Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics (section)

==Playing the Game==

===Movement 101===
7th Edition: [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Movement_101(7E)|Movement Phase 101]]

Topics covered so far:
*How movement works.
*Common rules mistakes.
*Basic advice regarding movement.
*Accurate and predictable measuring.
*Countering enemy movement.

===Psychic Phase (AKA: mind bullet time)===
7th Edition: [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Psychic 101|Psychic Phase 101]]

The psychic phase is where you use your vast array of mind powers.

===Shooting Stuff===

====The basics====
*Choose a weapon to shoot with and throw a dice. To hit, you need to score higher than your BS (which may vary due to external modifiers like cover).
* Rolling to wound:

**Attacker's Strength two (or more) greater than target's toughness: 2+
**Attacker's Strength one greater than target's toughness: 3+
**Attacker's Strength equal to target's toughness : 4+
**Attacker's Strength one less than target's toughness: 5+
**Attacker's Strength two (or more) lower than target's toughness: 6+

If the target's toughness is double (or greater) the attacker's strength, then the target is completely immune, the attacker can't damage him. Conversely, if the attacker's strength is double (or greater) the target's toughness, the wounds gain the rule "Instant Death" (meaning any unsaved wounds insta-kill the target).
* There are two ways to kill a tough unit: Either you use a high penetration high damage weapon to greatly reduce the chance of the unit succeeding its armour save , or you can attempt to overwhelm the unit's defense and fire enough dakka into it to make it fail a save. Bring the appropriate amount of dakka to combat a heavy unit, lest you be the one shot to hell.
**Example: Space Marine Terminators '''hate''' Guardsmen, Necron, and Tau bricks because they put out a fuckton of weak shots that will make them inevitably fail armor saves. Or rather than rely on 50 lasgun shots the guardsmen can instead bring a plasma gun that can flush their armor saves and instantly kill them. The plasma gun only needs to cook one terminator to make its points back. Conversely, the terminators can bring a heavy flamer and viet-nam 80% of the guard squad.
*Consequently, using too many units on a weak enemy is a waste of firepower and resources. Every unit who is somewhere can't be somewhere else.
*Although over-kill might be considered bad by some, lady luck might not always be on your side. You want to succeed even if plans A, B and C fail.
*During your shooting phase, assess what target options each one of your shooty units has, and always have your units who only have a single option fire first. The reason for this is if you've got unit A in a position to shoot anything he likes and unit B which only has one thing to shoot at, you want B to take the shot first. If you shoot B's target with A first instead, you run the risk of destroying it or breaking their morale, and you'll feel like a complete moron for depriving B of anything to shoot at.
*Another thing that is good to remember is which guns to fire first. Always fire blast weapons first, because the number of wounds they deal is always equal to the number of units in the squad at best, whereas regular guns can deal as many wounds as they hit.

====Advanced Notes====
* Generally speaking, don't rely on blast or flamer weapons to rack up large numbers of kills, as an enemy general can easily spread out his models to minimize potential damage. More than anything, they exist to keep the enemy honest and prevent an extreme concentration of forces. That said, there are four major scenarios for enemy models to bunch-up.
**When the enemy is displaced from one or more Tank Shocks.
**When a unit emerges from Deep Strike, and either rolls poorly to Run, forfeits running to-shoot (though a lot of Deepstrike units can reliably "Fire & Run" with the right power combinations), or is targeted by an Interceptor Weapon beforehand.
**When the unit rolls poorly to consolidate after an assault (of note is the fact that models cannot consolidate after assaulting a vehicle). Don't forget your flamers for the second wave.
**When the unit loses its transport, either to a wreck or explosion. A classic "one-two-punch" for a Marine army is to use heavier weapons to destroy enemy transports, then immediately follow-up with the Thunderfire cannons before the surviving passengers can spread out!

* If you want to maximize the amount of damage done to bunched-up models, four AOE weapons firing from the same unit will inflict more damage, than from four different units. To use a (very vacuum) example, let us compare two (vacuum) scenarios, with Orks as target practice:
**Four units of Chaos Space Marines, each with one flamer and 4 Bolters, fire at a unit of 20 Orks. All other things being considered, each flamer-equipped model can hit roughly 5 Orks apiece. The first unit fires, with one flamer hitting 5 Orks. After rolling to-hit and wound, the flamer kills about 2-3 Orks. The remaining models fire their Bolters, and probably kill another 4 Orks. The next unit fires, and is lucky if there is even one Ork in range of its flamer.
**On the other hand, let us suppose a unit of Chaos Chosen with four Flamers was firing at the unit of Orks. Each one hits 5 Orks, for a total of 20 hits. You now roll to-wound and the flamers themselves kill an average of 10 Orks, for a fraction of the investment.

