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Made in ca
Nimble Dark Rider




T.O.

Not just how does it fare, but what kinds of tactics do you use, what kinds of units work best?

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Made in us
Clousseau




Elite units that can wreck things without needing a lot of numbers.

   
Made in us
Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle






A lot of it comes down to the specific unit. Because upgrades are free units with strong command groups are worth more for the first increment than subsequent. Tree Revenants are possibly the best example; their optional musician allows the unit to teleport every turn. At their minimum size, 5, they already have enough for the tactical function of teleporting to seize objectives. This ability to teleport is baked into the cost of the unit (making the logical assumption that all players will take the option since it is free) but that means a 10-man unit is paying for it twice, a 15-man unit is paying for it three times, and so on. Taking msu is far more efficient since each of those units can then utilize the teleport ability they paid for independently.

Tree Revenants also have another ability that allows the unit to re-roll one dice per phase. Again, this is baked into the cost but does not scale. A 10 man unit still only gets one re-roll despite paying for two. So it makes tactical sense to run the unit msu, the option to run them larger is more for fluffy or narrative battles.

Situations like that, as well as filling requirements for battleline/battalions, often determine which units are run msu. There are also more traditional tactical reasons but it is hard to describe them in broad terms outside the context of the army in question.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/09/19 16:34:34


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I chose an avatar I feel best represents the quality of my post history.

I try to view Warhammer as more of a toolbox with examples than fully complete games. 
   
Made in ca
Perfect Shot Ultramarine Predator Pilot






To keep along with examples from Sylvaneth, the way that their in-faction Forest Teleporting works benefits non-MSU for everything EXCEPT Tree Revenants. The way it works, is that only one unit per turn can teleport between their Awakened Wyldwoods. This benefits larger units since you are using that ability to teleport more 'power' in one unit, as opposed to teleporting a weaker, smaller unit. It'll be a bigger benefit usually, to reposition 20 Dryads at once, as opposed to only 10.

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Made in gb
Horrific Hive Tyrant





To chip in with other examples:

Legions of Nagash have a command ability that allows you to bring a whole unit back to 'life' for 1 command point (provided they have the SUMMONABLE keyword).This is of course far more powerful with larger units.

As the others said, it really depends on the individual units and your faction abilities.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2019/09/20 20:51:58


 
   
Made in gb
Regular Dakkanaut





As echoed above, MSU provides some real advantages where units have special abilities that lend themselves so it - such as movement perks or the ability to apply stacking modifiers.

The other thing to consider with MSU is that the objective system in AOS is a bit more broken than in 40k, so having many small units gives you greater tactical advantage rather than a handful of large units. Those large units are more likely to hold them, but you can only hold so many objectives when you only have a handful of units.

Another reason to consider MSU is that some units have the ability to cause major damage to a unit due to the cohesion rules. Nighthaunt have an artefact called slitter for example which can target and slay a specific model. If that model was in the middle of a line of 30 and caused them to break cohesion - your opponent would be required to remove the other half of the unit to return to cohesion.

Final thing to consider is base size and range. Liberators for example can be taken in a large unit, and cost a lot of points, but due to their weapon range and size of base - most of them will find themselves unable to get into combat / reach. A small unit charging the end of a line of liberators would see several turns where the far end just couldn’t consolidate far enough / reach in the first place to make any impact to the combat.
   
Made in ca
Nimble Dark Rider




T.O.

Back in days of yore fast cavalry used bait and switch tactics to lure unwary foes into awkward positions. If you were clever, or evil, or played dark elves in 6th ed, you learned to do this with any unit, even if it meant their destruction.

Obviously the meaning of awkward position in AoS is very different and will depend on a unit's size and speed and the objectives in play. So my follow up question is are these maneuvers useful, and with what units?

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Humming Great Unclean One of Nurgle






That comes down to exploiting an opponent who is unaware of the mistake they are making, and works the same way. Since there is no flee response to charges it means your 'fast cavalry' unit dies, but often pulling an opponent put of position is worth it. A more AoS exclusive version is baiting an enemy into charging unit A, and in so doing accidentally pulling unit B into 3" melee range, allowing it to pile in & attack.

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I chose an avatar I feel best represents the quality of my post history.

I try to view Warhammer as more of a toolbox with examples than fully complete games. 
   
Made in gb
Decrepit Dakkanaut




UK

It should be noted that many of the newer 2.0 battletomes (and by Errata a good few earlier ones too) are using "fully within Xinches" for many aura abilities. This is an attempt to cut down the "long stringy lines of models" approach that many would use with a unit.

So the chance of slicing a unit in half with a well placed removal is less apparent than it once was - a good thing in my view as long unit strings is, whilst a valid approach at times, not something that visually looks right with the model scale and visual presentation.

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