40k: Balancing Anti-Infantry within your List
There are a lot of armies out there which include lots of tanks and a lot of armies that don’t but a common theme throughout is infantry. You need to be able to deal with both to run an effective list.
It’s that pink thing again, aka Kirby. Last article we looked at two different types of anti-tank firepower: true anti-tank and suppression fire. Dealing with infantry is a little bit more complex as assaulting them is a viable and reliable option as well as using blast or template weapons. First though, it is important to understand that a balanced list will always need to be capable in the anti-tank and anti-infantry departments. Just so it’s clear, when I say balanced I mean competitive. Whilst rock armies (like Nob Bikers) can and do win games and tournaments, they are much more likely to come up against a match-up which doesn’t favor them. Balanced lists do not have these ‘auto-lose’ games. There may be armies they don’t like to play against compared to others but all else being equal, they are still a decent chance to win. More of this can be read here.
Without going into a long essay on the many ways to deal with infantry we’ll divide it up simply. The most obvious division begins between shooting and assault. Before we look at how both of these options operate let’s look at what is effective against infantry.
Infantry vary in terms of toughness but are generally between T3 and T5 with a save ranging from 2+ to 6+ (or none at all). With the introduction of 5th edition the units with poor saves became more effective due to the new cover rules. Now though you pay 5-7 points for a unit with a 5+ or worse save, you effectively have a 4+ cover save which can often become a 3+ or 2+ depending upon special rules or going to ground. Firepower which doesn’t ignore cover isn’t going to be very effective against these units in terms of efficiency now is it? What this all boils down to is like suppression fire, we need a lot of shots to punch through that 4+ cover save infantry are getting for ‘free.’
Most of our basic shooty anti-infantry firepower is included in our army selection. It’s hard to actively avoid anti-infantry within an army but it is possible, particularly with MSU (multiple small units – i.e. lots of small units running around). For example: Marine armies will often have a lot of boltguns or storm bolters; Imperial Guard armies lots of lasguns, heavy bolters, multi-lasers; Dark Eldar lots of splinter weapons, etc. Whilst this is a good basis for anti-infantry it’s not enough.
From there we need to be able to add in weapons with templates or blasts. These weapons are particularly effective because they have very high damage potentials (how many models can you fit under each 40k template?) which make them very effective against clumped units or large infantry units. This impressive fire potential can be maximised by forcing clumping on your opponent by making them assault tanks, destroying their transports or tank shocking them. However, these weapons are less effective against smaller squads as their damage potential drops as the number of models drop. It’s therefore important to have other weapons capable of anti-infantry to support these types of weapons.
An old staple of 4th edition armies was the plasma gun or anything with a low AP (3 or less generally). This was to deal with the MEQ (3+ save armies) that were so common and without easily gained cover, these guns were very effective and worth their price. Enter 5th edition, a price hike and the aforementioned increase in cover and these weapons are not as important anymore. This isn’t to say they are useless, just less important.
Having low AP weapons in your arsenal will help against 3+ save armies but not against 4+ save or worse armies. Against the 3+ save armies such as Marines, even when in cover you’ll be reducing their save by one whilst against 4+ save or worse armies you’re not gaining any benefit from your low AP. Catching units out in the open, particularly after they have dismebarked from a transport (forcibly preferrably) can lead to these types of weapons coming in handy. Therefore having a few low AP guns around is a nice back-up to have and some armies (i.e. Tau) have this built into their lists (i.e. Crisis Suits). If you are able to combine low AP and blasts/templates even better but make sure you aren’t spending a huge amount of points on those weapons. It’s all about efficiency.
Still, shooting at infantry bunkered down in cover with a 2+ or 3+ cover save still isn’t very effective. Whilst some guns can ignore cover such as ordanace barrage, the most effective way to get infantry out of cover or simply to remove large swathes of infantry is with torrenting assault units. This works on the same premise as rate of fire weapons for suppression fire or anti-infantry except you are doing it in combat.
The sheer number of attacks units like Blood Angels Assualt Marines or Khorne Beserkers can put out is going to decimate units with poor armor saves (no cover saves in combat!) and will even threaten units with good saves through sheer weight of wounds inflicted. Follow-up this up with the ability to engage multiple units on the charge and sweep whole units off the board if you win combat and assault units which put out a lot of attacks are excellent in dealing with infantry. If they are capable of packing weapons to deal with tanks as well (i.e. meltaguns), then you’ve got a very good unit on your hand capable of dealing with anything thrown at them.
There is an obvious downside to torrenting through assault. Firstly you have to get into assault, which means you’re more often than not being shot before hand. Not all assault units carry grenades and not all assault units have a lot of attacks. Terminators are a great combat unit, but they are not a torrent unit. Finally the opponent can hit you back. With shooting you shoot and nothing happens to your guys (unless you explode something near your guys or miss badly with blasts) but in combat you and your opponent are both swinging wildly, quite often at the same time. There is little else that can effectively deal with entrenched units in cover so torrenting assault units have a very strong place in many armies, though.
What this all boils down to is balance. Like anti-tank you need more than one type of firepower to deal with an infantry army. Whilst it is unrealistic to expect yourself to reliably kill 200 infantry a game, you should be able to deal with at least 100 at 2000 points. Without enough anti-infantry ability, you’re not going to be running a balanced list; and if you come up against a pure foot list at a tournament (even if it also isn’t balanced), you’ll be hard-pressed to come out the otherside with a victory.
Like last article what do you think is a good balance for anti-infantry firepower? Are Blood Angels lists designed around Jump Packs lacking with only some shooting and a lot of assault based anti-infantry? Are Hybrid Blast-spam IG lists relying too much on their blasts to deal with infantry? Also, what do you think the best anti-infantry gun out there is in terms of raw efficiency?
