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Anyone place their units in reserve? A few that I've heard of is a unit of grots for objectives, deffkoptas if you don't get the first turn, stormboyz (Zagstruk only), Kommandos (with Ghazzy or Biker Boss).

I was thinking of having some trukk boy mobs in reserve. Wasn't sure how well this would work as reserves are very random. If I have 3 units of 30 boyz sloggin it towards the front lines, I figured having the trukks in reserve would help them last longer and might make them more effective as it can take a while for sluggas to march across the board. (I use sluggas for the run rule) They could come in and help bolster assaults or smash a hiding tank. Perhaps even become last minute units to contest an objective. I'm thinking of running 2 of them with my footsloggers.

Other than Kommandos with Snikrot, The deepstriking guys that can assault the turn they DS, and a unit of grots or two in reserve.

The others are more situational than the rest imo.

That said though, if I was playing objectives against say a very shooty list, I may reserve all ( may)

I run 3 trukks/ 3 Battlewagons and often keep one in reserve, it does work quite well.
Combined with a Ghaz waaagh you can hit anything on your table side the turn you come in which most players dont realise.

The only time was against 'nids. They had swarm lord, hive commander so as is likely their entire force came on in the second turn. I could then avoid the trygons, shoot up the genestealers the flyrant had to stay away to give synapse, though I think my boyz could tarpit him.

I will pretty much ALWAYS take at least 3 x20 mobs of boyz. So normally what Ill do, is throw 2 mobs out there to start the fun, and keep the 3rd in reserves. That way when the 3rd comes on, you can judge better where to put them. And I can tell ya, if your doing at least OK, having a fresh unit come on when the others are still in CC, is great. Keeps them from being shot up to badly, you know where to put them, or hold back objectives if the game is late. So yea, I use units in reserves often, specially when playing against a drop force,really sticks it to em when you reserve your vehicles and all their meltas are just sitting ducks

i have only played one objective game so far and it was a tie cuase a blood raven dreadnuoght almost burnt my grots but my deffkoptas imoblized it before they all died. Getting back to reserves I dont reserve much cuase my army wiats until at least turn 4 or 5 when im almost dead. last friday all my boyz were bieng stubborn, probaly didnt felt like fighting nids and DE,and the nids wiped me out completely on my side of the table. The only unit i had left was 2 kommandos boyz and my partner CSM a defi i think.

As above, I usually I only reserve koptaz, kommandoz or storm boyz. Units of gretchin usually go in reserve, too, not point in them getting shot up if their purpose is grabbin objectives in the last turn.
However, especially when playing spearhead deployment, I often reserve trukk boyz or even nob bikerz. Being able to "flank" a fresh unit right into the heat of battle is priceless. Especially for nob bikerz, as most units able to handle them have already been taken out or are in the wrong place to stop them. Both only in large games of 2000 and higher, obviously.

In DoW i keep my entire army in reserve. but that is because my list doesnt have the ability to be of any use, when there is only one squad (cos dedicated transports count ).

I also like to reserve a unit of nobz/MANz in a trukk for the same thing. I hope they dont come in until turn 3 or 4, and then just use the speed to haul ass and clobber something fierce. Its one of those things where for me, it either works super well, or the trukk takes a random bolt pistol round and it kareens into something
People fear my late game Nob mob

I have only played a few Kitchen Sink armies with my friend, my Orks vs his Space Marines, and he HATES that I keep my koptas in reserve and infiltrate. He tends to (over)react by keeping almost all of his army right in the middle of the board for fear of being murdered by my Deffkopta squad. Helps keep my soft flanks safe.

Wow, dont ever tell your friend that he is way over reacting to the koptas

So reserve trukks or no?

Trukk boyz pretty much don't belong in a list with that many foot-slogging boyz. You should get koptaz or kommandoz to do the job you are using them for now.

Boris420 wrote:So reserve trukks or no?

