Building and Using Epic-A Armies

Building the Army
“I will be proud to lead you wonderful miniatures, anytime, anywhere.”

There are three basic formation types in Epic A, Grunts, Fast Attack, and Support. Each has a distinct role to play on the battlefield, and it is the interaction of these differing types that creates the unique flavor of the game. Some of these types contain sub-categories of formations though, overall, their battlefield role remains the same. Also some formations will be able to fit into two different categories, in that case, then it is the mission the formation is going to perform on the battlefield that determines its type.

Grunts: These are the ’Dog Faces’ that will do most of the fighting on the battlefield, and their importance cannot be ignored. Their basic job is to take ground, hold ground, and to provide a “base of maneuver” for other formations. Grunts must be able to threaten an enemy with firepower and/or assault, either through sheer numbers of units, or by being good at one or both. Grunts must be able to absorb hits and still remain combat capable, they do this by having good armor, sheer numbers in units, or a combination of both. Last, Grunts must be able to hold down a good chunk of real estate so they can interfere with enemy movements, IE get in the way. Grunts may not have the firepower of Support Formations, or the speed and hitting power of Fast Attack Formations, but it is only the Grunts that can go toe to toe with enemy forces and still maintain its hold on a position.
Examples:
(IG) Infantry Company, Mech Company, Tank Company
(SM) Tactical Detachment, Terminator Detachment
(Ork) Warband

Fast Attack: These are the “Darling Hussars” of the 40k universe, and like the cavalry of old, perform the role of shock troops. Their basic job is to use their speed and hitting power to knock an enemy off balance, either by actually attacking them, or by the mere threat of what they could do if they attacked. As the name implies they are fast, having a either a base speed of 30cm, or a base speed of 25cm with ‘Infiltrate’. Fast Attack Formations are often small, 5 to 8 units. This is not always true, though, even formations of 10+ units could still fit into the Fast Attack category. Last, Fast Attack Formations are dedicated attacking formations that often excel at one form of combat action, either through it’s abilities in combat, or because of it’s speed. It is here that the weakness of Fast Attack Formations lays, they are real good at taking ground, but they have a hard time standing and trying to hold on to it. Fast Attack Formations perform their best when they are working directly with Grunt Formations, dancing around an open enemy flank, or slipping into the enemy rear areas.
Examples:
(IG) Rough Riders Platoon, Stormtroopers Platoon (in Valkyries)
(SM) Bike Detachment, Assault Detachment
(Ork) Kult of Speed, Blitz Brigade

Support: This is by far the largest of the three categories, and covers a host of formations, however one thing is uniform to all of them. They provide support to Grunt and Fast Attack Formations while they carry out their combat missions. They do this by providing long range fire support, close in fire support, or by disrupting enemy movements. The three categories of Support Formations are; Indirect Support, Close Support, and Direct Support.
Indirect Support Formations, are formations that have long range, 60cm+, are often BP and/or MW, and sometimes have IDF capability. Their job is to sit back and pound enemy formations from a range at which that same enemy formation cannot retaliate from. These fires are used to soften up an enemy formation before it is directly attacked, or to break up an enemy formation before it launches it’s own attack. In almost all cases Indirect Support Formations are poor in assaults, and do not have very good armor, which is ok because they can better perform their job by staying out of the front lines.
Examples:
(IG) Artillery (Battery and Company), Thunderbolt Squadron, Marauder Squadron
(SM) Whirlwind Detachment, Thunderhawk
(Ork) Fighta Bommaz Sqwadron
Close Support Formations, are formations that work closely with Grunt and Fast Attack formations. Close Support Formations use their firepower to soften up nearby enemy formations, or by adding their FF ability directly into an assault involving other friendly formations. While most Close Support Formations are small, their presence close to the front line puts an opponent in the position of trying to decide who to shoot at, the Grunts in front or the Close Support behind. The result is often the Grunts take the fire, as they are the biggest threat, and this often allows the Close Support to keep doing its job turn, after turn. Most War Engines fall into this sub-category, and don’t scream, for four obvious reasons; (1) They are not that fast so they cannot qualify as Fast Attack; (2) While they do have staying power, and excellent combat abilities, they cannot hold down anywhere near as much ground as Grunts; (3) They perform their best when they are working directly with a Grunt or Fast Attack formation; (4) While some do have long range firepower, and could perform the above Indirect Support duties, this is a total waste of their other excellent combat abilities, and that is a waste of points. There are exceptions. For example, a Shadow Sword has no business rolling up into the front lines when its Volcano Cannon reaches out to 90cms, and it has no other real abilities outside that, so it is Indirect Support.
Examples:
(IG) Demolisher Platoon
(SM) Vindicator Detachment
(Ork) Big Gunz Mob
Direct Support Formations, are formations that provide support to other formations by using a unique ability that only they have, and the formations they are supporting do not have. There is no need to further break down this sub-category because the ‘unique ability’ they have is often self-explanatory. For example, a Hydra Battery has the AA ability so it provides AA support, and Scouts use their extra large ZOCs and unit coherency distance to screen other formations or delay enemy movements.

