40K Basics: Understanding The Assault

9 Minute Read

Feb 21 2013

FRITZ herewith the first in an ambitious TEN part series on some of the fundamentals in playing Warhammer 40,000. Today – understanding assaults.

As a long time player who tries his best to share the hobby and offer some alternative tactical insights I wanted to share some of the basics of 40K- basics that all the vets and longtime players know through experience, but new players are still in the process of learning. 40K fundamentals that a new player can read, understand, and bring to the club or gaming store next week and start using right away to win. Let’s get started with Part I- Understanding the assault in 40K…

One of the thrills in playing my Red Templars is the thrill of the assault- in a game world of terrifying weapons, technology, and aliens, it is still most satisfying to settle things in the old ways- up close and personal with the sword. Visually it captures my imagination as my land raider rumbles across the table laying down las cannon and heavy bolter shots before coming to a stop and disembarking the terminators inside, who then crash into the enemy ranks delivering the judgment of the Emperor…

So you share my vision and have been thinking about running an assault themed army, or perhaps wondering how to get the most out of your close combat dedicated unit.

How do you do that in a game system that favors shooting over assaulting?

That’s what we are going to look at in this section of the guide…

The first thing is to understand the reality of the assault and close combat in the Warhammer 40,000 game system. Sure the rules allow it, perhaps even encourage it with some special abilities like rage, rending, and feel no pain, and then of course the visuals and art of the game glorify it.

But trying to pull it off through a blind charge just won’t work, and to make matters worse, often assault based units are VERY expensive (Eldar Harlequins anybody) so you are going to be dealing with the double threat of playing an elite (small) based army against some very large shooting based armies that the game encourages.

So why do assault based armies have difficulty beyond the point cost of the models?

The first hurdle is to be found in the shooting phase, and while assault based units often have some shooting, they are not geared up for torrents of fire that other units have. SO, as you are moving across the table to get into position to assault you are taking fire and casualties for a turn or two before you make assault contact with the target unit. You may have started out with ten assault marines, but by the time they assault they are down to five or six in number- perhaps enough to kill the assaulting target unit, but not enough to survive another round of fire- and then what have you accomplished? Trade one unit for one, when we want to trade one unit for two or three.

You are going to need some way to protect your assaulting unit as it gets into position to shoot- either using speed to get it across the table, or a vehicle to protect the assault unit inside.

Then there is the problem of pre-measuring- if your opponent knows your assault unit 6” and then assault a maximum of 12” (super lucky), all they have to do is stay 18.1” away and you can’t touch them- all the while blasting away at you- and that is not counting overwatch.

You need some way to break the range so your opponent can’t just hang back and shoot you to death.

So let’s look at the work around to making an assault viable…

Prepare for glory!

The first thing in planning an assault is the unit itself, and what to select. Large resilient units are the best by choice and the most obvious of course, but why?

Back to the shooting phase for a moment…

In shooting, when it is your turn, you fire your weapons roll some dice, and your opponent has to deal with the results- there is nothing they can do back to you in the moment, other than make armor, cover, or invul saves per wounds taken.

That is why the shooting phase is both safe and powerful.

In the assault, most of the time your opponent will get to attack back in the phase you initiated the assault so at the same time you are forcing them to remove models, they could be forcing you to remove models.

Much like 40K maths and the weight of dice we want to put up as many layers of protection that the dice won’t get through so we don’t have to remove a model, while at the same time bypassing as many layers as possible to the opposing models.

Examples…

Say I have a group of thunder hammer / storm shield terminators with feel no pain cast on them, an average example of an assault unit for certain codex Space Marines.

When the opposing models attack in the assault they first have to hit me, which is usually on a 4+ and then have to wound me on a 4+ average which is already going to cut down on the number of dice I have to save against.

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Then I get either a 2+ or 3+ save, which cuts down on the dice some more, and then finally any that get through the saves I get to take my 5+ feel no pain roll.

Now, if we drop just one of these layers X number more of dice will get through to cause a model removal.

Just taking away FNP will let one or two casualties slip by.

On the other side of the equation when I’m building an assault unit, based on what I can take in my codex or allies stream I want to select options that will bypass armor saves, feel no pain, I want to try and hit on a 3+ or wound on a 2+, etc.

If I can’t do this due to my codex, then quantity becomes quality- even the best and most rock hard assault unit can ONLY kill so much a turn- so I plan to swarm them with chunks of 20+ model units, absorb their attacks, and then hit back using the sheer number of attacks to bypass the hit, wound, armor, FNP rolls, etc.

It has to be one or the other- uber tooled up or taken large and cheap, going middle of the road, say ten tactical marines with a power sword sarge does NOT an assault unit make.