Depends on who your playing I guess. If your running a full ontrukk list, Id say no, dont reserve the trukks. Although, sometimes reserving units can throw a wrench into your enemies plans

Roger that. Just seeing if it was a tactic that worked or not. I wanted something that could do the same role as stormboyz but more reliable albeit somewhat cheaper too. As a trukk bash list (my main army) i probably won't reserve anything, however as far as footsloggers go I would like to reserve a unit of Ardboyz or 3 Meganobs in a trukk as a powerklaw delivery system and hold them in reserve (hopefully) til turn 3-4.

That would work, they call it a MANz missile for a reason. Ive done that many times in the past and it almost always works well. If they acn hold off till turn 3-4 like you said, they will cause far more damage then if they started on the table. Why? Because by then, if your doing well everywhere else, your enemy will be weakened, so the MANz will just be playing clean up, which is easy for them to do with 2+ save and PKs everywhere.

I love putting trukks in reserves in spearhead deployment, you don't how many times my trukk(s) will roll in and tag something trying to flank my deployment zone or my opponent won't even dare to enter my side of the board due to fear to boyz rushing in and smashing something.

Agreed. I cant tell you how many times Ive gave sternguards in pods the KO, the turn theyve arrived

I have found that a big mob of shootaboyz make a great objective grapper/cleaner/looter hwne they come in from reserve. When 30 boyz enter w. 3 big shootas and just hose something with bullets and then charge in to clean you in the late game can be devastating your opponents plans because he now has a full unit of boyz to take care of.
I have also found that if you run bikers they can actually work quite nicely from reserves, as they have the speed to actually come in and do something about your enemy or turbo up the board to come to the rescue of your assaulting force up front.

I love the tactics I'm reading here.

I don't personally run reserve. I typically run boyz on the left and right, backed up by lootas, spearing BWs (nobz/Ghaz, BM KFF, and boys) and TL Rokkit trukks up the middle. And deffcoptas I send right into the fray (usually to distract).

I'm a big fan of "pick a target, any target". Do you attack the kopters in your face for fear of the TL rokkits? Do you blast the trukks for the same reason? How many things do you have effective against A14 front BW armor? Will I cover save them with KFF? Those mobs on the left and right, you're not going to leave them alone, are you? And the lootas behind them are going to chew you up, better get something on them too but then there's that darn 4+ cover from the boyz in front.

Typically they go after the nobz BW, and I don't blame them. With tight packing on the vehicles they all get the KFF cover save, which either saves the BW or doesn't (doesn't matter really). Next turn it's a Ghaz-Waaagh! with the kopters and lootas handling all non-CCers, and the foot-slogging east and west boyz are either getting ready to flank, or getting utterly destroyed by my opponents left-over ranged attackers that aren't in combat yet. (doesn't matter which one, really, the lootas are still back there unleashing hell).


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I have an edge with the kopter distraction. Last game I played was a 3-man, and on turn 1 the kopter got close. My friend, recognizing that it was just a distraction, targeted other units. Turn two the lootas obliterated his librarian's squad and the kopters blew the Lib to smithereens.

Having played wargames with him for years, I know the effect of this will lead to my kopters being twice the distraction they ever were. (WHFB - my slavegiant gulped down his Malekith a few years ago. Any time I field a giant against him, I know it's going down, but it's a 200 point way to get the rest of my forces across the field to him relatively unmolested).

What about Looted Wagons w/ boomguns?

They can roll on and let a shot off on the turn they arrive without needing to roll "don't press that" since they are not in play at the start of the movement phase correct?

Think of it this way:
You miss a single shot 1 out of 6 times you deploy it right away.
You miss a single shot half the time if you put it in reserves.
You miss two shots 1 out of 3 times if you put it in reserves.

So reserving it is on average about as good as rolling two or three sixes over the course of a game, so the chance of the reserves screwing you over is much larger than your orks using your artillery tank as a race car.