Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I'm loving having a 40k army. Started work on my second one now, but I havent really played much.

I headed to my FLGS the other night and had my first game. I got tabled fairly easily, which is probably to be expected. I play Necrons and a few of the players were joking about this ("but Necrons NEVER lose" etc). I mean I got fairly danced upon by the end. My opponent was playing White Scars and I nearly took out his two bike units, minus one model each (one biker and his warlord) but i utterly failed to deal with any of his vehicles or his dreadnought.

Anyway. It was a massive learning experience to actually play the game. and I learned several (pretty obvious) things:

Keep the wraiths in assault.
Don't bunch up your units when deploying (lost an annihilation barge to scatter)
Don't fly your only flyer into range of the only enemy with Skyfire and Interceptor

But I'm sure I was doing LOTS of other stuff totally wrong. I was wondering if any of the veteran players on here might have a list of top mistakes-to-not-make or something for starting out 40K players. You must see a lot of the same rookie errors occurring on the other side of the table?

Would you post your list up? We can give you general advise, but you will get much better advise if we know what you are using.

Tip 1: Wraiths are VERY good, because they are fast and have a good save. Add a destroyer lord to the unit for extra punch and preferred enemy. Always take a rez orb for him!

Tip 2: Use line of sight blocking techniques. The enemy can only kill models he can see usually, don't take any of his fancy words or arguments, he can only kill what he can see under most circumstances. This is very helpful for necrons because as long as one necron warrior survives, they can all attempt to get back up. So hiding I single warrior out of line of sight is usually worth losing a shot or two.

Tip 3: As a rule, necrons suck in combat. Wraiths are an exception, and Overlords are quite good at surviving and getting to swing in a few wounds, but in general, you suck. Mitigate this by having smaller units so his charge only catches 10 warriors instead of a block of 20. You can also stick a Necron Lord in there with mind shackles and a war scythe, he is surprisingly scary to many monstrous creatures or characters.

Tip 4: Take dedicated anti tank, necron guass rules are good and all, but they shouldn't be your main AT. Even Wraiths with an Overlord are quite good at that.

Tip 5: Don't be disheartened, every army has a learning curve (Some harder then others, wood elf players honour ) but you will get there eventually.

Sounds like you played a high caliber optimized bike list. I wouldnt let it scar you. The other players should have been providing tips after the game considering your experience. Sounds like they got to caught up in the Crons losing.

Remember to address the most dangerous threat first and as you learn the game play defensively while you get the mechanics down.

Crons are good but lack ap1-2 spam needed to deal with SM meta in 6th.

Try not to pack your army full of wargear. Focus on guns down range and weight of fire.

 Byte wrote:
I wouldnt let it scar you.

Yes. Yes sir.

A good tactical tip is always say on mission, you would be surprised in how many players think every mission should involve wiping your opponents force off the board, and how that can be their downfall...

Always ask yourself these questions during a game, and always give them an answer:

If your playing an objective game, how many objectives can you realistically get? I say realistically because there maybe an objective that your opponent has swamped with objective grabbers.

What units within that mission can take objectives? is this Big Guns Never Tire? Scouring? or even The Relic? know whats in your army that can take the objectives of the mission.

How will you push your opponents squads off the objective? say there's an objective on center the table and your opponent has it, how will you combat it? will you try to wipe it clean off the board? will you demoralize the squad to the point where it has to continually take moral checks every time you shoot it? imo its always best to not kill the whole squad off unless its fearless, why? because you don't want to focus fire at one thing as your giving the rest of your opponents army space to breathe, only do so if you feel it absolutely necessary to do so in front of a dangerous unit, that you feel requires your attention.

Once you have an objective how will you protect it? its good and all to have a squad on that objective, but that squad will die if there is nothing to assist it. Will you screen that squad with your wraiths? will you provide a dangerous fire support with a large threat range for shooting? will you cast a spell on you objective grabbing unit to make it more resilient and therefore survive more?

