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If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Pin ‘Em

By Nick Nanavati | June 26th, 2018 | Categories: Tactics, Warhammer 40k Articles & News

Dark Eldar hor wal

Today we’re talking about a tactic that many top players frequently employ, yet one I rarely see utilized by more average players. Come find out how to pin down your opponent.

A long time ago in a galaxy far away I wrote an article about trapping units in combat, but I didn’t dive into detail about what to do while you’re in that situation.

Take this scenario:

combat tactics

We have a classic Eldar gunline with some dark Reapers, cat lady, Eldrad, a Farseer, an Autarch, and a Serpent. Screening them is two units of rangers up front, who are pushing back some Stygies Electro-priests. The Electro-priests have first turn and are ready to move up and launch a potentially game-winning turn 1 charge.

This is how the movement phase and initial charge move went. As you can see, the priests only declared a charge against 1 of the 5 man ranger units. They are >1″ away from the ranger squad on the left and engaged with the ranger squad on the right.

So, you’ve kept with your Brown Nights at the Game Table articles and you know how to surround stuff in combat now. In fact, it’s your go-to move and at this point, it’s second nature. That’s exactly what happened here.

combat tactics

Poor Billy didn’t know what he signed up for when he decided to join Ranger duty.

Well, no you’re the Eldar player. You’re starring at 20 Electro-priests with a 2++ invulnerable, FNP, who are surrounding Billy the ranger, and are salivating at the thought of charging your dark reapers and characters next turn. What do you do?

combat tactics

You take your time, and dissect the situation. A unit’s shape has a subtle yet very powerful impact on how it can move. The Electro-priests spread out in a long line to maximize their frontage in order to engage the rangers effectively and try to pin the sneaky, little Eldar in the corner. However, while the Ad Mech player thought he was being clever with his positioning, a great player will be able to capitalize on critical positioning error.

combat tactics

combat tactics

The Serpent on the bottom left of the hill moves 16″ over to the side, while the autarch on the top right of the hill moves 16″ straight up.

You also built your gunline well, and put in some smite-esque mortal wound mechanics. Getting trapped in combat is pretty much a gunline’s worst nightmare, and it’s a very, very real threat. Introducing smite to your list can do wonders to mitigate some of the impunity your opponent gets when he locks himself in combat with you.

Here the Eldar player pumped 3 smites from his psykers and popped his serpent shield for a total of 4d3 mortals. I conservatively pulled 5 Electro-priests from the unit, because they have feel no pain to stop some of the smite damage.

combat tactics

With that in mind you charged the Serpent and Autarch into the sides of the unit where they hopefully won’t take too much damage from the return attacks.

combat tactics

Let’s just assume the Serpent and Autarch accomplish exactly 0 wounds in combat because 2++ invuls and fnp are quite annoying to chew through the hard way.

combat tactics

This is a picture of what the situation looks like after the Electro-priests pile in the first time, and punch the rangers in the face. Poor Billy. Note, they still get a 3″ pile in which they’re about to make.

Remember, a model must move closer to the closest model, even for the consolidation.

combat tactics

The pen in the middle of the unit of electropriests represents the dividing line between which models are closer to the Serpent, and which are closer to the Autarch. That means the models on the left have to consolidate closer to the serpent and the models on the right have to consolidate closer to the Autarch on the right.

There is another stipulation here though. Models must also remain in coherency when they pile in/consolidate.

combat tactics

As you can see, the two models nearest the pen are pretty much at maximum coherency. That means neither model can move toward the enemy units they need to move toward without breaking coherency, and thus they can’t move. Consequently, the next few models are tethered to them as well by their 2″ coherency. Over the course of the whole unit, this means that 5-6 models won’t be able to move at all. Not to mention nearly 1/3 of the Priest unit will be spent bridging coherency in place and not fighting.

This excellent implementation buys you all the time you need to deal with the incoming Electropriest threat and engage whatever other portions of the Ad Mech army you needed to with your long-range reapers. When executed properly, little tricks like this can totally stop an assault army in its tracks.

40k is a game where nearly every situation has an infinite amount of breakdowns on how it can be handled. Building a list with all the tools is half the battle, but the other half is knowing how to use your toolbox.

To learn more tricks, tactics, and strategies from me personally and directly just follow the link to become a pro!

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About the Author: Nick Nanavati