Deployment - You go first or them??????

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**drmarmalade**

Hi, ive been thinking of this recently. If you win the role for deployment, do you place your models first and get the positions you want or go second and see where he deploys and set your army up to best counter his.

Tactically, which do you think is better???????

**Jangustus**

It depends very much on the armies that are playing, the terrain, whether night fighting is in effect, etc.

Very hard to answer that in general.

**washout77**

Depends on what im facing. Usually as a gun-line I like to deploy second so I can direct my forces where they need to go to counter the best, but if im facing an enemy that is very specific then I might want to deploy first and force them into an unfavorable spot

**Nenya97**

If your opponent is drop podding or deepstriking a lot. For the love of god, go second. They are basically gonna go first anyways, so just let them lol

**More Dakka**

I usually prefer to go second, especially since 50% of T1 has Night Fighting and 5/6 games are objective based.

**Desubot**

As a tau player I almost always go first to secure first blood with rail guns, and to initiate jinks on all my vehicles.

**Griddlelol**

Desubot wrote:
and to initiate jinks on all my vehicles.

Man I'll never forget my opponent's face when I nailed all three of his hammerheads before they got a chance to jink. It was a pretty one sided game after that...

To OP: it's not as simple as your question makes it. It depends on terrain, the armies involved, the units involved and the competency of your opponent.

**Elric Greywolf**

You are shooty....
...and they are assaulty on foot/in tanks: go first. You'll get a turn of shooting to pop transports, leaving the assault units stranded on the other side of the board.
...and they are in Drop Pods: go second! If they go second, you get to waste a whole turn shooting at nothing, since all their stuff is in reserves.
...and they are shooty: go first. Han shot first, and won.

You are assaulty: Go first. You want to get across the field as quickly as possible, with as few casualties as possible. Going first in this situation can determine whether your unit is stuck in your deployment zone, or at midfield.
Of course, it might be better to go second, if night fight prevents their heavy weapons from even targeting you on T1. But since there's no way of knowing whether Night Fight is in effect....

I feel like a 6" move on my vehicles is enough to reposition in case, after deploying first, my opponent deploys out of LoS. And with Nightfight affecting both players on T1, I'd still rather shoot first.

**Blackmoor**

As a general rule, you almost always want to go second.

**Xeriapt**

Blackmoor wrote:
As a general rule, you almost always want to go second.

Pretty sure I would want to go first with my DE most of the time.

There are a lot of factors to consider with each game being a different situation, going first or second both have their merits, you just need to weigh up which would serve you best in that game.

**Chancetragedy**

Yah it's definately something that needs to be analyzed on a game by game basis. With my hybrid drop pod marines I like going first most of the time(what?!?). Because my alpha strike is crazy good and allows me to eliminate some retaliation to my back field, unless I think you'll be able to bubblewrap effectively then I may go second and let you spread out.

With my necrons I typically like to go second and react to what your doing and shut it down. But I've built my lists to be suited to go first or second just in case.

**Ascalam**

DE - Go first.

Paper planes without jink available die fast, and flickerfields are expensive add-ons when you expect to have jink doing the same thing for free. Less relevant if the only vehicles you are running are Venoms, as they have FF for free.

Plus frankly, DE need to hit first, and hit hard, or they're toast. It's how the army is meant to be.

Orks - either is good. We'll get you anyway

**Peregrine**

First. Getting to do the first damage and (hopefully) inflict a crippling blow before they even get a turn is far more important than the option for a last-turn objective claim.

**pepe5454**

how many flyers you have and how many your opponent has comes in to play as well. If I have a couple flyers and my opponent does as well I would prefer to have my opponent go first so my flyers will most likely come in after his and hopefully take his down.

**Super Ready**

As stated, it really depends on a case-by-case basis. But one reason for going second is to give you the foresight to line up units against their perfect prey, or keep them away from their predators.
For instance - if your opponent's stuck his tank hunters out on a wing and they're rubbish at everything else, stick your big tanks on the other side.