So you have flipped through your codex and have your unit so now you need a plan on how to get them across the table, which involves both movement, protection, and a diversion- you see there is more to running an assault unit then jus the unit itself- you need a delivery system for the unit.

I’m going to talk about assault terminators here as an example since the odds are good that you own them in your model collection, or if you are a xeno player you have faced them enough to understand the concept.

You have your group of thunder hammer and storm shield terminators and plan to walk them across the table- how is that going to work out?

So next naturally we plan to put them in either a Land Raider or a flyer depending on the codex which will move faster than their 6” base move while protecting them from getting shot.

BUT even with that there is no guarantee that the unit will make it to the target, and you can BET if you send out your Land Raider to crash my lines, I’m going to try and bring it down with everything that my army has- you can’t be upset at that, what choice do I have?

And THAT is why so many assault based armies fail- they only have half of the equation- they have the uber unit, the delivery, but not the diversion.

While you are rumbling, flying, or slithering (Tyranids) across the table SOMETHING else has to be going on to keep your opponent busy. Something so they say to themselves, gee I’d like to stop that land raider with the terminators this turn, but I can’t because I need to deal with X unit right now that is trashing my army.

What makes a good diversion?

Depends on the codex of course, back to Space Marine as an example…

You have your Land Raider with the termies inside, but now need something that can hit ahead of it and force your opponent’s attention- something they can’t necessarily stop because it will arrive ahead of your main assault units.

So what if we took Shrike from Codex Space Marines and attached him to a big group of assault marines and infiltrated them in ahead of the land raider and terminators.

Then, building on that for good measure we take a big group of scouts and infiltrate them ahead also- your opponent will have to deal with them right away, and while Shrike and the assault marines will cause some damage, their real threat is the fact that your opponent will have to deal with them first and right away, thus allowing your Land Raider to get across the table and deliver those terminators.

Diversion units can be terrifying assault units in their own right, but they don’t have to be – look and consider what tools you have in your codex and model collection to get the job done.

Tyranids for the xeno side of the coin and another example…

I’ve got Swarmlord on the table and I want to get him into the thick of things cutting down Space Marines with his bone swords. Tyranids can’t take vehicles so I need some way to get him there FAST and protect him from shooting at the same time – we roll on the psychic chart for Gate of Infinity while stacking three Tyrant Guard to protect him.

I also need a diversion unit, which could be two big groups of twenty Genestealers that infiltrate ahead (in cover) to threaten my opponent, OR two big groups of Raveners which can move very fast, being beasts.

Feeling a little more confident about using assault based units or building your dream Blood Angels 5^th company assault marine list?

We have one more issue to consider to pull everything together…

To successfully run an assault based army you want to pull the opposing units towards you on the table, and not just move across it even if you are protected and all layered up. You want to draw opposing units out where they are further weakened and exposed so you can crush them in support.

We do this through objective placement…

In objective based missions (of which the standard 6^th edition rules and NOVA format tournaments are heavy with) you want to place the ones you can control out in the open and at the half way portion of the table- midfield. You then want to place your assault unit, or an assault unit in range to be able to move in one hop to reach this objective- projecting that assault threat bubble out to it…and wait…

As an objective your opponent will have to move across the table to capture it with a scoring unit- a unit that you can strip support away from with other units of your own, and then when it moves on the objective- you pounce and attack. Setting things up like this is key- HOW can you bait your opponent to be in range of your assault units.

I’ll leave you with this example from a 40K doubles list that Jawaballs (my 40K bud) and myself regularly use for team tournaments- Jawa representing the Blood Angels, and Fritz rocking the Eldar.

We look at the terrain on the table and place an objective within 16” of a good defensible position- usually a building or ruins where Jawaballs parks his Vindicator and a tactical squad, and I hide out with a group of Harlequins.

The Vindicator benefits from a cover save and the AV 13 front, blasting away at anything that approaches the objective- which is out in the open so no terrain cover saves, followed by the tactical squad in support.

When an opposing unit moves to take it, the Vindi blasts away, followed by the Harlequins pouncing (who ignore terrain in the building or ruins thanks to the flip belts) assaulting and wiping out any unit on there, followed by the tactical squad then moving up to claim the objective end of game…

Upcoming fundamentals articles are going to look at deployment, holding objectives, and how to maximize the shooting phase among other things…

Comments, feedback, or flames? Send them my WAY.

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Author: Fred Hansen

Fred Hansens (aka Fritz) is a long time tabletop game player with over a decade of experience. He specializes in Warhammer 40K, both tactics and hobby. He began writing for BoLS in 2009.

Tactics Warhammer 40k