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Hi dakka

What is the minimum number of units that you can deploy when setting up for a standard mission?

One unit?

No units?

Is it possible to hold all of your units in reserve? Many may feel that this would be particularly unsporting, but you would obviously be conceeding some tactical advantage to the opponent, who could move to hold objectives and tactical postions in cover etc.

none.

You can choose to reserve your whole army if you want, and in some situations it can be very useful.

You are told you can place any unit in reserve, and NO mission ever states you MUST deploy a unit. So you can deploy nothing if you want to.

Yeah some lists actually take advantage of this. Eldar with an Autarch love playing the Reserves Denial strategy, and Blood Angels in all Jump Packs have Descent of Angels, so they can reroll reserves rolls and only scatter 1D6. Grey Knights also have a similar strategy using Inquisitors to cast Psychic Communion and everything Deep Strikes on a 2+ on turn 2, but you actually start with two units on the board with that one.

Thanks all.

nosferatu1001 wrote:You are told you can place any unit in reserve, and NO mission ever states you MUST deploy a unit. So you can deploy nothing if you want to.

Unless you're only talking about the strip down basic missions from the book, this isn't true. There are plenty of missions that state one side or both sides "must" deploy a certain unit or are limited to only deploying certain units.

OP did state standard missions....

Jangustus wrote:OP did state standard missions....

OP did, Nos did not. His statement was absolute, while the OP's question was not.

This always begs the question in Dawn of War where you "may" start up to 1HQ and 2 troop units. If you choose not to deploy them, do they roll on turn one with the rest of the army or must they be placed in reserve?

They can roll on turn 1 OR be placed in reserve; there is no compunction on you to do either one over the other.

Kevin - a little thing called context told you that it was qualified. I was responding to a question about standard missions, so that was the context of my reply.

I thought this was a different question being asked at first.

To sum up: You need not deploy any units if you don't want to. You can place the whole army in reserve. In Dawn of War deployment, the two troops and the HQ may deploy on the table, come on the first turn, or be placed in reserve. I run a pod army and frequently deploy nothing before the game begins.

Originally I thought you were asking about how few units you could have in your army and still have a legal army. In which case the answer is three (for all armies) units, and if you go with orks, you can do it with only three models.

Same for GK

I didn't know that. They have a one model troops choice?

Draigo + Paladins, which can be taken as units of 1

And, unlike Deffdreds, at least they can score Trying to work out the three models for orks - assume mek plus deffdred, but thought that was only one deff dred...

If you put everything in reserve, just remember the consequences of underestimating kroot...

As long as you have a single tank, jump infantry or similar unit, you can still get on the board.

Jimsolo wrote:I didn't know that. They have a one model troops choice?

Yup, you can take a big mek as an HQ and two deff dreads as troops. 3 model army,

A Big Mek only allows a single Dread as Troops.

nathaniel_garro wrote:Many may feel that this would be particularly unsporting

I can't imagine what would lead someone to feel that.

insaniak wrote:A Big Mek only allows a single Dread as Troops.

And 2 Big Meks would allow??????????????????

2 Big Meks would mean a minimum of 4 models on the table. The claim was that Orks could legally field only 3.

My bad. Not only did I quote my facts wrong, but I dragged the thread off topic. Sorry about that everyone.

Mea maxima culpa.

TrollPie wrote:If you put everything in reserve, just remember the consequences of underestimating kroot...

LOL +1