*Many squads gain a disproportionate amount of strength from any special/heavy weapons they are carrying with them, or from the occasional superior character leading said unit. As a result, there are some occasions where you can mostly neuter the strength of the unit if you kill those specific models. 

* Although Characters can get "Look Out Sir" rolls, troopers armed with upgraded weapons do not. Thus, a competent player will generally hide such models in the "Center" of a formation, where they are shielded by their buddies (since the closest models from an attack vector are hit first).

* There are two main ways to single out enemy models in a unit: The first is to use weapons which can single out specific models. This includes attacks with the Precision Shot rule, or Beams/Focused Witchfires. These attacks tend to have inefficient economy of force. 

* The second way is to force key models to be the the closest visible ones singled out by your firepower. This is generally more efficient, but is situational and requires more prep-work to pull-off. Several ways to more reliably force your attacks to wound the models you want dead include the following:
**Using "Barrage" weapons (Mortars/etc) changes the attack point of origin from the firing unit's location, to ground-zero of the blasts in question.
**Though it's basic, it bears repeating: Always keep careful track of the order in which the models in your unit fire. A good motto is "Area of Effect Weapons First", "Rank and File Weapons Next", "Specials Are Last But Not Least." You want to remove as many chaff models as possible before you give your Plasmagunner a clear shot to the enemy Plasmagunner. 
**If you have ready access to powers that let you move and fire during the Shooting Phase (Battle Focus, Feints & Ambushes, the "Fire & Move" order for Guard, Marines in a Stormlance Demi-Company, etc), you can line troops down one attack vector. Units that can move after firing can move aside so they don't grant the enemy cover from your next firing squad (think of center-peeling and you're not too far off). Units that can move-then-fire in the shooting phase, you can further reposition your models based on any opportunities to hit the "next closest model".
**If all else fails, you can aim to block visibility to the parts of the enemy unit you don't want to shoot. This is yet another reason why Rhinos and convoy formations can be nasty. You can play "Space Invaders/shooting gallery" with your troops forming a triangle, and firing at a distinct subset of models they wish to remove.

===Assault===
*Assaulting is somewhat less reliable in 7th, due to Overwatch and random charge ranges, but it can still be a highly effective way of dispatching your enemies. It's also ''very'' situational, so make sure you are familiar with just what your unit can do and to whom it can do it to best. You'll be primarily concerned with delivering your fighting men into assaults reliably and keeping them alive between combats. While Assault has Less of an impact in 7th edition it's still a potent force to be considered. remember 7" is the average roll on a 2d6 charge and don't rely on overwatch to mow your opposition down before it gets to you, Assault is Far from dead and you'll regret it if you treat it as such.

*Optimizing your chances for success: ''Precision Shots'' should always aim to eliminate serious threats to your Assault game (i.e.: Template weapons, Marker Drones, Single Defensive Grenade bearers, etc.) ''Assault Vehicle'', ''Crusader'', ''Fleet'', and ''Hammer of Wrath'' make your assaults more reliable, by getting your units closer, neutralizing enemies before they can fight back, and ensuring that when you Sweep, you stand a better chance of knocking the target out. Aim to kill the target of your assault during his turn, never yours, because killing it in yours leaves you open to enemy shooting. ''Pinning'' shots are your friend.

*Weapon selection: Models who rely on faster initiative should seldom take ''Unwieldy'' weapons, while with slower, tougher and better armoured troops it's less of an issue. ''Impact'' weapons such as power spears are useless without either ''Hit & Run'' or a reliable way to get the charge. ''Rending'' is no substitute for AP 2, but has its uses, especially in quantity. Above all, kill them before they kill you, and to that end, take ''Concussive'' when you're faster and you can get it, but remember it only makes a difference for multi-wound models. And don't sweat AP, or lack thereof.

*Assaults happen twice per game turn vs shooting's one, they dissallow cover saves, and they almost always have a better chance of dislodging units from objectives owing to how leadership resolves.

