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Hello Dakka,

I have played 40k for a long time then took a nice little break for a couple editions and now I am back and I want to talk about reserves. i'm not talking about units you are planning on deepstriking, more about units you want to hold in to reserve and bring in from your table edge.

What is your main plan for your reserve units? is it to bolster a line about to break? do you want to protect the reserved unit for a late game push?

I am interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this and please feel free to be army specific to the army you play and the objective you have for each unit you hold in reserve.

thanks!
BC

BeeCee wrote:
Hello Dakka,

I have played 40k for a long time then took a nice little break for a couple editions and now I am back and I want to talk about reserves. i'm not talking about units you are planning on deepstriking, more about units you want to hold in to reserve and bring in from your table edge.

What is your main plan for your reserve units? is it to bolster a line about to break? do you want to protect the reserved unit for a late game push?

I am interested to hear everyone's thoughts on this and please feel free to be army specific to the army you play and the objective you have for each unit you hold in reserve.

thanks!
BC

My Wolves Army is almost entirely drop pods, so I don't have much of a comment there.

That said, my Demon Armies run with HEAVY reserves. I usually reserve Fateweaver and the majority of my Troops. I have a squad of pink horrors on an aegis manning a comms relay. This gives me the flexibility to deep strike horrors in to shoot, when needed, Demonettes in to run when needed, or walk my squishy cultists/guardsmen onto the board when needed (or hold back my Drakes or Vendettas). It also lets me pick when to drop the Marbo bomb.

As an ork player, Reserves for me is keeping a group of Grots outside the table so they dont get sniped, keeping me with a backfield objective.
Literally the only other way i have reserves is if i get Outflank on my bikerboss. I never use dakkajets and vehicles are a waste if you dont mass them (in which case, they are deployed anyway not in reserves).

My tau experience is limited but so far its been to deepstrike crisis suits, since they never get across the board in 1 piece if i hoof it.

As a Tau player, Im not trying to keep anything in reserves unless its outflanking. I need every bit of firepower possible, to prevent melee and keep all my squishy troops alive. The crisis suits are usually fast enough, so i dont deepstrike em typically. My stealthsuits are almost always infiltrated.

I do bring at least one squad of kroot to outflank everygame.The versatility is awesome! Its pretty much singlehandedly won me my last two games!

Have to agree with Wolfnid. I play Tau and there's no way I'm keeping anything off the table unless it's deep striking or outflanking. By the time it comes on it's probably too late for it to make a difference, and it's not worth 2-3 turns of lost shooting.

Aside from deep striking Storm Troopers, I also put into reserve a Scout Sentinel for 3 reasons. Firstly it's because I only have one thanks to the beginning set for IG, secondly it's because of its paper thin armor, and lastly so I can Outflank with him. Like you said, I hold onto the Sentinel for a late game push, mainly because I might not be able to place them where my gunline is breaking, and try to inflict some serious damage before he dies.

I play Eldar.

I always reserve a a 3 man unit of jetbikes, mainly so I keep them hidden for 1-2 turns, but also so I can dictate how much firepower they're likely to see by where they come onto the board.
My swooping hawks always deepstrike, as they're kinda useless if they don't.

And in my last game, I kept a unit of guardians in reserve. I did this to protect them for a turn, and so that I could use them to bolster my line where I needed them - I was playing a Ravenwing/deathwing list, so I knew i'd have to react to his first turn.

Other than that, it's only flyers, and occasionally my Warp Spiders that go in reserve, but spiders probably won't now, they're too mobile to risk deepstriking.