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Hi,

I am fairly new to 40k. Well I have been on & off for 10 years but i never really played (probably 5 times in total over those yrs).

Anyway i played a game recently (CSM) and I just couldn't get to grips with the enemy.
It was 1500 pts game againts Tau (but the exact enemy isn't so relevant i feel).

I had (roughly):
DP (got killed as I moved him into no man land)
6/7 Raptors (I DS'd these and they basically got shot to gak - i forgot they could not assualt so DS'd them "in the mix" - A big mistake)
2x Rhino bound CSM squads
3x Oblits (the only things that seemed to be versatile enough for my sucky play to actually do something)
PM's sitting on my objective (did nothing the whole game - not a single shot at or to)
5 CSM bikers with MoN (very tough but going through no mans land was also tough).
Dreadnaught (who actually shrugged off a lot of hits and managed to do ok)

Anyway apart from bad unit choices (which I am sure i made) and the obvious mistakes (Raptors DS'ing into guns) how do you guys get across no mans land?

A few Rhinos just can't make it across and there are no drop pods for CSM's. If the middle of the board is pretty barren of terrain should I made an effort to move stuff around prior to kick off?

Do you setup on one side and charge head long? Is there a few tricks to tie up the opposing guns?
Is popping smoke better/worse than going flat out in Rhinos? I popped smoke.

How do you handle those tricky gun lines that can move a lot (Tau suits and from what i have heard Dark Eldar)?

Sorry I am asking a lot but I want to play this weekend and at least want to get the "static" tatics (army placement, wargear, troops, target priorities) right (as opposed to the dynamic tatics such as rules to use)

Appreciate any feedback :-)

Generally running a DP that isn't a caster is a bad idea if he doesn't at least have wings. He'll just get annihilated before he can get across the board.

Rhinos cost 35pts. If you are trying to get into combat, move up 12, and then flat out 6 more inchs. If you deployed 12 inchs up, that'll get you 30" across the board, and within 18" of your opponents board edge.

Deep Striking Raptors is a mistake. Use them with your Demon Prince, imo. It's also 20ppm before their icon, so they are expensive and suffer from anything else that kills marines easily. I'd personally not use Raptors unless you are going to use them enmasse so they can make it to your opponent.

Your Obliterators can use Lascannons to take out your opponents tanks, and are survivable enough to take most things shot at them.

I don't play CSM, but I've heard Chosen are good choices for getting close early with their ability to infiltrate.

What weapons are you using on the Dreadnought?

Thanks for the comments

The DP had wings and Lash but I'd also positioned him out on a flank hoping he could sweep in from the side but the turn he entered no mans land a large groupd of kroot plus commander appeared on the same side and shot him to death. Should i just hide him behind a moving rhino?

So flat out is better than popping smoke? I guess i should just go for it! Brrooom brrroom style.

I did hear raptors kinda sucked but I thought at least they can DS - sadly I forgot to hide them from shooting on that turn. I think a full strenght squad of them could have ruined a unit or two.

The Dread had 1 Autocannon arm (but i have a plasma & las arm i can use) cause I reasoned against this particular army (Tau) there is not a lot of high armour targets.

The way to make it through no mans land is to try and send everyone at once.

Send both rhino's, the bikes and raptors all at once, with the swooping prince. Flat out the rhinos. That should give you enough guys moving through a small enough area where your opponent cannot focus enough firepower to stop it.

-Matt

4 rhinos, 2 lash princes, everything on foot in TDA or a dreadnaught.

Just march across the field together. Princes behind rhino wall, lash something 4d6 into you so you can assault it and not get shot. Target something fearless you can wipe out in your opponents phase.

Thanks guys. I think next time I will just make one central push. Kinda Orkish or Khorney.

So, 6th ed really hurt people who were relying on direct assault for lots of reasons. Furthermore, you're playing a codex that is on the very verge of getting a new codex.

As such, I'd either eschew long, cross-board charges, or wait until your new codex comes out and see if they've fixed this problem.

Also make sure you are putting a good amount of terrain down. You should never be making a mad dash across no mans land on a good table

Yes. And lets not forget that you were facing an army that prefers to stay as far away and shoot. Tau have long range, high strength weapons and a lot of options to stay highly mobile. Couple that with an out of date codex which struggles as a whole (for now) and you are facing an uphill battle, especially just getting back into the game.

Chosen can infiltrate for turn 1 shooting and turn 2 assault. Marines in rhinos can get into shooting range turn two. Bikes can turbo boost and assault turn two. The tau will shoot you up pretty bad, but pretty much any of your units will wipe them in close combat even with heavy casualties. Getting lash of submission to pull the enemy into assault range would be quite handy.

Any, any time your playing an assult strong army, make sure you have a voice in terrain set up. you dont have to fight tooth and nails with the guy over it, but make sure at least one big piece ends up around the middle of the board.

It will win or lose you the game.

make sure you have a voice in terrain set up

And the rules have an option that allows you to do this very effectively -- p.120 alternating terrain.

Holy Sh*t!

I won... I actually won!

Although it was against another Chaos player so we were both "broken". That snap fire with plasma guns (if the roll up) can really hurt big models!

Thanks guys I made sure I had some "stepping stone" terrain in the middle this time (although he made better use of it with a lash, winged DP).

I took a defilier and with its 4 HP it lasted rather long.

To be honest we were both newbs so it was probably pot luck that i finally won (it was close after all) but I think each game i am learning.

I think I will wait until the next codex to see if its worth me modelling some chosen but that would definetly help with shooty armies.