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40K is a tactical game that lives and breathes off exciting battles and tactical victories (and yes yes.. i know CCCCRREEEEDDDD!!! right?)

......but Tactics...... generally don't win Wars.

Usually someone is plotting a Grand Strategy. But i wonder about that in terms of 40K....

1.) Orks - Strategy? Lol, do they even have non-intuitive Tactics?

2.) Tyranids - Send Giant Fleets Toward Glowing Beacon, Eat Anything along the Way.

3.) Chaos - Send Gigantic Fleet Through Eye of Terror to Mess up Imperium..

4.) Eldar (Craftworld,Dark, Exodite) - Survive.

5.) Imperium - Trying to Hold Things Together.


It seems like the only race that actually has a forward thinking strategy is the Tau.... everybody else is just "Smash the Galaxy" or "Just try and Hold on for one more day"

Strategy assumes 1 in overall command.

Maybe you could say the hive-mind could have 1 strategy for all these fleets.
But anyone else ?

Orks : maybe a strategy would be there if every greenskin follows GMUT
Chaos : too disordered to follow a plan. Strategy is "let the galaxy burn" right now..
Eldar : too splintered so more like 1 strategy per craftworld..if the Eldar don't get distracted with all these possible futures they like to "see" so much..
Necrons : too sleepy, but if they still had the protocolls active the silent king could just put 1 strategy forward all of the necrons would accept without questions.
Humans : without Big E its just "we want to survive." Sort of a flawed "cruise control"..
Tau : who knows the puppet masters behind the etherals and the strategy they have? But generally the Tau are too naive to use a strategy worth the name.

 1hadhq wrote:

Strategy assumes 1 in overall command.

Maybe you could say the hive-mind could have 1 strategy for all these fleets.
But anyone else ?

Orks : maybe a strategy would be there if every greenskin follows GMUT
Chaos : too disordered to follow a plan. Strategy is "let the galaxy burn" right now..
Eldar : too splintered so more like 1 strategy per craftworld..if the Eldar don't get distracted with all these possible futures they like to "see" so much..
Necrons : too sleepy, but if they still had the protocolls active the silent king could just put 1 strategy forward all of the necrons would accept without questions.
Humans : without Big E its just "we want to survive." Sort of a flawed "cruise control"..
Tau : who knows the puppet masters behind the etherals and the strategy they have? But generally the Tau are too naive to use a strategy worth the name.

Actually i think the Tau, despite their naivety , actually has a workable strategy for all the non-Main Races of the 40K Universe.

It just won't save them in the end.

You are correct though - each group needs a leading figure to set an actual agenda.

For the Necrons it would have to be the Silent King.

....-maybe- a Primarch could take control of the Imperium as a whole and crank out some sort of pro-active plan.. It would have to be roboute guilliman though...

Everybody else still plans on the Tactical level.

Individual Orks don't know it or live long enough to see or appreciate it but they are in it for the long game and there is an over arching strategy built into what they are doing that is both simple and elegant.

Orks are just one part of a galaxy spanning fungal plant that is even more aggressive then it's hardy. This fungal plant can survive the vacuum of space, extreme temperatures, high radiation etc.. so it's hardy in the extreme. Out of this aggressive hardy fungal plant grows snotlings, squigs, gretchin and Orks. They come out of the ground grown and ready to fight and wherever they go they are dropping spores that spread the plant. They let off much more when they die. Meanwhile the fungal plant is highly aggressive at taking surrounding nutrients to make the greens kins and easily out competes other flora and ultimately dominates (and terraforms) the planet.

So think of orks as seeds of a plant that has a humanoid body and brain and goes of waging wars across space and seeding other planets spreading the plant across the galaxy.

This is the result of Old Ones genetically creating a doomsday device. Not satisfied with merely an aggressive plant whose seeds are intelligent they went further. The Greenskins don't require formal school or training. The appropriate knowledge they need is built into their dna and they pop up out of the ground already knowing what to do. Snotlings harvest the fungus and tend to the huge variety of squigs. When gretchin come out they begin building structures, infrastructure, economy so by the time Orks pop out of the ground (longest to develop ) a full fledged shanty town is up and waiting for them complete with a slave race. Orks have the time to swagger about aND get into fights which is what they know how to do from the moment they come out of the ground.

