40K Tactics: Maximizing your Assault
Darkwynn here to give you some of my tips and tricks to make the most of your assaults. Grab your chainsword and lets go!
#1 Fast Moving Vehicles. Use these to get close and stay in. The enemy has to try to kill them, and unless they explode them, you can get out on the far side and have the assault initiative. Smoke makes it hard to kill them with shooting, and speed makes them hard to kill in melee so keep the pedal to the metal.
#2 Empty Vehicles. Empty vehicles are great, because you can’t assault the guys who were inside afterwards. So they work as a lure to limit enemy fire if your opponent wants that extra assault move.
#3 Bait. This is simple, but complex at the same time. Baiting is finding something your opponent can’t help but come after and putting it where you’ll be able to countercharge next turn. Combat squads, sole survivors with special weapons, stuff like that really draws them in. Guard can treat any unit as bait, really. Tyranid Zoanthrophes really attract assaults and can get your choppy forces the charges they are looking for every time. Orks? Anyone with assault capability wants to assault instead of being assaulted by Orks.
#4 Be Where They HAVE To Be. This is the key aspect of getting your assaults. Nathan Bedford Forrest said “get there firstest with the mostest,” and that is true for 40K today. The trick is getting there first and ending up on the tactical offensive (launching the assault). Find the key points and have your troops ready to respond. A very good example is a vehicle that moved fast parked on an objective, with assault troops behind. If the enemy needs to assault the vehicle to get troops in range to contest an objective, you have the perfect set-up. The enemy can’t afford to kill the vehicle with shooting, or he won’t get the assault. And assaults needing 6s to hit make vehicles pretty survivable.
#5 Avoidance and Multicharges. Do you really want your chaplain in BtB with TH/SS Terminators? I don’t either. So spread your assault out where he can’t end up there. It may feel odd stringing out your forces AWAY from the enemy before you assault them, but keeping those Independent Characters alive sometimes dictates pretty odd maneuvers. Similarly, you can get multicharges that seem impossible, if you spread your soldiers out correctly. Bridging an 8″ gap between targets is possible, but it takes practice, so take out the rulebook, a couple of Rhinos, 2 10-man units and practice a dozen different ways to position your unit to maximize your assault moves. It only takes 15 minutes but the experience gained is invaluable on the tabletop.
~I hope these tip help you focus your assault and get the most out of your close combat units. Darkwynn out!