Putting An Army Together
We all want to perform well on the battlefield, and the first step to accomplishing this goal is to have the right proportions of each formation type in the army, this is called ‘Combined Arms’, and was as true in Napoleon’s day as it is today. Think of it this way; If an army contains all Fast Attack Formations it will have no trouble taking ground, or maneuvering around the enemy. However, it will also will have loads of trouble trying to hold on to the ground it takes, and will have difficulty responding to Indirect Support. A ‘Combined Arms’ force would have little difficulty exploiting these weaknesses, and protecting against the Fast Attack armies strengths.
Basically your army should contain, in points, the following proportions of formations; 35% to 50% of it’s points in Grunt Formations, 25% to 40% of it’s points in Fast Attack Formations, 25% to 40% of it’s points in Support Formations (So in a GT game that is 945 to 1,350 points in Grunt Formations, 675 to 1,080 points in Fast Attack Formations, and 675 to 1,80 points in Support Formations). Now it is important to understand that this is by formation, not individual units, so a Marine Tactical Detachment of 6xMarines, 6xRhinos, 2xVindicators, is a 450 point Grunt Formation, NOT 300 points of Grunts and 150 points of Support. Keep in mind while you are doing this that you must try not go below the minimums set in the list above, so in a GT game you are going to want to spend a minimum of 945 points on Grunt Formations, otherwise you will lose the ability to use ‘Combined Arms’. Having said that they are also not “set in stone” either, if the best you can get is 925 points in Grunts, without getting another whole Grunt Formation, then you will be doing ok also. The idea is to get as close as you can to each of them, while building an Army you are going to enjoy using.

How Many Activations
“What else should we do, sir, but of course we plan to give them a 1D6”

The next important factor to consider is activations, or, “ Just what is too many, or too few?” There is no denying that it is important, and to a new General something he will agonize over. An army with too many activations often has scads of small formations running all over the place. Now early in the battle he will definitely have an activation advantage and will be able to maneuver at will, but these are small formations, and they can be rendered combat ineffective (destroyed or reduced to one unit) very easily. What often happens is by turn 3 the activations advantage has been reduced to parity, if not lower, and the former player with the advantage is struggling to keep up. An army with too few activations usually has a couple of big lumbering formations, loaded down with every unit available, and a couple of small formations, if any, bouncing around the flanks. These big formations are tough to stop, but they couldn’t outmaneuver a crippled sloth, and are BM magnets! When you consider that a BM is placed for every firing action (two if it‘s a crossfire), one BM is placed for each kill, that each BM pins a firing unit, and that even one BM is a -1 to initiative rolls, you quickly realize that these formations are collecting tons of BMs and spending most of the game trying to get rid of them! Get the activation advantage back, you’ll be lucky if they are still able to shoot and move by the end of turn three!
In general you want to have between 2.5 to 3.5 activations per 1,000 points in the Army, rounding down at the low end, and up at the top. So in a GT game that is 6.75 to 9.45, or 6 to 10 activations.

