Stuff you just don't do....

[Mr Mystery]

Yes it's another thread by me.

This time, I want to discuss the tactics, strategies and unit types which for whatever reason, you just don't use.

For me?

MSU - I've just never done this. No moralistic crusade nonsense, I just like to field big chunky units. I feel safer with them, and to be honest, I get a real kick out of rolling buckets of dice (like with my Ogres in Warhammer. 18 strong Horde gets me 6 impact hits, 55 close combat attacks, and then 6 stomps. Glorious!), and of course seeing my opponent remove an entire unit from a single phase of abuse from my dudes. I know MSU makes a certain tactical sense, I just don't/can't do it!

Transports - Yep, I never, ever use them. EVER. Leastwise, not as Transports. Got a couple off Nightscythes for my Necrons, but I just use them for highly mobile Tesla shenanigans. Possibly married to my MSUphobia, in that it's rare you can transport a maxed out squad, but I just don't ever use them. Another element may be my experiences in 2nd Ed, when any Transport was just a death trap. Nothing against them as units, and not saying I don't understand why others use them. I just.....don't!

Anyone else got a tactical mental block/blind spot?

[Anakzar]

Tyranid warriors... I had stopped playing back when 3rd came out mainly due to graduating collage and getting a JOB. So I didn't play 40k again until the last few months of 5th. I liked all the new troops for Tyranids but had a hard time getting over the Nerfs to some of them. Warriors used to be T5 and W2 (and could be upgraded with invul+4). Back in 2nd I used them all the time but have not been able to bring myself to break them out in bigger games... I did try them in some kill teams. But I saw them get hit by S8+ weapons and die just as fast as I thought they might in regular games... I keep telling myself I should try them again...

Carnifexes same thing the new Nerfs from 2nd to now seem excessive... I do see the reasoning for some of them but the biggest one to me is the I drop. They used to be I6 and now while they are I2 up from I1 in 5th... I still sorta think they should have been bumped up to at least I4 so they can match dreadnaughts/walkers... why is a man in a can faster than a living organisum??? heck the darn Ork in a can is as fast in his clunky machine. I should try them with the price drop... but the I2 thing bothers me ;)

[Krefey]

Assault centurions. I mean, really? Not only do the models look silly, but the rules are average at best :)

[Jason Young]

Transports are nice for some mobile cover and can help in a pinch when you need to run over IG....but yeah they are virtually useless. Personally, when I field anything for transport it's nothing smaller than a Land Raider anymore just because of the firepower.

Assault centurions are definitely a joke... looks like someone slipped and fell on a pile of junk Dreadnoughts.. If we're just talking about corny factor I'd have to say Dreadknights. Any time someone mentions them or fields them I picture this....

9748

[Daredevil]

My Marines deploy at 5 or 10 strong.

I would prefer to be points down than field a squad of 7 <shudder>

I blame the book, 'Space Marine' by Ian Watson.

[Lord Krungharr]

Assault centurions. I mean, really? Not only do the models look silly, but the rules are average at best :)

Same goes for Mutilators, though with all the Knights stomping around, some Khorne ones using Chainfists in round 1 might be a viable tactic, if I knew I was going against Knights.

Other than that I think I try everything that Daemons and CSMs can try, that I have the models for......except the Masque. She's just absolutely pointless!

[rgrmaddog]

Claws- blood, sky, and swift (and I've always wanted to start a Sons of Russ MC, but can't bring myself to pay the same or more points as I do for a Grey Hunter for BS/WS 3).

[John Bower]

Lord of Skulls - Pig ugly model, too expensive for what it is and no options for the other 3 Gods.
Bikes - Don't know why; I do have Ravenwing and 3 scout bikes for my Ultras but never get round to using them, yet the Ravenwing yesterday seriously helped in an Apoc against DE so I should use them more.

[YorkNecromancer]

no options for the other 3 Gods.

That's because back in 2nd ed Epic when they were first introduced, War Engines were intended as the answer to the question "Wait, magic is super-powerful. What could Khorne have that's remotely as powerful as magic?"

Building sized super heavy vehicles.

Building sized super heavy vehicles are as powerful as magic.

He saw your Sanctioned Psyker's one mastery level, and decided the answer was to create a daemonically-possessed, super heavy vehicle the size of a Primary school, for no other reason than to demonstrate exactly why sophisticated magics lose to a humble 900 tonne, V28 diesel engine powered chainaxe every time.

Never let it be said that Khorne does anything by halves.

[Hellfire]

Play with unpainted miniatures.