====Advanced Notes====
*As a general rule of thumb, you want to break or destroy your enemy in your opponent's assault phase. That way, your opponent does not have a shooting phase before your assault teams move towards their next target.
*Generally speaking, Overwatch is more of an annoyance than a true threat, though certain rules, bonuses, etc (Dark Angel Chapter Tactics, Tau Supporting Fire/Counterfire Defensive Systems, flamers, etc) can take your toll, especially if you're relying on glass cannon units (Harlequins notably). Some special "Negate Overwatch" powers exist, but there are other ways to mitigate the effects of Overwatch.
**Pinned units cannot Overwatch. However, this generally is not a state you can reliably inflict on your opponent.
**Overwatch takes place before you move your charging unit, and is still subject to normal rules for Line of Sight, cover, etc. Moving a Rhino or other vehicle flat-out to block off models from shooting your chargers is always a valid trick.
**If blocking Line of Sight is not an option, then aim to eat the overwatch. One way to do this is to have a "tanky" unit lead the vanguard. For example, when charging a unit armed with multiple flamers, have a fast monster/walker lead the charge.
**Alternately, there's sacrificing an otherwise-depleted unit. If you have one grunt remaining from a squad, have him charge first before following up with a more intact unit. Either your opponent must waste the Overwatch killing that one single model, or that model must tie up the enemy unit.
*Remember that pile-ins use the same overall rules for charging, and thus any unit must ultimately maintain coherency. When attacking a large spread-out unit, you can negate a lot of its strength by attacking on opposing flanks.
*Multi-assaults are where things get interesting. Remember that should a model be engaged in an assault with two enemy units, and is in only base-to-base with models from one of those units, it must allocate its attacks against that unit. What this rule means, is that if you have more valuable units you wish to preserve in assault, then you can plan your attack vectors accordingly. Hilarity is forcing Commander Smashfucker to waste his Strength 10 super-hammer of doom on rank-and-file Termagants while his bodyguard is being eaten alive by the nearby Carnifex!
*The ability to quit close combats is a very powerful ability. It can be defensive, preventing ranged units from being tied down in melee, or it can be offensive, allowing assault units to "pinball" around the battlefield. Hit & Run is the main evasion ability, though Gate of Infinity finds its use as well (attaching Draigo to a unit of Centurions is the classic one-two of the infamous "Gravstar"). Another dirty trick you can use Hit and Run for in conjunction with a sufficiently durable unit (ex: A Conclave of the Burning One with a Deceiver Shard) is "Pulling" units off objectives. Attack the unit from the flank, wait for them to consolidate away from the objective, Hit & Run, and repeat the process.

===Vehicle Tactics===
{{Main|Warhammer 40,000/Tactics/Vehicles 101}}
*(Tank) Shock and Awe
** Mastery of metal box movement is key. They can be used as walls to many different effects, from bluntly blocking the enemy's movement to funneling some men on foot.
*The most common metal box tactic used by armies that have cheap enough transports with few guns is to disembark in the movement phase, shoot with the infantry in the shooting phase, then flat out the transport in front of the infantry.
**Basically ram them and hope it explodes; it really is fun when it does.

===Dice Roll Math===
*It is almost always better to re-roll dice than to get +1.  For instance, re-rollable 4+ has almost a 10% edge over 3+.
**The exception is re-rolling 6's, which is 1/36 worse than 5+.
**Because of how people throw dice, a re-rollable 2+ has a lower chance than math suggests. People tend to use the same rolling motions, which means those dice often end up in the same position ("1" both times).
*A scatter die has a 1/3 chance of rolling "hit", making it better than or equal to BS2.
**Despite being good for low-accuracy units, blasts also favour high BS units.  Up to BS7, you get increase RoI on accuracy.
**Against large targets, like tanks, a difference of 1-2" makes little difference.  However, *any* scatter usually costs hits against infantry.
*The average of 2d6 is 7.
**Average number of 3d6 is 10.5. 4d6 is 14. 
*Picking the highest of two dice adds about 1 (actually .9722....) to the average roll.
*4+ re-roll 5+ is the same as 3+.
*And, if you're into it, there's [[MathHammer]].
*GW dice are not mathematically fair! This set of mathematical data presumes you are using perfectly balanced casino dice which are. See following for details. http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/That%27s_How_I_Roll_-_A_Scientific_Analysis_of_Dice