Reserves 101, 102, and 104. Part 3

"Statistics, Logistics, Economics, Tactics, Luck, and Determination or How To Be A Good Theoretical General." Post 004

"I have not yet begun to fight." John Paul Jones

Part three of three, Reserves 104, will cover all those tactics that make other players fear to play you, including some cheesy army ideas, ways to intimidated, and an example of play were reserves came though to save the day.

One of the most under rated armies in all of 40k is the lowly Necrons. I played Necrons for about 2 years back when 4th Edition came around. But back then taking an army of Necron Warriors with Destoryers for Fast Attack was one of the most devastating armies one could have with the old rules on target priority and shooting through terrain. Now most armies walk over Necrons without lifting much more then a finger, but more on that when I get to the Necron Codex.

For the topic on hand though, with the new reserve rule one can make a feared army list with this outdated codex. This list can be run in a 1250 point game (so think of that when you are thinking of how you can beat it), and it comprises of:

• 2x 10 man squads of Warriors
• Lord with a Resurrection Orb
• 3 Monoliths (Yes 3!!)

Now the average player will look this and say “WTF, 3 Monoliths!!! Oh wait, I can just kill off 15 of the Warriors and they will phase out.” But with reserves, you may not see those warriors until the 2nd, 3rd, or help you, the 4th turn, later, or never... So you have three Monoliths moving across the field shooting Space Marine-killing pie plates with their armor 14, and most army lists cannot afford enough Lascannons or equally powerful weapons to guarantee killing one of these per turn (A 2:27 that a Ballistic Skill 4 unit with a Lascannon destroys it, and a 1:18 if the unit has BS 3). Good luck phasing this army list out is the only thing I have to say to anyone brave enough to fight it.

To end this post and topic I'm going to give an example of a game I played about a week ago where the use of Reserves gave me a quick win over one of my friend's army. Its long, but if you are in need of help with using reserves it will hopefully give you some more ideas on using reserves with your army.

I was in a 1850 game with my Orks against my friend's Tyranids and the mission type was Capture and Control with a Spearhead Deployment. The terrain was pretty flat with very little blocking line of sight and my friend won the roll for deployment.

As any good Tyranid player would he then proceeded to cram his army as close to me as it could possibly be. Knowing that he is going to run straight for me with everything he's got except for his Warriors and Gaunts, I deployed my two Loota squads, Looted tank, and one of my Trukks with a Warboss and my Ard' Boyz up aginist my corner of the board and reserved my two other Trukks with a Warboss, and a full squad of Shoota Boyz.

As the game began my friend knew I had half my army in reserves, and as such he was less inclined to rush his whole army out, in fear of being surrounded. This slowing of movement only gave me more time to shoot with my Lootas and boom gun, and after the first turn he was down a Genestealer squad and a few Warriors. Turn two, my friend moves his army around and spreads out into a crescent shape surrounding my corner. I lose my Looted tank to a damn fast Carnifex, oh well. My turn, none of my reserves come in against the odds (not a problem) so I move my Warboss and Ard' Boyz into assault with the Carnifex that destroyed my tank, and kill one more Genestealer squad and some of the Gaunts with the Lootas. Assault phase of turn two, wipe out the Carnifex and take a wound on my Warboss.

Turn three, being down to only one troop choice now, my friend runs his Genestealers behind one of the only line of sight blocking pieces of terrain to keep it safe until the end of the game. Warriors shoot the snot out of one of my Loota squads and a Carnifex and Hive Tyrant with 3 Guard assault my Warboss and Ard' Boyz, wiping it out with an overrun but not before my Warboss took down the tyrant with his Power Klaw.

Bottom of turn three, the game ender. All my reserves are in play now, I put my Boyz only Trukk on the other side of the board and start driving them to my friends objective. My other Warboss and his Boyz drive in, jump out of the Trukk, Waaagh!, and engage the other Tyrant on the board that was sitting on his claws waiting for my reserves to come in (my friend did forget about the Waaagh! rule, so silly him, he thought he was far enough away ^^). My last Loota squad unloads 45 shots into the remainder of the Guants and wipe them out. My Shoota Boyz come in not 3" from the remaining Genestealers, unloading their Shootas and then assaulting to finish them off and my friend's ability to hold objectives. After the assault phase with only a few Warriors, some beaten up Guard, and a heavily wounded Carnifex, my friend conceded defeat.