Mobile Warfare
“Tactics is the art of rolling dice; strategy is the art of throwing them”

While you often hear about modern warfare being "fluid", many actually do not know what is meant by fluid. Many think this is forces hurtling around the battle area without any fronts, or rear, or flanks, in reality a "fluid battle" is a battle where the position of the front is constantly changing, not where there is no front. This constant change of position occurs because modern forces can quickly change their point of attack, and it is this that creates a fluid environment.

In France, in 1940, the German Armored Forces smashed through the Ardennes, blew a hole in the French Front Line near Sedan, turned north and headed for the channel coast. The entire time that Guderians's Panzers were moving from south to north, German forces were being funneled through the gap and establishing a corridor behind him. Initially two Infantry Divisions anchored the corners of the breach, and two more arrived later to expand it. Guderain himself detailed Kampfgruppes to screen the right flank of his advance from the French troops to his east, while he established a series of Recon Gruppes way out on his left flank to pick up any French activity before it got anywhere near his forces. At no time was his "Front Line" ever out of contact with any elements under his command. Convoluted, yes, thin and stretched out, for sure, but it was never broken. In fact it was the French who lost control of their "front line", and it was their inability to organize an effective counter-attack to re-establish that "front line" that cost them the war.

In Epic A, as in real war, you must maintain control over a continuous front. Now this isn't a single line of stands stretching from one edge of the table to the other. Nor does this line have to be straight, in fact a convoluted line IS normal for what we are discussing. Nor does this line have to be a connected line, through ZOCs, stretching from one table edge to another, though it can be. Formations maintain control over the continuous front using their ZOCs, and using the threat of what they can do to an enemy. Which type to use depends a lot on what forces an opponent has in a particular area of the battlefield. If the enemy has fast, mobile troops then you want to use ZOCs to contain them. If the enemy has slow foot ‘sloogers’ the threat of what troops can do will often suffice. In any case by maintaining control over a continuous front you protect the objectives the enemy is trying to get at, while at the same time limiting his ability to maneuver around your forces (ie he has less table area because your forces are in the way). If both sides do this then the Epic A battle becomes a battle of thrust and counter-thrust, with each trying to establish a breakthrough, or bend the enemy forces back until they break. This IS how modern warfare works, and because Epic A reflects modern warfare well, is how it works in Epic A also. (If a player doesn't try to maintain a front against a player that does his loss is almost assured because his objectives are there for the taking, while his opponents are well protected, and the Objectives are how this game is won or lost.)

Frontages
“It is with these order dice that miniatures are truly led”

Each unit in Epic A has a frontage of 3-4 cms, and when you combine this with each units 5cm ZOC they have a frontage of 13-14 cms. Since a unit must stay within 5cms of a unit in its formation, the actual frontage is smaller, and this returns an actual frontage of 8-9 cms within the formation. As each formation doesn't have to stay within 5cms of another formation, and therefore the formation has two "open flanks", a formation can add a full 10cms to its frontage (5cms for each open flank). So the formula to determine the maximum frontage that a formation can hold is (Units x 9) +5)=Frontage in cms. With this simple formula you can now quickly determine what the frontage of a formation is relative to the number of units placed in the front line of the formation. (Note: If you are using scouts, whose ZOC is 10cms, then the formula is (Units x 14 )+10)=Frontage in cms

Formation Deployments
As you now know how to determine the frontage a formation can exert control over it’s time to figure out how to take advantage of it in deploying a formation. Because all losses are suffered from the front of a formation to the back of the formation, it’s no surprise that the more depth a formation has when it is deployed the longer it will be able to maintain control over its frontage. (Though a single line can exert control over a really wide frontage, it only takes the loss of two units to put a good hole in it, despite this a single line deployment can still be useful.) Also a formation deployed not only in width but also in depth is better able to concentrate its firepower. These deployments are referred to by using different numbers separated by a slash, with each number representing how many units are in each line of the deployment. Thus a 3/2 would be 3 units in the first line and 2 units in the second line. 4/4/3 would be 4 units in the first line, 4 units in the second line, and three units in the third line. 5/0 would be 5 units in the first line and 0 units in the second line, or in other words a single line of 5 units (the slash and 0 are still used even in a single line deployment for clarity). With the frontage information above and this deployment information a player can set the type deployment he wants to use with a formation and then quickly determine how much frontage it can exert control over.

