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What is the point of holding units in reserve if they only come from your board edge when or if they ever arrive?

The only two things I can think of for that is either to hold back some speedy units like jetbikes for some objective grabbing or to hold back some sort of shooting unit.

1) Special units (such as flyers) that have to start in reserve.

2) Units with alternate deployment methods (such as deep strike or outflank) that have to start in reserve to be effective.

3) Protecting glass cannon units so you ensure they get to fire, usually if you failed to get the first turn.

4) Protecting scoring units with limited firepower, since there's no point in exposing them to enemy fire early when they're not expected to kill anything.

5) Theoretically, protecting a reactive unit that you don't want to commit until you've had a turn or two and know what your opponent is doing. Usually though, you're just better off starting it on the table and killing whatever is closest.

I have often held back a unit, sometimes a quite powerful unit, if I've deliberately placed one (or several) objectives near my board edge. They can then walk onto the table, blast anything they want, and subsequently assault any units that threaten them. Chances of someone else getting onto an objective near my board edge before turn three are pretty slim, but if I leave a unit there holding that objective, that's two or three turns of shooting they have to suffer.

Ignoring units that have to start in reserves (Flyers and units that use special deployments like Deep Strike or Outflanking), the reason to keep a unit in reserves is to protect it for the late game. Scoring units with limited firepower are a perfect example of this, a Guard player may want to keep a couple of infantry squads in reserves so he has something to plop onto objectives in the late game. Also, if there is a hard counter to one of your units on the table, you MAY want to consider keeping that unit in reserve until you've taken care of the hard counter.

I use reserves to outflank kroot to take an opposing home objective.

This rarely goes well for me, but that's mostly because the rest of my army is far from optimised. Pretty sure if I had one squad more I could afford to use two as speedbumps and one to tie up objective holders.

My question was not including things like deepstrike and outflank. I am not sure if I made it clear, but I meant reserves for coming on from your board edge. (And flyers since they have to do that anyways, they are exempt aswell)

Went against some bugs that used ongoing reserves against me to good effect. Was a MC list two flying MC's and 3 guys that burrow and one of the guant spawners. Wound up making it really hard to kill things for me as I had 5 out of 6 wounds on all the burrowers when they went back into reserve and his warlord flew off the table with 3 out of 4 wounds everything was about to die but taking em off the table bought him time and cut off a round of shooting from me was a very close game but he came out on top. He just kept some guants out of line of sight while I was dealing with the MC's just in case I killed the MC's left on the board while the others were in reserve.

Edit: I know those don't come from table edge so does not fall into what you are asking but to answer that I sometimes keep a truk or two in reserves if my opponent wins first turn because if you don't have los blocking terrain having a truk out first turn is like handing them first blood.

Think of this scenario:

Deploy along the long edge and you have a good CC unit but mostly gunline. You know the enemy is trying to rush you but not sure where they will concentrate their forces as you went first.

Keeping your CC unit in reserve lets them stay safe for the turn they aren't really needed and can then come in on the edge that the bulk of the enemy is charging as most good oponents will force a flank at one side with lots of assault units rather than just march over in a line formation. True that you can't assault the turn you come on, but it's generally apparent where the enemy will be by turn 2 anyway. Really handy vs things like drop pod armies or deathwing assault pattern/ chaos daemons when it's not clear where they will be even after deployment.

If you deployed them say in the middle even as you can't be sure where the enemy is comming from, it may not be able to get into position based on how big they are or how much terrain they have to cross that's difficult. Plus if I'm your opponent and I know you only have like 1 counter attacking unit, I might just shoot them instead of your gunline with my assaulters as I can roll up your entire flank minimally opposed vs getting bogged down by tarpit/dangerous to fight things.

I mostly use it to protect the fragile heavy hitters when there aren't oodles of terrain to protect them if I go second.

I am going to run a zombie list...180 zombies. I have to hold some back if I want everything to fit while keeping a little space between models.

Zombies

edit:

To keep deployment from being packed to the brim with zombies so my other units can move about.

 Da Kommizzar wrote:
What is the point of holding units in reserve if they only come from your board edge when or if they ever arrive?

The only two things I can think of for that is either to hold back some speedy units like jetbikes for some objective grabbing or to hold back some sort of shooting unit.

Hammer and Anvil deployment aside, units in normal Reserves have a very long edge to come into play on and can therefore deploy reactively, potentially causing great damage. This is often strong with short-ranged units such as Vindicators, which can roll onto the board and immediately fire.

If you have a fast, tough unit, such a Land Raider with Hammernators, keeping it back scares the opponent.
It will probably keep them from rushing your home objective, and give you the choice of being backup to your troops or go racing up the other side of the table.

In 6e, reserve uses took a big hit. In 5e, with reserves coming in generally later in the game vs most or all on turn 2 and being able to run full reserve lists, you had a lot more tactical versitatlity with the available options. As an example both Tyranids and Tau had wargerar that could let them keep most of the army in reserve till turn 4 or 5 for an end of game "omega strike".

barnowl wrote:
As an example both Tyranids and Tau had wargerar that could let them keep most of the army in reserve till turn 4 or 5 for an end of game "omega strike".

Tyranids don't - the only Reserve manipulation in the book is +1 to reserve rolls (on multiple units) - nothing that lets you keep things in reserve.
You're probably thinking of the Trygon tunnels - but they don't work the way you're thinking.

Eldar love doing it with 3 man guardian jetbike squads or walking dire avenger squads. It allows you to stop them from getting shot, rapidly deploy to a location to get shots and, fire with full squad strength. With the jetbikes they can harass vehicles that are moving towards you (killed 2 hellhounds with 3 3 man squads with cannons) or hide in a corner for a last turn turbo boost. It simply means you get the first volly or can respond to what the opponent does.

rigeld2 wrote:

barnowl wrote:
As an example both Tyranids and Tau had wargerar that could let them keep most of the army in reserve till turn 4 or 5 for an end of game "omega strike".

Tyranids don't - the only Reserve manipulation in the book is +1 to reserve rolls (on multiple units) - nothing that lets you keep things in reserve.
You're probably thinking of the Trygon tunnels - but they don't work the way you're thinking.

I was thinking the Swarmlord let you re-roll reserves, it was just out flank table sides.

I for example typically have my Vindicator in reserve for reasons mentioned above.

It's relatively frail, a high priority target for my opponent, and a short enough range that it cant cover all angles from a central location. Therefore I keep it in reserve to keep it safe from stern guard in a pod and whatnot, and so I can choose where it deploys in reaction to enemy movements.

I have used reserves very effectively especially with respect to scoring units. Having the objectives early in the game is meaningless most of the time; but having a unit come in fresh from reserve to hold an objective or two on my side of the board has won many a game.

I have found reserves to actually be more of a hindrance than a help. You are piecemealing your army for your opponent.

Keeping something "safe" just means that your other models are getting pounded harder and you are spitting back less dakka in the meantime.

I have seen BA players lose many a smaller game by rolling a "1" or "2" for their stormraven. Hell, I've done it and lost such games. Just another reason I love divination The reserve power is amazing.

 Da Kommizzar wrote:
What is the point of holding units in reserve if they only come from your board edge when or if they ever arrive?

The only two things I can think of for that is either to hold back some speedy units like jetbikes for some objective grabbing or to hold back some sort of shooting unit.

Chaos Daemons, I never had a choice

Having a weak unit out on the first couple turns runs the risk of it getting destroyed early, but with my experience with Orks it's better to just bring a giant mob instead of bringing them in pieces to be picked apart but the enemy. Orks run in masses because fighting in Large packs is safer for them most of the time.

< Taken by the void dragon. >