“The general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory and few calculations to defeat...”
For most of us hobbyists, writing an army list is an important part of the Warhammer 40,000 experience (hey, that sounds like a prog-rock album!).
There is any number of combinations of units in any given codex for any given points value and combined with the same for your opponent means that you really can make every 40K game different.
Now, some gamers write their lists after they know what the opponent is taking, in order to gain advantage over them in the list writing ‘phase’. This is cheating in my eyes. You are gaining an unfair advantage that, unless agreed beforehand, will make the game fun for you but not fun for your opponent. Writing an army list should be done before you do anything else.
I have even seen some gamers wait until their opponent has finished their list and has taken out all their models so they know exactly what they will be facing and then make their list.
I do not mind when you only know which codex you are facing as there are multiple army configurations that can be made from each book, as long as the opponent is allowed the same courtesy.
On a more positive note, it can be entertaining to try to beat an army list by tailoring as long as both players agree to it at the start.
Rant over; on to the meat of the topic.
When writing an army list out, I usually like to take a balanced ‘takes-all-comers’ approach. This means that the army I am writing will be able to handle whatever the opponent has to offer and should not be caught out by things like Monoliths, Land Raiders, Feel No Pain Terminators, Horde Orks, etc, as the list has all the tools required to deal with them.
Below is a list of things I like to consider when writing a list. I will give a brief explanation below.
- Does my army have enough anti-infantry (Heavy/Medium/Light) capability?
- Does my army have enough anti-tank (Heavy/Medium/Light) capability?
- Can my army take and hold objectives?
- Can my army eliminate back-field artillery and support units?
- Am I able to damage AV14?
- Does my army need reserves?
- Does my army have any anti-psychic defence?
- Does my army have too many ‘easy’ Kill Points?
- Do I have any non-LOS firepower?
- Do I have enough redundancy?
You may find that some units can cover more than one of the above which is fine.
Anti-infantry:
This includes close combat units with multiple attacks, rapid fire weapons, multiple-shot heavy weapons, large and small blast weapons and template weapons, all of which can kill or at least damage, squads of infantry.
You need to account for different types of infantry; Heavy (2+ saves) Medium (3+/4+ saves) and Light (5+/6+ saves). Most ranged weapons that kill Heavy Infantry will also kill Medium or Light infantry as well but you pay more points for those weapons and firing them at Light infantry can be a wasted opportunity. This is the same with dedicated assault units with Power Weapons; great against Heavy Infantry, overkill against Light infantry.
Getting the right mix here is key.
Anti-tank:
Tanks in this case being anything with an armour value (AV) so Land Speeders, Dreadnoughts, etc, all fit in here.
As a general rule, I like to be able to damage (i.e. penetrating or glancing) at least 3 vehicles every turn with shooting, including one heavier vehicle (AV13+). Be wary, as anti-tank weapons and units tend to be on the expensive side, so loading up with too much can leave your list vulnerable elsewhere.
In 5th Edition, multiple S7 or S8 shots is the most effective way of damaging most tanks, bar the heavier battle tanks with 13 or 14 front armour. Multiple shots are important due to the likelihood of the enemy receiving cover saves, which is usually 50% of your shots saved so the more shots you fire, the more chance there is to do damage.
Anything with a +1 on the vehicle damage table is also golden, increasing the chances of destroying a vehicle with a penetrating hit from 33% to 50%. Meltaguns are the current favourite.
As an added bonus, most anti-tank weapons are also dual-purpose for targeting enemy Monstrous Creatures and powerful characters.
Objectives:
Two out of every three missions from the 5th Edition rulebook involve holding objectives by having a scoring unit within 3” of the objective and no enemy units within 3”.
As almost all scoring units are Troops and Infantry, it pays to make sure your army has enough to compete. If you only bring two 5-man scout squads to a party, that is only two objectives you can control, and those scouts will go down fast.
Now, it very much depends on the army you play as to how many you should take. Imperial Guard, for example, have very squishy, basic infantry so you’ll want a fair number of them to stand a chance. Dark Angel Deathwing Terminators, however are a much tougher unit and can be relied upon more to last out under fire or assault.
As a very rough guide, I like 2 scoring units per 750 points, minimum, so at least 4 for a 1500 point game.