**Houndmaster**

Second. Reactive deployment has always favored gun-lines.

**Desubot**

actually also depends if you taking coteaz, you can potentially steal initiative. But like everyone else said it depends.

**g0atsticks**

always go first, what are you guys thinking. first blood is to valuable to let go that easy.

**Houndmaster**

g0atsticks wrote:
always go first, what are you guys thinking. first blood is to valuable to let go that easy.

I'd rather be able to position my units in a gunline where I know the positions of the enemy's strongest units and negate (to a point) their strong points than go first and have a wild guess.

**UltraTacSgt**

I use Vindicators.

I always want to go first to get that first shot off or make the first move into neutral terrain to dictate where the battle happens.

First blood and popping lighter armor before it can move are also good reasons to go first if you have the shooting ability to achieve those two things.

**shamroll**

As a Tyranid player I usually like to go first since most of my shooting is short range or CC based so I want to get as close as possible quickly, I can activate my biomancy powers to improve my survivability, and FMC can start on the table in glide mode.

If I know I will be facing other flyers and I have a Flyrant, I will usually go second so that I can attack their flyers which hopefully have come in first.

**grrrfranky**

It's entirely situational, depending on your army, your opponent's army, the terrain, the mission etc.

**Makenshi**

As an ork players that plays 120+ boyz in most games I have to spread my stuff out a lot. So I usually prefer to deploy second so that my opponent can't easily counter deploy my big gunz/lootas as easily

**MarkyMark**

UltraTacSgt wrote:
I use Vindicators.

I always want to go first to get that first shot off or make the first move into neutral terrain to dictate where the battle happens.

First blood and popping lighter armor before it can move are also good reasons to go first if you have the shooting ability to achieve those two things.

Hmmm, so I see you put a vindicator or two down, I then measure 30 inches away from your vindicators and smile as you cant shoot me first turn.....

First or second is dependant on the mission, your army build up etc, i.e jet bike eldar, troops in transports, crons in scythes in multiple objective games go second then you can get out top of 5 and claim or zip across the board to claim/contest objectives. Relic first is a good bet depending on long ranged support and opponent as first blood is important, same as emperors will.

If you are running a biker army, you need jink so first turn is important.

If you are running a 24inch army your opponent will deploy away from you if you go first

There is a lot to decide on, it is only possible to decide imo for that game, not in advance.

**PredaKhaine**

I always want to go first with my eldar - because I have to cast many psychic buffs. Once thats up and running, I don't really care what happens.

**Pony_law**

Running a bike list I like to go first so I can get my junk save and position my self for turn two double taps.

**drmarmalade**

Pony_law wrote:
Running a bike list I like to go first so I can get my junk save and position my self for turn two double taps.

I just got some bikes for my vanilla marines. Running a full squad split into combat squads plus a squad of 3 attack bikes. Will go first from now on lol

**lambsandlions**

Different armies want to deploy differently. I play tau and I almost always want to go first to insure I get first blood and to prevent them from from moving up. With transports the enemy can be knocking on my door on turn two, if I can pop their transports (which I usually can with s10 ap1 rerollable shots) I can slow them down significantly. If I am going against a shooty list and I have range I will let them set up first and just put myself out of range of their guys.

**UltraTacSgt**

MarkyMark wrote:

Hmmm, so I see you put a vindicator or two down, I then measure 30 inches away from your vindicators and smile as you cant shoot me first turn.....

Yeah, that's the idea. If you base your deployment on my deployment, then that is an edge in my favor against most enemies; and honestly, I am not going to sweat not shooting the first turn if i push the opponent outside of 30" something inches of my deployment line. I will shoot by turn 2, so you'd better hope you can down 2 Vindicators before then. Some can, some can't.

I will have imposed my will as far as taking midfield objectives or creating a "no go" zone.

It isn't perfect, but this is 40k, nothing is.

**xlEternitylx**

Always go first - Fortune is useless on a dead unit. Whenever I run my Eldar this is the case.

First turn, or hide like a little...girl.