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.

I’ve faced my friends Salamanders a couple times with my Iron Warriors pre new Codex and once as Word Bearers post new Codex. I’ve also have gone up against his Grey Knights pre new Codex and every game I’ve lost(Word Bearers game just recently was my best/closest game and he was going easy on me). Granted I’m not super experienced so did not probably deploy as well as I could or utilized terrain correctly. Last game I made a mistake and could not position Abbadon and terminators correctly to come in from deep strike and be in range of my dark apostle and MOP. Ive had to start bringing notecards just because their is so many things to remember as well. Does not help that my friend knows the rules much better than I and has played in tournaments before. Anyway I’m looking for any tactics to help with so I have a fighting chance against his armies. I usually bring whatever I think will be fun, but it would be nice to win a game at least once since I have never won before. I feel like CSM can’t do shooting well enough to deal with him from afar with his transhuman, and tough units. Can do ok if I make it into combat but getting into combat means I have to deal with his close range firepower. Any tips or tricks would be appreciated(such as good ways to practice solo, how to deal with his stronger units especially when he has multiple strong units bunched up together without walking into trap, how you memorize synergies/auras/stratagems, how to pre-move units on the board so that deepstriking units can be positioned the best to support, etc etc.)

You win in this edition by scoring more pts than your foe. Killing the enemy models helps, but isn't usually the be-all/end-all of strategy.
Plan how you're going to take (and hold) the primary objectives.
Choose secondary Agendas that you can actually do. And take a few units who's primary job is doing them.

If he bunches multiple strong units up together? Stay away from them. Let them all squat on an objective

Start off with a relatively simple army. You might be handicapping yourself with a less-than-optimal army build but complex stratagem/aura/relic combinations don't actually HELP if you don't set them up right or forget to use them.

"More Dudes With Stabby Things" on the other hand is always going to benefit you; even if it just means it takes longer to wipe out a unit. Plus, as noted, three squads of generic dudes can be in three seperate places, and even if one squad of elite murderdudes wipes out their opponents you're still winning 2-1 on objectives taken.

As you gain experience, both with the game in general and your army in particular, add in the specialist and complex stuff.

Agreed that the specific problem of salamanders and grey knights is "that last few inches" of ground - with a flamer and melta happy army, or a bajillion stormbolters, it's easy to take so many casualties that your generally superior (or at least superior for points if not necessarily model-for-model) melee punch doesn't get eroded.

Generally, if you need to pin down shooty stuff then fast stuff is the answer; even if it can't win it can pin it in place long enough for the heavy mob to arrive.

If you have teleporting stuff, that can work too. You might want to look at Emperor's Children - they have a stratagem called Honour The Prince which is great for making a teleport-in-and-charge without letting opponents get a shot off (beyond overwatch).

You both make great points. I usually get soo excited to get in combat and usually backfires on me. And I agree I probably need to look into simplifying my list to learn better but I am also 0-4 against him. I like the idea of having fast unit tie him up until the stronger units can get up the field. So maybe use some Chaos Spawn or bikers to rush up first and then followed by some harder hitting units.