Today Nick Nanavati is here with 6 charging hacks for dummies that will not only keep your units alive but get them extra movement as well! Don’t miss more 40k tactics!
The Charge and Fight phases are easily some of the most intricate in all of 40k, and games are certainly won and lost in them, so learning how to be good at them is imperative to your success. Even for you Tau and Guard players that think you get a pass and get to ignore the hard parts of the game, it’s important that you understand how to keep your opponent from putting you in his pocket.
Charging By The Rulebook
- Pick the unit you want to charge with
- Declare all your charge targets
- Eat lots of overwatch
- Roll 2d6 for charge distance
- Move your first model so that it is within 1″ of an enemy you declared as a charge target
- Move the rest of your squad so that it finishes it’s move in coherency and not within 1″ of an enemy you did you not declare as a charge target.
So why did I just recite the rulebook to you? Because, believe it or not, there are a lot of nuances in there.
Step 1:
Pick the unit you want to charge with.
Ok there aren’t many nuances to this. You pick a unit and you charge with it. However, you must know the order in which order to charge in. Before sending your genestealers into a wall of flamers, try charging in with your Trygon to soak the overwatch. This eats most of the damage because shooting flamers at a trygon is a lot better for you than those same flamers roasting your genestealers. On the flip side, if you’re charging a unit with a bunch of plasma and las cannons lead with your genestealers so you don’t accidentally lose your Trygon to some lucky 6’s.
Charge in an order that saves you the most damage from the overwatch.
That’s not all though, imagine charging a unit in a tight spot where only a few of your models or units will actually be able to swing or fight. Be sure to charge in such a way that your damage dealing units actually get to attack. Charging a Trygon into a wall of flamers sounds great, but remember his base is huge, so there may not be any room left for the stealers after he moves in there. Be sure to respect what the position will look like after each model moves.
Use foresight to charge optimally.
Step 2:
Declare all your charge targets.
This is super important to get right for two reasons. First, you can’t come within 1″ of an enemy you did not declare as your charge target during your charge move. Second, you cannot attack a unit you did not declare as a charge target.
So how does this matter? Well, let’s say you have your sneaky assassin the solitaire who wants to blitz through a cultist blob to get to the nice juicy Ahriman in the back. You declare Ahriman as the charge target, roll 2d6 and roll enough to reach him! But you can’t place yourself within 1″ of Ahriman without being within an inch of the cultists you didn’t declare. You just failed your charge.
The easy solution here is to also charge the cultists! Wrong. The problem is when the solitaire eats 80 overwatch shots with re-rolls to hit he might have a bad day. Remember what I said about charging in the correct order to minimize overwatch damage?
- Charge a wave serpent into the cultist blob to eat the overwatch
- Charge solitaire into cultists that can no longer overwatch and Ahriman
- Kill Ahriman
- Win game.
Now, remember how you can only attack things that you declare as a charge target? When playing something where overwatch doesn’t matter for one reason or another (inconsequential amount of damage, the guys don’t have guns, etc.) you might as well just charge everything you can! That way you can go wherever you want when it comes time to move your models.
But wait there’s more!
Here’s a theoretical scenario that demonstrates something I like to do a lot. Let’s say I want to charge a unit 8″ away but I don’t want to just do anything if I fail my charge. Also, there’s a unit right in front of me, maybe even in the opposite direction occasionally. I declare both! If I roll the 8 I just go into the squad I want to. If I roll a 3 I just take my consolation prize.
If I roll a 7 I can go towards the unit I wanted with most of my squad while getting within 1″ of the nearby unit with 1 guy to make it legal, then use my lovely 3″ pile in to get closer to the squad I wanted to fight in the first place.I’ll explain the proper way to pile in and consolidate in the assault phase in my next article. If you think charging is complicated just wait.
Well back to the charge phase
Step 3:
Eat lots of overwatch.
There are actually more tactics here than simply using things like rhinos to make your life easier. Imagine you want to charge a unit of flamers with your genestealers but don’t have your handy-dandyTrygon nearby. Flamers have a measly range of 8″ so to shoot overwatch they have to be in range. Remember that trick from Step 2? Do that. Finish your movement phase 8.1″ away from the flamer mans, and as close as possible to something inconsequential. Declare a charge on both. You’ve negated the flamer overwatch and if you roll high you can still just charge them. If you roll average, charge the other unit and then pile into the flamers to steal their jeans.
Remember, you declared them as a charge target so even though you initially failed to make it to them you can still pile in and swing at them. A very similar trick you can do here is hide behind a wall or infamous Nova “L” to make your charge. The other guy can’t overwatch you if he can’t see you. Then you can use your magical infantry powers to kool-aid man through the wall and charge everything.
Step 4:
Roll 2d6
There’s only 1 tactic here and it’s easily the most important tactic in all of 40k. Roll Better.
Moving on
Step 5:
Move your first model so that it’s within 1″ of an enemy you declared as a charge target.
Not much to this either. Basically just following rules. There are some tactics here that revolve around how you pile in, but that’s an article for another day. For now, just follow this rule.
Step 6:
Move the rest of your squad so that it finishes it’s move in coherency and not within 1″ of an enemy you did not declare as a charge target.
A common misconception is that you have to move everyone closer to the stuff you’re charging. This is very untrue. You can move backwards, sideways, up, down, and in circles if you want. There are basically no rules here. You can actually get like 2 movement phases out of the assault phase if you’re crafty about it. Sometimes I like to leave little bits of squads alive just so I can charge them.
For example, some guy gets all up in your face with a unit of drop plasma. Instead of shooting them away, get them down to a couple guys. Then charge them. Engage them with a few of your models so you can ensure they die, but have the rest of your squad go toward an objective or piece of terrain or something. Then kill them. Then use your pile in at the end of that fight round to move further towards the objective. If you do this right you can totally get a free 12″ of movement.
There’s soooo much more to go into about the entire assault process, but that’s the basics of how to get the most out of the charge phase.
Until next time mis amigos!
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About the Author: Nick Nanavati