Formation Interaction
“I don’t want good Generals, I want lucky dice”

If there is one thing I just love about Epic A, over Epic 40k and Epic Titanticus , it is the interaction that occurs between differing formation types. In Epic 40k an all “Landraider” army was a potent force, in Epic A it would get cut to pieces! Sure landraiders are good tank killers, but they are average in a shoot out with infantry, and down right mediocre in an assault. So if they are not working with a formation that can provide them some protection from an assault, they are a waste of points. Now a Space Marine Tactical Detachment is a good “all around” fighting force that can perform well in most situations, but it will have a tough time in a shoot out with tanks. Well put a Detachment of Landraiders in behind them and the combination of the two detachments will be able to take on all comers. Now this is what I mean by formation interaction! Now when you put an army together, start thinking about the way each formation fights, its strengths, its weaknesses, and then buy formations that compliment each other, either by protecting another formations weakness, or enhancing its capabilities.

Combat Groups CGs, Running the Army
“If you can’t do the job then I will find some miniatures that can”

Now that you have all of the above put together its time to organize the army for battle, and we do this by putting each formation into a larger military organization we call Combat Groups, CG for short. (You can call them Brigades, or Regiments, or anything else you want, you do not have to call them CGs) Each Combat Group is made up of 2 to 4 formations of any type, though they should be able to work together as explained in “Formation Interaction” above. When you organize these CGs think of; (1) What mission is the Combat Group going to perform and/or; (2) Do the formations in the Combat Group compliment each other and/or enhance the mission capability of the Combat Group. For example if a CG is going to carry out delay/containment duties for three turns then it doesn’t have to worry too much about any possible weaknesses in the CG. (It only has to stay in the enemies way for three turns.) So you decide to allocate 1xMarine Bike Detachment, and 1xMarine Tactical Detachment to this Combat Group, with the information on frontages, and depth above you can now figure out exactly how much frontage they will be able to hold. Or if the CG has to hold the line while at the same time pin the enemy in place, it’s going to have to be a real threat to the enemy or it will not be able to perform its job. So you might decide to use 2xMarine Tactical Detachments, and a Predator Detachment in this Combat Group. There is no doubt that this Combat Group is a threat and can take on all comers, so it will be able to pin the enemy in place. (Artillery is an exception to this as their range allows them to provide support from almost anywhere on the battlefield, so they are often left out of Combat Groups.

Da Battle
“No battle plan ever survives contact with the dice”