Speed: worth mentioning in the same section as the objectives as a slow-moving army will find it difficult or impossible to reach objectives placed in your opponents half of the table. By the same token, fast enemy units become more of a priority target for shooting or assault to deny them access to your own objectives.
Mechanised, outflanking, infiltrating, scouting and deep-striking all have the potential to get where the slower elements of your army cannot.
Eliminating backfield units:
Some armies you face have access to powerful artillery and support units, things like Devastators/Long Fangs/Manticores/Broadsides. These are usually protected by being at the back of the army, covered by the rest of the units in-front.
It is important not to forget about these types of units as left undisturbed can really swing the course of a battle.
Long range shooting, infiltrating, deep-striking and scouting/outflanking are all things to be considered here – being able to by-pass the covering units in front and hit the more vulnerable units in the backfield is a major asset to most lists. Fortunately the units that can do this role can also then be purposed for other tasks as needed; contesting objectives, anti-tank, anti-infantry, etc.
AV14:
Being able to harm AV14 is a major boost to any list. It is the hardest armour you can face in the game so, if you’re equipped to deal with it you can also deal with anything less well-armoured.
The most obvious application is stopping a Land Raider full of Assault Terminators from being able to pick & choose where they get to assault. Leman Russ tanks can really put the hurt out at range, and being able to neutralise them early on will give you an advantage.
Reserves:
In my mind, there are two main types of reserves; offensive and defensive. Offensive reserves may include deep-strikers and outflankers – hitting your enemy from an unexpected or vulnerable position. Defensive reserves can be counter-assault elements, or scoring units held safely off-board to control objectives towards the end of the game.
Reserves are unpredictable however, as you rely on a single dice roll each turn. Some armies have access to units or upgrades that give bonuses to reserves but these may be too expensive if you only plan on using one reserved unit.
Reserving your entire army can be useful for denying enemy shooting armies a turn of firing if you find yourself going second to say, Imperial Guard. Coming on and getting off the first shots can be crucial but you are risking your army turning up piecemeal and getting cut down rapidly.
Anti-psychic defence:
Fairly niche but increasingly more important; does your army have access to units or Wargear to deal with psychic powers and the psykers that use them?
Some armies, like the Imperial Guard, have no psychic defence whatsoever. Some, like Grey Knights, have too much!
If you don’t have anything specifically suited for the task, then your army has other ways of dealing with psykers. This will probably involve either shooting or assaulting them!
Easy Kill Points:
Again, this is not something that should show up all the time but is definitely worth considering as one third of missions are won on Kill Points.
This is being aware of say, three squads of three Ratling Snipers will almost certainly give up their Kill Points during a game, whereas one squad of nine has the same firepower but is only worth a single Kill Point if destroyed.
Non-LOS:
Another niche category as not everyone has access to non-LoS (i.e. does not need to see at a target to shoot; barrages, etc) weaponry.
It can be a very useful tool for forcing your opponent to come to you, or diverting resources to dealing with these units that would otherwise be spent attacking your main force or contesting objectives. Static armies in particular that can often be out-manoeuvred by a faster force, jumping from cover to cover, can really benefit from non-los shooting; giving the enemy literally nowhere to hide!
Redundancy:
In short, redundancy is not putting all your eggs into one basket.
By having multiple units suited to a specific role you can be surer that what needs to get done gets done. For example, if for some reason your entire army’s anti-tank comes from one 5-man combat squad of Space Marines with a Lascannon, and they miss, then you’re boned. If you had two or three such squads then if the first one misses, or fails to damage then you can try again to ensure that the tank/transport is damaged/destroyed.
Certain armies do redundancy much better than others; Imperial Guard is probably the best at this as all the units are relatively cheap, so you can have more of them. Space Marines can do it quite well, too, as all their troopers have anti-infantry weapons, krak grenades for anti-tank and a variety of special and heavy weapons.
Putting it all together:
Trying to fit everything you want into one list isn’t always possible, or practical. It takes practise to put together a well-balanced list, but once you’re there you shouldn’t have to rely on what other people on the internet say is the ‘best’ list for your army. Any list you are comfortable with and know inside-out will do well (dice gods smile upon thee) and you should be prepared for whatever you may face.
Now, this is all based on my own personal experience so feel free to adapt/ignore anything I’ve said if you’re not comfortable with it. Knowing your own army’s limitations is more important than turning up with a copy-paste list that the internet says is super-awesome.
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