't be afraid to lose ANY unit you field. I catch a lot of flak about my 'overcosted' Vangaurd squad, how they 'die too easy' and 'don't make their points back'. The latter REALLY gets my goat, as outside of tournaments, the points you pay are meaningless to the result of the game. A VV squad is one KP. So is an Assault Terminator squad, so is.... you get the point. Each unit you field should have a purpose for that game. The combination of purposes should lead to the win. If your units do what you planned on them doing, instead of what your opponents plans on them doing, then they have 'made their points back', regardless of what, if anything, they have killed.

Sure I've had a few games where my VV's didn't do a lot, (but they always accomplish their mission, even if it is to inflicts several wounds and then die), but I've also had a few games where they have killed triple their points worth of models (after accomplishing their task).

As long as you have a good strategy, that can flex to the changing battle, and clear goals for each unit, don't be afraid to give up "VP's" to get the win.

if you play a guard army against an assault army, unless you've got some tricks up your sleeve, refuse to play on a small board. im so tired of 1 or 2 turns of mediocre guard shooting followed by the annihaltion of my army in cc. damn the greenskins to the deepest fires of Imperial hell.

A technique I use against my friends to great effect is throwing more at them then they can handle. You have to understand, I play Nurgle CSM, so I'm not talking about a mass of models, but threats. A rushing Rhino of Possessed, a blob of Plague Marines being screened by a cheap squad of CSM, an infiltrating Chosen squad dug in and waiting for a Greater Daemon and some lessers, and a couple oblits and a las-pred behind all of that is too many targets for them to take out at once. I've tried to look through all the codecies to see if everyone can use this strat. Yes, they can to some effect. You just have to think about what will few things will make them squirm the most, make it cheap enough to field all of the options and make them choose. Make sure they you don't slim them down so much that they lose the effectiveness. Make them choose, and make sure every choice is the wrong one.

lol you better pray to nurgle to deliever you from the new IG codex because it looks badass