Now that you have all the forces organized into Combat Groups it’s time to come up with a plan. (If you have followed all of the above this will be easy.) All you have to do is assign each Combat Group mission to achieve in the overall plan, and then during the battle execute those orders for each CG. If the battlefield situation changes then you can quickly and easily modify the original plan by assigning new missions to the affected Combat Groups, or all if needed. You can even go so far as to rearranging your Combat Groups there is nothing to stop you, and it is a good way to modify plans.
An Example: You have an army of four Combat Groups, they are 1stCG, 2ndCG, 3rdCG, and 4thCG (Artillery). Orders 1stCG will contain and delay enemy forces on the left flank. 2ndCG will attack and pin the enemy on the right flank, and will also attempt to push back the enemy far right. 3rdCG will remain in reserve and then on or around turn three it will launch an attack through 2ndCG’s position. 4thCG will provide fire support to 2ndCG for two turns, and will shift its fire to support 3rdCG from turn 3 on. This is a clear easy to execute plan and during the battle all you need do is make sure each CG follows its orders in the plan. Lets say your opponent throws you a curve ball and launches a Deep Strike into you rear areas with a Thunderhawk carrying Assault Marines. Time to modify the plan. 3rdCG orders one of its formations to join 4thCG with orders to first contain, and then destroy the enemy forces in the rear areas. Now that formation and all the artillery in the 4thCG have a new mission and the rest of the CGs can carry out the rest of the plan.
Why is this Combat Group stuff so important anyway? Because two military concepts are very important in war, and because Epic A reflects war very well they are important in the game also. They are Conservation of Force, and Unity of Effort.
Conservation of Force is ensuring that only a minimum of force used in secondary efforts, thus allowing the maximum of force to be used in the main effort.
Unity of Effort is ensuring that every single element that makes up the army is contributing to the success of the main effort. Nothing can or should be wasted.
If you organized your Army into Combat Groups, and then assigned each of the CGs orders, then you have, by default, obtained Unity of Effort. How? You know what you want to accomplish in the battle, and therefore you are going to give each Combat Group orders that help achieve that goal, so by default you have created a unified effort by all elements of the army! Now when you go to fight the battle you know each CGs job/orders and can maneuver/fight the elements of the CG toward the objective of those orders and with a clear picture in your mind of how this contributes to the overall battle plan. For Example: You have a Combat Group of 2xMarine Bike Detachments, and 1xMarine Tactical Detachment with orders to contain/delay the enemy forces on the left flank for three turns. At the end of turn 2 the Combat Group has lost one Bike Detachment, the other Bike is down 50% strength, and the Tactical is down 25% strength, but as its orders are to hold for three it isn’t a problem as it has more than enough strength to hold for another turn.
As you have organized the army into Combat Brigades, and you have organized those Combat Brigades with the mission they have to perform in mind (ie only put the formations the CG needs to accomplish its mission into it), then by default you have obtained Conservation of Force. You sure aren’t going to put an expensive Dread Mob, or two Landraider Detachments in a Combat Group that is being assigned a delay/containment mission, right? Especially when there are much cheaper formations that can perform the same job just as well, right? So by default you have accomplished Conservation of Effort.

Thinking On Your Feet
“There isn’t any problem that cannot be solved by the reasonable application of bigger dice”

War is a dynamic environment in which anything that can happen, will happen. (This is why Generals don’t play chess they play poker.) There are three plans in every battle, yours, his, and the one that occurs when the two plans come together. You must have a plan for a battle, and you must try to implement the plan you have devised, but you must also be ready to change it. You can successfully accomplish this by, every turn, having a formation or a group of formations in reserve, and by being willing to shift formations from one Combat Group to another. Two major things can occur that will force you to change your plans; (1) You suffer an irrecoverable setback due to a failure by friendly troops, or successful enemy action; (2) The enemy presents an opportunity that must be exploited. In both cases you should have a reserve available to counter/exploit the above situations immediately, and then, because you have organized your army as above, you can quickly and smoothly modify your original plan to cover the new developments.

Objectives
“Infantry storm positions, Cavalry overrun them, but it is with dice that battles are won”

In Epic 40k and in Epic Titanticus the main objective in every battle was the destruction of the enemies forces, all other objectives were secondary. Epic A has moved to the more realistic way of reflecting victory/defeat in a battle and flipped the above around. Now the obtaining of physical objectives is of primary importance, and the destruction of the enemy has become secondary. Time after time in the history of warfare smaller forces have defeated bigger forces by being on those key positions. O’Conners Desert Campaign against the Italians in 1940 is a case in point. So in an effort to put some life into those GT objectives here is what I feel they represent.
Take and Holds: These represent key positions that are critical to maintaining our position along this front. The enemy also has these positions in his area of influence. As these positions are very obvious, to even the lowest ranked officer, their locations are known to both sides. While the loss of one of these positions is bad it will not force us to abandon this position, but it does bring its long term stability into question. The loss of both of these positions renders our positions here entirely untenable.
Blitz: This represents the point at which our lines of communication enter the front line in this sector. If we lose control of this position the flow of supplies to our troops is going to drop off measurably, but that alone will not force us to abandon this sector. However it will make this position very unstable and it will take very little enemy effort to bust our position. (ie lose control of one T+H and the Blitz and you do lose the battle.)
Defend the Flag: If all of the key objectives on the ground in the enemy area of influence are still under enemy control, you are fighting a losing battle. Most troops aren’t stupid and they will recognize they are fighting a losing battle, as will the high command, so its a sure bet unless you pull off a miracle you’ll be put in a penal battalion, while this position is abandoned because of your incompetence.
They Shall Not Pass: This is the same as Defend the Flag above only worse. Not only haven’t you taken any objectives in the enemy sector, but you can’t even manage to push troops into the enemy sector. You’ll be lucky IF they put you in a penal battalion!
Break Their Spirit: This is what happens when the biggest, baddest, meanest formation in the Army is broken in front of everybody else, BIG TROUBLE!! Do not believe it, well just think about what the French Army did after the French Guard broke, it IS what happens in real war. Look if you were a grunt IG infantryman and you saw a bunch of Blood Angel Marines running scared past your position, how long would it take you to catch up to them?
Old Saying I do Not Know From Where
“Keep your hands on your gun, but keep your eyes on the bear!” Put more clearly, while the destruction of enemy forces is important (ie keep your hands on your gun), but you shouldn’t do it to the point that you lose sight of your primary objectives, which are on the battlefield (ie keep your eyes on the bear).

