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I was under the impression you could not start your entire army in reserves / deep strike. But, at my last tourney a space marine player did. Is this permitted either generally or with some special rules from formation / army specific rules?

This is perfectly legal. There used to be a rule in a previous edition that prevented it, but not in 7th.

Note that if you do not have any models on the board at the end of a game turn (i.e. after both player one and player two have had a turn) then you automatically lose. So only armies with a way to arrive from reserve on turn one (Grey Knights Nemesis Strike Force, Space Marine Drop Pods, etc.) can effectively put their entire army in reserve.

As Quanar said. As long as you have a way to get units on the board by the end of turn 1 you're golden. Dark Eldar can also do it.

If you do this, don't let your opponent have an all scout army.

Could you explain what scout units have to do with it?

It's referring to a the famous picture of a 5th edition tournament game, where a Tau player has an enormous grin on his face, while his opponent and a judge are pouring over the rulebook.

What had happened was the opponent was playing an ALL bike army with no out-flankers, vehicles, nothing but bikes. Meanwhile, his opponent had a bunch of kroot in his army.

The marine player put his whole army into reserves and when the Tau player deployed, with 0 marines on the table, he blocked off the entirety of the Marine player's board edge with his infiltrating kroot, preventing any of the space marines from coming on and winning him the game.

I would assume Matthew is talking about how much of the board can be covered if the enemy scouts, or infiltrates, and then spreads out during the Movement and Shooting Phases.
Pointless to bring up within a Rule debate, and something I would flag as 'that ******* guy' as it involves restricting what tactics your opponent is allowed to use against you....

Wait, so you're saying that 'restricting what tactics your opponent is allowed to use against you' is perfectly fine when it comes to putting your entire army in reserves, but somehow a player becomes 'that fething guy' if his opponent voluntarily gives him complete control of the table and he does something with the advantage?

You probably should've given that one a little more thought.

Other way around, given Matthew stated: If you do this, don't let your opponent have an all scout army.
It is 'that ******* guy' to tell an opponent they can't bring any Scout or Infiltration Units simply because it makes using Drop Pods harder....

I don't think he was saying 'don't allow your opponent to play all scouts,' Jinx. I think he was just trying to say 'don't get caught with your pants down by scouts.'

That would be the obvious meaning.

I could ask how the words "don't let your opponent have an all scout army" has an 'obvious meaning' other then what was literally stated, but it is pointless to any Rule debate.
Matthew has the capability of better clarifying what these words meant better then any of us, so if it really was just poorly selected words then they can easily state such for themselves....

Interesting side note though:
Selectively denying your opponent key Units to further your own tactics is very much legal as per the Written Rules, but I wouldn't recommend doing so.

No guys, I was talking about this, where a guy thought he was smart not having anything on the board. It's his fault that he lost.

That's more about infiltrate than it is about scout, but I'm not sure it could happen anymore. The auto 1st turn reserve units for marines are drop pods and they don't care if their table edge is blocked. I can't think of anything that walks on from the player's table edge in the first turn.

 lessthanjeff wrote:
That's more about infiltrate than it is about scout, but I'm not sure it could happen anymore. The auto 1st turn reserve units for marines are drop pods and they don't care if their table edge is blocked. I can't think of anything that walks on from the player's table edge in the first turn.

Yeah, Marine Scouts couldn't prevent a Drop Pod list from hitting the ground. They are too expensive and their units are too small, even with Unbound in consideration. Flayed Ones are in a similar boat with cost, but units sizes can be big enough, save for being Elites.

Kroot Carnivore Squads have a better shot at it, due to their cost, being Troops, and being able to field 30 models before bringing in the larger 'Ox's, but it is still a LOT of ground to cover on a table.

 Matthew wrote:
No guys, I was talking about this, where a guy thought he was smart not having anything on the board. It's his fault that he lost.

I just want to point out that the story at that link is completely fabricated.

 Matthew wrote:
No guys, I was talking about this, where a guy thought he was smart not having anything on the board. It's his fault that he lost.

Actually, in that specific situation it was the judge's fault that he lost, as at that point there were no rules covering the situation and the judge decided to make one up on the spot that awarded the win to the other player.


However, we appear to have wandered somewhat off the topic here. The original question was answered, and so if people want to continue the ensuing tactics discussion, a new thread in the tactics section would be a better place for it.