[Erik Setzer]

Anyone else got a tactical mental block/blind spot?

Hmm... It's kind of a reverse for me, I suppose. With certain armies, there's specific ways I feel I "have" to build them. I.e. Nurgle armies should be in multiples of 7, and they shouldn't have infantry equipped with heavy weapons. With Iron Warriors I don't take Daemon units (except Oblits, which are kind of an oddity), and I don't take assault units.

I also tend to avoid the "must-have" units like Heldrake with CSM, or Lootas for Orks. Granted, with the way the Orks were redone, Lootas are too useful to avoid. But I just dislike people saying "You must have this in your army to win."

Centurions get a block from me on the price. Seriously, that's insane. There's a few other units like that, too. Mek Gunz aren't included because I can convert my own; similarly, I already have a bunch of MegaNobz. Flash Gitz are waffling on that wall.

[PaladinSL]

I hate VP and objectives, I usually just try to roll the enemy army off the board, for me, murdering Xenos is fun, the relative importance of that piece of ground (especially now in 7th, where a particular piece of ground is pointless.. OH, WAIT, NOW IT'S IMPORTANT! Wait, now we have it, it's useless again..oh no, arbitrary dice roll decides it's worth having again!) is of no interest to me, ground worth having is ground I can kill more guardians from.

[Andrew Thomas]

Vanilla infantry. All it took was getting Rickrolled by 3rd ed Bloodclaws to put me off of standard troop choices, particularly Tactical Marines. Too bad FOC shifts are disappearing.
And Infantry Platoons, because, at the scale I usually play, it's more fun to use Veterans for all involved.
Skyfire, because it's more efficient to take Aircraft then trying to fight them from the ground (unless you play Tau, then there is almost no disadvantage).

[DarkLink]

I rarely combat squad, even though it's usually better to do so.

[Lucidum]

Special Characters…..I just don’t use them. I appreciate their appeal for narrative purposes (and therefore HATE when people throw together a list containing like…five unrelated special characters just to power game), but I’ve always appreciated the creative aspect of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000…and for me that’s always included creating my own “characters” out of generic/vanilla Chapter Masters, Warbosses, Ethereals, etc. and using my games to chart their personal victories and defeats.

[ReveredChaplainDrake]

Foot Tyrants. There is zero reason to take them. When wings got slashed in price, and with how nasty shooty FMCs are now, there is absolutely zero reason to take a non-winged Hive Tyrant. Parenthetically, there is no other build than TLed Brainleech Devourers. I looked. For the life of me, I couldn't find one.

Tervigons. They used to have a point when Troops mattered. Now that they really don't, there's no point in not just using Zoanthropes for backfield synapse. A lot of Zoanthropes. Or at least 3 units of 1. You cover more ground. You have three scoring units instead of one. You don't need any cover. A nasty squad of rockets can only kill one of 'em at a time, and that's 3 more WC for the Flyrants. They're cheaper than the Tervigon. And best of all, the Zoanthropes don't explode when they die. Tervigons have zero purpose. None. The only thing they do is show you the difference between Tyranid players that are blindingly dense and those that aren't.

Crones. Everybody seems to love these things, and I have no idea why. They can't take a hit. Their actual weapon is worthless. Their impact hits might kill a Dreadnought over the course of an entire game. Their tentaclids are only really worth shooting at other flyers... which would mean a lot more if (1) anybody used stormravens, and (2) if you couldn't fly behind the thing with just one of your three Flyrants and put 12 Str6 TLed BS4 shots into its rear armor. Jink that.

Come to think of it, anything that isn't a Flyrant with 2x TLed Brainleech Devourers. I am under no obligation to field units that aren't Flyrants with 2x TLed Brainleech Devourers. Why should I bother with anything that's not?

[ReveredChaplainDrake]

Double Post.

[Tomgar]

Drop pods. I just don't agree with the "suicide squad" mentality that goes along with drop pods, I'm trying to win a battle, not sacrifice men to Khorne. Also, they're just unwieldy buggers to transport.

As far as Dark Eldar go, I majorly handicap myself by not fielding Haemonculi units (besides a Talos Pain Engine). They look cool and have great benefits, I just prefer my army being made of sleek, spiky Kabalites and Wyches instead of mushy piles of flesh.

[Arvardos]

I never make "competitive" armies for tournaments, I go to have fun not to win. Example: A 1500 point WHFB tournament in which I entered my CW, everyone I knew were making competitive lists, I just sat there and thought "Can I fit a Daemon Prince and a Hellcannon into 1500 points?"

