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Well I'm pretty sure I have some serious issues with my tactics... I just can't seem to build a consistent win-record with my Templars. It's not that I can't ever win, but it's usually still anybody's game when I do. On the other hand, when I lose, the game is decided by turn 3. I've come up with a few areas where I think I'm in need of better tactics, as well as a few issues I need to work around. As I said in the title, I play my Templars in a full assault style, using 20-man mobs led by characters, backed up by Land Speeders (the mobility is more useful to me than armour, especially against the opponents I face regularly). I've used other overall strategies, but none have been able to compete quite as well as the "wave of dudes." (LRCs with terminators don't leave me enough points at 1500).

Anyway, with that in mind, and remembering that I'm using C:BT (so please don't tell me to do stuff I can't do... that's not helpful at all), my questions:

1) What's a good rule of thumb for when to rush forward with my infantry? If I keep them back, they often get shot up without being able to retaliate, but if I rush forward, I find them getting charged by elite CC units. Obviously it depends on the positioning of everything on the table, but if people have general tactics for how to more effectively maneuver infantry mobs, that's all I'm looking for.

2) How should I deal with units that have a longer consistent threat range than me? I can't constantly rely on them misjudging assault range, but if I hold back, they can often just wait and shoot me until I charge, at which point I'm much weaker. If anybody has any tricks for snagging these kinds of units I'd like to hear them.

3) On the larger scale, is there anything I can do better to put mobile armies on the back foot? Armies that feature lots of ways to get exactly where they want to be are the bane of my existence - I sometimes get corralled into corners or fire lanes - seemingly without any way to have prevented such an occurrence.

4) This is less of a tactics question, but is there a good way to attack formations controlled by opponents that are super lucky? I mean, I essentially want to mitigate the luck factor by as much as possible, because it's really annoying to lose units simply because an opponent rolled 6 6s in a row (one of my opponents does this regularly). I've tried massing attacks at one target at a time, but this always seems to leave my opponent free to rape me with everything else in their army.

I'm sure there's more, but I guess that's it for now. I just can't help but feel like I suck at this game every time I take such a beating, and I'd really like to improve my game.

1) in general you want to mob enemy units one at a time. use 2 squads to kill one. even the toughest unit will go down to a bunch of attacks. attack enemies that are isolated. focus all your efforts on breaking 1/2 of your opponents army with all of yours.

2) Cover is your friend. also Transports. a local player took BTs to ard boys, he had 5 LRCs and each was filled to capacity with whatever you call your basic troops. he placed 3rd out of 20 guys and 1st and 2nd were BA cheeze and a 3 trygon tyranid Gaunt spam list.

3) Spam Land raiders. 1 Land raider dies, 2 are a headache, 3+ are a nightmare especially when loaded to the brim with marines that have 2 attacks in CC base.

4) here you need to give proper reverence to Ran and Dom, the dice gods. annointing your dice with oil will help. also, chanting "roll 1s" whenever your opponent is rolling will make you feel better.

Find the points for LRC even if it means smaller units. Not only can 2 hold 32 troops, but they can give the rest if the models behind them cover.

check out those dice that roll lots of 6's .....
maybe even use 'em for some of your rolls...
Never know, he may have painted the dot on the 1's side with lead paint... LOL
really though, I'd think the LRC would be good, just got one for my vanilla marines, so my Termies don't footslog... seems to be OK so far... I'm unfamiliar with the BT codex, but wish you the best of luck...... sorry I couldn't be more help...

oh, and +1 for the rubbin' your dice with oil trick..... try that if rolling his dice don't work.......

hope your luck changes for the better,
Isaiah

roll 6's, roll 6's, roll 6's, roll 6's, roll 6's, roll 6's, and I'll oooooohhhhhhmmmmmm for you for a minute too.. it helps

Remember as well, with all those close combat attacks + preferred enemy, you will really be putting the pain on most things.

Grey Templar wrote:1) in general you want to mob enemy units one at a time. use 2 squads to kill one. even the toughest unit will go down to a bunch of attacks. attack enemies that are isolated. focus all your efforts on breaking 1/2 of your opponents army with all of yours.

2) Cover is your friend. also Transports. a local player took BTs to ard boys, he had 5 LRCs and each was filled to capacity with whatever you call your basic troops. he placed 3rd out of 20 guys and 1st and 2nd were BA cheeze and a 3 trygon tyranid Gaunt spam list.

3) Spam Land raiders. 1 Land raider dies, 2 are a headache, 3+ are a nightmare especially when loaded to the brim with marines that have 2 attacks in CC base.

4) here you need to give proper reverence to Ran and Dom, the dice gods. annointing your dice with oil will help. also, chanting "roll 1s" whenever your opponent is rolling will make you feel better.

1) Sounds pretty reasonable. I try to do this to the best of my ability, but it isn't always successful (my fault). Are there any good basic tactics for dividing up an opponent's army (or convincing them to do it for you)?

2) I'll try the LR thing. I haven't done that in a long time, so maybe its time to break out the big heavies. Unfortunately, I can't quite fill 3 at 1500pts, but I'm playing around with varying combinations. (8 guys in each of 2 Crusaders/1 Godhammer + Upgrades + 2 MM speeders vs. 12 guys in the Crusaders, 9 in the Godhammer, +Upgrades but no speeders, and smoke launchers on the Land Raiders).

3) See 2

4) Hehe I'll try. I think my bi-polar side-switching has p***ed off the Chaos Dice Gods and the Dice-Emperor both. That's what I get for playing both sides against the middle I suppose.

also on the dice problem: are your models unpainted? only primed?


the dice gods hate unpainted models.

they also hate ones you have lavished your care and attention on too.

The issue is that you are an Assault army without a Hammer unit. You need at least one squad that can be relied upon to scare the crap out of anything else on the board. Numbers are fine, but there's nothing a bunch of Assault Marines can do against a squad of TH&SS terminators or something similar. I would try and include a squad like this:

Marshall: Terminator Armor, Lightning Claws - 135
Assault Terminators x5: Lightning Claws, Furious Charge

This squad puts out 26 str 5 i5 power weapons on the charge with re-rolls to hit AND wound.

Hmmm i think you need a distraction like droppodding dreds or something, in my ork army i have deffkopters, stormboys and bikes that provide this distraction, i dont now about black templars but you need something to distract him as you charge across the board, one turn of shooting really makes a difference.