How 5th edition works

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What with all the 4th Edition list floating around, maybe a clear set example of how 5th ticks would be in order. I know what you mean, but people just dropping by the site might not. Sort of a consolidated collection of Stelek wisdom? I dunno, just an idea.

Oh, I asked you guys about some HE help a bit back, and haven't heard anything. What gives? Eh, it's not a biggy, just wondering. I want to steam roll my friend's Dwarves :)

SMreferee

Reply:

Well I'm sorta busy. Don't let the huge number of authors fool you. At the moment I have a huge backlog plus I'm trying to keep the IG stuff flowing. :)

I've recently suicided my WoW account, so I'll be able to blog more at nights during the weekdays. Who knows, the glorified secretary and I might switch offices at my work so I can blog at work during the day. Or not, and I'll just blog at home when there's nothing going on at work needs my (remote) attention.

Anyway, 5th edition is pretty easy to grasp if you follow the basic tenets of 5th edition.

Note, if your army can't follow the basic tenets of 5th edition...you are in for a world of pain when you face a 5th edition army.

So, my KISS principles for 5E:

1) Mount up. You should always be mounted whenever possible, or able to stop enemies from getting to your infantry.

2) True Line of Sight. Be aware of this. Don't be a dickhead and pussy out about it. If the other guy swears he can see you, most of the time just say 'ok'. Makes the game go much faster.

3) Dismount. Be aware of what the other guy has inside his transports at all times, and how you plan to force them out. If you didn't bring at least 6 meltaguns spread across 3 units, you fail at 5th edition. Note almost every list at my local shop has at least that many, and quite a few have way more (look at Froggage's bike list).

4) Mobility. 5th edition is all about mobility, not necessarily firepower on very expensive units. Dropping 270 points on a very expensive Plasma cannon Devastator squad will just give the other guy a very obvious target.

5) Focus fire. If you don't know how to do this yet, it means focusing on the biggest threats instead of fucking around with other shit. Fire at that threat until it's gone, then move to the next. Remember that for the most part, people just don't run off the board anymore when shot at. So unless you know he's rolling his special boxcar dice, don't count on that last meltagun running away. Odds are he'll stay.

6) Mass assault, or don't assault at all. This means, assault 2-4 enemy units (whatever your CC unit can handle) and crush them all at once. Go big, or don't go. 5th edition rewards very aggressive assaulting, but if you get your face beat in because you assaulted 3 terminator squads with 20 guardsmen...that's not very aggressive, that's plain ole stupid. Use the rules to your advantage. Assault 0 WS vehicles (aka not walkers) when going into a squad to minimize the damage you can potentially do to it, mostly so you can do fun things like not blow them away and on his turn...kill them, then re-assault.

I could go on forever, but if you get a handle on mech, melta, and mass assaults...you'll get a handle on 5th edition much faster.