The answer is yes. Yes you can.

[Dual_Face]

I never play with unpainted models or bad looking miniatures.
I got into the hobby to paint cool looking miniatures and I can't put anything down on the table if it doesn't look cool, even if the rules are great
I'm looking at YOU riptide

[Jason Dowe]

Units must consist of a nice round number. Like 5 or 10. It freaks me out (especially in WHFB) to not have all the members in a unit in complete columns and rows.

[Charon]

Stormguardians. Just no...

[Archon Charybdis]

Lately it's been not fielding Wave Serpents. I own at least 6 and I used to run an entirely mech'd up Aspect Assault Wave army prior to the new codex. Anymore I run an all foot-slogging Aspect list with an Avatar and no Farseers, and my group still *****es about Eldar being broken.

[Anggul]

Codex Space Marines come in squads of ten with a special weapon and a heavy weapon. Such is law as far as I'm concerned.

I also don't have a Captain without a Command Squad. On that note, where the hell do Command Squads come from? They aren't part of the 100 marines of the company, they aren't from the 1st company, where are they from?!

[Tomgar]

Codex Space Marines come in squads of ten with a special weapon and a heavy weapon. Such is law as far as I'm concerned.

I also don't have a Captain without a Command Squad. On that note, where the hell do Command Squads come from? They aren't part of the 100 marines of the company, they aren't from the 1st company, where are they from?!

I'm probably horrifyingly wrong but doesn't every company have a command squad in addition to the other marines as part of the Codex? Like I said, I'm probably stupidly wrong about this. I'm only really concerned with the organisational practices of my beloved Dark Angels :P

[maartendp]

Centurions cause I think they are butt ugly, bikes cause everyone and their mothers already do that

[Mr Mystery]

Bikes are another one I don't really 'get'.

Probably a hangover from 2nd Ed, like the Transports, where they too were bloody death traps!

Though I do enjoy my Tomb Blades. Those I do use. Other armies bikes? Never.

[Erik Setzer]

Special Characters…..I just don’t use them. I appreciate their appeal for narrative purposes (and therefore HATE when people throw together a list containing like…five unrelated special characters just to power game)

Even though I can't remember the last time I actually used an Ork special character, I think it's funny to note that with the current codex, you could field every special character in it and have a valid fluff reason for them being there, since they're all part of Ghazghkull's Waagh!. Grukk will break the mold (for now, until Ghazghkull absorbs his force, too), but, well:

Ghazghkull - Head of the Great Waagh!
Grotsnik - Ghazghkull's personal Dok (there's actually a formation with him and Ghaz together)
Zagstruk - Currently on Armageddon (has a formation as part of the Great Waagh!)
Snikrot - Currently on Armageddon (has a formation as part of the Great Waagh!)

The one exception might be Badrukk... for now. Other than him, the others are all directly involved with Ghazghkull.

[Mr Mystery]

Even though I can't remember the last time I actually used an Ork special character, I think it's funny to note that with the current codex, you could field every special character in it and have a valid fluff reason for them being there, since they're all part of Ghazghkull's Waagh!. Grukk will break the mold (for now, until Ghazghkull absorbs his force, too), but, well:

Ghazghkull - Head of the Great Waagh!
Grotsnik - Ghazghkull's personal Dok (there's actually a formation with him and Ghaz together)
Zagstruk - Currently on Armageddon (has a formation as part of the Great Waagh!)
Snikrot - Currently on Armageddon (has a formation as part of the Great Waagh!)

The one exception might be Badrukk... for now. Other than him, the others are all directly involved with Ghazghkull.

Badrukk could be a hireling!

[silashand]

Units must consist of a nice round number. Like 5 or 10. It freaks me out (especially in WHFB) to not have all the members in a unit in complete columns and rows.

This, unless it's my chaos space marines. For those they have to equal the correct number for their respective patron (6/7/8/9 depending).

[John Bower]

Play with unpainted miniatures.

Ah now that I can empathise with; never do I field a model until it's painted fully.

[Generalstoner]

1. Unpainted minis. You spent the money to buy them; spend the money to paint them. They don't need to be golden demon quality but please put 3 colors on them.

2. Special Characters. I detest them. I hate seeing every 1500 point force with Mephiston, Abbadon, Eldrad etc. They have their place in games but not little games.

3. Competitive/WAAC armies. If you are not playing in a tournament you don't need to field your inquisitor, dark eldar, eldar army combo that can melee on turn 1, gets 40 warp charge dice and ever unit has a 2++ save. Learn to have fun once in a while with a normal list.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Broadside spam - It's terrible guys. Please stop. Get some terrain and stop whining that they're OP.

