40K TACTICS: The Reserves Game
Opponent: “Ok, I’m done deploying my spammy gun line, you are up.”
Fritz: “I’m done, I reserve everything…”
Making use of mass reserves is perhaps one of the most potent weapons in any general’s (especially Eldar general’s) toolkit. Lets look into this more deeply.
Mass reserves helps to minimize some of the weaknesses facing our out of date codex, low model count, etc. while taking away some of our opponent’s advantages. However, more than anything else, using reserves are a great way to keep your opponent guessing, and guessing is good because it leads to mistakes, mistakes that we can and will exploit.
Let me walk you through the game a bit with some examples of how reserves effect things…
Reserves Basics
First things first, did I get or take first turn? If my opponent has first turn (preferable) then I look at their army and what the board offers me in terms of terrain. If they are lining up for a first turn alpha strike, and they have the range and shots to hit me, why would I set up and let myself get blasted off the table?
Reserving everything means my opponent loses that first turn of shooting, and when I do come on the table I will at least get in a turn of my own shooting before being hit back, think of this as the counter to the alpha strike.
Reserves also cut down on the number of turns that you will be shot at- very important when you are fielding a point heavy vs. low model count army. More than anything else reserves help to smooth over the fact that Eldar units, and many of the best of them (wave serpents, prisms, etc) are overpriced and that we are going to be outnumbered. Cutting the game down to five rounds of shooting vs. seven round in a seven round game is huge.
Reserves also encourages your opponent to spread out and move ahead since everything looks all clear. When my units come on the table I’m entering in from an angle/spot where I can wolfpack isolated units while using cover and range to protect myself.
Deeper Considerations
Of course there are a few points to consider when playing the reserve game- things you have to be ready for. The first and most obvious is that your units could enter in piecemeal or much later in the game. I once had a lone jetbike unit zip on with the rest of my forces arriving turn four/five. With redundant units in the list I don’t feel this is a deal breaker, but it could happen. Really paranoid players can throw in an Autarch or anything else your codex offers to help with the reserves.
Then there is the question of what to do with a seer council if you play one. Reserving means no powers when they enter the table on that turn thus reducing them to very expensive jetbikes. My usual solution is to deploy them, castling up and using terrain to try and completely block LOS. LOS has to be complete since a cover save is meaningless with a 4+ invul save. However, at most it is only the really long range stuff that I have to worry about like las cannons, missiles, and orbital bombardments for the first turn.
Above all, reserves takes the punch out of the first turn, especially with drop pod heavy armies or in your face assault armies- and is my preferred solution for the new Blood Angels. Nothing takes the wind out of those in your face armies when they have nothing to shoot and assault in that decisive first/second turn.
Fellow autarchs & farseer, are you playing the reserves game? Mon-keigh, how could you adapt your army to use reserves, and is it something you regularly see in your gaming club/group?