The Big Day
“Give me a fast tape measure and a lot of dice cause I am going into harms way”

Are there sneaky tricks, and traps, that an opponent can pull on you with his favorite army? Sure there are, and so can you, but this article isn’t about tricks and traps, its about Armies and Tactics. Nobody can give you a style of play, or put together your favorite army composition for you. All that can be done is to give you the proper tools to use, and give you an idea how they work, and then let you develope your own style of play. Tricks are nice, and so are traps, but they will only work once against the same opponent, sound tactics, good organization, and good play are always more effective. Every army is different, learn its weaknesses, and its strengths, and then use them to your advantage, rather then some neat trick you found on some hidden website. If you follow the dictums given in this article you are not going to win every game you play, but its a sure bet that you’re not going to get blown out either. And a close game is always a good game, and a good game is always a fun game. Since the entire object of these games is to have fun you will have obtained the ultimate prize, and this article will have succeeded in its purpose.

Moko (Jaldon)

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Thanks for these posts Jaldon, I've seen something similar before.

Could you go into a bit more detail on how you place objectives in Epic Armageddon?
I often feel games are won and lost on Objective placement.

Cheers,
Steve.

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From the GW Epic Resources page, a prettier pdf of the above.

http://www.games-workshop.com/MEDIA_Cus ... Armies.pdf

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Ghost's Paint Blog, where everything goes that isn't something else.

That would be it!

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Yup I wrote the one on the GW website, forgotten how many years ago now, but they cut out some of the article so it could fit in the edition of Fanatic Magazine that it first appeared in.

The above is the article as I submitted it to GW/Fanatic without the editing. And as all writers I hate to have any of my precious words omitted

I figured I'd post the complete article here so anyone in the forums could refrence it.

Enjoy all and if it improves your enjoyment of the game then it has succeede in its objective

Cheers All,
Jaldon

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Onyx Sorry I didn't mean to ignore your question.

Much of the answer has to do with both the army you are commanding (The Type) and the army you are facing (Again the Type), and to a lesser extent the battle plan you are going to use.

The Foot Slogger Army......................(Comments based upon a 3,000pt Army)
Examples: IG with 2-3+ of Infantry Companies, Ork Horde 2-3+ Warbands

If You Command One: Then you want to place the T&H objectives as close to the centerline of the table as you can. If your opponent has a mobile force then place the two T&Hs as close together as you can, and as deep as you can into one flank as you can. This forces the enemy to come to you or forfiet one battle objective. Put another way when you put them together YOU ARE going to launch your main strength at that point so the more mobile opponent must meet you there or surreneder one battle objective without a fight. Split them and the more moble opponent can pick his point of attack.

If You Face One: Then place them as far back from the centerline as you can, and as far apart as you can. It is harder for foot slogger armies to defend widly seperated objectives without having valuable fast attack or support formations forced to cover them instead of being up front and doing their real job.

The Fast Attack Army.............................(As Above Comments)
Examples: Space Marines, Eldar

If You Command One: You really do want to place the Take and Holds as far apart as you can, and in an area of terrain with few woods/buildings to hinder your mobility. Close Center Line Deployment should be avoided, if possible, but terrain should the greater priority. You also want at least one of them within 35-45cms of an opponent's Blitz Objective. Set upin this manner accomplishes two things; (1) You can hide your point of attack as the objective placement is pretty neutral (Hard to read anything into); (2) You can shift your point of attack to either objective if your initial plan starts to fall apart, or an oppurtunity presents itself.