Tau Superheavies - they're all at least twice the price of a Baneblade and half the badass. Not to mention that £300 for the fugly box that is the Orca is just silly. Extend this to any Tau Flier that isn't the Barracuda or Remora, really.

Mixing Tau Empire and Farsight Enclaves - it feels like I'm cheesing out for OS Crisis Suits and the Earth Cast Array.

Never buy upgrades on the Ordnance Russes - Nope. Just nope, not spending points on a Snap-Firing pair of Heavy Bolters.

Also everything must be fielded in max-size squads, with next-to-no upgrades that don't add more dakka. I haven't played enough Guard to pick up many pet hates, though.

[flare8521]

I pride myself with not playing CSM, but actually Emperor's Children. I never use any non-vehicle unit that does bear the Mark of Slaanesh.

Also I don't use a helldrake since I've got tons of noise marines shooting off high Str low Ap weapons all over the place.

[Rissan4ever]

I never use Armored Sentinels. Sentinels, in my mind, are intended to be fast, light, scout vehicles that either harass the enemy flanks or use their Scout Move to jump on an objective in cover and give support fire to advancing infantry. Putting them up front and trying to go toe to toe with tanks is suicidal.

Speaking of suicidal, I never use suicide squads. Sending good soldiers out just to get killed is a waste of valuable Astra Militarum resources and should be considered heresy. I will sometimes use suicidal tactics if the situation calls for it, but I don't build it into my army list.

I also never use Ministorum Priests. The War Hymns are nice, but they're only used in close combat, and my boys prefer not to get that close. Also, I find Zealot too restrictive. Being Fearless is cool, but sometimes, you need to Go to Ground or utilize Our Weapons Are Useless, and you can't do that with some maniac Priest smacking your soldiers over the head with a book. I prefer Commissars because they can CHOOSE to execute someone when the squad fails a LD test, but they don't have to, and Stubborn provides greater tactical flexibility than Fearless.

- - - Updated - - -


I pride myself with not playing CSM, but actually Emperor's Children. I never use any non-vehicle unit that does bear the Mark of Slaanesh.

Also I don't use a helldrake since I've got tons of noise marines shooting off high Str low Ap weapons all over the place.
I wholeheartedly endorse this. Noise Marines are awesome! Who else uses heavy metal to kill you? Rock on!

[OmniscienceMiniatures]

My wallet is my biggest constraint.

[Krefey]

Speaking of suicidal, I never use suicide squads. Sending good soldiers out just to get killed is a waste of valuable Astra Militarum resources and should be considered heresy. I will sometimes use suicidal tactics if the situation calls for it, but I don't build it into my army list.

Wait...the whole point about guard is that they are expendable numbers. Suicide missions is what they are for! :)

[FifteenHours]

Not so much tactics wise, but one thing I never do is flip my lid when I lose. I have lost a TON of games over the years. I've had some great and glorious victories too mind you, but I certainly don't lose my mind when I lose a game. Hell I once lost over half my force on turn one, and we just laughed about it, and decided to start over instead.

Overall it's important to always be both a gracious winner and accept when you lose too.

[Smellofwetdog]

Special characters. I never liked the idea I had the one of whatever character in the galaxy in my army, especially since if he then dies it just seems silly. Nevermind all the shenanigans about having someone else with a copy of him as well...

[Smellofwetdog]

Special characters. Having 1 of a unique anything in the 41st millennium just doesn't fly with me. Plus the shenanigans that ensue potentially playing another list with the same IC...

[Opus Krokus]

I haven't played since second edition, but I am getting back in. While I really like them (and have some), I don't currently plan on fielding any Howling Banshees, except for the Phoenix Lord Jain Zar - she rips face.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I personally see Special Characters as representations of rules rather than being That Specific...Thing. For example, Shadowsun's rules suit a Shas'O Kais, while Tigurius is a good fit for Jonah Orion.

[banicrhys]

Play with unpainted minis.
Play Eldar.
Play anything Tzeenchy.
Not use Flayed ones.

[flare8521]

I personally see Special Characters as representations of rules rather than being That Specific...Thing. For example, Shadowsun's rules suit a Shas'O Kais, while Tigurius is a good fit for Jonah Orion.

This is the way I see it too. I often field Shadowsun, Lucius or Lilith but just to use their rules for my own Commander/Lord/Succubi for which I've developped extensive fluff.