Toss in the reality warping gestalt psychic field they generate. Oddboy Orks that instinctively know how to engineer weapons, vehicles, space ships. Doctors that can reattach limbs and heads. An overall ability to keep growing bigger from fighting. I'd say their designers made something for the long game. They hold more territory then smy other race including mankind so I'd also say they are working.

Across a galactic span, no, not so much.

More locally, yes. (That's why the Tau seem so on top of things: their sphere of influence is small enough that a centralized command can make strategic plans for the whole.)

Individual Craftworlds certainly have larger strategies in mind (varying by Craftworld). I think it's also fair to say that Urien Rakarth (possibly in conjunction with Vect) also has a strategy he's working towards for his race as a whole. Eldrad could definitely be in that category as well.

The Imperium and Chaos are the same: there isn't so much strategy at the highest levels, just administration of the various smaller groups, regions, and subdivisions that make up the faction, some of which are certainly headed by groups or individuals who are making and implementing long term strategies.

Chaos has a strategy, with Abaddon and all his crusades.
He planned everything and his crusades were all litlle steps in one direction, and today with his last crusade and Traitor's Hate we can see where all this bring him.
And Chaos had a strategy in the 31th millenium too.
And it worked pretty well.

I think you're confusing stragety with specific goal.

How is strategy being defined here?

I generally think of strategy as being goal-oriented, with overarching control of actions that are aimed at achieving that goal.

It seems like Abaddon's actions fit within that framework...

Abaddon definitely seems to have a strategy. Apparently all these Black Crusades have been forwarding the goal of trying to expand the Eye or Terror into realspace, and towards Terra.

The Imperial strategy, from what I recall, is basically to hold the fort as humankind matures psychically. "Holding the fort" encompasses a swathe of protocols for conflict escalation, reactive bodies defending Imperial territory depending on the nature of the threat; PDF, Guard, Space Marines, Inquisition, Sisters, Arbites, Mechanicum, Navy etc. Maybe the easiest thing to point to for the more defensive Imperial posture is the breaking of the Legions into Chapters via the Codex Astartes. Where Space Marines aren't organised into gigantic independently crusading Legions, but smaller, more reactive forces.

I'm not sure that the IOM actually has a strategy beyond survival. Space Marine chapters pursue separate goals on different fronts, beaurocracy made to keep the imperium running on automatic chugs on, but nobody has anything approaching a grand plan because nobody has enough authority to organize an overall strategy. Goge Vandire had a strategy: take over the Imperium's positions of authority, kill any dissenters, then reshape the imperium in his image (he died before he got any further). Currently no one really has the power to organize the imperium towards a single strategy, but many organizations within it have smaller strategies, like the AdMech trying to rebuild mankind's technology level to it's former glory.

 Insectum7 wrote:


The Imperial strategy, from what I recall, is basically to hold the fort as humankind matures psychically. .

Yeah, now I think of it, that was the original RT - era fluff... mind you, it didn't work too well for the Eldar...

A strategy for what?
Strategies are put in place to fulfill specific goals. The Imperium has many different leaders and commanders that have many different strategies for many different goals at many different levels varying from the strategy of crew boss #6754 of plasma reactor #38 of manufactorum #12 to meet his monthly output quota to the strategy of the honoured warmaster Samuel Tetrarchus to reclaim the Jericho Reach. The Eldar Craftworlds likewise also all have many different strategies. The Orks too have many different warbosses all of which are going to have a strategy (even if it isn't going to be a complicated one most likely). Every faction is going to have as many strategies as it has leaders. All are going to have a grand strategy for every conflict they find themselves in.

GrapeApe wrote:40K is a tactical game that lives and breathes off exciting battles and tactical victories (and yes yes.. i know CCCCRREEEEDDDD!!! right?)

Someone called?

1hadhq wrote:

Tau : who knows the puppet masters behind the etherals and the strategy they have? But generally the Tau are too naive to use a strategy worth the name.

Aren't the ethereals the puppet masters? Where has it ever been suggested that someone is puppeting the ethereals?

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

GrapeApe wrote:40K is a tactical game that lives and breathes off exciting battles and tactical victories (and yes yes.. i know CCCCRREEEEDDDD!!! right?)

Someone called?

1hadhq wrote:

Tau : who knows the puppet masters behind the etherals and the strategy they have? But generally the Tau are too naive to use a strategy worth the name.

Aren't the ethereals the puppet masters? Where has it ever been suggested that someone is puppeting the ethereals?

