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How do!

With my Eldar project underway, I’m likely to be playing 40K again in the coming months. And it’s been a while. A long while. I can’t remember when I dropped out of regular gaming (career did it), but maybe 6th?

I of course remember the very basics, and still have an understanding of them, and how to wield an army so it works together. But where my knowledge falls down is The Averages.

For instance, I’m aware Marines now have multiple wounds. And the different armour types provide more than just a superior save, but also increase toughness, more wounds etc. Albeit baked into their stats.

And the same with vehicles. I know S and T can regularly exceed 10, and vehicles have wounds and a save like any other model. But I’ve no clue on what sort of T, W and Sv I should be anticipating, in the way that I once knew to pack broadly to defeat AV13, with some bigger guns for pesky AV14 etc.

Those gaps in my knowledge and experience are troubling me when it comes to planning an army. Not for the buying of models, that’s never a bother to my mind. But for what I want to field. And for vehicles and Dreadnoughts in particular, I find myself poorly placed to consider which given ranged weapons can be relied upon to tackle them effectively.

What I’m looking for here are very broad, very general, pointers. Are there rough categories of vehicles? Is it worth planning to counter each category specifically, or just pack your big blasters, as they’ll swat a Vyper as easily as they pod shot a Knight. That sort of stuff.

Are there weapon traits (Lethal Hits, Devastating Wounds) etc which are perhaps a false economy and only work on paper, or are they positive deciding factors?

Really basic, maybe heading into middle ground knowledge, to help me get my increasingly ancient brain up to speed.

Before planning an army, you should just read the core rules, which are available for free.

Not that I prescribe to net decking to the letter, but if you're feeling anxious about having the right weapon loadouts, I'd absolutely recommend waiting a week and seeing what lists have success over the weekend. Copying to the letter will probably result in a list that's not as well rounded and resistant to change as you should probably invest in starting out, but it will give you a general shape to build towards.

Beyond that, things aren't AS different as you'd think. For breakpoints, S6 is probably a big one, as it wounds most things on 3s and cuts through infantry on 2s. T10 is also fairly common on vehicles, so getting to S10-11 can often be big for your anti-tank options. It's often just a question of how much shot volume you're giving up.

Just play current 40k....that game is about as dumb as it gets.

Remember, unlike HH, you can gun down a Knight with Shuriken Catapults.