If You Are Facing One: Then place them within 35-45cms of each other, in an area full of woods and buildings, and as close to the centerline as possible and still remain in a closed area of terrain. This forces the more mobile enemy to fight in an area of ground ill suited for the formations they command. If at all possible place them so they are as close to one flank of the table as possible as it lowers the number of options in mobility to the enemy.

Deep Strike Armies.........................(As Comments two sections above)
Examples: Orks with 2-3+ Landas, Marine with 2-3+ Landing Barges, Teleports, and/or Thuderhawks.

If You Are Facing One: Then deploy as you would for a Fast Attack opponent, then use the following plan. Go straight for those two Take and Holds out of the gate because your opponent is going to be real weak on the ground initially, onto the Blitz if you can pull it off. At the same time build a pocket of defensive troops around your Blitz and the single closest Tank and Hold you got (You should be able to do this upon deployment. The great strength of Deep Strike Armies is theri fantastic mobility, this takes it allaway from them.

If You Are Using One: Don't, they are too easily placed into the position I have described above. The best use for deep strikes is with one, maybe two (If you have a high activation count of 10+), as a supplement to the forces you already have on the ground. Then place objectives as per the type of army on the ground that you have and use the deep strikes to add even more mobility to the actions you take. In this manner they are a much more effective use of points.

The Blitz Placement......................................
Ok it is in your half of the table, and you get to place only on the table edge. Personnely I always place mine within 15cms of the exact center of the table edge. This keeps me telegraphing the moves I am planning on taking during the battle. Another option is to place it in the flank you plan to attack. The attack in that flank alone is often an adequate enough defense to prevent the enemy getting to it too easily. The downside is it does telegraph your intentions.

These are only my humble opinions, and unlike the article BUEAA are open for debate.

Cheers All,
Jaldon

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Thanks mate, much appreciated.

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Want to play Iron Warriors in Epic Armageddon? Click HERE
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Found this really interesting and very helpful, thanks Jaldon!

Been a while since I read that Jaldon, and as every your piece is excellent and should be required reading for all epic general, young and old as you say!

Thanks, most useful reminder.

Excellent Topic! I have enjoyed your insights and strategies. I shall be a better general for it!

Good work Jaldon!

Long time no read

I remember seeing this great article on the strategic (placement and organisation) of E:A a long time ago.

Does anyone knows of a similar article on the tactics of E:A ? I mean the smaller scale methods, at the scale of a few formations (combat groups, using Jaldon useful terminology), or use of some specific abilities ?

I'm thinking of things like clipping assault, setting up crossfires and support fire for assaults ?

It's been a long time since last I actually played and I'm afraid I wouldn't be up to the task, but I think it would make a great articles for beginners too.

Thank You



Athmosperic, tactical situations, in EA, repeat themselves hundreds of times over and actually change very little. For example the use of Grots as either a meat shield against fire or assaults is a tactical situation. The use of armored vehicles as cover for infantry is another example of tactics. How a formation deploys its units and then uses them in the battle is tactics. Some may disagree with what I am saying here, but after the next paragraph I believe you will understand what I mean.

The interaction of the formations within a battle group I lke to call 'operations' and not because they are (Grand Tactical would be the correct term) but because it makes it very clear what one is talking about. So when my mates and I talk about a battle it is easy for us all to follow what their specific point is because they will preface their statement with something like "I think the operations you carried out with BG-1 were magnificent, and the tactics your Tactical Marines used added to that effort..........etc"

It is these operations I believe you are talking about. (I am saying this to be sure we are on the same page.) If so then you are correct some basics of operations could be written for the beginner, maybe I should put my mind to it, Having been at this with EA for a very long time all Iwould have to do is shake the cobwebs out of my head to remember what I have learned from others over those years (Same thing I did with BUEA).

Cheers,
Jaldon

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Tyranid AC