The Etherals aren't the masters is part of the Tau fluff from start. so since 2001 IIRC ?

GrapeApe wrote:

1.) Orks - Strategy? Lol, do they even have non-intuitive Tactics?

Well there are some orks that are very kunnin, snikrot for example is a master of strategy and always appears where and when the enemy doesn't expect it. Also some warbosses, like the old character nadzreg, are very smart badass. Tau are fishes, how can some fishes have a strategy?

Cegorach and the Harlequins have some kind of strategy in play.

 Robin5t wrote:
Cegorach and the Harlequins have some kind of strategy in play.

A galactic punchline is not a strategy.

 Mr Nobody wrote:

 Robin5t wrote:
Cegorach and the Harlequins have some kind of strategy in play.

A galactic punchline is not a strategy.

Sure it is. Just because the end goal is the lolz, doesn't mean it's not a strategy!

Seriously, though, they have some kind of plan they're putting into play against Chaos and Slaanesh in particular.

 1hadhq wrote:

The Etherals aren't the masters is part of the Tau fluff from start. so since 2001 IIRC ?

Well they are on top of the caste system, the other castes all look to the ethereals for guidance and to lead them. The Imperium believes that the blind following of the other four castes and all the other alien auxiliaries is not 'cause the tau all actually believe in the greater good, but because the ethereals are either psychers or emit powerful pheromones and mind control their underlings. Which is the line I prefer. Makes it much more grimdark.

The Tyranid strategy appears at face value to simply be advance and consume. They adapt depending on resistance faced (so in response to Behemoth, Kraken was broken up into hundreds of tendrils before they came together into just a couple of major ones at Ichar IV and Iyanden), but the general approach is quite consistent because generally speaking it works. Stopping a real Hive Fleet (rather than just a tendril composed of a few dozen ships) is a monumental feat.

In the long run though, the underlying strategy to overcome the really hardcore resistance is actually very similar to they way they fight on the ground; fight until they know their foe inside out, and the deploy specially designed killers to counter that resistance. The first real indications of this were the events of Valedor; the Eldar predicted that Kraken and Leviathan were about to pool their learning into something apocalyptically bad.

It's only a matter of time before the opportunity rises again (and indeed the multi-faction melee coming up this year might be just such an opportunity).

GrapeApe wrote:


It seems like the only race that actually has a forward thinking strategy is the Tau.... everybody else is just "Smash the Galaxy" or "Just try and Hold on for one more day"

That has been the basic underpinning of the 40k universe since it's inception. It's an awful place.

Straight out of the intro to every 40k rulebook

Warhammer 40,000 wrote:
Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only war. There is no peace amongst the stars, only an eternity of carnage and slaughter, and the laughter of thirsting gods.

Tzeentch must have a strategy, or at least, a plan. Is he or not the Fateweaver?

The Deer Hunter wrote:
Tzeentch must have a strategy, or at least, a plan. Is he or not the Fateweaver?

I'm....uncertain.. about Tzeentch.

This uncertainty extends to Cegorach and The Emperor as well.

Strategies tend to be very goal-oriented policies. It implies a terminus point, a time when the objective is achieved.

So in some sense, Cegorach can be said to have a strategy - its just that we as players/readers and heck GW itself have few little idea as to what this might entail.


Tzeentch on the other hand, can't really be said to have an objective. Or rather his objective has no terminus point. For an entity that represents Change, he is ironically quite Static.

Its maneuver after maneuver after maneuver - which basically makes it a Certainty that Change will happen.

 CREEEEEEEEED wrote:

 1hadhq wrote:

The Etherals aren't the masters is part of the Tau fluff from start. so since 2001 IIRC ?

Well they are on top of the caste system, the other castes all look to the ethereals for guidance and to lead them. The Imperium believes that the blind following of the other four castes and all the other alien auxiliaries is not 'cause the tau all actually believe in the greater good, but because the ethereals are either psychers or emit powerful pheromones and mind control their underlings. Which is the line I prefer. Makes it much more grimdark.

I'd like to argue it's less grimdark to add some form of control. There's something terrifying about the idea that the peoples of the galaxy live in such terrible strife that the words of the ethereals seem to be the best option. You weren't forced into their empire, your mind is still yours. Instead you joined because you were scared of either their punishment or the terrors of the galaxy they promise to save you from. Maybe the Tau are just that good at manipulating people and maybe we're just that easy.