In terms of kill point games, think of these questions and answer them whilst fighting:

What units are good at what? are the wraiths good at shooting? are the Annihilation Barges good in CC? what roles represent your force at excelling?

What do you want to put to the blade? what units do you want to kill, that you think will die quickest?

What units do you think should combat units your opponents have? do you think the wrath squad would excel against the bike squad? or do you think it would be better to fight the 5 man marines squad.

Similarly know where your units are placed? do you think your wraith squad is better suited to charging the 5 man unit that is 10" away? or is it better at charging the bike squad 4" away?

Will your unit survive the initial combat? if you move your Barge towards a marine squad out in the open to shoot at it? do you think the marine squad will survive and if not will your Barge survive being shot by a devastator squad with 4 lascannons? if your wraiths charge the biker squad, do you think it will survive the first turn of combat if they get in CC with them? if not where do you think they would be better suited elsewhere?

Also look at the secondary objectives of the mission, as they usually become the game decider of the game your participating in, as I have learned from past experience..

Another thing to note is don't get too sucked in with killing one unit that your opponent has and become a Moby dick on the table, I have seen a lot of games where a player has a chance of winning what appears to be close game then throwing it all away because said player has the odd fetish for killing that one unit like Moby Dick hunting the whale, heck I've done it multiple times on the table with my Helldrakes accidentally... It always bites you on the backside in the end...

Always have this in mind as it makes your mind highly flexible for majority of games your will have, and it can be quite hard to do this in 40k trust me as 40k has deep imbalance, but in majority of games you will learn what you did right and what you did wrong and how you could improve for the next time..

Just my opinion, hope this helps

Thanks Happy Go Lucky. That's very useful.

No problem

Another big thing to do. READ YOUR CODEX AND THE BRB. You will be remarkably surprised how many mistakes you can make just by making an assumption. People are caught every day with rules that they did not read properly. Be sure you know what your units can do and the rules they should be able to utilize. You don't need to be able to recite the rules word for word, but don't get caught not knowing what your stuff is capable of. Knowing your opponent doesn't hurt as well. If you planned for the fact that bikes can't travel up levels you may have saved yourself some hassel. This comes from experience and some times adventuring into other codices.(easier if you can "acquire" digital versions.) WARNING this method is precisely what luring many of us into buying new armies.

Also if you haven't played alot. Be sure you mind your coherency and abuse that 2 inches to mitigate your template wounds. also toe cover saves are glorious since they generally can't be taken away.

Bikes can't go up levels? But they can go over terrain, right?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
V good advice. I forgot a couple of wraith rules I should have remembered.

2 things you can do irregardless of Codex and win games through good application of:

1) Put units into 'walk on' reserve before the game. If your opponent goes first and has a gunline threatening to knock units off, they'll come on after they've fired. If your opponent is going to be in your face very early (e.g Scouting Bikes/Drop Pods) having your scoring units walk on means they won't be wiped early.

2) Go to ground against any shooting attack. If a unit is well and truly finished, go to ground for 6+ cover. In ruins, go to ground for 3+ cover over a 4+ and save a few dudes.

Kholzerino wrote:
I was wondering if any of the veteran players on here might have a list of top mistakes-to-not-make or something for starting out 40K players.

The biggest newbie mistake is thinking that 40k is balanced and taking a bunch of random units that have no hope of winning. Read forums/blogs, identify the most overpowered units in your codex (probably the flyers in your case), and spam them. Making a good list is the single biggest thing you can do to improve your chances of success.

The second biggest newbie mistake is not knowing the math. 40k is a game of dice, and dice are a very well understood subject. Know what your chances of success are and don't be lured in by the temptation to think about how "unit X always rolls well", second-guess your strategy because you rolled badly when you put yourself in a position to have a good chance of success, etc. Understanding and applying probability is 90% of strategy in 40k, so the sooner you learn it the better.