Spacecurves’ Tactics Class : The Art of Disembarking

Hello everyone, welcome to another Spacecurves’ Tactics Class, where you learn practical tactics you can apply to your games of Warhammer 40k.  This class will focus on disembarking from transports, and how doing so properly allows you to get the most out of your vehicles.

Transport vehicles are great in 5th edition 40k.  One of biggest reasons for this is how the disembarking rules are written.  Rhinos, raiders, etc. allow you to not only protect your troops on the way to the enemy, but to also get the drop on them once they arrive.

In picture 1 we see a space marine rhino under my control that is holding a full tactical squad, and two enemy Dark Eldar squads.  It is the Dark Eldar shooting phase.  

Let us assume that the Dark Eldar warriors succeed in wrecking the rhino with their dark lance.  Now I have to disembark my tactical marines.

If I disembark them from the left rhino door, the Incubi will be able to charge the squad, and ruin my day.  If I disembark from the right door, I can get my entire squad outside of the enemy charge range.  This principle still works even if the Incubi were a few inches closer.  If you put the burning wreck between you and the enemy, not only will they have to succeed in a difficult terrain check to reach you, but they may lose models to dangerous terrain climbing over the debris.

Disembarking can also be used to protect your unit from shooting as well as assault. If the enemy has more shooting to throw at you, disembarking can be used to give the squad a cover save behind their wrecked transport.

This issue is also why AP 1 weapons are so important for anti-tank.  Not only are they more likely to destroy the vehicle, they also make it more likely to explode the target, forcing any embarked models to be placed where the vehicle used to be instead of disembarking, and minimizing the disembarking shenanigans.

The following turn, my tactical squad can then run around the wreck, and shoot/assault whoever they want to.  Even though I “exposed” my units first by driving my Rhino up there, I will still “get the jump” on the enemy troops through the use of clever disembarking.

We are touching on a subtle truth of Warhammer 40k, which is that the actual size and appearance of a model are just as important as the rules in the codex.  For example, Chimeras are not great at holding assault troops, not just because of side armor 10, but because they only have 1 door in the back.  Dark Eldar Raiders are excellent for transporting assault troops not just because of their speed and firepower, but because they are so long that when wrecked, the passengers can usually escape enemy charge range. Mephiston is good because even though he has awesome stats, he is the size of a normal space marine, so you can hide him behind vehicles/terrain. The next time you are considering a unit’s place in your battle plan, don’t forget to think about what the actual model looks like!

Class Dismissed!