Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics (section)

===Building a Successful 40k Army===
"Good players build a list to deal with whatever may come their way. Bad players build a list hoping their opponent cannot counter it." 

In theory, two people can attempt to build armies to out-tailor and out-counter each others' hard counters, but in practice, it's easier to attempt to strive for something resembling a "Takes-All Comer" army; if nothing else, sticking with the same army and gradually making adjustments to it as you learn what works and what doesn't work, will improve your skill as a player, compared to going "Fool, you think your Wraithknight can save you next time. I shall return with POISON!"mpl

So, what makes a TAC list anyway? What with fliers, and psykers, big tanks and giant robots, what all *can* we include to make our army safe and sane? Although these are not fundamentals, in many cases, the following are safe bets:

* '''Seven is your lucky number:''' Generally, a good starting point for your army, is whether you have the ability to throw out a lot of Strength 6-7 shooting. This number is a sweet-spot one where you can threaten most light/medium with reliability, as well as force masses of saves upon smaller high-toughness units. Some armies have an easier time doing this than others (Craftworld Eldar are infamous for the amount of firepower that massed Wave Serpents can throw out). Most importantly, however, these weapons have good range, or are easy to maneuver around; whether running Broadsides with Missile Pods, Nightscythes, or even Autocannon Havocs, having at least two sources of Ranged S7 will give you a solid anchor to build most armies around.

* '''Two HQs is two too many:''' Although this rule is no longer an absolute, many HQs have historically been overcosted while not contributing to your army as a whole. There are many notable exceptions to this rule, however (Tyranids and Flying Hive Tyrants are a staple, and having multiple Librarians seldom hurts), but for many armies, an HQ is an expensive tax you build into your army's cost. Note that this is NOT true for Chaos, who generally have awesome and expensive ones - although playing them properly can be tricky. The same exception can be said for Guard, any Guard player knows or should know that they should be taking commissars, priests, and primaris psykers along with the standard CCS or tank commander.

* '''Know your Point Level:''' A 2000-point game is *not* a 1000-point game with 1000 points tacked onto it. As your games grow in size, you will find that you begin to run out of slots. While a Chaos player can get by with running a pair of Obliterators at 1000 points, such an investment won't suffice for anti-tank at higher levels. Slots become more heavily contested and you find you may end up running out of Fast Attacks/Heavy Supports. So then you take an Ally, or a Formation. Taking an ally usually means taking a second HQ unit, and as mentioned above, HQs have generally been the most point-inefficient part of any army in general. General point-levels for 40k include:
**'''200 points:''' At this level, you're playing Kill Team instead, or probably Heralds of Ruin.
**'''1500 points:''' Aka "UK GT" level. This is generally considered the smallest point level for tournaments.
**'''1750 points:''' Aka "ETC" level.
**'''1850 points:''' If you're in the states, most tournaments will use this point-level. NoVa and Da Boyz, as do the Bay Area Open and the Las Vegas Open (whom are run by the same team).
**'''2000 points:''' This was the previous point level for the NoVa US GT, and is still the point level for the Narrative Campaign. Some other tournments may use this level but it's being superceded in favor of 1850 points.
** '''2500 points:''' Aka clusterfuck-hammer. Back when GW used to run 'Ard Boyz, this was the point-level they used. Of course, they ran it in 5th edition, where you only had *one* FOC, equivalent to having only one CAD. What this meant for a lot of armies was that they could take their "good" units, run out of slots, then be forced to take lots of filler. Meanwhile, Guard could just keep scaling up, adding more tanks to their squadrons, adding more squads to their platoons...we don't speak much of this point level.
**'''Apocalypse and Beyonddddd''': ''WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!'' '''Ahem''': This point level generally lends itself to an entirely different kind of play. Here you're not worried about composition, so much as sheer firepower. Spamming Superheavies, and units with extreme range will get you much farther here than 6 troop choices all kitted out. Remember that Eldar Rifle that has a range of 160"? Here's where you can actually shoot from one corner to the other of a Double-Lengthwise Table that's the staple of 6000 point games. 

