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Do you think its in general best to start concealed if you can't get full LOS blocking cover? Playing yesterday the engage ordered Space Marines certainly seemed to suffer, especially in turn two when my guard were still concealed until they were activated? Or did we get the rules wrong?

No thoughts?

I think there is no clear cut answer to be given here. Since KT2 is 100% AA, it's not like you need to hunker down with all your models until you can fight back unlike in 40K. Sure, if you are not going first and you have delpoyed in a way which leaves your models highly exposed to heavy fire, concealment might help a bit, but then again, that means you won't be shooting back either.

I think for marines, concealment isn't a very effective course of action since that means you cannot shoot nor fight in CC. You will most likely have less models than your opponent too, so you need to make those 15 APL count. Whereas with models which can still engage the enemy while concealed (like Kommandos or Eldar Rangers), or with models which can change their order during their activation (Tau stealthsuits), concealment is a much more attractive option.

You need to remember that 4 turning points isn't a lot of time.. you can't waste time being too cautious, there are VPs to be scored.

EDIT: Just remembered that you can still score VPs from objectives & actions even while concealed.. So yeh, very situational indeed!

Echoing much of what Tauist said, it's very situational. It really depends on what army your playing and what army you're against.

Some are cut and dry like Kroot. They should always start concealed and use Perfect Ambush. It's one of the best ploys in the game IMHO.

If your opponent is running a melee heave list, you probably don't need to worry about conceal as much as there will be less shooting against you. If you are running a melee heavy list, you should probably conceal until you can close the distance.

It's really just going to boil down to practice. What are your teams strengths and weaknesses. What can you afford to risk and when.

It's going to depend entirely on objectives, opponent, terrain, and the deployment board state when you place each model.

Conceal can be good, but it also prevents you from punishing your opponent when *they* move aggressively to take objectives.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
Do you think its in general best to start concealed if you can't get full LOS blocking cover? Playing yesterday the engage ordered Space Marines certainly seemed to suffer, especially in turn two when my guard were still concealed until they were activated? Or did we get the rules wrong?

If you were concealed on turn 1 you wouldn't have been able to shoot at the enemy. Also you'd be probably too far away to charge - how did they 'suffer'?

They were not able to engage the guard and they managed to get into a position where they could shoot with impunity turn 2 as they came off conceal to attack.

The_Real_Chris wrote:
They were not able to engage the guard and they managed to get into a position where they could shoot with impunity turn 2 as they came off conceal to attack.

Aaah, OK, so they were not able to engage, they suffered from lack of potency.
That can be galling for a marine sergeant.
Although they need to remember the mission...
Kill team is about VP, not murderous death.
So hopefully they took advantage of a fire-free TP to grab a bunch of Tac OP VPs (Recon and Infiltration both have good situational VPs available if you are free to roam the board).
Both decks are availble to Reivers and one can be selected dependant on the punchiness of the enemy.
A good turn 1 on Recon or Infiltrate Tac Ops, with your enemy hiding away, can yeild six or seven VPs.
That's a great start!
Just be ready to weather the incoming turn 2 firestorm.
Marines can take it!

TFR
IAK

Just to keep the Space Marine questions going.

My opponent the other day realised the best way to kill my marines was to plink off some wounds with shooting and then charge his orks into them. With the alternating strike of combat there was very little chance my slightly wounded marine was going to kill the ork before he was killed himself.

Is the best tactic in this game just to keep wounded marines (models) held back out of combat range?

EDIT: I found another post discussing this, https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/801128.page;jsessionid=E77949D3C9B17A8300669A01845BD70C , thanks if you read this anyway :0)

Combat is no place for injured operatives. The dynamic of "shoot them till they bleed and charge in for a decapitation" is very much baked into the intended core gameplay of this edition.

That said, marines are pretty capable of doing it themselves just as well even while injured so there is something to be said of hanging near the front lines for opportune moments. Of course if you have operatives that are a brush away from death, they are likely best used as covert objective holders or mission action makers deeper in cover.

"Best tactics" are fortunately so heavily dependant on missions and situations on the ground that no strictly better solutions can be given. This is good.