*'''Build an Army, not a Mob:''' Remember that your units should support each other. Generally, you want to avoid "Pure" armies, or gravitating towards one extreme of list-building. While running a pure foot horde may look aesthetically appealing, it will suffer against players running mass mechanized vehicles (plus it will be a major chore to paint, and your turns will take forever...). While running a small elite squad may play quicker (and be cheaper), each casualty *hurts*. Notable "Pure" armies that don't work include:
**'''The Scuttling Swarm:''' Aka "Horde" Tyranids; Tyranids in theory can drown an opponent in bodies and win. Key word is "in theory." In practice, the moment someone brings multiple vehicles, trouble is inbound. Although it's possible (and potentially doable) to destroy a Rhino in melee by glancing it to death with Hormagants, you cannot consolidate out of a close combat with a vehicle. What this means is that any time you want to charge a 35-point APC with your 180-something point horde of bugs, you're doing your opponent a favor by bunching your bugs up into easy-bake flamer (or other anti-swarm options; an IG player can delete entire 30-Gaunt broods with just a single Wyvern, if you bunch them up for him) formations. When the opposing enemy vehicles proceed to Tank Shock you, this only hurts you even further; meanwhile, his fire support is picking off your Synapse creatures and ranged AT. Lest you think "But wait, I can spread out my Hormagaunts and attack an entire car-park at once", you then read the rules for Disordered Charges, and the fact Furious Charge does not trigger during Disordered Charges...
**'''Deathwing''': Be it by Plasma or mass shooting, each casualty is noticed. You move like infantrymen, and pay too much for shooting to de-mech your opponents.
**'''Swordwind''' Aspect Warrior armies: Nope, you won't take "one unit of Fire Dragons, one of Scorpions, and one of Banshees." Dragons, if that.
*'''Cicadas and you!''': Cicadas follow an evolutionary stratagem known as "Predator satiation", other wise known as "The predators can't eat all of us!". I mention this because it's something to keep in mind. While it's true that the above pure armies don't work, there is something to be said in running lots of something, since you know your opponent can't kill them all. It's OK to have a strong theme and have a predominance of one type of unit since you know your opponent can't wipe you out the majority of your army fast enough with the dedicated weapons they have, just don't use it mindlessly and grab nothing but Gaunts or Terminators or something. As ever balance is key, it can be an imbalance, just so long as there is some balance.

* Several successful tournament armies in the past have a few things in common, to use some case studies:
**An Eldar player running Wave Serpents (3 with Avengers, 2 with Fire Dragons), Nightspinners, Hawks, and a Wraithknight has the advantage that *all* of his units are fast, there's anti-tank and anti-infantry threat built into most every unit, and can comfortably stay back and play a defensive game, while still having the means to flush out the occasional unit in melee as need be.
**A Space Marine player running White Scars Bikers and allied with Space Wolf Thunderwolf Cavalry has the advantage of an army that moves *fast*, has mobile shooting, the ability to threaten giant monstrous creatures at long-range, and the ability to use the melee prowess of Thunderwolves as a mobile anchorpoint.
**Another Space Marine player using Sentinels of Terra rules ran lots of Scouts backed by Lascannon Devestators and a Thunderfire Cannon, lead by Lysander escorting a unit of Grav-Cannon Centurions, backed it up with an allied detachment of Flesh Tearers (including a Librarian, meltagun drop squad, and Mephiston). The Scouts were able to run through cover, capping and holding objectives, while being able to finish off any errant units that wandered near them.

All three armies have a few things in common which made their armies work well:
* All three of them have several ways to deal with tanks, and light/heavy infantry. The bike loses out on "ranged" anti-tank for the ability to force numerous threats at once (as well as being able to pack multimeltas), all tough and fast ones to boot.
* All three of them have some primary advantage with regards to movement; not only does being fast let you move around the game board faster, but high speed also lets you more effectively take advantage of Reserves. In the case of the Sentinels list, the loss of 12" movement was offset by having Infiltrate & Scout rules, and having access to Drop Pods. 
* All three of them are primarily shooty, but have at least one big "beatstick": Building an army purely for assault won't get you too far (Argueably not exactly True, YMMV), but having at least one tough guy will keep your opponent honest. 

This isn't the only successful paradigm for building a list, but understanding "Beatsticks anchoring lots of mobile fire teams" (Or "Heavy Cavalry + Horse Archers") will get you far. 

More detailed specifics will are found in the "Individual Army Tactics" of course.

*'''MSU/MSSU''':  Muliple Scoring Units/Multiple Small Scoring Units
A popular tactic in the tournament scene, especially in 6th edition but with applications for any game. The idea is that the units holding objectives are highly versatile, very cost effective, very quick, and completely replaceable.  Furthermore, *every* objective is covered this way. In high-objective games, like all maelstrom, this allows for the nabbing of undefended or undefendavle loacations. If one unit runs into trouble, another identical unit is ready to immediately replace them. DEldar, Sentinel Scouts, and Tyranid spore drop lists have all succeeded in this way.